Question on RAM and Motherboards

[anniehoang]

Hi, I was wondering and hoping someone could help me out a bit here.

There are two things in regards to computer hardware that when buying I'm really unsure about.

The first is RAM. I plan on buying 1 or 2 sticks of DDR ram. And the question that has plagued me before is which brand do I get? Is there really a difference between say.. Acer ram and Sony ram? And if so what brand is infact the best to get?

The second issue is motherboards. What exactly should I be looking for besides how high a CPU chip it can support, and how much ram it is able to hold.

In the near future I think I'll be buying a P4 chip.. hyperthreading has drawn me away from AMD. So I'm going to need a new board, since my current one is for my AMD chip right now. So my basic question I guess is what board out there seems to be the favorite? And why.

Thanks to anyone who replies

-Annie

[lewis]

For the ram, it depends on what you'll be doing. For basic stuff a cheaper less known brand should be fine. For higher, better performance, Corsair, OCZ, Kingston HyperX are the ones to get.


Can't help you with the mobo, I'm sticking with AMD.

[curtybob]

I personally will not buy no-brand RAM. I believe RAM is best when purchased from a company that specializes in it. Sony would not be my first pick. I have had great luck out of Kingston Hyper X, but their valueRam ain't bad either.
As for a motherboard, who would make a better chipset for an Intel processor than Intel? Intel also makes a great bunch of motherboards. I buy ASUS now, but if I ever have trouble, Intel will be my first pick. The only way to pick a motherboard that won't leave you wanting for more is to know what chipsets are current, where RAM is headed to, and what onboard features will do you any good. Obviously, if you already own a good soundcard that supports 6 channel audio, a decent video card, and you don't plan on spending a fortune on a SATA HDD, you won't need these. But Firewire headers, USB 2.0 headers, possibly onboard RAID could be big positives. Also, make sure there are enough expansion slots to fit your needs. Sometimes 3 PCI slots and no AGP will ruin your day when you go to assemble your new PC.

[Braxas]

I will never buy a stick of no-name RAM. The only RAM I will even bother with is Kingston, Crucial, or SimpleTech. I've had good luck with all 3 brands and that is what I intend on continuing to use with a preference towards Kingston for the most part.

As far as motherboards if you're going to get a new one that is for an Intel chip I'd recommend looking into Dual Hyper-Threading technology. Basically, you take 2 sticks of 256 megs of RAM (or 512, but 256 for example) plug one stick in each bank and you have a full speed 800 megahertz FSB. I'd recommend checking into the option of having SATA drives even though they still aren't all that popular they may very well take over. If you don't need a sound-card and NIC that is something to think about although while I hate motherboards that have a lot of add-on stuff I don't mind the on-board LAN. That just saves me a PCI slot in the future but I still prefer to have a regular sound card and video card. If it breaks it's just a matter of swapping the card and not the whole motherboard. But then this is my method of trying to keep things simple on myself.

[anniehoang]

Thanks for all the great advice, really do appreciate it. Does anyone know about Corsair TwinX1024-4000Pro Memory. I read the reviews for it, but still rather unsure if it's bite is as strong as it's bark.