re: I don't know anything about RAM...

quote:

---

boom roasted

---

Saw your post on the tech board, but I'm going to reply here to take a break from that board. It's exhausting.

Crucial has a great racket going with their memory compatibility. I see that the ones you found (the 8GB kits) are like $80-90+ for basic RAM.

Crucial's memory compatibility tool is mostly to help find the right specifications (so noobs don't get DDR2 for a DDR3 system, or laptop memory for a desktop, or large capacity modules that the motherboard isn't rated for, or 2400MHz memory for an old intel chipset, etc), and the Crucial sticks come with the peace of mind that the RAM was tested and confirmed compatible.

Honestly, I am pretty confident that any other brand of DDR3 1333 or 1600 would work, and you'd save money and probably get better quality RAM (not that crucial is bad, but it looks like "value"-rated RAM and has high latency, and it's overpriced for the compatibility convenience).

This A-Data would be fine too: LINK

It's even a bit faster and $6 cheaper than the G.skill you linked.