Does It Matter If The Ram Is Oem?

[Redskins36]

Just curious, prices are obviously cheaper. I can't make up my dang mind on what kind of memory to buy. I don't wanna spend a million dollars on RAM. I'm looking for 2 sticks of 512. Any suggestions on that? Looking to spend $120 or less.

[guzzidom]

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc....-156-022&depa=0

[Silverfox]

in answer to the thread Q, yes, OEM is rubbish for overclocking and generally is poorer performing if you are a hardcore gamer.

 

I however use generic 2700 on my P4 and have never had a problem playing *any* pc game to date.

[alseides]

Huh? Isn't OEM ram just like OEM products for everything else? An OEM motherboard is identical to the retail version. I just doesn't come with any accesories and sometimes the manual. Basically is the product ONLY, and nothing else. Packaged in a non retail box sometimes. That is why they are cheaper.

 

But all that aside I always thought OEM products performed identical to its retail counterpart. Unless of course ram is different than pc hardware when it comes to oem... I got oem corsair value select ram (512x2) ddr400 CAS2.5 and it OC like none other.

 

So unless someone proves me wrong when buying oem ram just look for a good brand. if it is oem then that is better for you. save some money for the same thing.

Edited April 15, 2005 by alseides

[guzzidom]

Err, I was answering the second question S ("I'm looking for 2 sticks of 512, any suggestions on that?") Mr Picky, LOL

In answer to the thread question, I think Redskin probably means generic (no-name) ram as opposed to stuff sold as Original Equipment Manufacture, which theoretically should be the same as the retail pack, just without packaging / manuals / drivers etc, in practice though, the term "OEM" can be used to cover a multitude of inadequacies, underclocked vid cards previously destined for HP or Dell, very limited warranties etc. The only plus side where ram is concerned is that it's performance is implicit in it's name, so OEM pc3200, has to run at pc3200 speeds.

[Silverfox]

all things aside:

 

OEM "brown-box" and "no-name" RAM is generally poo. it does the job, but, usually has below par timings and is not a good overclocker.

 

my pc2700 will take my 2.53 to 3.0 on air alright. after that it wont post.

[napmaster383]

OEM has nothing to do with the perfomance of parts, whether it be motherboards, ram, video cards, etc. OEM parts are parts directly sent from manufacturer to e-tailer without going through the publication process (ie. fancy boxes, manuals, accessories) OEM products are cheaper because of this. Anything can be OEM, not just generic parts. THe only difference with retail and OEM is that OEM doesn't come with the above mentioned and therefore it's cheaper. They are practically the same product. So I don't know what the f/u/c/k you're talking about.

[Silverfox]

chill monkey-boy

 

everyone under the sun knows that OEM in reference to ram means "no brand" ram. we *know* what oem is. we are on OCC after all...so go chill before you lose your pants.

 

oem ram = no brand ram. ie, not corsair, OCZ, Kingston etc. it has NO BRAND. it is therefore not tested as "performance" memory and cannot be guaranteed to have good timings etc.

 

so there.

[guzzidom]

chill monkey-boy

 

LOL,..just to confuse matters, Corsair in particular sometimes sell some of their ram off (generally the lower spec stuff) as OEM without retail packaging, possibly sold as consignments meant for small volume system builders, as they are normally the sort of retail outlets for it.

Much as OEM shouldn't really mean inferior, after all, the name implies manufactured to spec, as I said earlier, it seems to have been grasped on by the PC retailing fraternity as meaning pretty much anything unpackaged and without proper manufacturer support, for instance my last two Radeon cards were billed as OEM products and were both memory underclocked from their reference designs.

The question should perhaps be, whats better, Branded value ram (that you know is crap, because the testing process it has gone through has judged it so) or unbranded (oh OK Silverfox, OEM) ram that might be good (I've always been pretty lucky with it, others, perhaps aren't)?.

Paradoxically, in engineering terms (my work) the OEM product is always dearest, as it is the item the machinery originally came with and will therefore conform to warranty/ QC etc.

And stop s/w/e/a/r/i/n/g

Edited April 15, 2005 by guzzidom

[ir_cow]

what are you talking about sliverfox!!, so are you saying windows Xp OEM is not really winxp? or any other OEM product?, man you need to stop and look at yourself, OEM does not mean its NO BRAND. it mean not with the extra packaging that the charge extra for.

 

if you think AMD,INTEL,MICROSOFT OEMs are the same thing as the retail product you have lots to lern myfreind.

[martymcfly]

OEM in reference to ram

[megavyrus]

Sometimes, threads like this really tick me off. Because of some lamers who probably can't even read properly (alseides,napmaster383, hornybluecow)... the original poster is probably more confused now than ever.

 

His question was simple: does it matter if it's good quality memory or not? since that is what oem usually means when talking about ram.

 

Guzzidom and Silverfox gave a pretty clear answer: cheap Generic memory (which usually means that the chips on the stick are no-name brand, like not Samsung, not Infineon and not others, which are considered decent)... performs poorly and is unreliable.

 

As far as memory goes, nobody cares about manuals and what not... so those who started babbling away about what oem means and what is and what is not oem and whether it's the same as the non-oem or not... try to process some information or to put it in simpler terms, THINK before you start attacking people who actually gave a very good answer.

 

So, to make it REALLY clear and to answer Redskin's question: as long as it is a brand-name ram OR the ram has brand-name chips on it (Samsung, Infineon, ...) then you should be fine with it, as long as you don't want to pay big bucks for super ultra good performing memory. All VAlue* lines of the brand-name rams (Kingston, OCZ, Corsair, etc..) shoud provide very decent performance and reliability at STOCK speeds, ie: when not overclocking via FSB.