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4,1 RAM - Registered or no?

mattspace

mattspace

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jun 5, 2013
3,608
3,142
Australia
Hi Folks,

so I'm coming to the conclusion that I'm going to replace the 8x1GB modules in my 4,1 and it seemed like 3x16GB would be a sweet spot in terms of getting triple channel bandwidth, while leaving room to add more ram later.

Two choices I've looked at are OWC with their branded RAM, or RamCity with a Samsung product.


The OWC states that their product has thermal sensors built in, the Samsung product is stated as being Registered, I'm assuming the OWC one isn't.

The machine is mostly doing image processing. Thoughts and opinions would be appreciated - the price is more or less equivalent between the two.

Thanks.
 
mattspace said:
Hi Folks,

so I'm coming to the conclusion that I'm going to replace the 8x1GB modules in my 4,1 and it seemed like 3x16GB would be a sweet spot in terms of getting triple channel bandwidth, while leaving room to add more ram later.

Two choices I've looked at are OWC with their branded RAM, or RamCity with a Samsung product.


The OWC states that their product has thermal sensors built in, the Samsung product is stated as being Registered, I'm assuming the OWC one isn't.

The machine is mostly doing image processing. Thoughts and opinions would be appreciated - the price is more or less equivalent between the two.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Hi Mattspace. About a year ago I had a chat with OWC's customer support and he mentioned that their rams are ECC registered. I don't know if at the present they still sell registered rams.
 
mattspace said:
The OWC states that their product has thermal sensors built in, the Samsung product is stated as being Registered, I'm assuming the OWC one isn't.

The machine is mostly doing image processing. Thoughts and opinions would be appreciated - the price is more or less equivalent between the two.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Only one company makes unbuffered 16GB DIMMs and they are twice the price of Registered DIMMs (Intelligent Memory is the company). OWC mention thermal sensors because Apple used to have stuff about DIMMs needing them, but it is part of the JEDEC spec for all DDR3 ECC DIMMs whether unbuffered, Registered or Load Reduced.
 
Thanks for the responses - so would it be safe to assume that Registered / Buffered is the norm for 16GB DIMMS

@Mikeboss That's an option, though I'm not relly keen on the idea of investing in 6x8GB, and then having to dump it all to go with any 16GB additions, since they don't seem to play well with the other kids.

The Samsung ones make a sales point about them clocking down for slower systems - but that's normal behaviour for memory, isn't it? My plan was to buy memory that could run at the 5,1 speed, so that if I get a CPU & firmware upgrade later, the memory will perform at the faster speed.
 
i was at a point where i had one 16GB stick of OWC and was ready to upgrade with two more sticks. having looked at Data Memory Systems prices (much better) i saw they were registered and OWC mentions nothing about it. Took the plunge and all three sticks work perfectly together, so it is not official word, but my complete assumption that OWC sticks are registered as well. Highly recommend DMS ram. Great price, lifetime warranty and no problems yet.

they even upgraded my shipping to 2-day for nothing. awesome folks.
 
Typically, I can tell the difference between ECC and Non-ECC because non-ECC will only have 8 memory chips on a side, where ECC has 9. Also, buffered/registered memory will have the addition of an odd looking IC chip on the DIMM module.
 
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