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Macbook Pro Ram- What's the best brand?

marclapierre13

marclapierre13

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 7, 2005
869
0
I want to upgrade to 4gb ram. Whats the best to get? I dont really want to spend $600 from apple.
I dont want crappy ram though either.
I want ram that performs as good or better than the ram thats included with my MBP.
Whats the difference between hynix and samsung ram, compared to other brands like crucial and other ones.

Any suggestions?

Tnxs in advance
 
hynix, samsung, micron/crucial, mushkin, corsair, kingston are all good (reliable and perform to spec). i'm sure i'm missing a few, but you can't go wrong with any of those brands.

newegg.com is almost unbeatable when it comes to selection and prices.

again, almost anything from newegg.com will be just as good quality, if not better, than what came in your machine. as a general rule i'd stick away from prices that are too good to be true unless it's from one of the brands above. i.e., don't buy something you've never heard of, and that has no user reviews, for 50% less than anything else on the page unless it's just a major brand having a nice sale.
 
I've been very happy with OMNI RAM. My wife, my sister and I all have it in our Macs. Even their high-performance sticks are less expensive than other standard sticks.

Try RAMseeker to do a price comparison.
 
Erm, buying "high performance ram" for your mac is an utter waste of money!

The performance of the memory is defined by three things:
1. the actual memory type (DDR2 in your case)
2. the frequency of the memory (667 MHz in your case)
3. memory timings

All of these are pre-determined on an apple system and there is no easy way to change it. That means that all memory will perform IDENTICALLY as long as it is DDR2 667 memory. An expensive brandname stick of this kind won't work any better then the cheapest stick with the same specs.

Buying an stick with a declared higher frequency (e.g. 800 MHz) and much faster timings also won't help, because the mac will still make it work at the default 667 frequency and default timings.

So my advice would be to get the cheapest DDR2 667 ram you can get, the only other thing you should consider is warranty.

EDIT: I've just checked out the above Omni Technologies site and they are using some really nasty selling strategies. Terms like "MultiMedia Optimized TM", "Faster Signal ~ Error Free", "Superior Design & Performance", "True Hyperformance" and "Highest performance memory available for your mac" are just dirty marketing words used to sell expensive memory to people who don't know how it works.
 
I'd go with crucial.
It has been mentioned here a lot and since everyone seems to like it I will soon upgrade my macbook with crucial ram.
 
I agree with byakauya. According to newegg their 2GB 667 stick is one of the cheapest and they have a decent reputation (quality, etc.), so I'd go with that too.
 
In Japan, most stores carry RAM from Buffalo. I know that Princeton and I/O Data also manufacture RAM for the MBP. There are probably comparisons of performance of these RAM in Japanese magazines.
 
Have you read the topic prior to posting? There can be no performance difference because they all work at the same frequency and timings in the MBP.
 
Matek said:
I agree with byakauya. According to newegg their 2GB 667 stick is one of the cheapest and they have a decent reputation (quality, etc.), so I'd go with that too.
Click to expand...

Stay away from the G.Skill and Geil units that have heat spreaders, they are a poor fit physically for MacBooks and iMacs.

The problem I have with newegg is they don't know Macs and they don't care.

I prefer to deal with a reputable seller who actually tests on Macs, and is prepared to offer a compatibility guarantee, and who will pay shipping both ways if you get a bad stick.

Buffalo (Japan) is the company who makes Techworks RAM that OWC sells. They are an OK brand, we carry them here.

I agree with Matek completely about companies who exaggerate and make up official-sounding language in order to sell a higher priced product. If they are willing to stretch the truth and bafflegab (and to engage in pricing games), then what else are they willing to do? Every 100% compatible CorexDuo RAM HAS to perform at exactly the same speed, there is no other option. Check resellerratings.com Store Reviews by the way, before ordering from a new vendor. It can be enlightening.
 
CanadaRAM said:
Stay away from the G.Skill and Geil units that have heat spreaders, they are a poor fit physically for MacBooks and iMacs.

The problem I have with newegg is they don't know Macs and they don't care.

I prefer to deal with a reputable seller who actually tests on Macs, and is prepared to offer a compatibility guarantee, and who will pay shipping both ways if you get a bad stick.

Buffalo (Japan) is the company who makes Techworks RAM that OWC sells. They are an OK brand, we carry them here.

I agree with Matek completely about companies who exaggerate and make up official-sounding language in order to sell a higher priced product. Every 100% compatible CorexDuo RAM HAS to perform at exactly the same speed, there is no other option. Check resellerratings.com Store Reviews by the way, before ordering from a new vendor. It can be enlightening.
Click to expand...
I just got 4 gigs of G.skill from newegg for less than $130 shipped to my door. It works perfectly. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820231147
 
Jup, heatspreader might be a problem, anyway, I was talking about crucial, not g.skill.

Don't quite agree about the compatibility. This was an issue back on PowerPC, because almost nobody else used similar hardware. But nowadays I don't see any reason why it would be less likely for a stick of memory to work on a mac compared to any other PC laptop. Since Apple is using Intel Centrino platform, macs aren't special in any (hardwareish) way.

You're right about return policies, they should pay shipping if they send you a faulty stick (it's not your fault, why should you pay), isn't that the law? I know it is here in Europe (our country at least).
 
