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how's the 3rd party ram working out?
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http://download.intel.com/design/chipsets/datashts/31307003.pdf
Check pages 308 and 309 here.
Two different setups: the first operates each channel separately, any four DIMMs reaches the full potential of the 256-bit bus. 2x512+2x(Y). That's how a Mac Pro operates.
The second setup (text p. 309) is the only one that requires that all four DIMMs be of the same size - it's a RAID setup unused by the Mac Pro.
The benchmark you saw was incorrect or misread, and the information you've received is incorrect.
Check pages 308 and 309 here.
Two different setups: the first operates each channel separately, any four DIMMs reaches the full potential of the 256-bit bus. 2x512+2x(Y). That's how a Mac Pro operates.
The second setup (text p. 309) is the only one that requires that all four DIMMs be of the same size - it's a RAID setup unused by the Mac Pro.
The benchmark you saw was incorrect or misread, and the information you've received is incorrect.
Richard Flynn said:
All good, so far - they arrived in less than a week. I installed RAM before I turned it on 1st time so can't compare fan noise. I can say is sitting 18" from computer there is audible noise from what I assume is the front fans whirring low speed - I can feel a slight cooling suction intake on front cheese grater. Not so much any whoosh sound just sort of hum, ever slight machine noise, hard to describe, perhaps overall the machine is slightly more noisey than my DC 2.3 G5.
The heat sinks are similar to Apple, with only two clips there is more contact with DIMMS, whether 2 clips is adequate compared to Apple's 4 don't know, but the finned design is like OEM, not like the OWC (which get good reports nonetheless). Price, Samsung, Apple-link heatsinks and good word from Barefeats had me handing Visa over without a 2nd thought, mainly put faith in recommendation from Barefeats as I hadn't heard of them either.
Mark
Good enough for me. I too have found it a little odd how everyone goes on about how silent the Mac Pro is, when in fact it does make some fan noise when on. I'm not complaining - it's an awful lot quieter than the Dell it's replacing, and it's silent when asleep - but my expectations had been built up by everyone going on about how quiet it is. I realise that changing the X1900XT fan to the 'silent' one mentioned elsewhere on this forum may make a difference, but it doesn't really bother me.Monyx said:
Roll on 6GB of RAM (2GB already installed, 4GB new)!
so just to finalize before i go out and buy my ram
2x512mb + 2x1gb will perform as fast or faster than 4x512mb?
this is what i plan on getting i have 2x512mb currently
i plan to get 2x1gb + 2x512mb
so final total is 4x512mb + 2x1GB = 4GB of ram
best setup will be 2X1gb + 2X512mb on riser1 and 2x512mb on riser 2??
Thanks
2x512mb + 2x1gb will perform as fast or faster than 4x512mb?
this is what i plan on getting i have 2x512mb currently
i plan to get 2x1gb + 2x512mb
so final total is 4x512mb + 2x1GB = 4GB of ram
best setup will be 2X1gb + 2X512mb on riser1 and 2x512mb on riser 2??
Thanks
Concl?
Hi
I read page 1, and have decided that it would be ridiculous to spend another 15 minutes reading the rest, and getting the best price.
Could someone just simply tell me what the cheapest combination of performance and heat-sinks is? I just want a company name (or two if you think buying sinks separately is best) so that I can pick the amount of RAM later.
Hi
I read page 1, and have decided that it would be ridiculous to spend another 15 minutes reading the rest, and getting the best price.
Could someone just simply tell me what the cheapest combination of performance and heat-sinks is? I just want a company name (or two if you think buying sinks separately is best) so that I can pick the amount of RAM later.
Well i just ordered my ram from Max Upgrades. UPS ground, should be here by Wed or Thursday, if not sooner.
Geez mate, it's 3 pages, 30s to scroll thru ea...hardly a mammoth effortnickgwyn said:
So, after the urgent request for the bottom line you're no where near ordering?! Get the RAM in pronto, you're hobbling the performance of $2400 investment even if it's just another 1GB at least.nickgwyn said:
No problems with my ram. All seems fine. i will say get as much inn there as you can. When the prices drop I'll go after some 2 gig sticks.
