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OWC memory better than Apple's or the same quality?

Luba

Luba

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Apr 22, 2009
1,820
389
Anybody know who makes the memory Apple sells?

If Apple's memory is more reliable, better quality than I'll pay the extra instead of buying from OWC or from Crucial.

How would you rank the quality of 3rd party memory . . . OWC better than Crucial?

Thanks for your feedback. :)
 
Luba Cox said:
Anybody know who makes the memory Apple sells?

If Apple's memory is more reliable, better quality than I'll pay the extra instead of buying from OWC or from Crucial.

How would you rank the quality of 3rd party memory . . . OWC better than Crucial?

Thanks for your feedback. :)
Click to expand...
Apple buys from whom ever has what they need at the lowest price. Just like any other vendor. :eek: :p

OWC, Crucial, Kingston, and some others are all fine. Just find what fits the specs, and lowest cost. ;) No need to worry about it. :D

Memory is rather simple, fortunately. :p
 
Agreed

nanofrog said:
Apple buys from whom ever has what they need at the lowest price. Just like any other vendor. :eek: :p

OWC, Crucial, Kingston, and some others are all fine. Just find what fits the specs, and lowest cost. ;) No need to worry about it. :D

Memory is rather simple, fortunately. :p
Click to expand...

I've used nothing buy Mushkin memory in my MP and so far it has been great. They have been really good to deal with too. I just happened to be able to catch a bunch on sale for cheaper than OWC that day, but I think OWC is cheaper now...
 
You don't step on Superman's cape.
You don't spit into the wind.
You don't pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger.
And you DON'T buy RAM from Apple.

OWC works, and is cheaper than Apple.
 
Pretty much ALL RAM is the same quality. Shop by price and specification. That's all there is to it.

You can say ALL the things being said above about ANY RAM!
 
Used to buy ram from Crucial. Now I buy from OWC. Have had zero problems with it. In fact they back it up and state it meets and /or exceeds apple specs.
 
I had OWC RAM and it was a nightmare... memory modules burnt out, heat sinks misaligned, ECC errors, dead memory sticks, computer wouldn't start. These were the new cheap sticks they have for the 2009 Mac Pro's. Even had replacement sticks and those were messed up. They even acknowledged the problem. If you care about your Nehalem Mac Pro I would stay clear from their memory.
 
trancepriest said:
I had OWC RAM and it was a nightmare... memory modules burnt out, heat sinks misaligned, ECC errors, dead memory sticks, computer wouldn't start. These were the new cheap sticks they have for the 2009 Mac Pro's. Even had replacement sticks and those were messed up. They even acknowledged the problem. If you care about your Nehalem Mac Pro I would stay clear from their memory.
Click to expand...
IIRC, weren't you using the 4GB sticks shortly after they began offering them?

It might be relevant for some who need more capacity than 2GB sticks can provide, but the 1 & 2GB sticks seem to be working just fine. Going by the number of posts on the forum anyway. :p So I would think your situation was an anomaly rather than the norm.

That doesn't take away from the fact it your experience royally sucked though. ;)
 
trancepriest said:
I had OWC RAM and it was a nightmare... memory modules burnt out, heat sinks misaligned, ECC errors, dead memory sticks, computer wouldn't start. These were the new cheap sticks they have for the 2009 Mac Pro's. Even had replacement sticks and those were messed up. They even acknowledged the problem. If you care about your Nehalem Mac Pro I would stay clear from their memory.
Click to expand...

this happened to me too with my 2.8 ghz, it took them 3 weeks to get me replacement sticks.... i don't know, maybe other people had better luck
 
surflordca said:
I bought OWC and they stand behind what they sell...
Click to expand...

Gawd! That must be really bad news for your motherboard! I wouldn't want a bunch of guys standing on my motherboard - especially right behind the RAM. :D

But all seriousness aside, RAM specs include warrantee length and conditions. Most of the stuff I look at theses days has a "lifetime" warrantee so there is no reseller that's better than any other in this regard. It's the manufacturers that stand behind their products. :eek: This might be even worse on the MB - I think I need a bigger case! :D
 
nanofrog said:
IIRC, weren't you using the 4GB sticks shortly after they began offering them?

It might be relevant for some who need more capacity than 2GB sticks can provide, but the 1 & 2GB sticks seem to be working just fine. Going by the number of posts on the forum anyway. :p So I would think your situation was an anomaly rather than the norm.

That doesn't take away from the fact it your experience royally sucked though. ;)
Click to expand...

Yes these were the 4GB sticks. I have no experience with the other sticks. The 4GB sticks were seriously screwed up. Half of them didn't work... out of 3 replacement sticks... all 3 didn't work.
 
trancepriest said:
Yes these were the 4GB sticks. I have no experience with the other sticks. The 4GB sticks were seriously screwed up. Half of them didn't work... out of 3 replacement sticks... all 3 didn't work.
Click to expand...
I definitely recall you had a mess and a half. ;) But I wanted to clarify that you had used the 4GB sticks, as the 1 or 2GB DDR3 UDIMMS seem to be fine.

The FB-DIMM they sell has been purchased by many for the '06 - '08's, and I don't recall seeing any issues with it.

It could be rather useful for those in the market for memory. :D
 
I have 5 Mac from iMac to mac Pro, all using OWC ram, they have good RMA policy too and best of all, beat Apple's ram upgrade price anyday
 
OWC is great. I've bought RAM for all my Macs through them, and the only time I've had trouble with the hardware was on my latest purchase (4x2GB sticks).

One of the sticks only showed up as a 1GB module instead of 2GB (and showed a red light on the RAM board), and another worked fine but ran pretty hot compared to the other ones. I called OWC and they set up an RMA for the stick that was showing the error. I cautiously mentioned the stick that was hot (but worked OK), and the rep said "no problem, we'll RMA both of them". 2 days later I had 2 new sticks and 0 issues.

Good customer service even if something does go wrong.
 
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