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I purchased 3 x 4 = 12 gb ram for $302

philipma1957

philipma1957

macrumors 603
Original poster
Apr 13, 2010
6,440
319
Howell, New Jersey
Okay I purchased 3 sticks of ram today for 302 bucks. 12 gb total ecc. they arrive next week. I will get back with test results. the last purchase of 12gb ram needed to be returned wrong ram. this is a different seller i will let you all know how it works when I get it.

It is listed as APPLE MAC PRO ram. I don't want to say any more until it arrives.


as an aside I am doing some testing on this card from owc.
Comes with a cd driver that must be used and does not boot mac.. BUT it is giving me raid0 transfer speed of a 700gb clone at 210MB/s. I have a 4.5tb software raid0 in the mac pro with 3 wd 1.5tb caviar blacks. and a 4tb raid0 of samsung 1tb f3's in a owc QX2 esata cable is the link.

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer Technology/MXPCIE6GRS/


as a note you can use the qx2 as a boot drive with fw800 or usb2 cables. just keep only 1 cable attached to the mac.
 
okay the ram is coming on oct 1 I will post test for it.

They have sold me about 60 ramsticks for mac mini upgrades. 58 good ones and 1 bad pair that they gave me a replacement pair as a RMA.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
hmm keep us updated. seems like a good deal. might be interested after seeing the results.
 
I have a 2010 mp 2.8 quad with a 200gb patriot infereno ssd and a 4.5tb wd caviar black raid0. I have 4 sticks of 1 gb ram from apple in it I will run a few tests on the machine this oct 1
 
The ram ia out for delivery (today) according to ups site. I am hoping to post results on it tonite. to show how waiting can be a good thing the price dropped to 93.84 per stick


http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php...B-ECC-Server-Memory-For-Apple-Mac-Pro-Systems


so this is about 281.52 for 12gb ram add 12 to ship 293.52 take a 10 buck discount for the code ENDZONE10

283.52 is your TOTAL..



The seller has been good to me with all the ram I purchased for mac mini upgrades. 50 to 60 sticks.


They are out of CA. so sales tax if you are in CA I think San Jose is the town. I get 0 commission. I will be able to run xbench geekbench apple test.

I don't use my pro for video mostly for disk management cloning etc. So I will not be able to run a lot of higher end programs to test it.
 
johnnymg said:
Cool on the RAM. Looking forward to your comments.

Also, please give us an update on the esata card. Any issues?

thanks
JohnG
Click to expand...

ONE thing this card needs drivers but the cd that comes with it works for mac osx fine... I am not running any windows to test. The cd does have window drivers.

The esata card does not boot but it clearly says that it does not boot. I have reach transfer speeds of 220mb/s
I cloned from an owc qx2 with 4 samsung 1tb f3 drives in a raid0 to 3 cavair black 1.5tb hdds in a raid0. so the first raid0 is a 4tb raid0 with 2.1tb of info the second raid0 is a 4.5tb raid0. it copied at 220mb/s using superduper the aver speed was 205 mb/s

I copied a bootable osx that had a boat load of songs and tv shows. The copy is bootable> I then zeroed out the owc qx2 it wrote over at 245mb/s sinking to 195mb/s deep into the zero out around the 3.2tb mark. I then cloned the mac pro copy back to the owc qx2 all via esata cable it allowed the copy at 220 to 195 mb/s.

At this point the owc reads it is bootable. Tried to boot via the esata connection just for *****s and giggles no go, but it does boot via fw800 or usb2. Just make sure you only have 1 connected fw800 to boot or usb2. what this means is you can run your entire mac pro as a 4 bay software raid0. then use 2 owc qx2's for backups. one is a clone and one is a timemachine. to play it super safe you can have a third offsite backup via network. all pretty low cost. so I do recommend the esata card with a pair of owc qx2's as a low cost backup choice.


right now I have 4 drives in the pro as a 6tb raid0. cost 400

4 drives in one qx2 as a 6tb raid0 clone . cost 600 including the qx2

4 drives in one qx2 as a 6tb raid0 timemachine. cost 600 including the qx2


the card on sale open box cost 65 bucks . 79 is the normal price.


an offsite setup for backups . don't know the cost. right now it is 4 boxed hdds that are not mounted but ready to drop into a qx2. Labeled 1 2 3 4 and created as a raid0. they do rebuild if loaded into one of the two owc qx2's. In the correct order of course.

I will want to set a second set up with 4 more hdds as a raid5 not sure if they will rebuild as easy as the raid0 does.



I know a lot of people will say raid0 is too risky but I like the extra speed.
you could use all 2tb hdds as a raid10 which would be safer.

It would limit your macpro raid0 to 4 1tb hdds but you would still get fast speeds.


you would have the pro with 4 1tb caviar blacks in raid0 for your 4tb


4 2tb hdds in the first qx2 in a raid10 as a clone

and 4 2tb hdds in the second qx2 in a raid10 as a time machine







my read write speeds are about 350 for both read and write in the pro raid0. I am thinking that these are fast enough and I may sell off my ssd's and velociraptors.
 
