bkyser Loc: Fly over country in Indiana

I'm loading up my new laptop, and it requires ddr3l sdram pc3l-12800 (ddr3l-1600)

There is quite a difference in price between manufacturers. If the specs are the same, is one brand better than the other?

Do they "fudge" speed specs or something on the lower priced memory? I don't like to get the least expensive (you get what you pay for), but I just don't know for my back up editing computer, if I need to go super expensive, unless it makes a difference.

I'm looking at Crucial, not sure if that's good, bad or indifferent?

Thoughts from the computer editing experts?

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

https://www.amazon.com/b?node=11140542011

Crucial is a consumer brand of Micron Technology, based out of Boise Idaho, so an American company if that matters to you. They are a top grade memory company, recently co-developed a future memory technology - 3D Xpoint: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_XPoint with Intel, which is quite a recommendation.

I think you can buy their products with confidence. I had a couple of meetings with Micron at the Supercomputing conference last week.

jfh2841 Loc: United States

Crucial is a reputable company. If the specs are good and they match what is required by your computer, go for it.

bkyser Loc: Fly over country in Indiana

Thanks for the quick replies. Sounds like you both know what you are talking about. I admit, I just know how to press the buttons, and don't really understand how all those little components come together to make the computer work.

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

Crucial is the computer memory division of Micron Technology, their camera memory division is probably more familiar, Lexar. None of their products are made in the USA, only the parent company is based here.

Bobspez Loc: Southern NJ, USA

I've purchased Kingston RAM on Amazon a few times. Well priced and no problems.

James Slick Loc: Pittsburgh,PA

I've used both Kingston and Crucial. No problems with either brand!

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Go to PCPartPicker.com and look at the ratings and purchases of memory. This is a site for computer builders. You can see how many people selected each kind of memory and how they rated it. I bought G.Skill for my build.

If there were bad memory chips, I think word would spread very quickly. As for comparing speeds, I'm sure there's a difference, but nothing you would notice without expensive, sophisticated equipment. Even then, the differences would be tiny.

mborn Loc: Massachusetts

I have always used Crucial to upgrade RAM in my computers over the years and never had a problem. Their site has an app that scans your computer and then tells you what RAM they have that is compatible

Martino Loc: Northwest Florida

I have used Crucial to add memory to a number of Macs, laptops, iMacs and Mac Pros. They have always been reliable and efficient. No hesitation in recommending them.

Bloke Loc: Waynesboro, Pennsylvania

Future memory? Does that mean it can remember what I had for breakfast tomorrow?

Another good thing about Crucial, is that they will guarantee that your purchase is compatible with your system/motherboard, so you don't have to worry about problem issues.

genesampson

I bought a solid state drive and ram based on their recommendation. The drive was great, but the recommendation on ram would not work in my computer (they said 16 gig, but my unit would only take 12). I returned the excess ram and got immediate credit. No problem with Crucial and good customer service.

JimH123 Loc: Morgan Hill, CA

I have also used Kingston with no problems. But be aware that Kingston does not manufacture memory chips. They buy from one of the big manufacturers and assemble into their final product. There just are not that many manufacturers of memory devices. The cost of fabs to build this memory is out of sight. Thus, only a handful of suppliers. But there are many that buy "Known Good Die" from these manufacturers and then assemble into a final product.

If you have ever seen the inside of a fab used for manufacturing memory devices, let me tell you if is a sight to behold. My experience is with wafer sort and back end testing. In both cases, you see rows and rows of expensive testers plus probers (wafer sort) or handlers (back end - final test). There may be perhaps 100 testers perhaps costing $1M each on a floor. For wafer sort, it may be on a 12" wafer and hold thousands of Die. The prober may hold 25 or 50 wafers and the tester may test 1K or more die at a time. For back end, they are testing packaged parts and one tester/handler may test 512 or 768 or more devices at a time. Test times tend to be long since memory devices are so big these days and the test patterns have a lot of checking to do.

Both Kingston and Crucial can't participate in the manufacturing process. But they can buy Die taken after wafer sort, and assemble into their own products. They may buy from several manufacturers so that on any given product, when you look inside, you may see Micron, or one of the other big manufacturers.

Regarding Micron, they have many manufacturing locations. Some of them are in the U.S. such as Lehi Utah, Boise Idaho and another in Virginia. But they also manufacture overseas.

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

Nice one! Although, as I'm sure you realize it can't remember what you had for breakfast tomorrow, only what you will have for breakfast tomorrow! Which is scary enough if you think about it.

However, it's worth following the link in my post if you are interested and haven't done so already. We have been used to having two types of memory for a long period of time, dynamic which is fast but doesn't retain information when powered down, and persistent (that used in SSDs, memory cards (SD and so on), as well as magnetic media.
This new type is persistent (non-volatile) and fits in between DRAM and NAND/ flash technologies. It is still being developed and not expected to hit the market until 2017 or 2018, which is the "future" part. This, and potentially other new memory technologies are expected to have an impact on computer hardware and software design over the next several years.

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

Are you sure that is completely accurate for Crucial? You will see Micron in relation to Crucial and Lexar, since Crucial and Lexar are consumer brands of Micron that does actually manufacture the memory, a little different to brands like Kingston that source from other suppliers.