I went to Fry's today and purchased the 1GB Corsair ValueSelect Ram (VS1GSDS667D2) for $79.99 w/ $10 MIB. When I got home I had searched for reviews on this RAM and there was plenty of controversy regarding the compatiblity with the Intel Mini's and Macbook Pro's. I do not know much about benchmarks and everything, but I base my judgment on regular use, so this review is coming from a regular Joe-Schmoe with mediocre knowledge of computers.
The RAM DOES WORK with my machine: MBP 1.83gHz Duo, 80GB HD, and 512MB stock RAM
Upon installation of the RAM, I hit the power button, and the sleep light had remained solid for about 3-5 seconds, and then the boot up chime occurs. Power up doesn't usually take that long, but I assume the machine was recognizing the newly installed RAM. I did my tests on an iCurve to help minimize the overheat issue.
I started my stopwatch as soon as the dock appeared because everyone has said that random restarts and crashing occurs at around 15-20 minutes after installation. Under the About This Mac menu, 1.5GB DDR2 RAM shows up.
I started doing regular tasks such as web browsing, looking at a few HD quicktime trailers. 20 minutes passed and all is ok. I now decide to open 3 Intel-Native applications (iTunes, Audio Hijack Pro, and iPhoto) and 3 Rosetta-Assisted apps (Microsoft Powerpoint, Excel, and Photoshop CS2). I played a downloaded video through iTunes, recorded the audio from it, played around with iPhoto, and switched back and forth between powerpoint/excel/photoshop. 45 minutes have passed and everything is still ok.
I restart my computer, and then dual boot to Windows XP. I run whatever programs I have on there; Microsoft Office and Photoshop, and all of them run spectacular. I did this for about 30 minutes with no hiccups or random restarts.
The final part of my tests was to do the standard Hardware Tests. Another complaint was that during the hardware tests, the system would just freeze or restart. I did 3 Hardware tests and all of them passed without freezing.
In conclusion, the RAM works great. The only concern or drawback that I have is that whenever I power up the MBP, it will take about 5 seconds for the chime to occur and then flash the gray screen with the apple logo. I apologize for the long read, but I really like reading reviews from regular users and I figure I'd throw this in since a lot are in the process of beefing up their new Macbook Pro's. So far so good with the Corsair RAM, in that I am writing this review a few hours after installation on my MBP. I also understand maybe I was just lucky to get a decent stick from those who didn't have much luck.
Happy hunting to all of you.
The RAM DOES WORK with my machine: MBP 1.83gHz Duo, 80GB HD, and 512MB stock RAM
Upon installation of the RAM, I hit the power button, and the sleep light had remained solid for about 3-5 seconds, and then the boot up chime occurs. Power up doesn't usually take that long, but I assume the machine was recognizing the newly installed RAM. I did my tests on an iCurve to help minimize the overheat issue.
I started my stopwatch as soon as the dock appeared because everyone has said that random restarts and crashing occurs at around 15-20 minutes after installation. Under the About This Mac menu, 1.5GB DDR2 RAM shows up.
I started doing regular tasks such as web browsing, looking at a few HD quicktime trailers. 20 minutes passed and all is ok. I now decide to open 3 Intel-Native applications (iTunes, Audio Hijack Pro, and iPhoto) and 3 Rosetta-Assisted apps (Microsoft Powerpoint, Excel, and Photoshop CS2). I played a downloaded video through iTunes, recorded the audio from it, played around with iPhoto, and switched back and forth between powerpoint/excel/photoshop. 45 minutes have passed and everything is still ok.
I restart my computer, and then dual boot to Windows XP. I run whatever programs I have on there; Microsoft Office and Photoshop, and all of them run spectacular. I did this for about 30 minutes with no hiccups or random restarts.
The final part of my tests was to do the standard Hardware Tests. Another complaint was that during the hardware tests, the system would just freeze or restart. I did 3 Hardware tests and all of them passed without freezing.
In conclusion, the RAM works great. The only concern or drawback that I have is that whenever I power up the MBP, it will take about 5 seconds for the chime to occur and then flash the gray screen with the apple logo. I apologize for the long read, but I really like reading reviews from regular users and I figure I'd throw this in since a lot are in the process of beefing up their new Macbook Pro's. So far so good with the Corsair RAM, in that I am writing this review a few hours after installation on my MBP. I also understand maybe I was just lucky to get a decent stick from those who didn't have much luck.
Happy hunting to all of you.
