Tom's Hardware rounded up 4GB DDR2 memory kits from Corsair, Crucial, Geil, Kingston, Mushkin, OCZ, and Walton Chaintech.
Tom's Hardware gave the Recommended Buy award to the Kingston HyperX KHX8500D2K2/4G and Mushkin's Ascent XP2-8500:
"... Kingston and Mushkin. And it's these last two brands that went through our testing without reaching remarkable records, but also without failing on us in any category. Power consumption and operating voltage were in line with our expectations, especially for Mushkin. Overclocking margins were small, but we guess almost everyone agrees when we say that there is not much more you can do today, and that the difference is small. Finally, their price tags of $150 turn these two products into the most attractive memory kits for upgraders or anyone else who is about to assemble a reasonable desktop PC with 4 GB of main memory." [Tom's Hardware | DDR2-1066 Kit Round-Up]
To add, Tom's Hardware gives us their recommendations for memory purchases:
- Stay within the market sweet spot to get a good deal: today that's 2x 1 GB or 2x 2 GB of DDR2-800 or DDR2-1066 memory.
- Look for quick timings (smaller numbers are better), but don't spend substantial money on slightly faster modules.
- Spend additional budget on a faster processor, a faster graphics card graphics card or a faster drive instead of fast memory, unless you need overclocking memory.
- Always get as few memory modules as possible, but equip all memory channels of a system to get maximum performance. The ideal configuration consists of two DIMMs today, and three DIMMs with Intel's upcoming Core i7 systems.
- Go for name brand memory.
It should be noted that 4GB of RAM can't be fully utilized on a 32-bit operating system. You will get around 3.3 to 3.7 GB of effective memory capacity.
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