I have something to say about T- Force memory modules. And my experience with newggg.ca

[misterk81]

This is something I should have gotten too sooner. But really didn;t I may be a year late on this. But in 2020, I ordered some Team Force 16GB DDR4 3200 memory. It was on sale, at a $90.00 price tag. Looking at would, the memory would read as Hynix.

Then, I decided to up my RAM to 32GB, by purchasing a second 16GB kit of DDR4 Team Force 16GB3200 memmory. this time it was the (ten) regular price of $120.00. CND. When I put this in with my first set of T-Force memory, it actually read as using samsung memory modules, not hynix. As I could not get a 3200MHz clock speed on all 4 sticks. So, i called newEgg.ca and they swapped them.

Here was my review from newegg on this product:

And proof that i even swapped and returned a set of these RAM sticks;

I came to thic conclusion. that when team Force RAM was on sale, they were selling Hynix modules. While at regular price, they were selling Samsung modules. This is where the discrepancy was.

The T-Force Hynix and Samsung variations look identical, with the same heat sinks and identical packaging. To the point where they look the same.

Once I did get this sorted out, i could run my machine at 3200MHZ. But for some reason, all 4 RAM modules have stopped functioning, and is giving me a ‘DRAM’ red light error on my MSI motherboard. I haven’t been able to use this thing for months, as i thought the motherboard was toast, after trying all four RAM sticks individually, or in their matching pairs. Even RMA’d a motherboard because of them.

Disregard what I said about the RAM modules being ‘good’ in that 2020 review. as they don’t seem to function in 2022. here’s a photo of all four of the sadly Hynix sticks.

I just thought I would throw this out. Anyone else notice this with RAM modules?

[alkafrazin]

It’s pretty normal for DRAM sellers to use whatever chips are available to meet their costs. Same with SSDs, you really never know what you’re going to get.
It sucks, but it’s industry standard at this point.

It would be nice if each memory IC had it’s own sub-brand to make it recognizable what you’re getting, but marketing has probably found that it’s much more profitable to keep consumers in the dark.

Personally, I got two Team Elite jedec sticks a year apart and they work fine together.
Aren’t they still covered by warranty? Worth a shot RMAing them for a new set.

[anon7678104]

ran into a similar issue buying 2 pairs of ram sticks over a year apart. (corsair)
they both had the same timings and speed but on had 512Mb chips where as the other set had 1024Mb ram chips.
end result i can only run my ram at stock 3000 cas 15.
i used to be running at cas 14 which wile only one cas timing different turned into about 5-6% performance gains in benches and games.

[misterk81]

@anon7678104

ran into a similar issue buying 2 pairs of ram sticks over a year apart. (corsair)
they both had the same timings and speed but on had 512Mb chips where as the other set had 1024Mb ram chips.
end result i can only run my ram at stock 3000 cas 15.
i used to be running at cas 14 which wile only one cas timing different turned into about 5-6% performance gains in benches and games.

Hey, to come back and reply. yeah, so the issue was that I bought image related above at the regular Newegg.ca price point back in 2020.

Then, I wanted to upgrade my machine to 32GB of RAM with two additional sticks that I bought on a Newegg.ca sales price. The first thing I did was try and set the RAM profiler to 3200MHz. But the RAM would only max out at 3000MHz. So I then used CPUID (which actually came with my motherboard driver package) , and it read that the first RAM sticks that I paid full price for has the Samsung memory modules in them.

The ‘sale price’ memory modules has Hynix SK memory modules in then, while the higher price T-Force modules has Samsung modules in them.

I did return the samsung modules for the hynix ones, which was a mistake. I should have paid full Price for the samsung RAM modules. But at the time, I didn’t know if Hynix had a bad or good reputation. Or if it mattered. I just wanted matching RAM sticks that would run at 3200MHZ.

[misterk81]

And yeah, all 4 of those RAM sticks are toast. The computer was working fine up to a point recently, until I would just get this error message.

The T-Force sticks do say that they come with a limited life time warranty.

[E-Wasted]

Last year I purchased two separate kits about eight months apart for a 10900KF on a Z490 Unify and XMP worked flawlessly both individually and together. This kits were identical on the labels and both showed as single rank SK hynix DIMMs.

I’m not trying to criticize your experience in any way, on the contrary it has me thinking that this might have been more of a gamble than I had originally considered. Manufacturers have been known to do stuff like this, particularly with things like power supply components, but the recent shortages have definitely increased the prevalence of this happening. The only thing you can really do as a consumer is only purchase from vendors with good return policies and make sure each kit is identical when you get them.