There been gaming setup thread been made but it gets buried easily
http://www.ibisgaming.com/forums/sho...t=gaming+setup
My Rig is on pg. 11
And as far as you question goes I assume your running dual channel memory. and you board has it separated by two colors(Memory Banks). Its best to keep the same memory in the banks and try to keep each bank at the same speeds 1600mhz for bank 0 and bank 1. But far as brands go it shouldnt matter. Im not sure about latency though but I wouldnt think it would effect it to much if the latency from bank 0 and 1 are diffent.
you can read more on it hear
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_channel
I just fixed and HP with a corrupted Windows system and had to do a full system recovery, and a few weeks ago my buddy power button stopped working so he has to hit a media button to turn on his HP laptop anymore. But far as laptop go I have a toshiba and haven't ran into any problems with mine yet execpt its 4 years old and getting slow now compared to most.