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Is third-party RAM really cheaper?

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cronin1024

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 10, 2010
27
0
For years I've heard people say that you should never have Apple upgrade your RAM - that ordering the stock RAM and upgrading it yourself will always be cheaper. Yet when I was pricing out the new MacBook Pros, the upgrade from 4GB RAM to 8GB RAM from Apple was $400, while 2x4GB RAM from Crucial was $500. Other RAM vendors have similar pricing as well - nothing I can find beats Apple's 8GB upgrade option.

Granted, I haven't taken into account the possibility of selling the stock RAM that came with the unit, but that honestly sounds like a lot of work, especially since the savings aren't that significant. Given this, why do people still perpetuate the rumor that Apple RAM is expensive?
 
GGJstudios

GGJstudios

macrumors Westmere
May 16, 2008
44,545
943
Yes, 3rd party RAM is still cheaper. You're comparing the cost of RAM vs the cost of an upgrade. If you buy 8GB from a 3rd party, they don't keep the 4GB that came in your Mac. When you buy 8GB from Apple, they DO keep the 4GB. So Apple isn't charging you for 8GB; they're charging you for the 4GB upgrade.
 
T

tommyknockrs

macrumors newbie
Apr 15, 2010
25
0
cronin1024 said:
For years I've heard people say that you should never have Apple upgrade your RAM - that ordering the stock RAM and upgrading it yourself will always be cheaper. Yet when I was pricing out the new MacBook Pros, the upgrade from 4GB RAM to 8GB RAM from Apple was $400, while 2x4GB RAM from Crucial was $500. Other RAM vendors have similar pricing as well - nothing I can find beats Apple's 8GB upgrade option.

Granted, I haven't taken into account the possibility of selling the stock RAM that came with the unit, but that honestly sounds like a lot of work, especially since the savings aren't that significant. Given this, why do people still perpetuate the rumor that Apple RAM is expensive?
Click to expand...

One thing that stinks is that no matter if you get the 4 gig or 8 gig, Apple will still use both memory slots. So I would say get the 8 gig if you don't want to have spare ram laying around or don't want to spend the effort of trying to sell your old ram.
 
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psingh01

macrumors 68000
Apr 19, 2004
1,571
598
The only benefit of getting it from Apple is you don't want to go through the trouble of selling the stock ram on ebay or you don't want to deal with a 3rd party if your new ram goes bad.
 
Chupa Chupa

Chupa Chupa

macrumors G5
Jul 16, 2002
14,835
7,396
psingh01 said:
The only benefit of getting it from Apple is you don't want to go through the trouble of selling the stock ram on ebay or you don't want to deal with a 3rd party if your new ram goes bad.
Click to expand...

1) It's not a good idea to sell the stock RAM. You'll need it if you have to send your machine back for repair.

2) If your RAM goes bad (rare) you are going to have to get it replaced from one vendor or another. Most RAM manufacturers offer an instant ship program similar to HDs where they take your CC as deposit and send you replacement RAM ASAP. You send back the faulty RAM w/i 30 days and done.
 
L

LXguy

macrumors newbie
Oct 28, 2008
10
0
For those who aren't buying the RAM with the machine (and losing the original 4GB in the process), Apple wants $600 for the RAM itself.

Many vendors offer rebates for the factory RAM, which makes it easy to dispose of and gets cash in your pocket.

Best Ive found:

http://www.ramjet.com has the 8GB kit for $349.97, and offers $25 per 2GB original module. This makes the net cost of the upgrade $299.97, which beats Apple by a smidge over $100.00

The other thing to keep in mind is that the prices on these modules will probably fall dramatically over the next year. Unless you need 8GB today, I would buy my machine with the base config and update later.
 
H

hajime

macrumors 604
Jul 23, 2007
7,733
1,217
I consider to upgrade to 8GB for my new i7 MBP 17" right from the beginning. Somewhere I heard that even upgrading the RAM from 4 to 8GB, there is no noticable increase in heat and energy consumption. Is this really true?
 
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