Got a smoking deal on a new laptop a few days back through the Tiger. 2.2ghz Phenom II quad core, 4 gb DDR3 ram, 640gb hdd, Radeon HD450, etc for $400 to the door Only thing I dont necessarily like is its a Gateway (I'm a HP fan), and that its a refurbished unit. Gateway NV50A in red... But still, $400 for a system that originally priced around $1200? Couldnt pass that up
Anywho, on to the reason for the thread:
The new laptop maxes out at 8gb DDR3 sodimm. So first thing I want to do when I get it is max out the ram. The intentions of this laptop are to replace my currently dying, 8 year old HP. The goal is to have a laptop that will last me the next 5 years or so without any major upgrades. Its my understanding that multicore AMD systems these days MUST run dual channel RAM (I'm a bit outdated in the PC tech world, so bear with me here). So in searching around for good deals on an 8 gb dual channel DDR3 SoDIMM kit, I came across G Skill for about $50 IIRC.. My question for you guys and gals is, how good is the G Skill RAM? I've personally never heard of them before, and I tend to stick to PNY, Kingston, Crucial, or OCZ RAM, even in a pinch, Samsung... As far as the G Skill goes, I'm a bit leery of them because of price (you get what you pay for, unless that has changed for pc hardware these days?), it seems cheap. Can anyone say otherwise?
Overall, anyone with experience with G Skill ram that can chime it, it would be greatly appreciated if you could share your experiences
I seem to recall seeing Nemesis post something about G Skill in another thread not too long ago
IP: Logged
06:00 PM
PFF
System Bot
HI-TECH Member
Posts: 1697 From: manteca, california Registered: Jul 2005
yeah ive used it its "ok" in my book.. its not that quite fast but it gets the job done for cheap, but like you said you want something that will last 5 years i wont expect this stuff too.
IP: Logged
09:02 PM
Xerces_Blackthorne Member
Posts: 6163 From: Mertztown PA Registered: Mar 2008
I've used GSkill exclusively the past 3 builds. I've had nothing but positive experience with'em and I overclock the piss out of my hardware. I have 8gb of Gskill Ripjaw DDR3 in my current rig and they're wonderful, look pretty sexy too.
I have the same kit Nemesis has in one PC of mine, I have Patriot "G" Gaming Series in my "built on a budget" gaming rig.. Neither of which you posted in your original post, I haven't had issues with either and they are fairly cheap. One thing to know is DDR3 is pretty cheap nowadays no matter the manufacturer.
OCZ is junk. RAM, cooling, psus... everything. You will also never get a rebate back
G Skill, Crucial, Corsair, ADATA and Mushkin are great brands. Nearly every brand you go with will have Lifetime warranty
Gateway is owned by Acer which kicks the crap out of HPs junk
And I say, I'll bet you have proof of everything you claim above?
I didn't ask for your personal feelings about anything other than G Skill ram. Please refrain from sharing anything more than such. I'll chalk that up as nothing more than noob rage
Acer > HP Whatever you are smoking, pass it this way Last looked, Acer was utter garbage, cheap bottom of the barrel crap, like E Machines (who ironically is owned by Gateway/Acer)...Unless they've gotten better in the past 5-6 years, with a cheaper price tag to boot (I looked at the Acer's that were available in my price range), then they are still crap. At least HP has been consistent and reliable for me. Can't say the same about Acer from my experience with them (again, i'm a bit out of the loop though when it comes to IT these days)
[This message has been edited by Xerces_Blackthorne (edited 10-09-2011).]
And I say, I'll bet you have proof of everything you claim above?
I didn't ask for your personal feelings about anything other than G Skill ram. Please refrain from sharing anything more than such.
Acer > HP Whatever you are smoking, pass it this way Last looked, Acer was utter garbage, cheap bottom of the barrel crap, like E Machines (who ironically is owned by Gateway/Acer)...Unless they've gotten better in the past 5-6 years, with a cheaper price tag to boot (I looked at the Acer's that were available in my price range), then they are still crap. At least HP has been consistent and reliable for me. Can't say the same about Acer from my experience with them (again, i'm a bit out of the loop though when it comes to IT these days)
I have used G. Skill ram, it is fine. You are talking about notebooks, the bottleneck will not be your ram. HDD, GPU, CPU. Almost always in that order. I do like Acer decently enough. I really love me some ASUS though. No idea if it was good deal, if you have already bought it, that isn't relevant. I personally buy from Tigerdirect, NeweEGG and cheetahdeals exclusively. Anyway, yeah with laptop memory, buy pretty much the cheapest ram that matches your chipset. Unless you are on a boutique laptop it really won't matter.
------------------ I can ride my bike with no handlebars.
IP: Logged
11:25 AM
Xerces_Blackthorne Member
Posts: 6163 From: Mertztown PA Registered: Mar 2008
As far as performance goes, it seems as if this laptop is limited by ram first. Its a 2.2 quad core Phenom II with the best specs I've seen in a laptop for less than $1200... Graphics are dedicated, and its my understanding that the ATI Radeon HD4250 is one step below the discreet class GPUs (which are the best one can get in a laptop).
