crucial memory has samsung chips??

zaralondon

Hi everyone,

I just received my Crucial RAM but I noticed the chips are samsung.

I have spoken to the folks at Crucial who assure me it is just as good and that sometimes they have to buy from other manafacturers when they dont have a particular module inhouse.

I am worried that this is not geniune real-deal Samsung - I paid good money to get good ram and have been looking around and have noticed that sometimes there can be samsung chips on a cheap PCB.

Should I return these modules or are they worth the money?

Many thanks

nomoneytoday

Crucial.com give a decent warranty, and have bought the chips in as advised.
Doesn't seem to be an issue to me?

bat999

Hi
Those chips are manufactured all over the world in 'fabs' (fabrication plants).
Probably Crucial don't actually make any chips, they just assemble them onto the circuit boards.
You can return them if you like but I think that would be dumb.:D

John_Gray

I have yet to have any problem whatever with Crucial memory over at least 5 years of purchasing it. I just ordered 512 MB of laptop memory on Tuesday, with free 3-5 day delivery. It came first-class post on Wednesday!

Nilrem

Crucial (Micron) are one of the big memory module manufacturers.

IIRC they do have their own fabrication plants for the chips (or at least contract the work out specifically for them*), but they like any company making memory modules will not always have all the individual chips they need to meet demand (as it takes a while to change the production lines for the chips over they have to try and anticipate demand in advance), so they can/will sometimes use other equivalent quality parts in their modules.
The module will be made to the same spec and quality standards as their normal ones, just with a chip made in another plant/with a different name on the PCB, the module will probably still be assembled in their normal factory and probably exactly the same PCB as they would use for modules with "crucial" or "micron" branded chips (most chips of the same spec are in identical packaging for just this sort of reason).
IF they have bought the module in ready made, they will have bought it from a similar quality company to themselves (or directly from Samsung even).


The "cheap" PCB's with Samsung chips will be made by smaller companies, with lower quality controls than Crucial etc use, probably having bought up the chips on their own, then putting them onto PCB's that are not made/handled in the same quality controlled enviroment (iirc Crucial's parent company also sell their chips as individual parts, so it's possible for Micron chips to make their way onto low quality PCB's).



*A modern chip fabrication plant takes about 2-3 years to build, and costs multiple billions (and any interruption to power can result in it being shut down for months for clean up), so many companies either don't own one themselves but have contracts with specialist companies, or share the cost with other companies who make a similar thing.

zaralondon

Nilrem wrote: »

Crucial (Micron) are one of the big memory module manufacturers.

IIRC they do have their own fabrication plants for the chips (or at least contract the work out specifically for them*), but they like any company making memory modules will not always have all the individual chips they need to meet demand (as it takes a while to change the production lines for the chips over they have to try and anticipate demand in advance), so they can/will sometimes use other equivalent quality parts in their modules.
The module will be made to the same spec and quality standards as their normal ones, just with a chip made in another plant/with a different name on the PCB, the module will probably still be assembled in their normal factory and probably exactly the same PCB as they would use for modules with "crucial" or "micron" branded chips (most chips of the same spec are in identical packaging for just this sort of reason).
IF they have bought the module in ready made, they will have bought it from a similar quality company to themselves (or directly from Samsung even).


The "cheap" PCB's with Samsung chips will be made by smaller companies, with lower quality controls than Crucial etc use, probably having bought up the chips on their own, then putting them onto PCB's that are not made/handled in the same quality controlled enviroment (iirc Crucial's parent company also sell their chips as individual parts, so it's possible for Micron chips to make their way onto low quality PCB's).



*A modern chip fabrication plant takes about 2-3 years to build, and costs multiple billions (and any interruption to power can result in it being shut down for months for clean up), so many companies either don't own one themselves but have contracts with specialist companies, or share the cost with other companies who make a similar thing.

Thanks everyone for the replies.

Nilrem this is great info. I did some more research on the web and found out that when Micron first started selling PC3200 RAM they were getting SAMSUNG to make it for them until they caught up with demand or were able to make enough themselves (something like that). I was just worried abot it being one of the samsung chips on cheap PCB - but you put my fears to rest!

Many thanks.

(Incidentally, not that it's important, but is there any way of telling what sort of quality the PCB is just from looking at it? numbers etc?)

[Deleted User]

You've paid your money to a company who are renowned for the quality of their service, in particular compatibility and the length of warranty they offer. Who made the bits on the board shouldn't be a concern since there's no easy way for you to gauge the quality of various modules. Of all of the manufacturers of modules, Samsung are one of the ones I'd be content with knowing were onboard.

tomsolomon

Everybody still wearing their AppleSony hats then.
You are paying a premium for the "Crucial" service. Who makes the chips is niether here nor their, what they offer, can be sort for free, and armed with the right infomation, one can shop around and get much better deals....