Installed the MaxUpgrades DIMMs two days ago (on receiving le Mac Pro), everything seemed fine, showed up as 2x2GB.
Looked at system profiler for something else this evening, they're showing up as 2x1GB. Hmmm... opened her up, took out the riser, checked the RAM (not even warm), reseated the riser.
Now on startup DIMM 2 has an error of "ECC Correctable Errors: 2358"
Guess I get to call them and arrange an RMA tomorrow. Dammit. Maybe they'll agree to send 4x1GB instead and I can sell the stock 2x512MB...
Looked at system profiler for something else this evening, they're showing up as 2x1GB. Hmmm... opened her up, took out the riser, checked the RAM (not even warm), reseated the riser.
Now on startup DIMM 2 has an error of "ECC Correctable Errors: 2358"
Guess I get to call them and arrange an RMA tomorrow. Dammit. Maybe they'll agree to send 4x1GB instead and I can sell the stock 2x512MB...
MaxUpgrades - check your heatsinks carefully
Hi all,
I don't know if my purchase was unusual, but I purchased the 4GB kit (2x2GB) last week. I spoke with Syed from MaxUpgrade and his service was excellent. He was very nice on the phone and shipped the items out that same day. The heatsinks arrived last Thursday at the same time as my new 2.66 Mac Pro. This is a brief rundown of the problems that I have encountered so far.
I immediately installed the ram and fired up the machine. Within a couple of minutes, I noticed ECC errors on both of the MaxUpgrade chips in the System Profiler. I started a Rember session as well as the Photoshop test from RetouchArtists.com. Both of the MU modules started throwing DOZENS of ECC errors (which was odd because Syed said that he tests them before shipping). I had placed the ram in the top slot and the Apple ram in the bottom slot, since I had heard that the top slot runs cooler. After the test, I turned the machine off and switched the MU ram to the bottom. I ran the tests again and still received multiple ECC errors on both chips. I heat cycled the machine several times thinking that the thermal tape might need time to set. Over the weekend one of the modules eventually stopped throwing errors but the other module continues to have errors.
I used my infrared thermometer on Friday and found that the left side of the MU modules was over 160F (the right side was about 100F) while the Apple modules were around 140F on the left side (the CPUs never went over 45C according to the monitor).
On Friday I sent Syed a message stating that the modules were throwing ECC errors and were defective. On Monday, I pulled the modules out and looked at them carefully. If you look closely, one of the heatsinks has been machined incorrectly. If you hold the module with the pins facing you, one of the heatsinks is clearly shorter on the left side. You can actually see a gap between the memory and the heatsink on that side. If the heatsink isn't touching the memory chips this would absolutely cause the memory to overheat. If you look down the module the left side is about 1/16th of an inch off. The heatsinks should be absolutely flat. A good manufacturing process would have never let a heatsink out as warped as this one. With a quality heatsink, you should be able to use thermal paste instead of needing thick thermal tape to seal the gaps.
I sent him another email on Monday letting him know what I found and asking for an immediate exchange. Even though Syed promised he would get back to me yesterday or today, as of tonight (Wed), I still have not received an email from Syed saying that I will receive an exchange or an indication as to when I will receive it. One of my modules has thrown 133 ECC errors in the last few hours while the machine was simply idling. I am also getting random kernel panics, which is very annoying. This is my work machine and I don't have time for this...
If I don't hear something tomorrow, I will insist upon a refund and I will order from TransInternational.
FYI, If you click on the link from http://www.xlr8yourmac.com to the TransInternational ram, the price is the same as MaxUpgrade.
Best of luck to all and carefully check your heatsinks to ensure they are flat. I will let everyone know what happens.
Later,
Mark
Hi all,
I don't know if my purchase was unusual, but I purchased the 4GB kit (2x2GB) last week. I spoke with Syed from MaxUpgrade and his service was excellent. He was very nice on the phone and shipped the items out that same day. The heatsinks arrived last Thursday at the same time as my new 2.66 Mac Pro. This is a brief rundown of the problems that I have encountered so far.
