RAM heatsinks in MacPro?

[I'mAMac]

Does anyone know if the RAM in the mac pro absolutley needs the huge heatsinks? I have an extra 512 stick that was for the iMac and i was wondering if I could use it in the Mac pro without it overheating. Also, would 3x 512 sticks be slower, faster, or the same?

 

[cw2k]

Does anyone know if the RAM in the mac pro absolutley needs the huge heatsinks? I have an extra 512 stick that was for the iMac and i was wondering if I could use it in the Mac pro without it overheating. Also, would 3x 512 sticks be slower, faster, or the same?

iMac RAM won't work in the Mac Pro.

The Mac Pro needs FB-DIMMs, due to the low fan speed of the Mac Pro the heatsinks are need to ensue that the FB-DIMMs onboard cpu doesn't fry itself.

 

[JayRx1981]

Does anyone know if the RAM in the mac pro absolutley needs the huge heatsinks? I have an extra 512 stick that was for the iMac and i was wondering if I could use it in the Mac pro without it overheating. Also, would 3x 512 sticks be slower, faster, or the same?

While the iMac stick will not work in your Mac Pro (the Pro uses a different type of ram known as an FB-DIMM), no a heatsink on your RAM is *not* required. I'm running two Kingston sticks in addition to the apple RAM in mine and regularly test my memory. I've yet to have any errors detected, nor are my fans spinning loudly to make up for the increased heat.

However, I will suggest that if you plan on using your machine to do any sort of professional/semi-professional work, you spend the slight extra money and get FB-DIMMs with heatsinks. A little extra security never hurts when it comes to protecting the data you're working on.

 

[jansmith]

I ran four 1 GB sticks from MacSolutions without the added sinks, and got errors on one of them. I then installed MaxUpgrades' MaxSinks on them, and have not had a single error since (though the procedure to install them may void the warranty on the memory since you have to remove the label).

If I had it to do all over again, I would order memory with the sinks already installed. My 2 cents...

 

[I'mAMac]

ok thanks. How do you test the ram? i remember doing it once or twice but now i forget

 

[jansmith]

You go into System Profiler and select Memory. It will show you what you have installed. If the far right column says "OK," your memory is performing as it should. If your memory has ECC errors, they will show here.

 

[Cole Slaw]

ok thanks. How do you test the ram? i remember doing it once or twice but now i forget

You can use Memtest for OS/X to test that your RAM is working properly.
Link http://www.memtestosx.org/

 

[ammon]

Just a note - I have 4 x 512MB stick from Apple. When I do intense gaming in XP those heatsinks get too hot to touch! I can only imagine how hot the module would get without the huge heatsinks on them!

My advice - Never put RAM w/o heatsinks into the beast!