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likosoad

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 21, 2005
45
0
Hi

I live in belguim and I want to buy some memory for my 17inch pb.
I was thinking of buying 2 gb, 2 sticks of 1 gb. Here in belguim I pay 330 euro for 1 gb memory in the apple store. That's like more then 400 dollars for 1 gb.
When I look at OWC, I can buy 1 gb for only 65 dollars.
At first I thought, wow that's amazing. But I'm wondering, isn't it like a bit too amazing. How can the difference in price be so immensly big ?
So I guess my question is, can I trust this bargain ?
 
Absolutely...I assume you're talking about the RAM at the top of this page. In fact, I'd skip the $65 Samsung RAM and go with the $50 OWC brand...lifetime advance warranty, so there's no reason not to.

Note that that RAM we're talking about is only for the last model of 15" and 17" PowerBooks with the high-resolution display, released in October 2005. All other G4 PowerBooks use the more expensive RAM further down the page.

OWC is a fantastic company that comes highly recommended here. Apple overcharges for RAM by a tremendous amount. They've done better recently, but they don't adjust their pricing as supply and demand ebb and flow over time. They generally set a high price on the RAM when the machines come out, and the price stays there.

Not sure what other options are available in Europe for good third-party RAM, but OWC is terrific in the US.
 
Edit: Nevermind I just noticed the op was talking about a Powerbook not a Macbook. The price at OWC is better than I could find through newegg for DDR Memory.
 
Even if it is DDR, the OWC RAM is still only $93, still much better than Apple's $300.

But yes, make sure you are comparing like with like, with that being the proper RAM for your machine. Both Apple and OWC (and most other RAM vendors) have online guides to show you what's appropriate for your machine.
 
thanks for the help guys.
My powerbook is in fact the latest model that came out, right before the first macbook. So I have DDR2 and 1.67mhz..
So the price is still amazing, and since everyone has now convinced me OWC is trusteable, I am placing an order first thing in the moring:D
 
I've used OWC a bunch of times and they've always been great.

The one thing I'd do differently is go for the Samsung original or Techworks for a few $$ more.
 
Hi guys, Just one more question. I dropped by th apple store here in belgium yesterday to be sure what kind of memory I had to buy for my pb.
There they told me that you can barely feel the difference between 1.5 gb and 2 gb.
Is this true ? Cause otherwise I'm just going to orde one more gb, instead of 2, wich would offcourse save me a lot of money..

greets
 
It depends on what you're using your computer for. If it's demanding stuff, 2 GB is the way to go. But if you're just browsing the web, playing some iTunes and creating Word documents, you won't really see a difference.
 
If you are in Belgium, you should check out the local prices first before ordering from abroad. That way you avoid import duty and VAT.

For instance, in the UK you could get this for your PB:

Corsair 1GB PC-5300 for £25.

which works out at the same price as OWC, but the shipping should be cheaper. Incidentally, the price was £22 a week ago, so shop around.
You will almost certainly have similar prices back home. DDR2 memory is cheap for now, because memory manufacturers ramped up production in expectation of a big take-off of Vista, which has yet to happen.
 
If you are in Belgium, you should check out the local prices first before ordering from abroad. That way you avoid import duty and VAT.

For instance, in the UK you could get this for your PB:

Corsair 1GB PC-5300 for £25.

which works out at the same price as OWC, but the shipping should be cheaper. Incidentally, the price was £22 a week ago, so shop around.
You will almost certainly have similar prices back home. DDR2 memory is cheap for now, because memory manufacturers ramped up production in expectation of a big take-off of Vista, which has yet to happen.

Thx very much for this, you make a very good point indeed. I'm gonna go shop around in the local countries for a while on the net, see if I can find some cheap prices elsewhere. And not only would the shipping cost be less, it would probably arrive alot faster aswell.
I'll still go for the the 2gb, since I do use a lot of "heavy duty" programs, like motion, final cut, adobe cs2 programs and many programs for recording music and making music, like reason and cubase.
So all of this can indeed use a lot of memory.
So thx once again to everyone, this board is really the best around !
 
curious - i'm getting a lot of varying feedback on this question - is there a difference between owc and the more expensive brands, i.e. crucial, kingston, mushkin? It seems like owc offers the same specs with the same warrantee, but for me, i wouldn't mind paying the premium ram if it is WORTH it. i mean, sometimes you get what you pay for, but, then again, sometimes you don't. so i guess what i am asking is if I buy, say, kingston over owc am I getting something of real relative value for what i am paying for, or am i throwing my money away for naught? Is there ANY difference other than branding? I mean, it seems a lot of real smart people swear by kingston or crucial or mushkin, there has to be some reason, right? and IF there is which of the brands of ram would you preferabbly buy?

thanks.
 
As long as it's guaranteed to work in a Mac, has a good warranty (lifetime is preferred), and has good feedback from people, the RAM is a good buy. OWC and Datamem both fit the bill.
 
so no viable difference in long term performance whatsoever between owc and kingston, crucial, mushkin, etc.?
 
so no viable difference in long term performance whatsoever between owc and kingston, crucial, mushkin, etc.?

Nope. As long as it's the right spec, it'll give you the desired performance.
 
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