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The brand shouldn't matter but most users here are using "G-Skill" from newegg.com. The links are on post #1.

This is great news. Why is the G-SKILL so cheap, or why are the others so expensive. Are they a good brand? While I love to save money I do not want to buy something cheap (not price wise).

Again thanks for the help. This should make my fusion .NET MOSS development environment at least up to the min levels.
 
This is great news. Why is the G-SKILL so cheap, or why are the others so expensive. Are they a good brand? While I love to save money I do not want to buy something cheap (not price wise).

Again thanks for the help. This should make my fusion .NET MOSS development environment at least up to the min levels.

From what I understand, cheap ram are basically good ram (the same kind as any other ram) except its IC (programming chip) is running a different program. These chips have 4GB capacity total but it could be that the IC is running at a slower speed, higher timing, etc. for stability when the actual hardware is made for something higher/faster. It could also be that the memory was made for DDR2-800 but due to bad chips at that speed, they underclock to 667 and brand it differently and sell it cheaper.

It could be many other things also.

I personally know one company, Wintec Industries that sell ram on newegg, their cheap ram for, say DDR2-800 is actually DDR2-533 or DDR2-667 hardware, overclocked to reach DDR2-800 speeds. They use that tactic to sell their ram as a cheaper price because their hardware is actually cheaper, but the compromise to cheaper price/hardware is the stability caused by the overclock.
 
They use that tactic to sell their ram as a cheaper price because their hardware is actually cheaper, but the compromise to cheaper price/hardware is the stability caused by the overclock.

This makes me think that I would rather spend more and not have to deal with something going bad.

I think that this is the RAM that I would need:
http://www.crucial.com/store/partspecs.aspx?IMODULE=CT51264AC667

Sure the price is WAY higher but I would rather know that I have quality inside rather than deal with an issue when I need the machine to work.
 
This makes me think that I would rather spend more and not have to deal with something going bad.

I think that this is the RAM that I would need:
http://www.crucial.com/store/partspecs.aspx?IMODULE=CT51264AC667

Sure the price is WAY higher but I would rather know that I have quality inside rather than deal with an issue when I need the machine to work.


Define how much is "WAY higher"... because here in the UK the difference b/w GSkill and Crucial is a whopping 3x more expensive. Thats right 300%!!

I normally go the medium to expensive routes, but I went with GSkill. So far the 4GB stick is working fine with no issues

How do I know if I'm getting better or worse performance than the Crucial? -- I don't. Would like to know if anyones done test benchmarks between the two. But I'll bet that Crucial RAM isn't THREE times faster than the GSkill RAM
 
This makes me think that I would rather spend more and not have to deal with something going bad.

I think that this is the RAM that I would need:
http://www.crucial.com/store/partspecs.aspx?IMODULE=CT51264AC667

Sure the price is WAY higher but I would rather know that I have quality inside rather than deal with an issue when I need the machine to work.

I'm sorry, I might have put it a little more harsh then I first intended.

The companies who sell cheap hardware on their rams usually are from a ram stick that has flaws, such as 1 chip is defective, here, they remove that chip and replace it with another one. Some companies, would put a heatsink over the entire ram stick to cover the obviousness of different brands of chips. Just because they took something that was broken and fixed it up does not mean it is bad ram. It could be better then a newly developed ram. The 4GB sticks are virtually really new, so I highly doubt they'll use this tactic yet. I know DDR2 for desktops were manfactured using this method by many companies.

For g-skill, I notice that they have standard samsung chips, all of them are in good quality (my mom works for a OEM hardware company, she specialize in the ram department, I had her look at my 4GB from G-Skill).

Regardless of what brand you get, if it breaks, it'll break.

Can you have 5GB of RAM on the new MBP
like the stock 1 GB and a 4 GB from newegg?

will there be problems?
or performance flaws

You can have 5GB. There was a user here who have used 5GB in their MBP without problems.

Define how much is "WAY higher"... because here in the UK the difference b/w GSkill and Crucial is a whopping 3x more expensive. Thats right 300%!!

I normally go the medium to expensive routes, but I went with GSkill. So far the 4GB stick is working fine with no issues

How do I know if I'm getting better or worse performance than the Crucial? -- I don't. Would like to know if anyones done test benchmarks between the two. But I'll bet that Crucial RAM isn't THREE times faster than the GSkill RAM

G-Skill is $159 and Crucial is $399 for the same specs on the memory. Both have CL5, Non-ECC, 667MHz.
 
so what would explain the extortionate price difference? (assuming that all factors are equal)
 
so what would explain the extortionate price difference? (assuming that all factors are equal)

Brand is the only thing I can think of. Think of it like buying a T-Shirt. You buy a name brand T-Shirt for $20 when you can get the same T-Shirt at a store like Walmart for $5
 
Brand is the only thing I can think of. Think of it like buying a T-Shirt. You buy a name brand T-Shirt for $20 when you can get the same T-Shirt at a store like Walmart for $5


But usually you get poorer quality all round. Is there a way to test two different brands for performance etc.. guess this would seal the deal. So we know the GSkill memory isn't lacking in any way (or otherwise).

