Corsair Vengeance Performance Memory Kit

UPDATE 11-13-2010 After the fantastic, good RAM I received from Corsair RMA Dept, I went ahead and ordered another 2 x 4GB RAM from Amazon.com and installed it into my laptop, and all is well! It is now running its full contingent of 16GB of Corsair 4GB SODIMMs (4 x 4GB SODIMMs), a full house such as it is, and it performs fantastic! It has passed each and every conceivable test, exam and Windows RAM Test besides, so I am certifying this RAM as good once again, finally! I changed the rating on this review to 5 Stars now, as I have nothing but compliments for Corsair and Amazon.com for sticking it out through a couple bad batches of this RAM, and now it's all good RAM that they are selling. I recommend this 4GB RAM, either in matched or single SODIMMs 100%, without any disclaimers or conditions, it's all good, so go ahead and score yours while the price is right here at Amazon.com, as you will not find it cheaper from a reliable merchant anywhere in the world. I will not change a word of the original review, as it was an agonizing, painstaking and disappointing process to go through, but now it's over, and I am happy to say that Corsair and Amazon.com are once again on the Wavey Davey Recommended List of 4GB SODIMMs for notebooks. Wavey Davey - 11-13-2010 ****************** ********************* ********************* *************** EDIT: Below was my real-world experience with Corsair 4GB SODIMMs bought at Amazon.com, and I am not changing a word of that original review, because it's all true. But Thanks to God for small favors and Corsair RMA Dept! I explained what had happened to Corsair RMA Dept, and they had me return the problem RAM, and sent me a brand new pair of 4GB SODIMMs that I am pleased to say work fantastic in my notebook, and all is now well with my Asus G51JX-A1 notebook and 2 x 4GB SODIMMs of this Corsair RAM...so far, so good as my 12GB configuration passes all tests and the notebook works fantastic! I have been reluctant to write another word until I proved this RAM in my notebook in all tests that it failed before with all the other RAM from Amazon.com, and by George I've done it to my satisfaction now, and will call Corsair RMA Dept. the life savers that they are, so thank you Corsair RMA Dept! I have put my notebook through every conceivable test, LinX, PRIME95, 3DMark06 and Vantage both, and both OCCT RAM and GPU tests and it passes with flying colors now. Say Yaaaay! I am happy, and Corsair is pleased with the results also, apparently, as I got a nice email from the head of their RMA Dept. about the whole thing I went through, and now all is well...thanks to God, good faith, and Corsair RMA Dept! I changed my rating of the RAM from 1-star to 4 stars, as that is the best that I can give it considering all the trouble I went through to finally have 2 x 4GB SODIMMs that work fantastic in my notebook, but such is life at times: it's unfair, it's difficult, but in the end if you persevere you can come up a winner, even in a bad situation like that which I went through with this RAM. Wavey Davey - November 9, 2010 ************** *************** *************** *************** I have been trying to live with this supposedly top-drawer Corsair RAM for the past month and a half in my Asus G51JX-A1 notebook which has a 16GB Capacity for RAM with 4 DIMM slots, each capable of running a matched 4GB 1333Mhz DDR3 notebook 204-pin SODIMM, and the RAM has consistently failed my needs miserably, so I am calling it what it is for this notebook, and my purposes, sub-standard 1333Mhz RAM that tests somewhat well, but is an enigma because it also generates terrible errors in OCCT v3.1's VRAM and SDRAM tests, and it won't pass multiple iterations of LinX 0.6.3 either in my notebook, with both 12GB RAM configuration, and the 16GB configuration both. So I dunno, I throw up my hands in the air at this RAM by now, at this point, after two returns to Amazon.com, one set of 2 x 4GB SODIMMs, single RAM SODIMMs that I used in the notebook, and a matched set of the 2 x 4GB SODIMMs=8GB x 2, when I tried to run 16GB of RAM in the notebook and failed miserably. I have come to the conclusion that it's not my notebook, because I RMA'd it to Asus for a video board replacement, which was faulty, and with the standard configuration of 3 x 2GB Kingston SODIMMs of the 1333Mhz variety, the OEM Asus RAM the notebook comes stock with, I get no errors in LinX, in PRIME95, and also pass all OCCT v3.1 VRAM tests where the notebook is subjected to big stress in the video RAM, and where RAM from the notebook's RAM cache is also utilized to wit with my notebook's VRAM, up to 4095MB total RAM used, which is up to 1024MB from the on board VRAM in the video card, plus a contingent of RAM from the physical RAM of the