It's been almost six months now since the initial introduction of DDR SDRAM, but if not for a few embarrassing bugs along the way, DDR memory as well as DDR mainboards were not readily available until late February. Crucial was among the first to offer high quality DDR ram, but initially in only at a PC1600 rating at the price of their PC133SDRAM. Other manufacturers such as Mushkin and Corsair have been offering PC2100 DDR RAM, but it was not until very recently, and after the subsequent release of Crucial's PC2100 RAM have we seen an enormous drop in price.

DDR RAM is now in full force, and Crucial is offering sticks of 128MB PC2100 for a measly $33! This is very different from the $150 sticks of the same size and speed sold for just a few of months ago. So now that you're ready to upgrade, which brand should you buy? We put two top tier memory manufactures in an all out grudge match to answer that very question.

The sticks

While memory modules can appear to be created equal, they are often not. A good name brand module often has distinct advantages over generic modules of the same kind. While this difference is in stability, or ability to overclock, you're often better off buying the name brand. While often times more expensive than generic RAM, superior fabrication and quality control of name brand RAM translates into a better, more stable module.

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