hmm... not sure I agree with your methodology.
If you are basing your analysis of DDR on your friend's experience alone, I think it might be wise to reconsider. To illustrate, I am obviously
not going to conclude that all japanese girls have incredibly amazing bodies, just because the one I'm dating does ... similarly, it would be foolish to conclude that all DDR RAM must be of poor quality and need more maintenance (maintenance??) than the old, slow SDRAM, just because your friend's mass-produced machine has some problems... (btw just kidding about the japanese girl thing, lol)
On
this page reviewing the new Hammer core from AMD, Anand mentions how DDR RAM can increase the performance of an Athlon CPU by 20-30% - by no means a negligible increase, obviously. Also, in every newsgroup/forum I've been to, I've never heard ANYONE talking about DDR RAM being more prone to failure than any other kind of RAM...
I guess my point is that while you may have your own opinion about the matter (and having one's own opinion is a good thing!) it might be wise to do further research before formualting said opinion, and avoid basing it on the experience of just one of your m8's. There are thousands out there who use DDR and love it! Plus, look at those benchmarks!
peace / mavis