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Riwam

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 7, 2014
1,095
244
Basel, Switzerland
Maybe it is a silly question.
Still I would like to get an answer.
The only component of a nMP that every user can change without special technical skills and without risking his Apple coverage...is RAM!
It is also the only important part of a nMP separately available.
No matter if you buy a nMP in the USA, Europe or elsewhere, a simple calculation will show that Apple charges about twice the market price for RAM.
With the price of 32GB "Apple" RAM you can buy about 64 GB RAM made by known manufacturers like Samsung, Kingston or other makers. The same applies to 16 GB "Apple" RAM compared with 32GB RAM of other sources.
The minimum amount you MUST buy with a nMP is 3x4GB=12GB.
Apple does not deliver the nMP with no RAM at all.
Now, I do not understand the reasons why people order more than those unavoidable 12GB Apple RAM with any nMP, instead of adding RAM by themselves.
I know that the 1 year standard coverage or the 3 years Apple Care coverage will not apply to any RAM bought and installed by a buyer of a nMP.
Besides that, and since known manufacturers' RAM will work as well as already installed Apple RAM (Apple does not manufacture their RAM) I would conclude that if some buyers or some companies might not care at all at saving any money, all other rational and budget thinking buyers of a nMP should just order those unavoidable 12GB, try to resell them (even if they won't get much), and then buy by themselves either 32 or 64 GB of any brand of RAM with a solid reputation.
Proportionally 64GB will mean a smaller loss than 34GB because of the difference between the amount Apple included in the price of the nMP for RAM as compared to the small amount of reselling those 12GB. That is the unavoidable loss.
In the case of buying 16 GB with a nMP the theoretical saving will be so small that it won't be worth while because of the above mentioned unavoidable loss.
But with 32GB and specially with 64GB, one can get about twice as much RAM if bought by oneself compared to what one gets from Apple.
I would like to know if besides the love to Apple, which I certainly share, and besides the non coverage by Apple of separately bought RAM, there might be another reason I do not know or understand to buy more than just 3x4 GB with any order of a nMP and then add by oneself the quantity of RAM one needs.
Thank you in advance for explaining to me what I do not understand by myself.
 
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...., and besides the non coverage by Apple of separately bought RAM, there might be another reason I do not know or understand to buy more than just 3x4 GB with any order of a nMP and then add by oneself the quantity of RAM one needs.
Thank you in advance for explaining to me what I do not understand by myself.

Some folks are restricted to making just one purchase order. Rather self-inflected, but some companies/organizations have that "rule". [ In part it is a simplification so they don't have to track warranties with 3-6 different companies. ] If all the Mac RAM comes from Apple then it is simply an Apple problem.

For one-man band and individual ( or maybe three max ) machines that isn't much of a simplification. For larger orgs saving on paying for internal tech support to track and deal with the additional complexity.



The second is a game that buyers and salesfolks pay. Apple jacks up price, buyer haggles with bulk buy price, Apple throws in "big client who buys in bulk discount".... Apple might not give on system price but throws in "free" RAM upgrades. The inflated price makes the 'upgrade' look better without costing a lot.


Similar issues with leasing prices. Pump up price, give 'discount', and still have fat margins.


Finally if the system generates large revenue every year it simply doesn't make that much of deal. $100K/year then $4K or $4.6K isn't that much of a difference. Pay because can just take it out of the box, plug it in, and ready to go.
 
16GB of RAM is still quite a bit for the average person. I only had 8GB in my 2008 Mac Pro rarely suffered for it. It's only people who have to do *huge* things or *many* large things at once that benefit with more. That, and the fact that third party memory is much cheaper, is why I ordered 16GB. Why 16GB instead of 12GB? Because I forgot that I could BTO my specific config from the lower model. There's no way I would cancel and re-order at this point just to save $100.
 
It'll be nice if 3rd party RAM for the nMP comes in black as the standard RAM does XD
 
I've been using Macs since my MacPlus in 1985. With each every machine I have owned I have increased the RAM from standard. In in those almost 30 years, I have never bought RAM from Apple. I found Data Memory Systems years ago, and in all that time, I have never received a bad stick of RAM. They are Mac specialists, have a lifetime warranty, and great pricing.

http://www.datamemorysystems.com/apple-memory/

Lou
 
Thank you for the logical explanation.

What deconstruct60 writes is certainly logical behavior for any large company with many computers. Still there will probably be other suppliers besides Apple for instance for printers, scanners, fax machines, photocopying machines, servers and so on. But I agree that at least in the configuration of their nMP they will have only Apple as their partner and one address in case of warranty problems.
Thank you also to nathan43082, to wheelhot and to flowrider for their experience and their opinions!
It confirms what I thought that buying additional RAM by oneself for a nMP is a reasonable way to save some money at least for private people not running any large company, which is my case.

Some folks are restricted, to making just one purchase order. Rather self-inflected, but some companies/organizations have that "rule". [ In part it is a simplification so they don't have to track warranties with 3-6 different companies. ] If all the Mac RAM comes from Apple then it is simply an Apple problem.

For one-man band and individual ( or maybe three max ) machines that isn't much of a simplification. For larger orgs saving on paying for internal tech support to track and deal with the additional complexity.



The second is a game that buyers and salesfolks pay. Apple jacks up price, buyer haggles with bulk buy price, Apple throws in "big client who buys in bulk discount".... Apple might not give on system price but throws in "free" RAM upgrades. The inflated price makes the 'upgrade' look better without costing a lot.


Similar issues with leasing prices. Pump up price, give 'discount', and still have fat margins.


Finally if the system generates large revenue every year it simply doesn't make that much of deal. $100K/year then $4K or $4.6K isn't that much of a difference. Pay because can just take it out of the box, plug it in, and ready to go.


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16GB of RAM is still quite a bit for the average person. I only had 8GB in my 2008 Mac Pro rarely suffered for it. It's only people who have to do *huge* things or *many* large things at once that benefit with more. That, and the fact that third party memory is much cheaper, is why I ordered 16GB. Why 16GB instead of 12GB? Because I forgot that I could BTO my specific config from the lower model. There's no way I would cancel and re-order at this point just to save $100.


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Thank you very much for your opinion.


16GB of RAM is still quite a bit for the average person. I only had 8GB in my 2008 Mac Pro rarely suffered for it. It's only people who have to do *huge* things or *many* large things at once that benefit with more. That, and the fact that third party memory is much cheaper, is why I ordered 16GB. Why 16GB instead of 12GB? Because I forgot that I could BTO my specific config from the lower model. There's no way I would cancel and re-order at this point just to save $100.
 
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Thank you very much?

Thank you for your experience and your reply!


I've been using Macs since my MacPlus in 1985. With each every machine I have owned I have increased the RAM from standard. In in those almost 30 years, I have never bought RAM from Apple. I found Data Memory Systems years ago, and in all that time, I have never received a bad stick of RAM. They are Mac specialists, have a lifetime warranty, and great pricing.

http://www.datamemorysystems.com/apple-memory/

Lou


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16GB of RAM is still quite a bit for the average person. I only had 8GB in my 2008 Mac Pro rarely suffered for it. It's only people who have to do *huge* things or *many* large things at once that benefit with more. That, and the fact that third party memory is much cheaper, is why I ordered 16GB. Why 16GB instead of 12GB? Because I forgot that I could BTO my specific config from the lower model. There's no way I would cancel and re-order at this point just to save $100.

I thank you very much for supporting my view!

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It'll be nice if 3rd party RAM for the nMP comes in black as the standard RAM does XD

I thank you for your answer. As long as RAM is inside and not seen from outside, I personally don't care about the color as long as it performs well.
 
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