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OWC RAM: legitimate 800 MHz concerns

B

bigbird

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 17, 2007
381
0
Canada
I was looking to purchase a 4 X 2GB 800 MHz memory kit for my upcoming Mac Pro. I checked with a local reseller and a national on-line reseller (I'm in Canada). Both quoted prices double that of OWC. When I told my local re-seller that I could spend half of what he wanted for RAM from OWC, he forwarded my email to his salesman at NuImpact. Here's the reply:

"Here is the difference in the so called apple certified modules. Call OWC
and ask if the chips are "native 800". They say "we build to meet and exceed apple specs" no real answer then when you ask if the chips are 667 pushed to 800 they say no but will not tell you the chip on board or the controller chip there for you don't know what your getting. If you buy the 667 pushed and run them your 100% going to have issues after a while.... You will never know if the chips are 667 until you have the chip part# before you buy . We will run into these kind of issues when new products get released there is no way in hell that the price difference should be that big on "native" chips. Let me know what you think....
We only build on Micron "Native" chips with IDT controller / 8 layer boards"

So, opinions on whether OWC's RAM is legitimate 800 MHz or is the salesman at NuImpact just dissing the competition because he can't match their prices?
 
It's a pretty serious accusation when you think about it. If it were true, then OWC could be in a lot of legal trouble. I'd think they are just trying to compete, with dirty tactics.
 
wow, thanks for posting this! I was looking at the same thing and 200$ for 4 GB on OWC seemed to be by far the best price. I would be very interested in finding out the answer to your question. Also, Canada Ram has just updated their pricing for New Mac Pro memory and it's all over the map as well. The cheapest is Certified Transcend 61676-1x2 $239. I'm not sure what 61676 stands for. Is that the part number?
 
The fact that Crucial don't yet have any Native 800 chips should tell people something. As crucial is the retail section of Micron. Be very careful. Realistically there is no way they could have native 800 chips so cheap already, given that the Mac Pro's haven't even been out a week.

Wiat till crucial has some legit native chips for sale, then you'll see the sort of price you can expect to pay.
 
G4DP said:
The fact that Crucial don't yet have any Native 800 chips should tell people something. As crucial is the retail section of Micron. Be very careful. Realistically there is no way they could have native 800 chips so cheap already, given that the Mac Pro's haven't even been out a week.

Wiat till crucial has some legit native chips for sale, then you'll see the sort of price you can expect to pay.
Click to expand...

There are plenty of 800Mhz Fully Buffered DDR2 chips out there. They are just for ordinary workstations and not tested with the Mac Pro.

Remember that the Mac Pro is not the only thing that uses it.
 
Canadaram's part #'s appear to be messed up.
They quote this for a 2GB kit: Certified Transcend 61676-1x2 $146
They quote this for a 4GB kit: Certified Transcend 61676-1x2 $239 (same as above)
They quote this for an 8 GB kit: Certified Transcend 61676-1x4 $458

Something's not right.
 
Pressure said:
There are plenty of 800Mhz Fully Buffered DDR2 chips out there. They are just for ordinary workstations and not tested with the Mac Pro.

Remember that the Mac Pro is not the only thing that uses it.
Click to expand...

Thank you. I just ordered mine from OWC and have no worries. Lifetime guarantee baby and the price is just right as far as I'm concerned.
 
G4DP said:
Realistically there is no way they could have native 800 chips so cheap already, given that the Mac Pro's haven't even been out a week.
Click to expand...
There 's lots of 800MHZ DDR2 FB-DIMM RAM out there. The only difference is that it doesn't have the big heat sink on it. How difficult can it be to build Mac Pro 800 MHZ RAM if all that is needed is to place the heat sinks that fit the 667 RAM onto the 800 MHz sticks? No new design is needed, just the heat sinks.
 
|I'm going to go into the local Premium reseller on Tuesday to see what they have to offer.

