the worst ram I've ever seen

adata xpg pc3-12800 ax3u1600c4g11-sd.
cl-11-11-11-28.
good thing this stuff just came in some bundle i got a while back along with the worst board i have ever bought!!!!!

That's some pretty loose timings there! They'd still be fine for most builds though (although I'm sure the AMD APU systems would suffer!)

What is so bad in this memory ? Most DDR3 nowadays have SPD 1600 CL11.

Woomack said:

What is so bad in this memory ? Most DDR3 nowadays have SPD 1600 CL11.

Click to expand...

What? Some? Yes. Most? No. A quick look at DDR3 on Newegg shows there are almost twice as many kits at 1600MHZ CL9. Even looking at DDR3 as a whole, not just 1600MHZ, there's a much larger selection of CL9 sets.

All these 1600 CL9 kits are based on IC designed to work as 1333 9-9-9 or 1600 11-11-11. Later manufacturers used this IC to manufacture faster kits.
Standard kits have always SPD = designed IC so as I already mentioned 1333 9-9-9 or 1600 11-11-11. In 1866-3333 DDR3 kits you will find the same IC just from better selection.

SPD = what factory created. 1333 C9, 1600 C11, 1866 C13 etc
XMP = how memory manufacturer tested memory and is guaranteeing its stable work. 1600 C7-11, 1866 C8-11, 2133 C8-11, ...

Yes, but, that is the actual speed of it... CL11 @ 1600 Mhz. It doesn't have an XMP over that speed/timing.

so, they make it as cl11, then the guy that is going to sell it codes in the cl9, or what ever timings?

The SPD values that are coded in are the JEDEC standards for compatibility reasons upon boot (correct me if I am wrong Bart). Like your CPU and GPU, memory can overclock as well. So GSkill, Corsair, Kingston, etc, then test the sticks and bin them to voltage/speed/timings and sell them.

So, short answer, yes.

Informative read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_presence_detect

Yes, most memory kits have SPD = JEDEC standard which supposed to be 100% compatible with every motherboard on the market. For example you heard about Samsung HYK0 or Hynix MFR. Both of them are designed as 1600 CL11-11-11 1.35V and Samsung/Hynix and their direct partners on PC/Server market are selling them as 1600 11-11-11 1.35V. You can find about the same IC in desktop, server and laptop memory ( ECC/non-ECC ). However manufacturers like G.Skill, Corsair, Kingston etc are binning this IC and later set SPD profile 1600 11-11-11 as compatible with every motherboard and XMP profile(s) 1600-3333 CL8-13 as tested and guaranteed speed.

If someone is selling memory as 1600 CL11, it doesn't mean it's bad for overclocking. It's just not tested for higher frequency or tighter timings. To determine how good is it, you have to test it yourself. Because of timing tables set in profiles, lower clocked memory usually need some more sub-timing adjustments to run at higher clock.
This ADATA memory can be on anything but probably not on Samsung ( I can be wrong ).

There are exceptions on the memory market like HyperX Fury which has no XMP profiles. There is SPD profile with values like XMP supposed to have. In this way you don't have to set anything and it's working at declared settings ... real plug and play. I don't know how it's working on older platforms as I was testing it on Z77/87/97 only.

so there are only so many ic makers and, like amd bins 8 core cpu's if it meets the big spec it's sold as the big spec sku, if it fails the big spec it is sold at what ever spec it meets.
none are better or worse, just a little slower or looser timed, but it's still the same ic.

In most cases yes. Memory manufacturers are also adding improved PCB and sometimes other things.
Good example can be DDR4 as right now we have almost only 4-5 IC on the market from 3 manufacturers and in 2666+ kits are almost only Samsung/Hynix while in 3200 or higher kits are only Hynix MFR. In DDR3 every newer 2600+ kit is based on Hynix MFR too ( different type than in DDR4 ).