Transporteur said:
I'd like to hear something about the card as well.
Did you encounter any throughput limitations with it?
Click to expand...

well the card allows superduper clones around 220mp/s.


some aja scores. are write of 204MB/s read 198MB/s as a low

and write of 210MB/s read of 238MB/s.. as a high

I am of the opinion the limit in this case would be the qx2 not the card..

All my external units are sata 2 and 230 to 245MB/s is the top end for sata 2 enclosures more or less. I am thinking the bottle neck is the qx2.

the profile reads the speed limit is a link speed of 5.0GT/s

for the pci card readout.
 
one more set of scores xbench testing the 1.5tb partition on the owc qx2. the raid0 is 4tb samsung f3 1tb hdds. the partition is 1.5tb with 1.47tb empty. here is the link to the whole xbench score.

the hdd scores are good.

the red scores are my machine.


http://db.xbench.com/merge.xhtml?doc1=472618&doc2=1&setCookie=true


the disk scores are good for hdds

sequential

192 MB/sec 4k write
193 MB/sec 256k write
47 MB/sec 4k read
215 MB/sec 256k read


random

23.35 MB/sec 4k write
165.34 MB/sec 256k write
36.17 MB/sec 4k read
219.84 MB/sec 256k read


these would drop off but they are consistent with the long zero write I did. highs are about 215 to 220 and i am doing a bit of other work on the machine.

so 230 to 240 peak on a long clone sinking down to 175-180 MB/sec near the end of the raid volume is what you can expect. Not bad if you are willing to use two enclosures you could have your info pretty safe and hold off on hi cost ssd's. Maybe next fall the bigger sized intels will be a decent price.
 
techtool passed the ram. so for simple programs it is looking good. my istats read about 100 f for each ram slot when I had the 1 gb sticks. after a few hours i will let you know hot hot this ram is. real fast off about the same 98 f.

remember I had 4 1gb sticks now I have 3 4gb sticks. Having 1 less stick and 12gb ram so far seems to run cooler under lite duty.


Report for Volume 'WD6tb_OSX_raid0'

Format: Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
Interface: Serial ATA
Capacity: 5.46 TB
Available: 3.82 TB
Used: 1.63 TB
File Count: 960,910


Processor
Passed
This test verifies that the Central Processor Unit (CPU) is operating correctly.
Multiple processors were detected and tested.


RAM
Passed
This test checks physical and virtual memory. The program deploys a variety of memory test routines that allow RAM to be inspected for inconsistencies.


Video RAM
Passed
Video RAM, as all components of your video circuitry, must be fully functional for graphics to be properly displayed.
 
yes it did but the two tests are on an external raid0 with a pci card.


I need to test my internal 6tb raid0.

with the three 4gb sticks and the four 1gb

sticks also with the oem three 1gb sticks . remember that xbench is an old program. I won't be able to post more tests until monday.

aja

geekbench
 
QX2 booting on macpro 2008

philipma1957 said:
ONE thing this card needs drivers but the cd that comes with it works for mac osx fine... I am not running any windows to test. The cd does have window drivers.

The esata card does not boot but it clearly says that it does not boot. I have reach transfer speeds of 220mb/s
I cloned from an owc qx2 with 4 samsung 1tb f3 drives in a raid0 to 3 cavair black 1.5tb hdds in a raid0. so the first raid0 is a 4tb raid0 with 2.1tb of info the second raid0 is a 4.5tb raid0. it copied at 220mb/s using superduper the aver speed was 205 mb/s

I copied a bootable osx that had a boat load of songs and tv shows. The copy is bootable> I then zeroed out the owc qx2 it wrote over at 245mb/s sinking to 195mb/s deep into the zero out around the 3.2tb mark. I then cloned the mac pro copy back to the owc qx2 all via esata cable it allowed the copy at 220 to 195 mb/s.

At this point the owc reads it is bootable. Tried to boot via the esata connection just for *****s and giggles no go, but it does boot via fw800 or usb2. Just make sure you only have 1 connected fw800 to boot or usb2. what this means is you can run your entire mac pro as a 4 bay software raid0. then use 2 owc qx2's for backups. one is a clone and one is a timemachine. to play it super safe you can have a third offsite backup via network. all pretty low cost. so I do recommend the esata card with a pair of owc qx2's as a low cost backup choice.


right now I have 4 drives in the pro as a 6tb raid0. cost 400

4 drives in one qx2 as a 6tb raid0 clone . cost 600 including the qx2

4 drives in one qx2 as a 6tb raid0 timemachine. cost 600 including the qx2


the card on sale open box cost 65 bucks . 79 is the normal price.


an offsite setup for backups . don't know the cost. right now it is 4 boxed hdds that are not mounted but ready to drop into a qx2. Labeled 1 2 3 4 and created as a raid0. they do rebuild if loaded into one of the two owc qx2's. In the correct order of course.

I will want to set a second set up with 4 more hdds as a raid5 not sure if they will rebuild as easy as the raid0 does.



I know a lot of people will say raid0 is too risky but I like the extra speed.
you could use all 2tb hdds as a raid10 which would be safer.

