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4GB RAM slots in a mac pro 3,1

S

sevichenko

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 9, 2016
126
7
Hi mates, do you know which type of 4GB RAM is accepted by the mac pro 3,1?
Normal FB-DIMM ECC PC6400 DDR2 800MHZ modules?
 
But... Im asking about 4gb modules. Because with the 8gb slots there are some differences because is a configuration that works up to 64gb, then im asking because i don't if its the same with the 4gb modules
 
yes you can use 4GB ram sticks in matched pairs, it only says 2gb sticks as 2gb was the biggest at the time i think.

and i used 667 sticks in my 3.1 because they where a lot cheaper
 
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Take a look at macsales.com. They have pretty good pricing, and a very clear configuration guide (as in how many sticks of what size memory).
 
kohlson said:
Take a look at macsales.com. They have pretty good pricing, and a very clear configuration guide (as in how many sticks of what size memory).
Click to expand...
At least the prices are good for OWC. You'll probably find them much cheaper elsewhere.

This is especially true since FB-DIMM servers have reached that "certain age" where they're out of support and fully depreciated - in other words they're being eWasted by the truckload. DIMMs scraped from those systems are on eBay for a pittance. (I eWasted my last 60 or so FB-DIMM systems last October (2015).)
 
Tradeoffs, right? Gotta do what's best for you. I'd probably be adding more than just 2 GB more. If you're adding 8 GB more then it might be worth it for you to lose the 4%.
 
sevichenko said:
but i already have 10gigas at 800mhz, if i put only 2gb of 667mhz ram, then i will have 12gb with a 4% performance less.
Click to expand...
The performance improvement from having an appropriate amount of RAM is going to significantly offset the loss of using slower RAM. Outside of benchmark testing I would bet most users couldn't tell the difference between 667MHz and 800MHz RAM.
 
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Itguy2016 has it, depends on user workload but to little ram is much much much worse than a potential of 4% slower.
the key word is potential because it depends on the workload.
if you happen to have to use the scratch disc/swap etc then the slow down is much much more than 4%.

lots of people use x-server ram from ebay with smaller heat sinks, i think the 2gb and 4gb sticks run cooler too (1gb sticks are just not worth buying unless your picking them up to get the heat sinks, back in the day people picked up the 512mb sticks to get the heat sinks and stick them on 4GB sticks.

:p i spent close to the price of a used 4.1/5.1 on ram for my 3.1 :D i dont miss it (got a 5.1 now)
 
use activity monitor and watch ram use, if your geing in to swap then you have to little.
relay depends on workload.

if your using server ram from ebay with small heat sinks it's super cheep so not a real problem, if your buying ram with "mac" heatsinks then it tend's to cost a lot, whihc is a pain.

as i mentioned i spent almost as much as my mac 5.1 cost on 3.1 ram towards then end of my use of the 3.1 (part of why up upgraded)
 
lots of people as i mentioned have just used the small server heat sink, the fans may spin faster but the ram is much much cheeper.

do a search there's lots of topics on it
 
thanks for the info, i heard something about the fan speed, but i don't know up to what point there is only an "aestethic" problem
 
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