Wonder if anyone has done tests
 
I'd love to test 8 GB of RAM in Linux. Unfortunately I don't have any lying around :)

Me and my brother are considering buying more memory for our MacBook Aluminiums, not that much out of need, but rather for the fun to balance on the bleeding edge. Most likely we will then buy 2*2GB and 2*4GB modules and split them among our decks because that configuration is confirmed to work in Mac OS. Would be a tad bit unconvenient to replace one module every time I have to boot into Mac OS. Anyway, before setting up with 6 GB of RAM I could test 8 GB in Linux. If that'll be the case I'll post here to let everyone know.
 
I'd love to test 8 GB of RAM in Linux. Unfortunately I don't have any lying around :)

Me and my brother are considering buying more memory for our MacBook Aluminiums, not that much out of need, but rather for the fun to balance on the bleeding edge. Most likely we will then buy 2*2GB and 2*4GB modules and split them among our decks because that configuration is confirmed to work in Mac OS. Would be a tad bit unconvenient to replace one module every time I have to boot into Mac OS. Anyway, before setting up with 6 GB of RAM I could test 8 GB in Linux. If that'll be the case I'll post here to let everyone know.

Here's a list of the OS if anyone can test for us under 8GB.

Linux (Any distrib.)
OSX Snow Leopard
Vista x64
Windows 7 (not entirely critical.. but if anyone can, that'll be great)
Windows Server 2003 x86 (yes, you can access 4+ GB on a 32-bit Server 2003 for some reason... I was able to utilize 6GB)

This would help many users here on the possibility of using 8GB on our systems.

Its funny, I have the ability to test all those OS... but I don't have 8GB :rolleyes:
 
Just found out that newegg only ships within the US. This sucks for us guys up in Canada.
 
Hm... Very strange indeed that the distribution you tested with didn't see more than 4 GB RAM. How much RAM was installed? 6 GB or 8 GB? Are you absolutely sure it was a 64-bit distribution? What distribution was it anyway?

The question shouldn't be if a 64-bit Linux kernel recognises 6 or 8 GB of RAM or not, but rather if the system shows of the same kind of behaviour as in Mac OS when 4 GB of RAM usage is reached when 8 GB is installed.
 
Hm... Very strange indeed that the distribution you tested with didn't see more than 4 GB RAM. How much RAM was installed? 6 GB or 8 GB?

8 gb.

Are you absolutely sure it was a 64-bit distribution? What distribution was it anyway?

No, I'm not sure. I just downloaded from the link in that thread.

The question shouldn't be if a 64-bit Linux kernel recognises 6 or 8 GB of RAM or not, but rather if the system shows of the same kind of behaviour as in Mac OS when 4 GB of RAM usage is reached when 8 GB is installed.

I have exceeded 4 gb under OS X with no problems so long as I have 6 gb installed. If there's 8 gb installed, things are unbearably slow after reaching 4 gb used.
 
Just bit the bullet to get the 4gb from crucial since I'm in CDN.
I will let you guys know how it work out on my 4,1.

I will be setting up a 2GB for OSX and 4GB for Fusion win 2008.
 
Ok I got the memory and installed it in the top slot and all seems to be working well (been 5 minutes). I'm running fusion (2003 server) and have the vm set to use 4096mb and it seems to be working.

This is great news (fingers crossed) as the extra 2gb will be required for the new MOSS dev that I need. Before running 2gb for each (2003,osx) was great for .NET dev.
 
Just found out that newegg only ships within the US. This sucks for us guys up in Canada.

I'll sell you the stick I no longer have a use for. It's posted in the marketplace; if you can't access the marketplace, PM me if you wanna talk.

Note to mods: If this is against rules, please make me aware of it. Thanks!
 
I have a couple of questions - many apologies if they've already been answered in this thread - there's far too many pages to read.
(I did read the summary in the first post)

- Has anyone tried more than 4GB in a Macbook (not pro)

- Any recommendations on where to buy this RAM for people outside the US?

I'm just about to order 3x 4GB RAM upgrades for three santa rosa macbooks (see my sig) from Crucial UK, so i might try >4GB for one of them.
 
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