motherboard, the SODIMMs of Corsair and Kingston RAM. Now all this may be confusing, and it is admittedly, so I won't mince words about this when I tell you Amazon.com customers that this RAM may work fine in your notebook, especially if it doesn't need 1333Mhz RAM and the RAM defaults to 1066Mhz, such as happens in many of the Core i7 notebooks and Core i3 and i5 notebooks by Asus, Acer, Sony, HP, and other manufacturers. But if the notebook's requirements are strictly 1333+ rated Mhz RAM, and some overclocking of that RAM in the natural course of events of use for said notebook like my G51JX-A1 with Turbo Boost and Extreme Turbo boost in the CPU for overclocking, direct from ASus the manufacturer, then this RAM from Corsair is most likely going to prove incompatible with your system, and you'll end up returning it like I did after much testing, RMA's, and/or straight product returns because the RAM was defective out of the box on one occasion, and simply failed on the others. Additionally, one shipment of this RAM for a friend's G51JX-X5 Asus notebook, that I recently equipped with this RAM and the OEM Nanya 1333Mhz RAM (*in the case of his notebook he got Nanya 1333Mhz SODIMMs from ASUS OEM stock where I got Kingston SODIMMs of the 1333Mhz variety, which are comparable in all respect by the way*), for a 12GB contingent of RAM on board, I simply had to return it lock, stock and barrel because it was bad, bad RAM from the get-go, failing every RAM test I gave it when I installed it, giving false readings of a bad video card, system crashes of all sorts, and the worst of all, a locked computer where it simply would just FREEZE and you'd have to disconnect all power including the battery before you could go into BIOS, Load Defaults, return the battery to its rightful place in the computer, and finally start it up again successfully! What a bum trip that was! Frankly that was strange, just a bad batch of the Corsair RAM, for whatever reason, from bad handling at Amazon.com or UPS the shipper for all I know, but for my purposes the RAM failed miserably and Amazon.com had to send a Saturday Delivery FedEx shipment of replacement Corsair 2 x 4GB=8GB SODIMM "kit" to me, so I could finish putting the final touches on the computer, test that RAM for continuity and compliance, and it passed with flying colors, end of story there. So go figure, I have had two batches of my own RAM fail and have to be returned, then my friend's computer also got a bad batch of this RAM, where it failed every legitimate test I gave it over and over again, so that had to be returned also....a grand total of 3 shipments of this Corsair RAM out of 4 shipments that were bad, for one reason or another, so I am left with the inevitiable conclusion that this RAM is not to be trusted for 1333Mhz RAM-dependent machines/notebooks, and I think it's a good bet to try another brand perhaps: Kingston, Patriot, G. Skill (now is making notebook RAM), or even Samsung/Super Talent brands are all good, or shall I say BETTER choices than this Corsair RAM, no matter how many great reviews you have read here. I am writing from a purely objective state of mind...I walked into owning this RAM for my own computer, and my friend's both, and we were bitterly disappointed on 3 out of 4 shipments from Amazon.com of this RAM, both in 2 x 4GB SODIMM matched batches, or the single 4GB SODIMMs bought separately as a pair, (for saving a little $$$ ostensibly of course) and that is the final verdict I render it here tonight, with those circumstances behind me now, the RAM all returned but for my 8GB that I have to deal with now. I am not going to be using Corsair notebook RAM in my G51JX-A1 notebook any longer, if I can't get some great, big accommodation from Corsair in an RMA process. Since the RAM that is currently suspect in my use of this notebook is past the "Return Window" at Amazon.com, I am going to have to sell it openly and/or attempt an RMA at Corsair's facility up in Fremont, CA, and explain to them that I am getting LinX 0.6.3 and OCCT v3.1 errors both with the RAM installed in the notebook, and limited results in 3DMark06 by Futuremark for video performance, whereby the RAM from the notebook is used with the VRAM both for scoring in their very, very difficult cache or series of games, tests and data analysis, and see if Corsair can suggest something. We shall see! I would be willing to try another RMA, this time from Corsair on the RAM, I guess, bottom line, but I have little faith that it will cure the issue. I'll try anything at this point considering that I cannot return this RAM as it's 2 weeks too late to do so, but I feel 100% compromised by the RAM, and have little to no faith in this being resolved save for changing brands of RAM in my notebook, another expensive proposition. Those, dear