INTRODUCTION

   There are quite a few people out there who support that having more RAM (system memory) in your notebook/laptop is not always beneficial and for good or bad there are many out there who take their opinion for granted. So a few months back when i started receiving emails by some of you asking the very same question from me i decided that instead of answering based on what i think and without any real proof it would be a lot better to actually test both 4GB and 8GB kits and see whether or not more is better. Fast forward a few months later and finally today we can release our 3 way comparison (which is not really a comparison but rather just a way to see if 8 is really better than 4) between 3 SODIMM DDR3 Dual Channel kits from both Kingston and Nanya.

   Kingston Technology Company, Inc. is the world’s independent memory leader. Founded in 1987 with a single product offering, Kingston® now offers more than 2,000 memory products that support nearly every device that uses memory, from computers, servers and printers to MP3 players, digital cameras and mobile phones. In 2009, the company's sales reached $4.1 billion. With global headquarters in Fountain Valley, California, Kingston employs more than 4,000 people worldwide. Regarded as one of the “Best Companies to Work for in America” by Fortune magazine, Kingston’s tenets of respect, loyalty, flexibility and integrity create an exemplary corporate culture. Kingston believes that investing in its people is essential, and each employee is a vital part of Kingston’s success. Kingston serves an international network of distributors, resellers, retailers and OEM customers on six continents. The company also provides contract manufacturing and supply chain management services for semiconductor manufacturers and system OEMs.

   Nanya Technology Corporation was founded in 1995. The company conducts research and development, design, manufacturing, and sales of DRAM products, with worldwide sales offices in USA, Europe, Japan and China. The main shareholder is Nanya Plastics Corporation of the Formosa Plastics Group. Nanya Technology Corporation's 12-inch Fabs(Fab 3A) located in Taipei County which has maximum capacity of 60,000 wafer start per month (WSPM) . The Company has started its 30nm stack technology pilot run in July 2011, and is scheduled to start its mass production in year 2012. In 2008, Nanya and Micron Technology executed a Joint Technology Development Agreement. Both companies have successfully conducted 42nm development and 30 nm Technologies are being developed jointly in the R&D labs. Nanya and Micron will share the total output from Inotera Memories Inc., which is also being converted to 50nm stack technologies now. This strategic collaboration will leverage Nanya and Micron’s R&D and manufacturing capabilities, and will greatly enhance both companies’ competitiveness in the DRAM industry.

   Since i wanted to showcase differences between 4GB and 8GB SODIMM kits the selection was not the easiest one mainly because aside MHz i also wanted the timings of the kits to be similar (as much as possible). So today with us we have two Kingston HyperX SODIMM DDR3 kits, the KHX1333C7S3K2/4G (4GB/1333MHz/CL7) and the KHX1600C9S3K2/8GX (8GB/1600MHz/CL9) while from Nanya we have their Elixir M2S4G64CB8HB5N-CG (8GB/1333MHz/CL9) kit. However this is not the end of it and so we will also be putting all three kits up against yet another Kingston HyperX kit and more specifically the somewhat more mainstream KHX1066C5S32K/4G (4GB/1066MHz/CL5) which I’ve been using for a couple of years. So time to find out if 8 is really better than 4.