Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Where to buy ram for macbook pro?
- Thread starter alienex
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Datamem.com
I feel they are the best mix of price, support, and quality. They also have a Mac guarantee which is very important because Macs can be picky about RAM.
The only other retailer I even consider is crucial. I've had very good dealings with them and their quality is great. I find them on the expensive side though.
What ever you do, make sure you get a guarantee from the manufacturer that the stick you buy will work with the MBP.
I feel they are the best mix of price, support, and quality. They also have a Mac guarantee which is very important because Macs can be picky about RAM.
The only other retailer I even consider is crucial. I've had very good dealings with them and their quality is great. I find them on the expensive side though.
What ever you do, make sure you get a guarantee from the manufacturer that the stick you buy will work with the MBP.
Don't buy direct from Apple, they charge way too much of a premium. Crucial is good, as s DMS, or CanadaRAM if you are in Canada.
Essentially though, it boils down to this: you want to purchase RAM through a 3rd party dealer which a) has a lifetime gaurantee on their RAM and b) explicitly gaurantees 100% Mac-compatibility.
If you go with any company that does not meet the above 2 criteria, you are taking some risk. Many people have bought from from other dealers with no issues of course, but others don't want to risk it when it comes to their Mac. You have to make that type of a decision yourself, and decide whether it may be worth a little extra $$$ as a result, but in the end, you get what you pay for.
Essentially though, it boils down to this: you want to purchase RAM through a 3rd party dealer which a) has a lifetime gaurantee on their RAM and b) explicitly gaurantees 100% Mac-compatibility.
If you go with any company that does not meet the above 2 criteria, you are taking some risk. Many people have bought from from other dealers with no issues of course, but others don't want to risk it when it comes to their Mac. You have to make that type of a decision yourself, and decide whether it may be worth a little extra $$$ as a result, but in the end, you get what you pay for.
grapes911 said:
One might find with the advent of the Intel chipset Macs won't be as fussy as they once were..
Maybe. But do you really want to take that chance? If you purchase RAM and it is not DOA but doesn't work with the MBP, you may get charged a restocking fee on return. I'd just get what I know works.Peace said:
Ummm. Don't think that is such a good comparisonalienex said:
When you upgrade from 512 to 1 Gb with Apple, you pay $100 for a 512Mb SODIMM. Or you pay $100 for a 1 Gb SODIMM and lose the original 512 that was there.
When you buy a 1 Gb SODIMM from Crucial for $135 or DMS for $108, you get a 1 Gb SODIMM which is additional to the 512 you already have, for 1.5 Gb total RAM. Much better deal.
(all prices US$)
My guess is he's figuring out where he'll order it from when he gets it, like many people on this forum have been posting about.
Only if the computer runs dual channel, but I don't believe the MBP does. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.alienex said:
I always buy as much RAM as I can afford at the time.alienex said:
grapes911 said:
The Intel chipset in the MBP should support dual channel memory, but since they're not yet shipping that is not 100% confirmed.
My opinion is dual channel doesn't give that great of a performance increase. I'd rather get the more RAM.alienex said:
II have searched Apple.com and the ONLY statement I can find is in the Applestore where the 'info' link on memory says something wishywashy like "Optimize memroy performance by installing RAM in pairs" but fails to say by what mechanism the performance might be enhanced.
I would have thought that Dual-channel access, if it were enabled, would be worth advertising in the machine's specs -- but it's not mentioned. If Dual Channel is not implemented, perhaps they are doing a 64/128 bit access thing like the older iMacs A and B -- which was tested to have nil net effect on real world performance.
No PC laptops that I am aware of (that is, laptops using notebook chipsets) implement dual channel, so it would be a new thing.
In any case: In almost every case, having 1.5 Gb total RAM unmatched will trump 1.0 Gb total matched pairs, simply because of the extra 1/2 Gb.
I would have thought that Dual-channel access, if it were enabled, would be worth advertising in the machine's specs -- but it's not mentioned. If Dual Channel is not implemented, perhaps they are doing a 64/128 bit access thing like the older iMacs A and B -- which was tested to have nil net effect on real world performance.
No PC laptops that I am aware of (that is, laptops using notebook chipsets) implement dual channel, so it would be a new thing.
In any case: In almost every case, having 1.5 Gb total RAM unmatched will trump 1.0 Gb total matched pairs, simply because of the extra 1/2 Gb.
I agree that in real-world performance, you would see more benefit from 1.5GB not taking advantage of the dual-channel than you would with 1GB using it. Tiger fills up 1GB rather quickly and then you're dealing with pageins/outs being your main reason for performance hits.
~Shard~ said:
I can heartily recommend CanadaRAM. They are quick and have the best prices if you are in Canada. I was really pleased with my recent dealings with them.
LOL... I see that Trevor from CanadaRAM posted in this thread. Keep up the good work mate!
alienex said:no super secrets here...
I would have bought a 1 gig stick from crucial but I read somewhere on the forums that its better and faster to have 2 of the same as in 2 512 then 1 512 and 1 gig.
That may make some differene as far as RAM speed, but more RAM is better. The simple fact of having two sticks of the same speed of Double Data Rate RAM (DDR) will give you more speed. It's kinda like having a dual RAM processor, or something like that
No but it is true, you don't get the Double Data Rate without matching sticks. I'm sure having them the same size makes a somewhat significant difference.My recommendation is to up you RAM from Apple to a single 1GB SODIMM. That way you won't be chucking your 512MB SODIMM when you want to go to 2GB. RAM from other vendors is cheap, don't skimp on you very nice and expensive MacBook Pro.