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From Snow Leopard to ?

Good job you're here really, I wouldn't have a clue about any of it... But as I paid same for the OWC as the Samsung cost, I thought I'd probably made a mistake, but, how different can it be right..

This is what I've ordered:
GB OWC Matched Memory Upgrade Kit (2 x 4GB) 1333MHz PC3-10600 DDR3 SO-DIMM

And this was the same cost, but longer to get hold of, and I'm impatient

Samsung ram memory 8GB kit (2 x 4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800,1600MHz
 
Peter Franks said:
Good job you're here really, I wouldn't have a clue about any of it... But as I paid same for the OWC as the Samsung cost, I thought I'd probably made a mistake, but, how different can it be right..

This is what I've ordered:
GB OWC Matched Memory Upgrade Kit (2 x 4GB) 1333MHz PC3-10600 DDR3 SO-DIMM

And this was the same cost, but longer to get hold of, and I'm impatient

Samsung ram memory 8GB kit (2 x 4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800,1600MHz
Click to expand...
The Samsung RAM is not the right RAM, so good thing you didn't buy it.

Also, even the OWC specs you listed -- 1333MHz PC3-10600 DDR3 -- are not complete enough to determine full compatibility or not. However, the OWC RAM should work because they cater to Mac users and sell based on Mac model.
 
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El Capitan and Mountain Lion are the only post-Snow Leopard releases that I didn't have any issue with and found to be worthy successors. As many have been quick to get on my case about when saying such things, it's worth mentioning that your mileage may vary. But given that El Capitan has another six months of security patch support (give or take) and Mountain Lion left that party upon El Capitan's release two and a half years ago, I'd say El Capitan is a solid release to move to. As others have said, I'd definitely get yourself an SSD (and [so long as it's not an OWC or other Sandforce based SSD] enable TRIM on it), and up your RAM to Apple's supported maximum of 8GB at the very least. Though the chipset supported max of 16GB certainly wouldn't hurt either.

This being said, if your MBP is either a 15" or a 17", I'd be wary of dumping any significant amount of money or time into the machine as the graphics processor issues that affect the Early and late 2011 15" and 17" MacBook Pros will inevitably reoccur. If you're rocking a 13", you won't have the affected GPUs, in which case, upgrading it with the above would probably make for a really awesome little El Capitan box.
 
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EugW said:
The Samsung RAM is not the right RAM, so good thing you didn't buy it.

Also, even the OWC specs you listed -- 1333MHz PC3-10600 DDR3 -- are not complete enough to determine full compatibility or not. However, the OWC RAM should work because they cater to Mac users and sell based on Mac model.
Click to expand...

Yeh, sorry I posted the wrong one, it was the same spec as this one, which I did order
And it was listed for my MBP. 13 " MBP Early 2011 (8.1)
https://www.megamac.com/products/8g...333mhz-pc3-10600-ddr3-so-dimm-owc1333ddr38s08

Yebubbleman said:
El Capitan and Mountain Lion are the only post-Snow
Leopard releases that I didn't have any issue with and found to be worthy successors. As many have been quick to get on my case about when saying such things, it's worth mentioning that your mileage may vary. But given that El Capitan has another six months of security patch support (give or take) and Mountain Lion left that party upon El Capitan's release two and a half years ago, I'd say El Capitan is a solid release to move to. As others have said, I'd definitely get yourself an SSD (and [so long as it's not an OWC or other Sandforce based SSD] enable TRIM on it), and up your RAM to Apple's supported maximum of 8GB at the very least. Though the chipset supported max of 16GB certainly wouldn't hurt either.

This being said, if your MBP is either a 15" or a 17", I'd be wary of dumping any significant amount of money or time into the machine as the graphics processor issues that affect the Early and late 2011 15" and 17" MacBook Pros will inevitably reoccur. If you're rocking a 13", you won't have the affected GPUs, in which case, upgrading it with the above would probably make for a really awesome little El Capitan box.
Click to expand...

Thanks, it's a 13 inch, why is Snow Leopard the only one that nobody ever moaned about? And yet it's now supposedly so dated?

I've ordered the Samsung EVO, what's the deal with OWC on Trim then?. I know nothing about 'TRIM', other than I need to do it, which looks vaguely covered on YouTube. Is it something that has to be done?
 
Peter Franks said:
Yeh, sorry I posted the wrong one, it was the same spec as this one, which I did order
And it was listed for my MBP. 13 " MBP Early 2011 (8.1)
https://www.megamac.com/products/8g...333mhz-pc3-10600-ddr3-so-dimm-owc1333ddr38s08
Click to expand...
That's what I mean. The complete specs are not actually listed there. So even if you got something that had those same listed specs, there is no guarantee it would work, because those specs are not complete.

