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Edited by jarenadams - 15 Feb 2022 at 6:43pm

Up until just very recently, the DS Performance storage options were SATA SSDs that were at least 20 times slower than any NVMe SSD offered. There was no real choice IMHO but to go for the upgraded tech and the name brands for best performance. DS has upgraded all but the 240GB M.2 SSDs to NVMe.

M.2 is the form factor which is a bit larger than a stick of gum and plugs into a slot on the motherboard. No cables, no wires. NVMe means it runs on the much faster Non Volatile Memory express bus. The new DS NVMes are an available budget option as they have stepped up their speed by a factor of nearly 20X. They are still slower than any of the brand name NVMes, but the gap has narrowed a lot!

The specs are: DS Performance: (up to) 2100MB/second read speed, and 1600MB/second write speed.

Samsung 970 EVO Plus: (up to) 3500MB/s read, 3300MB/s

Samsung 980 PRO: (up to) 7000MB/s read and 5000MB/s write.

The Samsung 970 EVO is slower simply because it is an NMVe Generation 3 part versus the 980 PRO which is a Gen 4 part. The difference between those two is not terribly significant, but the 980 PRO is the standout here for the best Primary drive you boot and run Windows from.

If you are on a very tight budget, there is no longer a very strong reason not to save on the DS Performance NVMes.

RAM is a slightly different story. There is not a great deal of difference between RAM brands aside from performance. The DS branded RAM has been the most common selection here for a very long time, and it has never been known to come back to bite anyone in my 6000+ post experience. There is little real world difference between 3200MHz RAM and 3600MHz RAM. The Hyper Fury X is here because it has RGB. If you want that, and it's in your budget, it's a good choice. I have 3 computers with DS Performance RAM, and it works just fine.   

Just curious, if someone let us say has 16GB DS Branded RAM in their current DS system and wanted to upgrade to 32GB which RAM should they get? Should they order it through DS or figure out the actual manufacturer and order it separately somewhere else?

I have 32GB of DS branded RAM and have no need to upgrade for a long time but it is something I wondered about. I upgraded RAM in my old 12 year old DS but used all new different RAM in it and didn't reuse any of the old ones.

Recent events may have changed things, but in the past, it was known that DS RAM came from Adata. They are the largest RAM maker in Taiwan, and make a lot of product that other people put their name on. They are warranted for life. IDK if DS still uses them, or if the warranty applies.   

MattMattMatte,

I hope that you have contacted Digital Storm with your concerns. I am a 12 year customer and have just recently upgraded with that same memory. So far I am happy.

Hopefully your call to Digital Storm will get to the bottom of the issues that concern you.

There are a lot of smart people here in the Forum that might be able to discuss this with you on a technical level. But if it was me, I would not hesitate to call Digital Storm to discuss my concerns.

I found this site that might be of some use. The timings are there, so it says.

https://devicelist.best/en/samsung-m378a4g43ab2-cwe/

IDK what a "DeviceList score" means, but it's not my issue. A quick sampling of a few of the head to head comparisons showed the Samsung didn't suck, apparently.   

Originally posted by MattMattMatte If you go to any site that sells RAM you will find 3200 RAM with CAS 22 is the cheapest lowest quality sold. Newegg for example at 2x32gb 3200 sells only two CAS22 products compared to thirty one of the faster CAS16 offerings.

Indeed, the common offerings are:

• DDR4-3000 CL15
• DDR4-3200 CL16
• DDR4-3600 CL18

Probably not coincidentally all would have ~10 nanosecond real/true latency. (Calculator)

Originally posted by MattMattMatte In the end I've decided it probably isn't worth the cost for me to swap my RAM out, but I do want people to know that on your $4-5k computer, with the Digital Storm Performance Series you may be getting the highest latency, aka slowest, RAM available. It is true it will not make much difference to the user, but from the marketing and talk I think I expected better from Digital Storm.

I do think it's a valid gripe. But also note DS has no guarantee (i.e., doesn't state) the CL of the offered DDR4-3600 HyperX Fury. Nevertheless, I agree with

Originally posted by Onkel_Ken I hope that you have contacted Digital Storm with your concerns.

You should at least give DS a chance to explain/offer rectification before slamming them.

One final point... Timings tend to "loosen" (i.e., go higher) as the RAM chip density increase -- although, admittedly, in a quick search of Amazon just now, I am only seeing significant differences on standard vs. SO-DIMMs.

Edited by MrCheetah - 06 Feb 2022 at 9:47am