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Best place/price for 8gb (2x4gb) Memory for new iMac 27 i7

rickpoet

rickpoet

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 22, 2002
93
51
Los Angeles, California
Hi,

I just ordered a new iMac 27" (i7) with the base memory configuration and am looking around for the best price/place to buy an additional 8gb (2 x 4gb) to add.

Can anyone recommend an online store to get this memory upgrade at a good price?

I found it here: http://www.amazon.com/Komputerbay-D...1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1281431584&sr=1-1 on Amazon for $195 (no tax plus free prime shipping) Does that seem like a good price?

Is Komputerbay a reliable memory brand?

Also see NuRam at OWC: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer Technology/1333DDR3S08S/ for $239.95

and Corsair at PCConnection: http://www.pcconnectionexpress.com/IPA/Shop/Product/Detail.htm?sku=10826922&cac=Result for $217.95

Don't have much experience buying memory so all these brand names and stores don't mean a lot to me so any insights would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance!
 
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An untested recommendation...

I ordered g.skill memory from NewEgg:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231295 because of the good price ($209) and I saw somewhere on this forum that somebody has had good luck with g.skill. I haven't yet received my i7, so I can't yet say from first hand experience that this works, but customer comments in NewEgg's site suggests it will work fine in Apple products. Besides, NewEgg has a decent return policy. [Edit: I ended up returning this memory because it was causing my Mac to become unstable (random shutdowns).]
 
Can anyone comment on the performance of having 2 different sets of ram (2x2gb apple and the 2x4gb OWC for example). I am in the same predicament as the OP and getting the 27 i7 today. Can't decide whether I should go with the Apple additional 4gb package (2x2gb to make it a total of 8) or buy my own 8gb kit as the OP is doing.
 
If a pair of chips work, they will work with another working pair from a different manufacturer. Such is the nature of the modern memory standards, although it was not necessarily the case in the early Mac days of the 1980s.
 
Thermonuclear said:
If a pair of chips work, they will work with another working pair from a different manufacturer. Such is the nature of the modern memory standards, although it was not necessarily the case in the early Mac days of the 1980s.
Click to expand...

I agree in principle with this, but be sure the memory timings & speed are the same to ensure no problems. Also if you buy a slower speed (1067 vs 1333), the memory will run at the slower speed for all chips.

This is my first experience with Apple, but with PCs, if the memory timings are different, it can cause issues. I always try to buy the same brand & timings & have never had an issue with PCs I have built in the past.

I believe the memory timing on the Samsung memory in my iMac is 9, but can't confirm that because I just bought my i7 & don't have windows loaded on it to run cpu-z. If anyone has Windows loaded on their iMac, downloading cpu-z will give you everything you need to know about your hardware, including the memory timings. Of course you can just pull out the memory that came with the iMac & jot down the manufacturer & product # & look it up.
 
ecks618 said:
Can anyone comment on the performance of having 2 different sets of ram (2x2gb apple and the 2x4gb OWC for example). I am in the same predicament as the OP and getting the 27 i7 today. Can't decide whether I should go with the Apple additional 4gb package (2x2gb to make it a total of 8) or buy my own 8gb kit as the OP is doing.
Click to expand...

I am also having this problem... I will get the 2TB drive but thought of getting the memory on my own since it is way way cheaper with newegg or other places than directly from Apple [wished Apple was cheaper].... what sites carry the 8GB modules?? or 4gb X 2? or wait till the prices drop a little more?? I think the drive is more important to get from Apple even I could do it myself [built all quad cores for PCs on my own for some years now...]
 
i bought the 2x4gb chips from owc yesterday, 5 minutes after ordering my i7 with the base 2x2gb. According to convesations i had with both apple and owc, there shouldnt be a problem...although it was suggested i put the 2x4gb chips where the current 2x2 are...

When my i7 is delivered, if someone can make a suggestion as to how, i can test it...right now, i am just going on faith :)
 
cs4160 said:
i bought the 2x4gb chips from owc yesterday, 5 minutes after ordering my i7 with the base 2x2gb. According to convesations i had with both apple and owc, there shouldnt be a problem...although it was suggested i put the 2x4gb chips where the current 2x2 are...
QUOTE]

Good point about putting the 2 x 4gb chips in the first slots. I wasn't sure if it made any difference, but it seems to make sense to do that, since those slots would be read first. Thanks for posting that.
Click to expand...
 
and back to the topic I posted

Whereas I'm thrilled to have inspired meaningful conversation which is related to my original question...I am wondering if anyone has any thoughts on the few memory sets I posted originally. They're all less expensive options than the OWC memory but I don't know enough about memory to know if it will make a difference.

Thanks,

Rick
 
rickpoet said:
Whereas I'm thrilled to have inspired meaningful conversation which is related to my original question...I am wondering if anyone has any thoughts on the few memory sets I posted originally. They're all less expensive options than the OWC memory but I don't know enough about memory to know if it will make a difference.

Thanks,

Rick
Click to expand...

Hey Rick, I don't like two of those kits as I have never, ever heard of the memory. Now, they may use chips sourced from one of the main manus but who knows what the warranty is going to be and customer service...

I have had good luck with corsair memory but some have indicated a high failure rate (cannot remember the conversation, link). I don't know that seller though, I would stick with a bigger web retailer, OWC, Newegg, CheifValue (newegg), zipzoomfly, etc.

I have had good luck with crucial, mushkin, corsair, g.skill, overclockers (OCZ), kingston. I even have a couple sticks of 1gig ddr2 wintec that ran 24/7 for ~8mo. before upgrading.

I did have 2x corsair fail but each time they replaced them quickly under warranty.
 
texrb said:
I agree in principle with this, but be sure the memory timings & speed are the same to ensure no problems. Also if you buy a slower speed (1067 vs 1333), the memory will run at the slower speed for all chips.
Click to expand...

The SO-DIMM standard has a module's edge connector keyed to match its speed. So if it fits, it should work.
 
texrb said:
This is my first experience with Apple, but with PCs, if the memory timings are different, it can cause issues. I always try to buy the same brand & timings & have never had an issue with PCs I have built in the past.
Click to expand...

The first problem I have ever had with Crucial Memory, and the first kernel panics ever in my iMac, caused by trying to mix two sticks of Crucial memory with the two OEM Apple (Samsung) sticks in my iMac.

Crucial insist they are the correct memory, but it's not going to work. I also noticed that one of their sticks was made in Malaysia, and the other one China.

Whatever they are, they're not working. :)

No problem running the two OEM chips in my iMac with two other OEM chips from my Macbook Pro.

So I've got 8 GB, but running at 1066, the speed of the MacBook Pro chips.

Very surprised to have had this problem with Crucial, but confirming that minor timing differences can cause your memory not to work, or even cause kernel panic.
 
I picked up this 8gb set from NewEgg for my 2010 i5, G.Skill:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231342

$145. Works great. Made in Taiwan. Be certain to pick that SKU, there's another listed that's PC3 10666 rather than PC3 10600 which is the apple spec. Could be the source of the complatibility issues people have had with 3rd party memory.
 

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