OWC knows what those specs are, but maybe they don't list the complete specs so people don't start using their website to learn what to buy from another vendor?


Thanks, it's a 13 inch, why is Snow Leopard the only one that nobody ever moaned about? And yet it's now supposedly so dated?
Click to expand...
Snow Leopard is no longer supported by modern software. I'd say that's a pretty damn good reason not to use Snow Leopard anymore.
 
We just trust the parts they list and match up with your ‘early 2011 MBP’, but several of the sites that show what your MBP is compatible with lists that exact same part. All these sites ask what model and then list only a couple of options. What more should it say?

Actually one said the OWC was PC10600 and the other OWC that I got was PC310600, but they look the same part number. Is that relevant
 
Peter Franks said:
We just trust the parts they list and match up with your ‘early 2011 MBP’, but several of the sites that show what your MBP is compatible with lists that exact same part. All these sites ask what model and then list only a couple of options. What more should it say?
Click to expand...
What I’m saying is that if you buy from a Mac oriented store like OWC they will provide the right parts but if you buy from somewhere else, RAM with identical specs to what is listed in your post from OWC may not work. Why? Because, even though OWC will sell you the right RAM, they don’t actually list the full specs.

Specifically, your post doesn’t list any CAS timings, but sometimes these are very important for Mac compatibility.

My point was that if you don’t know what you’re doing, then pay the extra few dollars to get RAM advertised as Mac compatible.

But it’s moot anyway since you already bought the RAM, and what you bought should be fine.
 
My point was that if you don’t know what you’re doing, then pay the extra few dollars to get RAM advertised as Mac compatible.



I think I paid top dollar looking around. And I've been asking in earlier posts which one to get

I am really confused now. It ‘is’ advertised as Mac Compatible and specific to my MBP model. What more could I find than that?
 
I have El Captain on my MBP I am using, works great. I downgraded from High Sierra due to spinning ball and screen going blank..
 
Peter Franks said:
I think I paid top dollar looking around.

I am really confused now. It ‘is’ advertised as Mac Compatible and specific to my MBP model. What more could I find than that?
Click to expand...
If after those explanations you remain confused then there is not much else I can say, except that you should probably continue to buy from places like OWC. You may pay a little more at those stores for that tier of RAM, but you’re paying them to choose the appropriate RAM for you.
 
I looked at Crucial, OWC and Samsung, and every one of the 8GB kits that was 2 x 4GB all came out at £80GB. Every one of them, and so money wasn't the factor. When I went on all of these sites and they say Mac compatible and ask me to put the serial or model and year in, and it comes up with choices for the Early 2011, obviously that line, ... pay the extra few dollars to get RAM advertised as Mac compatible. will confuse me as that's what I thought I'd done, but you'd said otherwise, or I've misunderstood, again

Where should I buy from if not these?
 
Peter Franks said:
I looked at Crucial, OWC and Samsung, and every one of the 8GB kits that was 2 x 4GB all came out at £80GB. Every one of them, and so money wasn't the factor. When I went on all of these sites and they say Mac compatible and ask me to put the serial or model and year in, and it comes up with choices for the Early 2011, obviously that line, ... pay the extra few dollars to get RAM advertised as Mac compatible. will confuse me as that's what I thought I'd done, but you'd said otherwise, or I've misunderstood, again

Where should I buy from if not these?
Click to expand...
This will be my last post on this but it should illustrate what I am talking about.

If you shop at Crucial and use their Mac selector, they will offer you the RAM for say £80. However, if you ignore their Mac selector and look elsewhere on their site strictly by RAM specs, you sometimes can find a different listing of RAM with the EXACT same specs for say £5 less. It will have a different product number and won’t be listed as Mac compatible, but not only does it have the same specs, it in fact is actually the EXACT same RAM. Yes, Crucial charges different prices and lists different part numbers for the exact same parts depending on how you select those parts. Essentially, you are paying a small premium to have them choose the RAM for you.

That’s not a big price difference but the price difference can be bigger if you shop elsewhere. But like I said, given your confusion on this, I suggest continuing paying the price premium, esp. when sometimes you may not actually know the complete spec listing. Indeed, you still have not posted complete specs, because you don’t know what they are.
 
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Ah OK. Thank you.
Out of interest would you say Crucial make a better product for RAM and SSD than OWC?
 
Peter Franks said:
Ah OK. Thank you.
Out of interest would you say Crucial make a better product for RAM and SSD than OWC?
Click to expand...
As mentioned, Crucial is the retail arm of Micron. Micron is one of the world's biggest RAM chip manufacturers. They actually produce the physical chips that go on RAM modules and into SSDs, and they also produce the final products too. They are top to bottom manufacturer.