I immediately installed the ram and fired up the machine. Within a couple of minutes, I noticed ECC errors on both of the MaxUpgrade chips in the System Profiler. I started a Rember session as well as the Photoshop test from RetouchArtists.com. Both of the MU modules started throwing DOZENS of ECC errors (which was odd because Syed said that he tests them before shipping). I had placed the ram in the top slot and the Apple ram in the bottom slot, since I had heard that the top slot runs cooler. After the test, I turned the machine off and switched the MU ram to the bottom. I ran the tests again and still received multiple ECC errors on both chips. I heat cycled the machine several times thinking that the thermal tape might need time to set. Over the weekend one of the modules eventually stopped throwing errors but the other module continues to have errors.
I used my infrared thermometer on Friday and found that the left side of the MU modules was over 160F (the right side was about 100F) while the Apple modules were around 140F on the left side (the CPUs never went over 45C according to the monitor).
On Friday I sent Syed a message stating that the modules were throwing ECC errors and were defective. On Monday, I pulled the modules out and looked at them carefully. If you look closely, one of the heatsinks has been machined incorrectly. If you hold the module with the pins facing you, one of the heatsinks is clearly shorter on the left side. You can actually see a gap between the memory and the heatsink on that side. If the heatsink isn't touching the memory chips this would absolutely cause the memory to overheat. If you look down the module the left side is about 1/16th of an inch off. The heatsinks should be absolutely flat. A good manufacturing process would have never let a heatsink out as warped as this one. With a quality heatsink, you should be able to use thermal paste instead of needing thick thermal tape to seal the gaps.
I sent him another email on Monday letting him know what I found and asking for an immediate exchange. Even though Syed promised he would get back to me yesterday or today, as of tonight (Wed), I still have not received an email from Syed saying that I will receive an exchange or an indication as to when I will receive it. One of my modules has thrown 133 ECC errors in the last few hours while the machine was simply idling. I am also getting random kernel panics, which is very annoying. This is my work machine and I don't have time for this...
If I don't hear something tomorrow, I will insist upon a refund and I will order from TransInternational.
FYI, If you click on the link from http://www.xlr8yourmac.com to the TransInternational ram, the price is the same as MaxUpgrade.
Best of luck to all and carefully check your heatsinks to ensure they are flat. I will let everyone know what happens.
Later,
Mark
Why run Apps during RAM tests?
Sorry to hear of your bad luck Mark. I became a little concerned about verifying my MaxUpgrades 2GB kit that I bought Memtest - so far I've let run 3 loops in single user mode - no errors reported at all. I plan to let it run 5-8 times but it will take while so might do it overnight. No errors reported in system profiler.
I don't understand people saying to run Photoshop test during Rember - the author of Memtest advises to run as little as possible so more RAM is available to Memtest. He specifically recommends booting single user mode so max RAM is made available, ergo RAM allocated to other Apps is not being tested!
I didn't spend too much time examining my DIMMS, quick look and banged them in the night I got my MacPro.
drm said:
Sorry to hear of your bad luck Mark. I became a little concerned about verifying my MaxUpgrades 2GB kit that I bought Memtest - so far I've let run 3 loops in single user mode - no errors reported at all. I plan to let it run 5-8 times but it will take while so might do it overnight. No errors reported in system profiler.
I don't understand people saying to run Photoshop test during Rember - the author of Memtest advises to run as little as possible so more RAM is available to Memtest. He specifically recommends booting single user mode so max RAM is made available, ergo RAM allocated to other Apps is not being tested!
I didn't spend too much time examining my DIMMS, quick look and banged them in the night I got my MacPro.
Digidesign said:
Digi? Just a query. Your 4 pieces of ram are all on the one riser board.
I was advised to put my additional memory 2x1gb to add to the 2x512mb on the other riserboard slot 1 & 2
Is there any benefit of having them on the same riser board, I'm getting confused
My memory lads by the way was from Omni Technologies. It was there optival range, 2x1gb for $399
So far so good, all is reported well in the system profiler, but then I've only had my mac pro for 2 days
Monyx,
I noticed with only one session of Rember that it wasn't using all 5GB of ram so I used the photoshop test to eat up the rest. I later went back and used three sessions of rember (you actually have to copy and rename the program for this to work) which used all available memory. Last night I let the machine run all night with just a screen saver. Both modules had ECC errors even though the room was cool I suppose the 2GB modules must run a lot hotter and the heatsink isn't able to handle the added heat.
