So what makes bad ram bad and good ram good? Excuse my ignorance on the subject but I'm not sure what you mean since I have never had RAM go bad on me. Are you saying that cheap ram will fail in a shorter amount of time or it will not run as fast as similarly clocked ram from another manufacturer?
Bad RAM might not appear bad right away. It might even pass tests like Rember. A number of us got RAM from OWC a month or so ago, and it was a bad batch. But some of us had no issues, some had major issues, and some had minor issues. Mine testing perfectly, but I was still having random kernel panics, shutdown and bootup freezes. Some people had flickering screens and other problems.
I'd say the majority of the time, RAM either works or it doesn't. That's been my experience up until the recent run in with the OWC NuRam.
What makes me nervous about cheapo/budget RAM is that you may test fine, and it might work perfectly 80% of the time, but it could cause you random weirdness. And any random weirdness is a bad thing. Granted any RAM brand could be bad, but the chances are less with a maker with better quality control.
I got Crucial RAM from Newegg only a few weeks ago, for $91 shipped. $22 more than yours, and I've had no trouble at all. Feels good to know I can trust the RAM I just put in. With the OWC, it was just a headache.
In OWC's defense, I have to add, that the batch of NuRam appears to have been just that, a bad batch. People who bought recently have reported it works fine.
In any case, good luck, and let us know how it works out.
