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What's the deal with Crucial?

leftbanke7

leftbanke7

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
I know that Crucial is a top choice among these boards for RAM purchases due to their high quality and good customer service. However, I just purchased a 1 GB stick of RAM for my PB today and using ramseeker.com to compare prices, Crucial's price was double what most of the other companies were selling it for. Doing a little bit more investigating, at best, Crucial was still $120.00+ more than anybody else for what seemed to be comparible sticks. Is Crucial having a supply issue? Are their sticks just THAT much better than all the rest? Are they just charging too much for memory? In the end, I bought my RAM from 18004memory.com as they had a decent price and I have good luck with them in the past. Any ideas on what the dealio is with Crucial?
 
leftbanke7 said:
I know that Crucial is a top choice among these boards for RAM purchases due to their high quality and good customer service. However, I just purchased a 1 GB stick of RAM for my PB today and using ramseeker.com to compare prices, Crucial's price was double what most of the other companies were selling it for. Doing a little bit more investigating, at best, Crucial was still $120.00+ more than anybody else for what seemed to be comparible sticks. Is Crucial having a supply issue? Are their sticks just THAT much better than all the rest? Are they just charging too much for memory? In the end, I bought my RAM from 18004memory.com as they had a decent price and I have good luck with them in the past. Any ideas on what the dealio is with Crucial?
Click to expand...


I've bought Crucial several times and I've never had any real problems.

Crucial is much more expensive than generic RAM when you are comparing 1GB sticks, but when you compares 512MB stick the difference isn't that much.

The general concensus is that the are two kinds of RAM, the one that works and the ones that doesn't. That is wrong, lower quality RAM delivers more "mistakes" than high quality. I've had two kernel panics on my powerbook (with crucial) since august, some might think that's much, but I'm compiling tons of apps and runs tons of apps. With my G4 (two 64MB apple sticks, one 256MB twinmos and one 256MB noname) i used to have about one kernel panic a month.

It's not true that RAM always causes the kernel panic, but its often the main reason.

Also, there are tons of happy users with noname branded memory..

I think it's not worth saving a few bucks for some RAM that might cause you problems, when you have paid $1000+ for your machine
 
Yes, generic RAM isn't something that I would ever get, but you can get non-generic, brand name RAM that's much much cheaper than you can get it at Crucial. The only people more expensive than Crucial for "okay" RAM is Apple, and Apple just re-brands Samsung RAM (the largest RAM maker in the world). Their RAM is decent, too.

Get Crucial RAM from somewhere else, and it'll be cheaper. Crucial.com is horrible, and they use dynamic pricing and search through your cookies for past purchases and such to see what type of customer you are (ie: how much you're willing to spend).

Just go to OWC and get Samsung RAM or OWC Branded RAM. Same guarantee and everything.
 
Abstract said:
Yes, generic RAM isn't something that I would ever get, but you can get non-generic, brand name RAM that's much much cheaper than you can get it at Crucial. The only people more expensive than Crucial for "okay" RAM is Apple, and Apple just re-brands Samsung RAM (the largest RAM maker in the world). Their RAM is decent, too.

Get Crucial RAM from somewhere else, and it'll be cheaper. Crucial.com is horrible, and they use dynamic pricing and search through your cookies for past purchases and such to see what type of customer you are (ie: how much you're willing to spend).

Just go to OWC and get Samsung RAM or OWC Branded RAM. Same guarantee and everything.
Click to expand...

If I am not mistaken RAM classification is licensed by many vendors in regards to DDR1, DDR2, SO-DIMM, DIMM, and the ram speed ratings.

Generic or non-generic you pay for the name brand, warranty(life time), support, liability, etc...

It has nothing to do with one company making better more effective ram than another, the same can be said for mobile phones the technology inside is licenses by many companies for cost reasons.

If you want the brand name, warranty(life time), support, liability, etc... then it will cost you extra.

