Mac Pro RAM - Buy in Europe or Ship from USA??

[Lycanthrope]

Hi All

Lots of threads talking about where's the best source for RAM - seems OWC and Crucial are favourites in the US, Orca and Crucial in UK. I've recently used Orca twice and have found their service top-notch but, always a but, 2x2GB sticks of RAM are €650 which I find incredibly expensive. The same from OWC in the US is half the price.

So, has anyone here in Europe experiance with sourcing the RAM from The States? Is there anyone here that's aware of a Belgian company selling the stuff - at least then I could reclaim the VAT on the purchase.

I guess adding a 512MB pair so I have four (with the original 2x512 shipped in the machine) makes for a cheap 1GB with a performance gain too?

Cheers

 

[Alican]

Seems there is quite a price discrepancy with the 2gb modules.

If you wanted 4 gigs, it's cheaper if you buy two 2 gig kits (4x1gig modules), this way the prices compair favourably with the US (especially as the US prices don't quote sales taxes)

 

[Lycanthrope]

Seems there is quite a price discrepancy with the 2gb modules.

If you wanted 4 gigs, it's cheaper if you buy two 2 gig kits (4x1gig modules), this way the prices compair favourably with the US (especially as the US prices don't quote sales taxes)

Yeah, I thought about that, seems to be the cheapest GB for GB but if I wanted to fully load up to 16GB then I'd have to chuck some of that RAM in the future which seems very wastefull...

 

[akadmon]

Hi All

I guess adding a 512MB pair so I have four (with the original 2x512 shipped in the machine) makes for a cheap 1GB with a performance gain too?

Cheers

I had 4x512MB until just last week when I upgraded with 2x1GB for a total of 4 GB. I can't say I was noticing a lot of beach balls with 2GB, but my page in/page out ratio has dropped from about 3 to about 20. I don't run anything heavy duty on my machine -- just wanted to be able to have Parallels open all the time with 1GB allocated to it.

 

[Lycanthrope]

I had 4x512MB until just last week when I upgraded with 2x1GB for a total of 4 GB. I can't say I was noticing a lot of beach balls with 2GB, but my page in/page out ratio has dropped from about 3 to about 20. I don't run anything heavy duty on my machine -- just wanted to be able to have Parallels open all the time with 1GB allocated to it.

I've read around here that 4GB seems to be the right amount after which the extra isn't noticeable in normal use.

So then you have the one pair on the one riser and the other pair on the other and you get quad channel??

I need to do some reading...

And here's a good place to start: http://diglloyd.com/diglloyd/free/MacPro/memory.html

 

[akadmon]

I
So then you have the one pair on the one riser and the other pair on the other and you get quad channel??

Riser A:
1 = 1GB
2 = 1GB
3=512MB
4=512MB

Riser B:
1=512MB
2=512MB
3=OPEN
4=OPEN

Sorry, I don't know what "channel" I'm getting, but it sure isn't Playboy) Perhaps someone can explain the meaning of quad/dual/single channel in reference to RAM...

 

[Lycanthrope]

Riser A:
Sorry, I don't know what "channel" I'm getting, but it sure isn't Playboy) Perhaps someone can explain the meaning of quad/dual/single channel in reference to RAM...

Read that link I added above, it's very thorough regarding Mac Pro memory!

I'm going to get 2x2GB from the US, I have a friend who can package it as a gift and post - normally this will avoid European import duty. Seems sales tax is 8.5% for him and the postage on such a light item will be minimal so I'm looking at saving 250EUR - we can do the same at Christmas with another 2x2GB set, then again next year and I'll have the full 16GB

Now today I'm going to get my Mac Pro and the first thing I need to do is grab a 250SATA - initially for some extra disc but in a few months I'll invest in a couple of 1TB discs (or 2 750's) then raid the two existing 250's as boot and application drives.

This Mac Pro thing is fun isn't it, I could never do all this with my iMac

 

[akadmon]

Seems sales tax is 8.5%

Seems like your friend is charging you a commission

I don't know what state he lives in, but there is no sales tax on online purchases in virtually all states, especially when you buy from an online only store (in some cases sales tax is charged if the company selling the goods has a brick-and-mortar store in the state where you reside). I live in Massachusetts (5% sales tax) and I paid no tax on stuff I recently bought from Newegg, OWC and Amazon. I do, however, pay sales tax on purchases from Apple.com and Dell.com, since both companies have a physical presence in MA.

 

[Lycanthrope]

Seems like your friend is charging you a commission

He's in Fremont California - he won't screw me that's for sure but perhaps he's not aware...

 

[Lycanthrope]

Seems like your friend is charging you a commission

So I wired him the money through Paypal and he ordered and didn't get charged any sales tax - this confused him a great deal I can tell you. So once it arrives he'll forward to me as a gift and that should bypass import duty.