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Ram
- Thread starter GothamKnight
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Nope. The only thing that matters is that the seller and/or manufacturer guarantees the RAM to work with a Mac. Macs are very picky about timings and such. I personally recommend Datamem.com.
To share my experience w/ 3rd party RAM with you, just in case you run into this problem:
I purchased a Rev C 17" 1.5 GHz Powerbook, with the stock 512 MB RAM. I added a 1 GB DIMM I purchased from OWC, and put this DIMM in the primary memory slot, moving the 512 MB to the second memory slot.
After installing Tiger, my Powerbook had major issues rebooting (kernel panic, etc etc). I narrowed it down to my 3rd party RAM. After swapping the position of the two DIMMs, it was back to normal.
I purchased a Rev C 17" 1.5 GHz Powerbook, with the stock 512 MB RAM. I added a 1 GB DIMM I purchased from OWC, and put this DIMM in the primary memory slot, moving the 512 MB to the second memory slot.
After installing Tiger, my Powerbook had major issues rebooting (kernel panic, etc etc). I narrowed it down to my 3rd party RAM. After swapping the position of the two DIMMs, it was back to normal.
There are two key things you must consider when buying RAM:
- the seller must guarantee Mac-compatibility with their RAM
- the RAM must have a lifetime guarantee
Meet those 2 important requirements and I suppose it doesn't matter who you buy from. Otherwise, feel free to take a risk to save a few bucks if you feel compelled to, but I wouldn't. As with many things, you get what you pay for.
Oh, but don't buy from Apple - they charge a premium for their RAM.
- the seller must guarantee Mac-compatibility with their RAM
- the RAM must have a lifetime guarantee
Meet those 2 important requirements and I suppose it doesn't matter who you buy from. Otherwise, feel free to take a risk to save a few bucks if you feel compelled to, but I wouldn't. As with many things, you get what you pay for.
Oh, but don't buy from Apple - they charge a premium for their RAM.
~Shard~ said:Oh, but don't buy from Apple - they charge a premium for their RAM.
Heed these words of advice- buying RAM from Apple is like throwing your money to the wind. Apple's prices for RAM can be about twice that of anyone else's!
dmw007 said:
Exactly. Quality RAM? Sure, I have no doubts Apple's is, however you can get just as high quality from certain 3rd party vendors for less money. Again, follow my above two "rules" and you'll be just fine.
NYmacAttack said:
Quite true. I would still vote for DMS over Crucial myself though, but that's just personal opinion.
Also, FWIW, a common misconception is that NewEGG sells guaranteed Mac-compatible RAM. They don't. Many people have bought RAM from them with no difficulties, but for the recored, they do not meet the above 2 criteria I laid out.
So the RAM on DMS has a lifetime warranty? I was looking around there and didn't see anything regarding that.
generik said:
I haven't heard of them before. Do they have a lifetime guarantee on their memory and do they explicitly guarantee Mac-compatibility with their memory? If not, you're most likely rolling the dice with them. Which is fine of course, just as long as you're aware of that...
Actually I started liking them when my so called "for PB" modules from Kingston gave me numerous kernal panics, while these transcend ones did the job perfectly at only $68 per 1GB module (which is not even half of the $150 each I paid for the Kingstons)
But yes, I had prior experience with transcend before on the PC front, they do make good quality stuff.
But yes, I had prior experience with transcend before on the PC front, they do make good quality stuff.
It was the KTA-PB533/1G
Quite disappointing I should say, I expected better from Kingston. The biggest irony is my laptop is now sold along with the Transcend modules, so when these come back from Kingston in a couple weeks time I will be in the market for a new PB to put it in
Quite disappointing I should say, I expected better from Kingston. The biggest irony is my laptop is now sold along with the Transcend modules, so when these come back from Kingston in a couple weeks time I will be in the market for a new PB to put it in
generik said:It was the KTA-PB533/1G
Quite disappointing I should say, I expected better from Kingston. The biggest irony is my laptop is now sold along with the Transcend modules, so when these come back from Kingston in a couple weeks time I will be in the market for a new PB to put it in
That is disappointing, as the KTA series is indeed the "Mac-compatible" RAM. I'm glad you found better luck with the Transcend modules.
hcuar said:I take major grief over this... but I always buy Apple RAM.
That is some hefty premium on those modules man
It is almost 4 times as much, depending on what you are comparing it to.
~Shard~ said:Yes, I can verify this, DMS is indeed a reputable dealer with competitive pricing.
same here.....have bought well over 30gb's from them, notta uno problemo in 5 years