Plain and Simple. 🙂
 
Ironically the only RAM failures I've seen over the years has been with Apple branded sticks. I count 5 sets of failures over the last 10 years. That's not much but I've never seen failure from any other maker. 😕

Maybe I'm on a streak or should I go buy a lottery ticket? 😛
 
m a y a said:
It has nothing to do with one company making better more effective ram than another, the same can be said for mobile phones the technology inside is licenses by many companies for cost reasons.
Click to expand...
This is mostly true if you buy the generic ram and even the generic brand name ram.

Make sure when you buy your ram that you look for other information besides name and price, because different brands and different ram-types have different variants (and those varients have varients[and yes, even those varients have varients]). Look for stuff like latency, user-reviews, and maybe performance charts. Try newegg to look around and I like anandtech.com for hardware analysis. Here's some graphs on 3200 Ram. Low Latency, Performance DDR 3200 Ram Compared Note: these are high-end ram from manufacturers and the Ram you buy that just branded (as in no specific product with the brand i.e. regular crucial ram) would show lower results. Low latency makes a difference. Even higher speeds RAM speeds and low latency ram screams! If you got the $$$ i suggest going for some 2-2-2 ram, although price/preformace wise... it's probally not worth it. This one seems to be the bomb-diggedy. here

After you pick one, google it or look it up at the makers website to see if there are any problems with. it. I would always check to make sure that it works with Macs too. Sometimes there can be boards that don't like some ram. here
 
snkTab said:
This is mostly true if you buy the generic ram and even the generic brand name ram.

Make sure when you buy your ram that you look for other information besides name and price, because different brands and different ram-types have different variants (and those varients have varients[and yes, even those varients have varients]). Look for stuff like latency, user-reviews, and maybe performance charts. Try newegg to look around and I like anandtech.com for hardware analysis. Here's some graphs on 3200 Ram. Low Latency, Performance DDR 3200 Ram Compared Note: these are high-end ram from manufacturers and the Ram you buy that just branded (as in no specific product with the brand i.e. regular crucial ram) would show lower results. Low latency makes a difference. Even higher speeds RAM speeds and low latency ram screams! If you got the $$$ i suggest going for some 2-2-2 ram, although price/preformace wise... it's probally not worth it. This one seems to be the bomb-diggedy. here

After you pick one, google it or look it up at the makers website to see if there are any problems with. it. I would always check to make sure that it works with Macs too. Sometimes there can be boards that don't like some ram. here
Click to expand...

Anyone who just buys RAM and has no knowledge of what of to look for:

PC2100 / PC2700 / PC3200
SO-DIMM/DIMM
PIN COUNT
CL rating
DDR1 or DDR2 (not much of an issues now since most are DDR1)
ECC or non ECC (not much of an issues, since many are non ECC)

Always check the above six points when buying ram. This little list is just an aid when buying ram and what to look for, it is by no means a complete list. 🙂
 
Cheap RAM is something to stay away from, as it can seriously affect your system, and result in a huge hassle when it ends up breaking, or causing your computer to break. Crucial is safe because it offers good RAM, usually at a bit of a premium, with a great warranty and support if it doesn't work. 🙂
 
Where is the best place to look for memory? Anyone have an decent retailers? I need to get 2GB (2 - 1GB sticks) of DDR400 (PC3200) RAM for a 20" 1.8GHz IMac G5. But I want to stay under $500 or so.

Where can I start looking?

Is this RAM decent?

2GB kit (1GBX2) PC-3200 400MHz Dual Channel DDR Infineon Technology / Micron / Samsung

2048MB (1024MB x 2 modules)
TRUE PC3200 400MHz
Low Density Industry Standard
Chip Type: 64Mx8 DRAM Standard
6 Layer Ultra Low Noise Shielded PCB
184-pin DIMM
Non-Parity, Unbuffered, None ECC
CAS Latency: 2.5-3
Optimized for Dual Channel Operation
Voltage: 2.5v-2.8V
Lifetime Warranty

Approved chipsets:
Intel - 865P, 865G, 865PE, 875P, E7205(check your spec.)
Nvidia - nForce2
SIS - 648FX, 655
VIA - KT600, KT800
AND MANY MORE...

On Sale: $355.00
http://www.komusa.com/2gbkit1pc40d.html
 
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