I was thinking about getting Micron. I just want to make sure that it will perform as good as my samsung memory. apparently they have a lifetime warranty as well.

Crucial sounds ok as well. I can get 4GB of micron ram for about $200 shipped here in canada.

One thing that confused me is the "over-clocked" and under clocked etc etc. I dont know what these mean lol.
 
marclapierre13 said:
One thing that confused me is the "over-clocked" and under clocked etc etc. I dont know what these mean lol.
Click to expand...

"overclocked" has no meaning for intel Macs.

It means adjusting either motherboard jumpers or BIOS settings in a PC machine to force the CPU and / or the memory bus to run at a higher clock speed than it was manufactured for. In theory, you can make a machine perform faster. In practice it risks instability, and almost certainly burns out components sooner.

nikhsub1 said:
I just got 4 gigs of G.skill from newegg for less than $130 shipped to my door. It works perfectly. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820231147
Click to expand...

You go the ones without the heat spreader.

Stay away from the G.Skill and Geil units that have heat spreaders
Click to expand...
 
Matek said:
Erm, buying "high performance ram" for your mac is an utter waste of money!
Click to expand...

Thanks for pointing that out. Seriously. I didn't know if there were hardware tweaks and extras that could optimize RAM, and so I assumed (my mistake) that it was in fact possible to get higher performance from one type of stick than another that's identically spec'd. It's good to know.

Having said that, I've only ever bought the less expensive OMNI sticks and never the so-called "high performance" stuff. So I was too cheap to get suckered.

And my ignorance aside, the OMNI RAM I've bought has still done me right, and I wouldn't hesitate recommending their Optival variety to someone else.
 
micron is the same RAM as crucial. you will not go wrong with either one; both are reputable brands. and no, there is nothing wrong with RAM that has not been "guaranteed" for compatibility... all that matters is that the specs are within what your motherboard can handle, and the boards in macbook pros handle pc5300 ddr2. any higher and you are wasting your money and any lower would not maximize performance. besides that, there's nothing wrong with buying RAM from newegg. at all. in fact, the cheaper price (in most cases) and great shipping/return policies make it BETTER to buy from them.
 
A Data

I just transferred my 2 x 2GB A DATA chips that I had in my MBP C2D to my new SR MB. I've been using them for a while, no problems. And I got them at New egg for under $100 at the time :) Love Newegg.

I honestly can't remember the last time I had memory go bad... back w/ 133mhz chips... Anyone remember those?

Ditto on Heatsink SO-DIMMS in MBs - they pop right off if you try t fit them in the slot, and that voids the warranty for most companies. The MB RAM slots have a good deal of space around the chip for airflow - you just don't need heatsinks... IMO - another gimmick.
 
what about latency

one more question about RAM timing

i do understand that the MacbookPro only supports 200-pin SODIMM, DDR2 PC2-667MHz
but what about the latency? doesnt it still make a difference if its 5-5-5-18 of a standard RAM or a 3-3-3-10 of a fancy RAM (still with 667 MHz) all this CL3 CL4 CL5 thing?
i know that some of the CL3 use too much power so MAC doesnt support those, since MAC only gives a max of 1.8V for the RAM - but others would work in a MAC. Wont they be at least a bit faster?
 
When you look at your new Crucial RAM you'll see a sticker on it say: "Country of Origin: USA"

Reason enough to avoid all others, unless they too use Micron RAMs (I know there's another but I can't remember).

Samsung? Made in CHINA.
Hynix? Made in CHINA.
etc.? Made in CHINA.
 
Towhead said:
When you look at your new Crucial RAM you'll see a sticker on it say: "Country of Origin: USA"

Reason enough to avoid all others, unless they too use Micron RAMs (I know there's another but I can't remember).

Samsung? Made in CHINA.
Hynix? Made in CHINA.
etc.? Made in CHINA.
Click to expand...

hey, my thread was resurrected from the dead:cool:

but um...so what if some RAM is made in china? that doesnt make a difference. Samsung and Hynix are the brands among others that Apple uses for their ram.
 
marclapierre13 said:
hey, my thread was resurrected from the dead:cool:

but um...so what if some RAM is made in china? that doesnt make a difference. Samsung and Hynix are the brands among others that Apple uses for their ram.
Click to expand...

I have to agree...country of origin doesn't assure quality...
I mean my macbook was manufactured in china...
 
byakuya said:
I have to agree...country of origin doesn't assure quality...
I mean my macbook was manufactured in china...
Click to expand...

Seriously--the irony of people using Chinese-made laptops urging others to avoid memory made in China is staggering. And as others have said, there's nothing wrong with Newegg. In fact, about 1/3rd of the reviews for many of the memory sticks and hard drives they sell come from Macbook/Pro users. To blindly avoid them while slavishly patronizing Crucial/OWC is...well, some people like to pay more for the illusion of "quality", I guess.
 
Crucial.

Although, I've also used OWC RAM without problems.

In the years I've been building PC's and upgrading Macs, by far the biggest and hardest-to-trace problems have been defective RAM. It just does not pay to cheap out on RAM.
 
Dms?

I didn't notice anyone mention data memory systems in this thread... any experience with their ram in new MBs? I'm planning to buy a new MB in Jan. (waiting to see what happens at macworld, *fingers crossed* :D), but was planning to upgrade to 4gb from the base installation. straight from the companies, it looks like dms is ~$30 cheaper.
 
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