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**How to buy 3rd party Ram for new iMac?

Rhobes

Rhobes

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 28, 2004
357
7
Bigfork, MT
:confused:

I'm thinking a fully loaded iMac 2.8GHz Quad-Core i7. I want 8 GB SDRAM and understand I'm better off buying that and installing it myself from a 3rd party. Question: How do I buy it & which configuration is best, I see it is offered as 4x2GB($200.) or 2x4GB($600.) from Apple. Whats with that? Also, will installing an aftermarket ram in any way affect future downloads or hardware, eg. will the computer know it has 8GB, will that figure show up in the computer specs? I've had problems in the past with using 3rd party components. Recommendations as to where to buy the ram and which type? Or, I'm I safest to stay with the Apple Ram(and which one)?:rolleyes:
 
OWC, macsales.com

All Mac, all the time.

If you can use a screwdriver, you can install ram. Instructions are printed on the bottom of the foot on iMacs.

What are you doing that you think you need 8 gigs of ram?

I would wait on the extra 4 gigs, its getting cheaper everyday.
 
Badger^2 said:
All Mac, all the time.

If you can use a screwdriver, you can install ram. Instructions are printed on the bottom of the foot on iMacs.

What are you doing that you think you need 8 gigs of ram?

I would wait on the extra 4 gigs, its getting cheaper everyday.
Click to expand...

I take it from your answer "All Mac all the time", you don't use 3rd party ware. But can you buy Apple ram over the counter? I don't understand the huge price difference between the two varieties they offer. Why would you pay $600 compared to $200 for the 8GB. I'll wait awhile to see what happens in price.:D
 
Rhobes said:
I take it from your answer "All Mac all the time", you don't use 3rd party ware. But can you buy Apple ram over the counter? I don't understand the huge price difference between the two varieties they offer. Why would you pay $600 compared to $200 for the 8GB. I'll wait awhile to see what happens in price.:D
Click to expand...

2GB RAM chips are much cheaper than 4GB chips.
Thus if you order 4x2GB chips it is much cheaper than ordering 2x4GB.
But if you do the second option you still have 8GB RAM with two spare slots for upgrading later to 16GB.
If you buy 4x2GB chips and then later want to upgrade to higher than 8GB you'll have to throw away the 2GB chips.
I wouldn't buy a 4GB chip now though, from Apple or 3rd party, they are too expensive. If you absolutely need 8GB RAM right now then get the standard 2x2GB from Apple and buy another 2x2GB from OWC or Crucial for ~$90
In a year or two 4GB chips will have come down, and it'll be cheaper to buy them then.
 
3rd party RAM from e.g. OWC or Crucial works flawlessly. Here is link for Crucial and here is link for OWC (already selected the RAM you need). 2 x 2GB is less than 100$ so it's definitely worth it and iMacs already comes with 2 x 2GB so you will get 8GB by buying 2 x 2GB more
 
You can go to Ramjet or Macsales.com to confirm the type of memory you need, then buy from NewEgg, where it's less expensive. I'd recommend not going for the cheapest memory available, since bad RAM is a major cause of system instability, but if you go with a name brand you should be fine. It shouldn't affect anything other than allowing you to run more apps at once and/or work with bigger files.
 
Rhobes said:
I take it from your answer "All Mac all the time", you don't use 3rd party ware. But can you buy Apple ram over the counter? I don't understand the huge price difference between the two varieties they offer. Why would you pay $600 compared to $200 for the 8GB. I'll wait awhile to see what happens in price.:D
Click to expand...

What Badger^2 is saying is that OWC - "Other World Computing" is an online retailer that sells products guaranteed to work with Apple products. Therefore OWC is "All Mac all the time".

When buying Ram 3rd party you want to make sure what you are buying is "certified" or "guaranteed" to work with a Mac computer. There is a difference and often the cheapest 3rd party memory is not compatible. The sites that have been listed for you thus far will sell the kind of memory you need. I have bought all of my memory through Frys at a local storefront in my area. They also sell online if there isn't one near you.

As far as answering your question about what is the difference and why. I'm not sure, but I know that manufacturers will make the exact same chips and one will be certified for Mac while the other is not. If you install the one that is not certified then it will not work. I've heard people say that you can get these "non certified" sticks to work, but when I tried it my computer gave me the dreaded "ram beep" and refused to start up. When I took it back to the store and swapped out for the "Apple certified" from the same manufacturer it started right up with no problems. The price difference is usually somewhere between $10 and $20 depending on where you buy.
 
Peace said:
[edit]

I believe Apple usually uses Samsung chips.

[/edit]
Click to expand...

As far as I know, Apple uses RAM from very small manufacturer which might be Apple's daughter company. Of course I may be wrong or Apple might use different manufacturer in some Macs
 
Hellhammer said:
As far as I know, Apple uses RAM from very small manufacturer which might be Apple's daughter company. Of course I may be wrong or Apple might use different manufacturer in some Macs
Click to expand...

All of my macs thus far have used Samsung branded RAM. Honestly, any of the big names like Kingston, Crucial, Corsair, OCZ, etc. should be fine. After all, these guys are just RAM assemblers, the actual RAM chips are manufactured by companies like Samsung or Micron.
 
Aboo said:
All of my macs thus far have used Samsung branded RAM. Honestly, any of the big names like Kingston, Crucial, Corsair, OCZ, etc. should be fine. After all, these guys are just RAM assemblers, the actual RAM chips are manufactured by companies like Samsung or Micron.
Click to expand...

And everything is manufactured under the same roof in 100 000 hectare factory in China where they manufacture everything sold in Western countries :p
 
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