Granted, I know its a laptop, and has limited performance compared to a desktop, but for what I plan to use it for it should last me 3-5 years. I don't game much anymore, and most of the games I play will run on a Pentium 3 800mhz or higher
I plan to max out the hard drive, maybe try and get a decent Seagate or WD 7200rpm drive in 1TB (do they even make 7200rpm 1TB internal SATA drives for a notebook?)...
ive used it lots over the past few years, its not the "Fastest" on the block, but its one of the more reliable... ive abused stick after stick, and never had one fail on me. also can be said about the corsair xms and kingston hyperx, the few "highend builds" ive done i always use g.skill ripjaws...
As far as performance goes, it seems as if this laptop is limited by ram first. Its a 2.2 quad core Phenom II with the best specs I've seen in a laptop for less than $1200... Graphics are dedicated, and its my understanding that the ATI Radeon HD4250 is one step below the discreet class GPUs (which are the best one can get in a laptop).
Granted, I know its a laptop, and has limited performance compared to a desktop, but for what I plan to use it for it should last me 3-5 years. I don't game much anymore, and most of the games I play will run on a Pentium 3 800mhz or higher
I plan to max out the hard drive, maybe try and get a decent Seagate or WD 7200rpm drive in 1TB (do they even make 7200rpm 1TB internal SATA drives for a notebook?)...
I game on laptops exclusively for about the last 8 years. Trust me HDD is the first bottleneck on any capable system. SSD destroys 7200RPM HDD. I am planing on putting one as my primary in my Republic of Gamers laptop. Note the system you are buying uses a 5400RPM drive. At that low of resolution, the video card will be fine for all office related applications and will be able to play games at I would guess medium settings.
I think for my $400, I would have went with http://www.cheetahdeals.com...p/l-lx.wmh02.005.htm but I really prefer the larger screen and number pad and higher resolutions. Though, the one you bought has a stronger CPU. I am not your best guy to get advice from. I buy boutique style laptops and have different needs and uses. I would guess unless you take MUCH better care of your things than I do, it will be getting long in the tooth much before 5 years is up. At only $400 though, I personally wouldn't mind just replacing it in a few years.
IP: Logged
12:20 PM
Xerces_Blackthorne Member
Posts: 6163 From: Mertztown PA Registered: Mar 2008
I game on laptops exclusively for about the last 8 years. Trust me HDD is the first bottleneck on any capable system. SSD destroys 7200RPM HDD. I am planing on putting one as my primary in my Republic of Gamers laptop. Note the system you are buying uses a 5400RPM drive. At that low of resolution, the video card will be fine for all office related applications and will be able to play games at I would guess medium settings.
I think for my $400, I would have went with http://www.cheetahdeals.com...p/l-lx.wmh02.005.htm but I really prefer the larger screen and number pad and higher resolutions. Though, the one you bought has a stronger CPU. I am not your best guy to get advice from. I buy boutique style laptops and have different needs and uses. I would guess unless you take MUCH better care of your things than I do, it will be getting long in the tooth much before 5 years is up. At only $400 though, I personally wouldn't mind just replacing it in a few years.
5 years may be a stretch, I'll give ya that...but I'd like to get at least 3-4 out of it. But like you said, if not it was only $400 and cheap enough to replace...
Size was a big concern. I have a 17" widescreen desktop replacement laptop now (the HP), and portability is just horrendous with it. Key factor that portability... Plus, for the quad core Phenom II, that was a big bonus at the price. All the other quad core laptops I found (refurb or new) were at least double the price of this one, with nowhere near the same specs (most had 4 gb ram, 320 or 500 gb hdd with shared graphics). Couldnt pass on this, and maybe it'll be the Gateway that proves me wrong (last good gateway I owned was a Gateway 2000 P2 333mhz)...
Edit: forgot to mention, the one I bought does have the numpad. That was a big selling point for me also,since I've gotten used to having one with my HP and cant fathom going back to a laptop without
[This message has been edited by Xerces_Blackthorne (edited 10-09-2011).]
I have 4gb ddr3 gskill in my gaming pc and it has been fine. I believe they have a lifetime warranty as well. I would suggest either using corsair or gskill.
IP: Logged
02:49 PM
Blacktree Member
Posts: 20770 From: Central Florida Registered: Dec 2001
Just FYI, the dual channel vs single channel is a feature of the memory controller, not the RAM. The "dual channel RAM kit" nomenclature is a marketing ploy. They put two identical RAM modules in a package, call it a "dual channel kit", and you think you're getting something special. It's just two RAM sticks in a box.
That said, I've used G-Skill RAM before, on several occasions. I got a defective module once, but Newegg replaced it with no problem.
IP: Logged
03:15 PM
Formula88 Member
Posts: 53788 From: Raleigh NC Registered: Jan 2001
Just FYI, the dual channel vs single channel is a feature of the memory controller, not the RAM. The "dual channel RAM kit" nomenclature is a marketing ploy. They put two identical RAM modules in a package, call it a "dual channel kit", and you think you're getting something special. It's just two RAM sticks in a box.
