Reliability of cheap DDR3 RAM

[cobito]

I've been thinking about upgrading my PC, but given the current situation, I've decided to wait for DDR5 to become more widespread and for prices to stabilize a bit. So I'll keep it simple and give my current PC (i5-3570k with 8Gb of RAM and a GTX 460OC) a boost.

The PC is lacking in everything, but since I don't plan to push it too hard in the coming months, I've decided to upgrade the RAM, which is the weakest point (especially for video editing).

Looking at DDR3 memory, I've seen the usual brands and kits (G-Skill and Kingston, there's not much to choose from). My idea was to add 16Gb to the current 8Gb, but after looking at the options, I found a couple of brands I hadn't seen before (V7 and Teamgroup) that are considerably cheaper. If I chose this option, I might replace the current 2x4Gb to have a total of 4x8Gb.

What I need above all is stability and reliability rather than performance. In the DDR era, I had some painful experiences with white-label memory, and since then it's something I've invested a minimum in, but I wanted to know if things have changed and if V7/Teamgroup offer decent products in DDR3.

Thanks!

[Yorus]

@cobito I couldn't tell you lately, because at my job everything is branded laptops and the clones that are out there mostly have Kingston. But at my previous job they did look at the price a lot for upgrades and V7 was seen a lot. At first I think they are less reliable than more reputable brands, sometimes one appeared that failed right out of the box, but the ones that didn't fail at first I don't remember coming back under warranty.

Personally if the price difference is big I might try it, and if I buy them I would run memtest on them a lot to return them if necessary.

I imagine you have already looked to see what people think, but if it's true that they are not seen much in forums, etc... Personally I have always gone for reputable brands but consumer models, not for O/C, and I have had few problems with RAM.

[Sylver]

@cobito I've been looking, I hadn't looked into DDR3 for a while, and it's true that the "reliable" brands are at pretty high prices.

Considering it's to stretch out the platform for a while, I would look into the second-hand market, as there's always a decent opportunity.

Best regards!

[cobito]

Thanks for your comments.

These are the options I am considering at the moment:

Type (status)	Capacity	Unit price	Price 16GB	Price 32GB
Well-known brand (new)	1x8GB	66	132	264
Well-known brand (new)	2x8GB	110	110	220
Cheap brand (new)	1x8GB	37	74	148
Well-known brand (used)	2x8GB	About 60	60	120

If I start bidding on eBay for a second-hand option, I think I could get a 2x8GB kit from a well-known brand for about 40€.

I will continue to investigate more. Certainly, the two options I am left with are either a cheap new brand or a well-known used brand.