readers, are my final thoughts on this Corsair 1333Mhz notebook RAM, both in matched 8GB form, and in single 4GB SODIMMs both: the quality is very questionable, and compatibility with a notebook such as mine that requires more than 1333Mhz RAM overclocking as a normal manner of operation of the notebook, well that is even more questionable...in such a case. I wish I had better words for the RAM but I cannot lie, and my experience with this RAM has been less than perfect, to be certain. I will update this review should anything change with respect to Corsair coming through with a set of the RAM that works much better than my present 2 x 4GB SODIMMs do presently, but again, I have little hope of such a thing happening after all I've been through with the Corsair notebook 4GB SODIMMs. I am glad that it works in *some notebooks* well, apparently by reading the other reviews here, but in my high performance Core i7 Asus G51JX-A1 notebook it's been a miserable failure, and I frankly am operating my notebook with it removed because it gives nothing but error after error in LinX 0.6.3, OCCT VRAM tests, and RAM tests both, and causes my notebook to perform miserably in 3DMark06, the standard FutureMark test suite for notebook video cards. Wavey Davey - October 18, 2010

I use VMWare Fusion all the time during my work day, running some Windows based applications as well as using Mail, iCal, Contacts, Safari, iTunes. With all these applications open in parallel, and only 4 GB of RAM originally in my 2010 Macbook Pro, things weren't so great performance wise. Whenever I fired up VMWare Fusion, everything started grinding to a slow crawl, and the computer was borderline unusable. After looking at an OEM upgrade from Apple (Expensive) to 8GB, and doing some research and reading to make sure this item was compatible with my Macbook Pro, I opted for this item instead. The installation was very easy. You simply remove the screws at the back of the computer using a thin screwdriver (I have a set of fine screwdrivers, both flathead and phillips-head). Once off, it's a simple matter of unclipping the old, and installing the new. Boot up, and the Macbook Pro recognizes the memory straight away. And, in terms of performance, WOW. Huge difference. It's amazing how "normal" my laptop feels now. All my apps load up faster, the computer boots up faster, and most importantly to me, VMWare Fusion and Windows 7 work perfectly fine, no issues at all. Some final notes for those that want technical specifications: Macbook Pro 2.53 GHz Intel Core i5 5 GB 1067 MHz DDR3 *Note: The Macbook Pro will not recognize the faster clock rate of the memory, which is 1333 MHz. This is a shame, but not a huge deal for me* VMWare Fusion 3.10 Windows 7 Ultimate 1 CPU core and 1024 MB of RAM assigned virtually to this machine. Overall, this item is well with the money I spent for it. Highly recommended!

Bought a used MacBook Pro 15 inch i5 2.4Ghz that came with the standard 4GB of memory. Also bought this Corsair memory for my MacBook Pro. Installation was easy with the hardest part of taking the Corsair memory from the plastic retail case, if you try bending the plastic to remove the card, you end up bending the cards themselves, made me very nervous at that point. I think the problem is the tabs, as mentioned in another review, are made to hold the cards in place securely during shipping but I think in this case, too good. I wanted to save the plastic that the cards are shipped to store the old memory cards but I ending up cutting up the plastic to get the Corsair memory out. If you are worried about how to replace the memory in a MacBook Pro, google is your best friend. Just google "macbok pro how to upgrade memory" and there are plenty of sites to show you how to do it, along with videos. My MacBook Pro compatible memory is 1067MHz rated and the Corsair is rated at 1333MHz, my MacBook Pro correctly reports 1067MHZ, I've read other reviews that the memory read 1333MHz on pre-2011 MacBook Pro, I don't know about that. A really good plus side is that all the 2011 MacBook Pro's are rated at 1333MHz, so it's kind of a mini future proofing. I've had the memory installed so far for 2 days and no issues whatsoever. I've played Civilization 5, Starcraft 2, did heavy web surfing, and basically kept the MacBook Pro on for 2 days straight, basically testing both the MacBook Pro and the memory and they both took everything I threw at them without even blinking and seemed to ask for more (keeping fingers crossed). Laptop memory prices have drastically dropped to a point a year ago the same memory was over $100! If you are on the fence about this memory, I say go for it, you won't be sorry. The combination of the Corsair reputation and the Amazon buying experience is a A+ in my book!

