At first, I bought and installed a Crucial 16GB Single DDR4 UDIMM CL17 memory into my new MSI X470 Gaming Plus motherboard with Ryzen 5 CPU. I'm experienced with building PC's from scratch, been my hobby since college. When I started the computer for the first time, it would not post or allow me to go into BIOS, and gave out 3 long beeps. Online search found that it's a memory not detected, or faulty. I don't think it's a bad motherboard because I've never had a motherboard fail, but I've had lots of memory cards that did fail even when new. If cheap components are used in a memory card, it will have lots of quality and compatibility issues. After trying to re-seat the 16GB card many times, it finally worked without explanation. In BIOS, I wasn't able to enable my motherboard's XMP to adjust memory speed or settings (all XMP settings were locked out). After running it for a few hours, I shut the PC down to install a new CD-Rom. Then when I turn my PC on, again would not post or allow me to go into BIOS, gave three long beeps, memory issue again. I finally gave up on the Crucial 16GB card and bought a premium gaming memory, CORSAIR 16GB (8GB x 2) Vengeance LPX, CL15, 3000 Mhz. After installing the Corsair memory cards, the computer booted fine the first time, and booted up twice as fast into Windows 10. My first guess is the Crucial memory cards are defective or has compatibility issues. My second guess is the CL17 of the Crucial memory is too slow for the Ryzen 5 2nd gen CPU and motherboard, and Ryzen 5 needs memory cards rated at CL15 and CL16 or faster (the lower the CL the faster the memory). Funny thing is after I purchased the Corsair Vengeance, as I was waiting for it to ship to my house, the Crucial 16GB was working again, computer was able to boot up. It's as if it knows the Crucial memory is getting replaced and it decided to work again. After installing the Corsair Vengeance cards, the default speed was at 2100 Mhz, without XMP configuration. I went into the Bios, enabled A-XMP, set it to profile 2, and it's now operating at 2933 Mhz, close to the advertised speed of 3000 Mhz! Very happy with the Corasir Vengeance memory cards ($110 at time of purchase) even though it was $11 more than the Crucial card.
Pro's:
1. Much faster than CL17 cards, noticeable shorter boot time to Windows 10 (10 seconds versus 20 seconds on the CL17 card), faster shut down
2. Very sleek looking and has aluminum heat sinks for cooling, improves durability and life
3. XMP compatible. Easy to configure over clocking using most newer motherboards that has XMP.
4. More reliable and higher quality. Didn't have trouble on first boot.
Cons:
1. A bit more expensive than the average memory cards.
2. 8GB x 2 cards used up 2 of my 4 slots on an ATX motherboard. If one is building on a Micro ATX motherboard where there are only 2 memory slots, one will not be able to expand the memory in the future as both slots are used up.
| RAM | 16 GB DDR4 |
|---|---|
| Memory Speed | 3000 MHz |