Best of luck!
Mark
I noticed with only one session of Rember that it wasn't using all 5GB of ram so I used the photoshop test to eat up the rest. I later went back and used three sessions of rember (you actually have to copy and rename the program for this to work) which used all available memory. Last night I let the machine run all night with just a screen saver. Both modules had ECC errors even though the room was cool
I suppose the 2GB modules must run a lot hotter and the heatsink isn't able to handle the added heat.Best of luck!
Mark
drm said:
I will check mine tonight. Visual inspection when i got it, it looks flush, but i'll definitely double check. i check the System profiler often, still no errors, and the system has been working hard lately. But i will run more tests to verify this.
drm said:Monyx,
I noticed with only one session of Rember that it wasn't using all 5GB of ram so I used the photoshop test to eat up the rest. I later went back and used three sessions of rember (you actually have to copy and rename the program for this to work) which used all available memory. Last night I let the machine run all night with just a screen saver. Both modules had ECC errors even though the room was cool
Best of luck!
Mark
Yep, so far my 1GB DIMMS seem fine.
I bought Memtest (99c) since v4.14 "adds full 64-bit support for the newest x86_64 Xeon-based Mac Pro systems".
Followed the author's recommendation diligently. (Memtest 4.14 distributed only as Unix executable)
Run it from the command prompt after booting Command + S. It finds about 2750MB available (out of 3GB) and splits it into two buffers before testing. Seems to test the whole lot, anything left out is the bare min alocated for the Unix shell by the system.
Last night I manged 8 compete passes between 01:30 - 07:15 all tests pass.
Many months later... my system is still running fine. Doing more research on Ram, just got a Mac pro to replace my G5 at work. I had them order some ram from newEgg. If that goes well i will likely order some for my mac pro at home.
I thought I'd mention that I bought a 2 GB Kit from seller mc.ware on ebay for 300 about 2 weeks ago now and have had absolutely 0 problems. The ram is already fitted with heatsinks that don't look any different from the apple heatsinks.
YT
YT
Mac pro Ram
I have a mac pro 2.0 thinking about 3 party memory from data memory systems.com. i have final cut pro HD is it imperative that I buy heat sinks in addition to the memory. The heat sinks cool the memory off from my understanding is it a neccesity and how will it affect my system if I do not.
I have a mac pro 2.0 thinking about 3 party memory from data memory systems.com. i have final cut pro HD is it imperative that I buy heat sinks in addition to the memory. The heat sinks cool the memory off from my understanding is it a neccesity and how will it affect my system if I do not.I bought a pair of 1GB sticks from Crucial to go with the 4 x 512MB sticks I got from Apple (total: 4GB - woo!). So far, so good. The Crucial RAM has decent-sized heat sinks on it.
I changed the RAM around on the memory card "A" so that the Crucial stuff was in the first two sockets and the Apple-supplied stuff in the second two. My thought being that if having >4 sticks increases the latency, putting the higher capacity RAM in the first two sockets would mean that the computer would access these two first and only if it needs more than two GB, would it need to access the last two slots.
In other words:
(a) Card 1, slots 1 and 2 (both 1GB Crucial sticks)
(b) Card 2, slots 1 and 2 (both 512MB Apple-supplied sticks)
(c) Card 1, slots 3 and 4 (both 512MB Apple-supplied sticks)
(d) Card 2, slots 3 and 4 (empty)
At least, that's how I think it works(!).
I changed the RAM around on the memory card "A" so that the Crucial stuff was in the first two sockets and the Apple-supplied stuff in the second two. My thought being that if having >4 sticks increases the latency, putting the higher capacity RAM in the first two sockets would mean that the computer would access these two first and only if it needs more than two GB, would it need to access the last two slots.
In other words:
(a) Card 1, slots 1 and 2 (both 1GB Crucial sticks)
(b) Card 2, slots 1 and 2 (both 512MB Apple-supplied sticks)
(c) Card 1, slots 3 and 4 (both 512MB Apple-supplied sticks)
(d) Card 2, slots 3 and 4 (empty)
At least, that's how I think it works(!).