I got this RAM in order to increase my wife's Dell Studio 1747 XPS Laptop Memory(From 4GB to 8GB) and it fit the bill perfectly. Price was just right at around $80, easy to install, and best of all worked on first try after install. The boot time and Windows start up time was a good 2 times faster than before (My wife noted this as well). The Windows 7 experience rating for the Memory Speed stayed the same score at 7.4, The RAM Modules from before were the same speed as the new ones, besides it did not go down and your really not going to get much higher than this score anyways (Highest being 7.9 for Windows 7). If your looking to give your laptop more breathing room to work with for very noticable performance increase this is the RAM to do it with, I would Highly recommend this RAM for anybody with this memory class of Laptop. Computer Specs: Dell Studio 1747 XPS Windows 7 Ultimate SP1(64 Bit) Intel I7 Core 1.6ghz processor 8GB DDR3 10666mhz Ram (Was 4gb previously) 1gb NVidia 880 Video Card 80gb\500gb Sata Hard Drives BD-ROM/DVD-CD Burner 1920 X 1080 17inch Screen 1GB Intergrated NIC Intel WiFi Wireless Card Creative Sound Blaster Card *** Updated 04/25/2011 Just purchased this for my HP Pavilion Dvt8 Notebook and had the same great results as I had with my wifes, easy to install and works like a charm. the Windows Index score was the same as the Dell Studio XPS 1747, a 7.4 . HP Pavilion Dvt8 Notebook... I7 Core 1.6 ghz Processor 8GB DDR3 10666mhz Ram (Was 4gb previously) Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 (64bit edition) Nvidia 1 GB Notebook graphics Card 18.4 inch 1080p monitor 320gb\1tb Sata Hard Drives BD-ROM\DVD-CD Burner 1GB Intergrated NIC Intel WiFi Wireless Card Creative Sound Blaster Card

Installed in a 2010 21.5 3.06 GHz Intel Core i3 iMac boosting the RAM from 4GB to 12GB gives a noticeable increase in speed, stability and response. Virtual memory is rarely accessed since the install when monitored with MenuMeters. Amazon was great on the return when the first shipment of the DIMMs didn't work. I returned them and received a second shipment which worked immediately upon installation. The product description could have been better if it named the models that the RAM would work in rather than my having to look up the RAM specs before ordering, no biggie, but you asked. A deal at the price and if you run several applications in Spaces, this small investment is well worth the price. ---------- 3/6/12. Upon cold booting my iMac, heard the dreaded three beep alarm signifying bad RAM. Pulled the Crucial chips and the machine booted. Contacted Amazon but alas more than 30 days has elapsed. Referred to Crucial where I requested an RMA for their no longer working chips. No response so far. Hope this isn't a symptom of another company circling the drain. 3/10/15 Moved these DRAM's into a 27" iMac 3.4GHz i7 around July 2014. Started getting bad RAM alarms the end of Feb. Requested replacements under the lifetime warranty. Crucial came through, though it took a little back and forth with their CSR's. So, good - so far.

I replaced the OEM RAM in my ASUS U32U-ES21 notebook PC (originally specced with 4 GB RAM) with Corsair's 8 GB ValueSelect RAM kit. Sure, I could have bought a single 4 GB SO-DIMM, but it wouldn't have saved me all that much money, and when possible I like to run matching memory modules in my machines. I also could have paid one and a half times as much for a different set touting itself as specifically-designed for ASUS' U-series and their ilk, but considering that I paid less than five hundred bucks for the U32U when it was new, Corsair's comfortably-priced ValueSelect option seemed worth a try. Corsair's packaging was clearly labeled and easy to open. I don't usually comment on packaging in product reviews, but it seems relevant here: the manufacturer's packaging for this upgrade kit is designed so you don't have to wave sharp objects around to extract your new memory modules, nor do you have to worry about getting label adhesive on your fingers and transferring it onto the precious cargo within. A little round sticker at the top of the box kept it closed; I just ripped that whole part of the box off and went to town. Inside, the memory modules were packaged in a little two-piece plastic shell that came apart easily with finger pressure while still keeping the modules contained until I was ready for them. The modules themselves are pretty much your standard DDR3 SO-DIMMs: green circuitboard, gold pins, bunch of black chips. They feel nice and rigid, with just enough flex to help get them in and out of their seats. They're definitely pretty durable (they certainly withstood the abuse they took during installation). I don't particularly love the giant sticker that covers the whole front side of each module, but it doesn't appear to impact performance in any way, so I'm not knocking off a star for that. Maybe if I could knock off a quarter of a star, I would, but that's mostly a matter of taste. For all I know, it might actually serve some purpose (maybe it's glued on with cooling paste, or something?). Installation was a pain in the neck, but that's not Corsair's fault -- it's a function of the way the clamps that hold the modules are arranged in my particular machine. Your installation experience will vary based on the design of your particular computer. If one or more of the modules is seated incorrectly, of course, the machine won't boot, leaving you to pop the cover back off and fiddle with it some more. Once the modules were properly seated (after much grumbling, dramatic sighing, and gnashing of teeth), my previously-wheezy old notebook booted right up. I expected a performance boost, but was actually really surprised by exactly how significant a boost I got. The U32U-ES21 was never intended to be a high-powered machine, but it's much, much quicker and more fun to use now. MS Office applications pop right up; Chrome runs like ... well, if not a cheetah, at very least a pretty fast pony; even a concurrent session of Photoshop, Pidgin, and a handful of Chrome windows flows along swimmingly. I guess I'll have to find a new window in my day for making a cup of tea; I no longer even remotely have time to do it while Photoshop launches. Meanwhile, Sims 2 and Sims 3 are significantly less slow, if not exactly blazing fast. In short, and perhaps rather obviously, dropping in 8 gigs of shiny new RAM won't turn your lazy old work mule of an notebook into a blazing gaming hoss. It can make you feel like you've got a whole new, much-peppier mule, at any rate -- and, in my case, I got a much peppier new mule than I was expecting, which is really quite nice. For about fifty bucks (at the time of purchase) with fast Prime shipping, I'm very happy with it. Full disclosure: one of my first "real" jobs was working in ASUS' tech support center; Corsair was one of the brands of RAM we routinely recommended for its reliability based on our experiences kludging together various motherboards and so forth that we got to build up in-house so we'd know what our callers were facing. That certainly influenced my purchasing decision. However, I have long since wandered away from the hardware-support world (though I do still do some tech-oriented work), and I paid Amazon's full price for this upgrade kit.