That said, I've used G-Skill RAM before, on several occasions. I got a defective module once, but Newegg replaced it with no problem.
It's a bit of a marketing ploy, but it's also valid because you want both sticks to match in a dual channel setup. Buying them in a 2 piece kit gets you two matched sticks. A dual channel kit isn't "matched" in the sense that there's anything special done to them, but they are matched in that they both have the same specs.
And I say, I'll bet you have proof of everything you claim above?
I didn't ask for your personal feelings about anything other than G Skill ram. Please refrain from sharing anything more than such. I'll chalk that up as nothing more than noob rage
Acer > HP Whatever you are smoking, pass it this way Last looked, Acer was utter garbage, cheap bottom of the barrel crap, like E Machines (who ironically is owned by Gateway/Acer)...Unless they've gotten better in the past 5-6 years, with a cheaper price tag to boot (I looked at the Acer's that were available in my price range), then they are still crap. At least HP has been consistent and reliable for me. Can't say the same about Acer from my experience with them (again, i'm a bit out of the loop though when it comes to IT these days)
When you build and sell over 5 dozen rigs a year, for the last EIGHT years, you know what you are talking about boy
OCZ is among the lowest rated mainstream pc component manufacturers. They use lower binned chips in there ram than any other performance brand and overrate the wattage and use chinese capacitors in all of their power supplies.
You give me lip and then follow by saying you are out of the loop these days? I gave you real meaningful advice that is based on 20 years of experience
When you build and sell over 5 dozen rigs a year, for the last EIGHT years, you know what you are talking about boy
OCZ is among the lowest rated mainstream pc component manufacturers. They use lower binned chips in there ram than any other performance brand and overrate the wattage and use chinese capacitors in all of their power supplies.
You give me lip and then follow by saying you are out of the loop these days? I gave you real meaningful advice that is based on 20 years of experience
I am not trying to get into a debate about the ram, I don't care about that. 60 PCs a year? I buy at least for friends, not personal use, close to that many a year. Do you make a living selling 6 computers a month? Maybe I am not following what you do for a living. I know I don't build ANY person a computer I will have to support. They get a box or binned unit. I don't have time for all the issues that arise when mixing hardware.
I am not trying to get into a debate about the ram, I don't care about that. 60 PCs a year? I buy at least for friends, not personal use, close to that many a year. Do you make a living selling 6 computers a month? Maybe I am not following what you do for a living. I know I don't build ANY person a computer I will have to support. They get a box or binned unit. I don't have time for all the issues that arise when mixing hardware.
For the record, I'm not very impressed with OCZ stuff, either.
G-Skill is decent. I wouldn't be afraid to use it again. I've also used Wintec and ADATA. They both seem alright. Although, my favorites are Corsair and Crucial.
For the record, I'm not very impressed with OCZ stuff, either.
G-Skill is decent. I wouldn't be afraid to use it again. I've also used Wintec and ADATA. They both seem alright. Although, my favorites are Corsair and Crucial.
Back when I was still building systems (~2006), as far as I can remember, the top RAM for gaming was a toss up between OCZ, Corsair, and Kingston. For basic everyday systems (office users, etc), the best RAM to choose from came from Kingston, Corsair, Crucial, and Micron. Has OCZ gotten that bad since those days? IIRC they were a start up company (maybe a few years in?) back then that catered to the "boutique" build market.
Not sure what I'll end up with yet. Again, still not particularly sold on the G Skill ram yet. Kinda leaning towards the PNY gold that I normally use, but who knows...I want something with the quickest timing possible, in dual channel mode, with outstanding reliability/durability. Again, the goal is to get this laptop set for 5 years of use before I toss it and buy a new one.
Back when I was still building systems (~2006), as far as I can remember, the top RAM for gaming was a toss up between OCZ, Corsair, and Kingston. For basic everyday systems (office users, etc), the best RAM to choose from came from Kingston, Corsair, Crucial, and Micron. Has OCZ gotten that bad since those days? IIRC they were a start up company (maybe a few years in?) back then that catered to the "boutique" build market.
Not sure what I'll end up with yet. Again, still not particularly sold on the G Skill ram yet. Kinda leaning towards the PNY gold that I normally use, but who knows...I want something with the quickest timing possible, in dual channel mode, with outstanding reliability/durability. Again, the goal is to get this laptop set for 5 years of use before I toss it and buy a new one.
Dude, it is ram for a laptop. Get whatever is cheap and matches your chipset. RAM is one of those things that either works without errors or it doesn't there are no moving pieces, it doesn't "wear out". It can go bad, but it isn't like a HDD failure. G. Skill is perfectly fine.
Only thing I dont necessarily like is its a Gateway (I'm a HP fan), and that its a refurbished unit. Gateway NV50A in red... But still, $400 for a system that originally priced around $1200? Couldnt pass that up 
Whatever you are smoking, pass it this way 
