If you're in the market for speed, A-Data's got you covered

A dual-channel DDR3 kit with all the speed you can handle

Is speed over capacity enough for this RAM?

Not the Ballistix missiles overclockers may be hoping for

If you are looking for a stable memory kit which you can tweak slightly and monitor the thermal dynamics as you do it, then this is the kit for you, want serious overclocking potential then look to Crucial's competitor's or other modules in the Ballistix range.

Big chunky heatsinks keep this DDR2 kit cool when overclocked

Bargain memory to give your laptop or netbook the edge

DDR3 is finally affordable. Let's look at some that isn't

A-Data has really upped the ante with the packaging for its Vitesta Extreme Edition memory – if nothing else. The sticks themselves sit in a pair of foam boxes resembling luxurious coffins.

Breaking ranks with convention may be the norm for indie developers, but it's a rare occurrence for hardware manufacturers. When said conventions exist to tempt 'enthusiasts' it's a particularly risky move - making GeIL's decision to buck the trend with its Black Dragon memory so surprising.

Look at that. Less than £70 for 4GB of RAM. And as much as we love the technical geekery that makes DDR3 better than DDR2, this configuration outperformed the higher bandwidth rig in several key tests.

The only reason to go for 2GB is that either you're strapped for cash or you're upgrading an existing machine. In which case this kit of twin modules is for you. With quoted timings of 5-5-5-15, it was a relief to find these functioning just fine in the same system at the full 8,500MB/s bandwidth.

OCZ's Reaper-X is designed to draw heat directly from the memory chips, rather than just around them. Instead of active fans, though, this relies on a ferocious looking radiator.

This memory is rated for faster speeds than the Corsair Dominator, but lower voltages and memory. We suspect that, underneath the steel Mohicans, the chips are identical, since not many vendors produce these high performance chips.

The Dominator RAM prides itself on being hand-picked and tested from the number one bins, while the DHX heatspreader uses two differently conductive materials to take heat directly from the chips and PCB before expelling it into a set of fans.

It's a sign of just how far prices for DDR2 have fallen that Corsair's once prohibitively priced Dominator RAM is available for less than £100. Given the overclocking potential of Core 2 and Phenom chips, though, there's a convincing argument for stretching to buy the famous DHX heatspreader.

This 34mm ExpressCard slots into an available slot on your laptop and adds 4GB of storage space.

Kingston was one of the first manufacturers to push DDR3 sticks out of its doors, indicating that it's serious about making a name for itself with the new standard.

As it's important to compare new technology with what is already available to you out there, the final pair of memory sticks we have included for this group test isn't of the DDR3 variety, but instead is an example of what DDR2 currently has to offer

Corsair is clearly a member of the school of thought that says larger heat spreader equals faster memory. And, despite the fact they only have standard timings, these sticks of RAM boast bigger coolers than any other manufacturer

Memory maestro OCZ is just going from strength to strength at the moment. Not only is the company consistently producing excellent products, but those products are very fairly priced, undercutting high-end competitors by a hefty margin

Deployed as part of the new Centrino Duo and Pro platforms, Turbo Memory is implemented as either a 512MB or 1GB option alongside whatever SATA drive is installed. The caching scheme is actually intelligent enough to learn your usage habits

Apparently all of Super Talent's overclockers' memory in this range is tested at 1,000MHz as standard, with nice tight latencies of 4-5-4-12 on a setup very similar to our rig's

The shiny, colour-changing heatsink is just one reason to like OCZ's Titanium Alpha. The second is a lifetime guarantee for the sticks run at 4-4-4-15 at 1,000MHz - only Corsair's Dominator can challenge these sticks for high speeds and low latencies

How embarrassing. We looked at the sub-£100, 1GB Spec Ops kit from OCZ as an experiment in how essential 2GB of RAM really is. We really didn't think it would do too well against its 2GB rivals