I could go on and on about why I chose this particular brand and it's pros and cons, but it's already covered on Amazon many times and countless number of times on other tech review sites. What I can say is "It just works !". Really, I cannot be more apt. Installation took less than 5 minutes on my Acer 5741 laptop. Packaging was a pain like most products shipped in airtight plastic. I am a software developer and usually run Linux in VirtualBox on my Win 7 machine. Prior to upgrading, the system was quite slow since it was using 4GB RAM. 4 gig is a decent amount of RAM for everyday use, but barely enough when running Virtual machines. I considered upgrading my laptop but I really didn't need a faster CPU or more disk space. My average CPU when running Win 7 with Firefox (15-20 tabs), Thunderbird, 3-5 PDF files open in Adobe Reader, Avira Antivirus, Comodo Firewall and Mint Linux running in Virtual box, is about 25-35 % except during peak loads. But my RAM is always maxed out which leads to a lot of disk thrashing and hence very slow system. Upgrading my RAM solved most of my problems. I really didn't know which RAM to choose and just made my decision by reading Amazon reviews and the well known reputation of Corsair. After double checking that my Acer laptop supports this particular product I placed the order. I wouldn't say my system has become blazing fast than before, but the workflow has become considerably smoother. Which is what I wanted in the first place. It's been only a couple of weeks since my upgrade and so I cannot comment on the reliability, but so far .. it just works.

I have a Gateway 7811FX Notebook, Gateway FX series of notebooks were a pretty big deal when they came out as they were the first budget gaming notebooks that had a 1080 display. Anyway I bought this because while the 4GB stock RAM that I had was sufficient I needed more RAM because I got to online university, and I have to have a ton of things opened at once (Word, Acrobat, Powerpoint, Excel, etc.) So obviously while I browse the net and have all these programs open it was using about 3.5GB of Ram and I started noticing after some time that once I passed about 3GB of RAM some mega slow down started happening on my PC so I knew it was time for an upgrade. The first Idea I had was to get only 6GB of Ram, I was going to buy a 4GB stick of Crucial RAM and another single 2GB stick of Crucial RAM however combined that amount would be only $10 less then this 8GB of RAM set and at that point it made no sense I might as well have bought the Corsair RAM, so I did. After I installed it, which only took about 15 minutes to unscrew everything drop the RAM in and then reassemble I booted it up for the first time. It started up like normal with some freezing at the beginning, however apparently Windows 7 detected that there was new hardware, so there was a little delay at that first startup. I went checked the properties made sure the RAM was being detected everything checked out well. So then I proceeded to open programs, and wow! What a difference, I noticed huge differences in program start up times, especially with Adobe Acrobat Reader which used to take a while to open up files (I open multiple files at once). Selected about 5 documents hit open and it took less the 5 seconds for all of them to come up, which was more then double the speed of the stock RAM. Everything was opening at the snap of a finger, including all of the Microsoft Office applications. As I am writing this review I am using 4.1GB in task manger and everything is still snappy I can open 5 folders at once and it is still lightning quick. Overall great RAM for the money and an amazing product from Corsair, don't hesitate! One last thing that I should mention my computer stock uses 204 Pin DDR3 1066 RAM, this RAM is 1333 and yes it works perfectly fine, some people seem to think that these 1333 RAM speeds will not work with these older DDR3 1066 slots, that is false because the RAM actually clocks down to the system, still snappy and better then stock!