They were selling 2GB sticks for the older MacPro's for 65GBP
 
Interesting thread. I'll be watching this one, because after Feb 13 (or thereabouts), I'll be in the market for 8 GB of 800 MHz Mac Pro RAM.
 
amik said:
I just called owc and was told it is in fact 800 MHz.
Click to expand...

I've ordered RAM from OWC for 10+ years and only had one bad chip. It was replaced within 24 hours, as I recall. Lifetime warranty=don't worry about it. They're a reputable seller.
 
Canada Ram "explanation"

I asked Canada Ram about their new Mac Mac Pro Ram and here is what I got in response:

me:

Hi, I have another question about new Mac pro RAM. I looked at your
updated price list and there is Certified Transcend 61676-1x2 $239 on
it. Judging by the part number this is a 667 chip pushed to 800. Is
this correct?
Thanks.

Canada Ram:

These are 800 MHz parts. The part number has no relationship to the
construction or speed of the components, these were simply the next part
numbers in the series.

They are guaranteed compatible with the MacPro Penryn models.
 
Pricing is going to be very crazy until the parts actually start shipping. The manufacturers are all guessing at what the final prices will be. Shipping is 1 - 3 weeks away depending on the brand.


The fact that Crucial don't yet have any Native 800 chips should tell people something.
Click to expand...

Yup, it tells us that crucial haven't finished their module testing and updating of their website. Nothing more.

One thing about overclocked 667 components -- earlier on many companies were doing this with gamer DDR2 RAM to get 800 MHz parts out the door when there was limited supply of 800 MHz modules -- Kingston, Corsair, OCZ and other major brands were doing this too. The key to that was that in order to run at 800, these chipsets had to have the voltage increased from 1.8V to 2.0 or 2.1V (which you can only do on a motherboard that has unlocked the memory bus voltage settings -- so all the Dell and HP owners ended up running their RAM at 667). Increasing the voltage on the MacPro is a non-starter, so this technique will not work.

Not to say that there aren't manufacturers using 667 chips that are recertified at 800 *, but I wouldn't assume that this was widespread.

(*the raw chips aren't 'made' to run a certain speed, they are manufactured and then tested and sorted by what maximum speed they test to reliably, then labelled as being that speed. So in any batch of 667 chips, you'll have a certain number that are stable at a higher speed if you test them. This has led to a subculture of PC gamers who obsess about the model, batch and revision numbers of the actual chips on the modules they buy... kinda like wine geeks arguing the merits of the 2004 vs 2005 vintage from the same vinyard... the theory being if you get the 'right' batch and revision of chips, you can overclock the module 5% more. I'll have to admit, that's a bit over the top, even for me.

The identity of a finished product RAM module as being XXX MHz is actually added to the programming of the module's EPROM. This is what the computer sees when it boots up. It asks the module "what are you" and the module replies with it's specs that have been programmed into it)
 
Thanks for a very informative post Canada RAM.



CanadaRAM said:
Not to say that there aren't manufacturers using 667 chips that are recertified at 800 *, but I wouldn't assume that this was widespread.
Click to expand...

So, is there ANY way to tell whether or not this is happening in a particular case? I'm specifically interested in that 4GB RAM Certified Transcend 61676-1x2 $239 that Canada Ram is selling. I was ready to pull the trigger on it but now I'm not sure.
 
CanadaRAM said:
Yup, it tells us that crucial haven't finished their module testing and updating of their website. Nothing more.
Click to expand...

I think the guy's point was related to the fact that the OP said he was told by his dealer that their RAM available now is native 800 AND that they only use micron chips. Surely if micron had native 800 chips available they would sell them on their own crucial site?
 
When I spoke with OWC yesterday, the salesman I spoke with recommended that I purchase their Apple Compatible vs Apple Certified Ram. He said the reason (besides obvious price difference) was that he had recently heard that their Apple Compatible Ram was actually running "cooler" in tests on the new machines? I didn't see that answer coming, so I told him I would call back after I did some more research.

Can this be true? He said for me not to "quote" him as it was not an official OWC statement and because it was a recent rumor and he had no supporting evidence yet.
 
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