Cheap memory for G5 1.6 - Where to look?

kpeterk said:

I'm looking to add 1 gb (2x512) of memory to my machine. It seems as though all the places I'm looking are extremely expensive. Can anyone point me to some decent prices? Thanks in advance.


On a side note - my system has 8 memory slots (2 banks of 4). I thought the PowerMac 1.6 systems only had 4 slots total?

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Have you checked on Ramseeker.com? They have all of the latest prices updated daily.
http://www.ramseeker.com/scripts/modelDetails.php?modelId=38

Having been burned by cheap ram before, I only feel safe recommending crucial.com
It is not the cheapest, but you will have ram that will be replaced if it fails. I have been buying there for 3-4 years with no problems.

ThomasJefferson said:

Having been burned by cheap ram before, I only feel safe recommending crucial.com
It is not the cheapest, but you will have ram that will be replaced if it fails. I have been buying there for 3-4 years with no problems.

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I'll second a positive crucial experience and that's having it shipped up here north of the border.

Memory4less?

I'm in the same boat, looking for more ram for my G5 1.6. I've looked and it seems the best price was at memory4less. Considerably cheaper than Crucial. I believe that they have a lifetime warranty also. Man I don't want problems but want to maximize my bang for the buck. Anyone have any experience with "memory4less"?

The memory I bought from Crucial caused my system to become unstable. When I called to report the problem, they asked me to swap modules in and out to determine which one was bad. I told them I wasn't go to waste any more time playing trouble shooter for them. I sent them back.

I'd still like to upgrade my ram but given the major hassle bad ram can cause I'm somewhat wary. If I do attempt to upgrade my ram again, I'll probably go with Kingston in the hope that higher cost=higher reliability.

kangaroo said:

The memory I bought from Crucial caused my system to become unstable. When I called to report the problem, they asked me to swap modules in and out to determine which one was bad. I told them I wasn't go to waste any more time playing trouble shooter for them. I sent them back.

I'd still like to upgrade my ram but given the major hassle bad ram can cause I'm somewhat wary. If I do attempt to upgrade my ram again, I'll probably go with Kingston in the hope that higher cost=higher reliability.

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Kingston won't necessarily solve your problem: I've heard kingston horror stories as well. If you are willing to pay higher prices, why not have it professionally installed? Then it's the installer's job to make sure it's working.

wordmunger said:

Kingston won't necessarily solve your problem: I've heard kingston horror stories as well. If you are willing to pay higher prices, why not have it professionally installed? Then it's the installer's job to make sure it's working.

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When you say 'professionally installed' what specifically do you mean--Apple?

zagato27 said:

I'm in the same boat, looking for more ram for my G5 1.6. I've looked and it seems the best price was at memory4less. Considerably cheaper than Crucial. I believe that they have a lifetime warranty also. Man I don't want problems but want to maximize my bang for the buck. Anyone have any experience with "memory4less"?

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I have bought RAM from them twice with absolutely no problems. They had great prices and shipped fast and the RAM has been trouble free.

kangaroo said:

When you say 'professionally installed' what specifically do you mean--Apple?

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I meant just look up in the yellow pages under "computer service."

kpeterk said:

Does anyone have any information about the slots in my computer? Why do I have 2 banks of 4 slots in my G5 1.6? I thought there was supposed to be less (2 banks of 2)?

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I just replied to another query about this in another thread, but just in case you don't see that...this has been reported before (on Apple's Discussion forums) by another user who bought a refurbed 1.6GHz G5. It looks like Apple may be selling refurbed 1.6 units which may have originally been single 1.8 systems (hence the motherboard with 8 RAM slots instead of 4). I don't think System Profiler can tell you whether your expansion slots are PCI or PCI-X (thus confirming that the motherboard is from a 1.8 system and not some totally bizarre 1.6 board with 8 slots), but there may be another way to trace your system's ancestry. Does anyone know which system serial numbers correlate with which system models?

With regards to your other questions, I know this is getting to be a very familiar answer, but I bought 2 x 512MB sticks of Crucial RAM for my 1.6GHz G5 and it has been rock solid since the upgrade (about 5 months now). I had no problem getting Crucial to deliver to me in Sydney, Australia either (it took about a week to get here). I did run into trouble earlier with another 1.6GHz G5 unit using Apacer DDR333 modules and Kingmax DDR333 modules, but it may have had nothing to do with the RAM. That G5 was incredibly unstable no matter what RAM I had in it, and it was returned to Apple DOA after only 6 days...I have had no RAM problems with the replacement (current) system though using Crucial (Crucial is actually what Apple shipped it with for the 2 x 128MB modules).