In contrast, OWC is a store, and OWC RAM is a store rebrand of RAM manufactured by someone else, and we don't know who that someone else is.

You decide.
 
Peter Franks said:
Yeh, sorry I posted the wrong one, it was the same spec as this one, which I did order
And it was listed for my MBP. 13 " MBP Early 2011 (8.1)
https://www.megamac.com/products/8g...333mhz-pc3-10600-ddr3-so-dimm-owc1333ddr38s08



Thanks, it's a 13 inch, why is Snow Leopard the only one that nobody ever moaned about? And yet it's now supposedly so dated?

I've ordered the Samsung EVO, what's the deal with OWC on Trim then?. I know nothing about 'TRIM', other than I need to do it, which looks vaguely covered on YouTube. Is it something that has to be done?
Click to expand...

SSDs deal with data deletion and garbage collection differently than hard drives do. You want TRIM enabled on a Samsung EVO because otherwise, the OS will delete data in the fashion that it does on a hard drive, which is bad for an SSD as SSDs have limited numbers of re-writes that can be done on blocks of data. TRIM optimizes how the data is deleted so that your SSD lasts as long as it possibly can. The reason why you wouldn't want TRIM on an OWC drive is that OWC has that same feature embedded in the firmware of the drive itself. Having TRIM on the OWC drive would be bad because the two features would interfere with each other and be bad for the overall stability of the drive.
 
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Got the RAM this morning and switched that over first. Put lid back and all I have is this bur bur bur beep a blank screen and nothing else. Any idea?
 
Peter Franks said:
Got the RAM this morning and switched that over first. Put lid back and all I have is this bur bur bur beep a blank screen and nothing else. Any idea?
Click to expand...
1. Do you have the latest Mac firmware?
2. Is the memory seated correctly?
3. Did they send the right RAM?

Try reseating the RAM.
 
Thanks for answering so quick, yes, called them and they checked it's the correct RAM for this model, latest firmware, as much as SL went, as I've not done the upgrade OS yet. They've told me to do a NVRAM Reset, but it literally doesn't switch on, nothing except the beep, a beep which I've never heard on this before, more sombre than the usual beeps, nothing fires up. So... how would I do that anyway
 
One other thing of confusion..... what happens to the screws when they come out. I put the lid back on completely flush and clean, but the same screws, the short one, few of them won't screw back in fully and stick out? Does the hole expand if screw not taken out for 7 years?
 
"One other thing of confusion..... what happens to the screws when they come out. I put the lid back on completely flush and clean, but the same screws, the short one, few of them won't screw back in fully and stick out? Does the hole expand if screw not taken out for 7 years?"

EGADS man.
You didn't put the screws back into the RIGHT HOLES.

Go to ifixit.com to find out which screws go where.
 
I'm not great at this, but I'm not THAT bad. All screws went back into the holes they came out of, the short and long 3, but a few aren't going in flush. No biggie, but they came out a lot easier than couple went back in
 
Yebubbleman said:
SSDs deal with data deletion and garbage collection differently than hard drives do. You want TRIM enabled on a Samsung EVO because otherwise, the OS will delete data in the fashion that it does on a hard drive, which is bad for an SSD as SSDs have limited numbers of re-writes that can be done on blocks of data. TRIM optimizes how the data is deleted so that your SSD lasts as long as it possibly can. The reason why you wouldn't want TRIM on an OWC drive is that OWC has that same feature embedded in the firmware of the drive itself. Having TRIM on the OWC drive would be bad because the two features would interfere with each other and be bad for the overall stability of the drive.
Click to expand...

Thanks for explaining that, I know TRIM is mentioned and has to be done, but I had no idea why or what it was, and that makes a lot of sense, that it would still be working as if there was an HD installed, As far as OWC goes, their RAM was not a great choice, so I wouldn't be using their SSD, but the Samsung.
 
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Hey Spectrum, I wanted to do the RAM prior to SSD to see what, if anything, what difference I would notice with that alone, So, I exchanged the dud OWC I just got for another set of 8GB, and that's not helped much. The opening of Word/Photoshop is faster, but things that were a breeze with 4GB online are painful, and freeze up. It won't even play YouTube with the 8GB or any videos that are on webpages without freezing, and hangs when page is closed, and THEN plays the audio from the video on YouTube I was waiting for, when the page is gone. Also, boot up time is twice as long. That may be more explanatory that it's twice as much memory to load? But still painful. It's caused more problems than help. So, maybe try the SSD with the old 4GB.
 
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