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pc ram work in G5?

H

holy MAC!

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 26, 2003
101
0
hi,

im pretty tech smart, so i know what im talking about (most of the time).

my other question is:

if i say: go to BestBuy and buy a stick of Pc2700 ram. will it work in my soon to come 1.6 G5?????

i mean, i'll of course buy 2 and install it as a pair, but will it work??????

it would mean i can save like 70 bucks... which means i can get bluetooth on the G5.
 
no such thing as "PC" ram or "Mac" ram (well, I guess RDRAM would only be PC but anyway....). Bottom line is any DDR ram you buy, will work in either. Note you still have to consider the rating. PC2700 will work in a G5, but not a dual 2.0. (it is backwards compatible though, so PC3200 would work in a 1.6, just at PC2700 speeds).
 
Yes, RAM is RAM. Make sure you get the right speed and type, that's all. I bought 1gb of RAM from Newegg (a big supplier of parts for people that build their own PCs) for the G5 I have on order. Same stuff Apple uses at a small fraction of the price :D
 
Originally posted by GeoMac
no such thing as "PC" ram or "Mac" ram (well, I guess RDRAM would only be PC but anyway....). Bottom line is any DDR ram you buy, will work in either. Note you still have to consider the rating. PC2700 will work in a G5, but not a dual 2.0. (it is backwards compatible though, so PC3200 would work in a 1.6, just at PC2700 speeds).
Click to expand...
Almost, but not quite since any DDR Ram with the following features would probably NOT work in a G5...
Important

DIMMs with any of the following features are not supported in the Power Mac G5 computer: registers or buffers, PLLs, ECC, parity, or EDO RAM.
Click to expand...
Even though some of these features will work in a PC, the Ram could choke in a Mac.
 
ok, cool, thanks a lot....

this is good news.

but a follow up question:

can i mix and match ram made my different companies?

that is, two sticks of 512, one from crucial, and one from kingston (just as an example)
 
DDR RAM comes in multiple flavors. Not counting the speed, and the shape (form factor), there is non-Registered (non-buffered) flavor, Registered (buffered), non-ECC (non-parity), and ECC (parity).

Macs have always used non-ECC (non-parity) DRAM. Some have used Registered, but the G5s use non-Registered.

In theory, you can buy non-registered, ECC DRAM, and it will still work, just that the extra 8 bits in each DRAM will not be used.


Also, and this is the important one, make sure you get a money-back guarantee. Even though you have vendors saying that their DIMMs are standard, and works for xxxx PCs, that could be a smokescreen. Some are not standard, but just happens to work on certain PCs. I remember during the G4 days when some no-name vendor selling 'standard' DIMMs were not working on the G4 because they did not hook up their CKEs! :eek: :eek:

Caveat Emptor.
 
Apple says its RAM is 128bit, I thought PC RAM was only 32bit? Anyway even if 'normal' PC RAM will work in Macs, I would still go for 'Mac' RAM from somewhere like crucial. Macs can be very fussy with RAM and if it is of low quality, it could cause problems for your Mac. Apple even patches there computers from time to time so that 3rd party RAM will not work in its computers. There was a problem with the G4s a while back, but I think Apple sorted it now.
 
see, the above reply was exactly what i feared when i started this thread.

can someone with experience with the G5 (or someone with one and has free pc ram modules) post?????

grrrrrrr... i just wanna make sure and double make sure because im on a strict budget, and 70 dollar there can be used here. etc.

thanks
 
RAM is RAM, Hard drives are Hard Drives, CD Burners are CD Burners (if you have Toast that is). I do all my mac shopping at Best Buy + Staples + Office Max + Circuit City
 
Best thing is still make sure you get a Money Back Guarantee. That way, you can try it, and if it does not work, you can return it.

PC2700/PC3600... sure any manufacturer can put that label on it and 'advertise' it to be commodity DRAM, but until it works flawlessly in your system, it does not work. The reason you pay a bit more for Apple installed DRAM is that its tested at the factory to work with the system.

When you buy the 3rd party DRAM, you might want to make sure you do it with a system that you are not doing a lot of changes/software installs on. And with a system that you know a lot about. That is, if you care about your data. When I buy non-Apple DRAM, I usually, take the Apple memory out, and ude the non-Apple DRAM for a bit, exclusively, to make sure that its working. Any weirdness that I have not seen with Apple DRAM, and its likely that its the other DRAM, and back it goes.

You usually get what you pay for.
 
all i know is that the pc-133 ram that i bought CHEAP two years ago from OFFICE DEPOT (of all places) has given me no problems but a warm fuzzy feeling inside and a message from "About this Mac" that says "640 MB". :)

i put it in a crt imac by the way
 
Just a note I have never ever seen ram at any retail location even with rebates on sale etc. as cheap as you can get mail order or online. Also you can buy ram from many main stream internet sites that IS guaranteed to work in the model of Mac that you ordered it for. The sites that do these guarantees and have the best prices you can get anywhere can all be found at www.ramseeker.com .
 
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