It would limit your macpro raid0 to 4 1tb hdds but you would still get fast speeds.


you would have the pro with 4 1tb caviar blacks in raid0 for your 4tb


4 2tb hdds in the first qx2 in a raid10 as a clone

and 4 2tb hdds in the second qx2 in a raid10 as a time machine







my read write speeds are about 350 for both read and write in the pro raid0. I am thinking that these are fast enough and I may sell off my ssd's and velociraptors.
Click to expand...

I am new here but long time mac user since Apple II E in 1983.
I have been following discussions on OWC QX2 & also their NewerTech 6g PCI Raid Esata card. Both of which I purchased. Have MacPro 2008 & several cases including OWC quad interface 2 drive hardware raid sata case as well as QX 2. Both cases have esata. Returned NewerTech 6g esata pci card after a week because it would not maintain connections to either drive case through multiple sleep & wake-ups . Powering down drives occasionally or powering up while computer was awake after sleep episode card would never maintain consistent connection. Would have to restart computer to bring back either esata case. That was the same behaviour as the onboard extra 2 sata ports on board routed to back of case. This really was not a hot swap hot plug card even though it is advertised as such. Once card lost touch with cases-nothing would bring them back except restart. Also card performance was dismal compared to onboard sata port w/QX2 w/4 samsung f/1's raid 0.

Also want to comment on booting QX 2 case as well as the OWC quad interface esata 2 drive sata case. My macpro will boot from startup partitions on both cases. The trick is to plug running case esata cable into esata port as quickly as possible after restart chime, for the OS to see & mount volumes. Sometimes takes once or twice. Then when /if OS mounts case partitions, select startup disk in preference panel & restart again (leave cable connected). Cases(partitions) will remain available & bootable for restarts as long as only restarts and not shutdown then restart cold. Also case/cases go to sleep & wake up just fine with OS shutting drives down after a minute or so (fan continues to run low speed). Been running this for about 2 weeks w/10.6.4 & 10.5.8. Did have one event where startup partition on QX2 went down & needed repair w/diskwarrior. Everything is much faster on the OS when running like this. Solid state drive is only faster. Only way to get around monkeying around with cables & restarts to mount & boot volumes with motherboard sata ports connected to QX2 is esata pci card that is bootable. Hard to find for under 600.00. Not sure why. I am going to get a hold of Highpoint esata for mac 2port card claims to be bootable, cost around $189.00 has both 32 & 64 EFI firmware on card. I will see what happens, post back.
 
2x8Gb for $165.99 USD ($188.99 CDN)

Hi all,

I didn't want to drop as much for 12Gb with 3x4Gb sticks, so I researched, and decided to go with 2x4Gb and use two of the original 1Gb sticks so that I have 10Gb for almost half of what 12Gb gets you. They are ECC, 1333Mhz, with Thermal sensor, and unbuffered which is what you need for them to play nicely with the stock ram that comes in the Mac Pro 2010 (hex core).

KVR1333D3E9SK2/8G
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820139262&Tpk=KVR1333D3E9SK2/8G

I got mine from Newegg.ca in Canada which is now out of stock. I'm going to run some more intensive tests on the RAM tonight, but so far, it's running perfectly.
 
silby101 said:
Hi all,

I didn't want to drop as much for 12Gb with 3x4Gb sticks, so I researched, and decided to go with 2x4Gb and use two of the original 1Gb sticks so that I have 10Gb for almost half of what 12Gb gets you. They are ECC, 1333Mhz, with Thermal sensor, and unbuffered which is what you need for them to play nicely with the stock ram that comes in the Mac Pro 2010 (hex core).

KVR1333D3E9SK2/8G
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820139262&Tpk=KVR1333D3E9SK2/8G

I got mine from Newegg.ca in Canada which is now out of stock. I'm going to run some more intensive tests on the RAM tonight, but so far, it's running perfectly.
Click to expand...

This what I did too, but with OWC memory. Works fine!
 
ahavriluk said:
This what I did too, but with OWC memory. Works fine!
Click to expand...

It's a good route to go. The only difference between what we did is it depends on if you want to have it tested for you in that type of system by the person you are buying it for such as OWC, or do the research and find one that should work and test it your self, such as buying KVR. That's the only difference that I've found in my research. All Ram is (should) be covered by a lifetime warranty. By testing it yourself, you can save some money.

OWC RAM 2x8Gb for $249.99 USD
KVR RAM 2x8Gb for $165.99 USD (Save $84)

I'm running my tests tonight and if there are any problems, will get them replaced through the warranty.
 
silby101 said:
Hi all,

I didn't want to drop as much for 12Gb with 3x4Gb sticks, so I researched, and decided to go with 2x4Gb and use two of the original 1Gb sticks so that I have 10Gb for almost half of what 12Gb gets you. They are ECC, 1333Mhz, with Thermal sensor, and unbuffered which is what you need for them to play nicely with the stock ram that comes in the Mac Pro 2010 (hex core).

KVR1333D3E9SK2/8G
Click to expand...

Dumb question for the day: Does the 2009 Mac Pro use the same ram as the 2010 models? $165 is a great deal for 8gigs. Im tempted to do this upgrade as well, but I have a 2009 quad core.
 
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