Is it safe to mix Apple and Crucial Memory in nMP?

[arbitrage]

I'm wondering if I was to buy 2 16GB sticks from Crucial for ~$440 and then use them along side 2 of the stock 4GB sticks that the base model comes with.

Is this a no-no?

Then in the future if I want 64GB, I can just buy 2 more Crucial 16GB sticks and remove the 2 4GB sticks.

That would start me off at 40GB at about the same cost as Apple's 32GB upgrade and with future option to expand to 64GB for another $440 (or less if prices drop) instead of having to pay $800 in the future if I had 4x8GB sticks in there.

Need help if this is feasible or a no-no.

Thanks

 

[Gav Mack]

I would wait and see what manufacturer made the modules in your new model before buying them.

If they are Micron sticks then go for the Crucial pair as they will be the same!

 

[arbitrage]

I would wait and see what manufacturer made the modules in your new model before buying them.

If they are Micron sticks then go for the Crucial pair as they will be the same!

Okay thanks. Hopefully info will become available soon from some tear downs.

 

[AidenShaw]

Okay thanks. Hopefully info will become available soon from some tear downs.

Apple may use multiple suppliers for the RAM - your tube might not have the same RAM as the teardown.

 

[flowrider]

Info coming soon:

http://www.datamemorysystems.com/all-new-apple-mac-pro-memory-upgrades/

RAM pricing has now been posted.

Lou

 

[arbitrage]

So until we hear more about the actual brands being used, is it safe to infer that using mismatched suppliers is a bad thing to do? How about mismatched sizes? Will it still be okay to run 2x4GB and 2x16GB if the suppliers match up?

Thanks.

 

[deconstruct60]

I'm wondering if I was to buy 2 16GB sticks from Crucial for ~$440 and then use them along side 2 of the stock 4GB sticks that the base model comes with.

Is this a no-no?

The warning is plain as day right there on the Crucial web page that it is a "no-no". It has nothing to do with manufactures and everything to do with Apple's stock 4GB DIMMs being extremely probable unbuffered DIMMs and the Crucial DIMMs being registered DIMMs. They don't mix.

 

[arbitrage]

The warning is plain as day right there on the Crucial web page that it is a "no-no". It has nothing to do with manufactures and everything to do with Apple's stock 4GB DIMMs being extremely probable unbuffered DIMMs and the Crucial DIMMs being registered DIMMs. They don't mix.

OK. thanks so it isn't a good idea no matter what then. Is there any issue of just running 2x16GB sticks and leaving the other 2 slots empty?

 

[deconstruct60]

OK. thanks so it isn't a good idea no matter what then. Is there any issue of just running 2x16GB sticks and leaving the other 2 slots empty?

Very low percentage slower in some cases. It isn't a huge deal if save up and buy more in a reasonable amount of time.

I suspect there should be some registered DIMM 8GBs show up. So if find out really don't need to jump to 64GB , you can move to 48GB which can be "good enough" for a long time.