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PC3 10600 vs. 10666 on 2011 i5 Model

gorskiegangsta

gorskiegangsta

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Mar 13, 2011
1,281
87
Brooklyn, NY
Hey there. I decided to upgrade my 2011 13'' i5 MBP with 8gb RAM kit. I have distilled the options down to G.Skill since they have such great price and customer reviews... Anyway, the two 8GB G.Skill 1333 DDR3 RAM kits I found on Newegg are:

this G.Skill 8gb DDR3-1333 RAM kit (PC3 10600)
and
this G.Skill 8gb DDR3-1333 RAM kit (PC3 10666)

They, currently, are the same price ($81.99). So My question is: What is the difference between PC3 10600 and 10666, which is "better" (for my MBP model) which is more compatible?

Thanks!
 
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I believe there is very little difference, if any difference at.

I run the 10666 flavor of the 8GB G.Skill kit in my MBP and it's run beautifully. Got me a 130 points on geekbench.
 
gorskiegangsta said:
What about compatibility? will they both work well on the 2011 i5 model?
Click to expand...

Yeah, they'll both work well. I just chose the 10666 because...it's a higher number!

There's a thread saying 1600MHz DDR3 RAM was running at full speed too, but that only the Kingston were really reliable from my brief skimming. So you could maybe look into that before you buy.
 
10600 and 10666 are the exact same, it doesn't matter. Like was mentioned above though, it seems that 1600MHz RAM is supported too (and apparently works at that speed). It's only $10 more from Newegg - I'd probably go with that one just for bragging rights ;)
 
awer25 said:
10600 and 10666 are the exact same, it doesn't matter. Like was mentioned above though, it seems that 1600MHz RAM is supported too (and apparently works at that speed). It's only $10 more from Newegg - I'd probably go with that one just for bragging rights ;)
Click to expand...

Well...no. Intel's page states that only the 2720QM and 2820QM found in 15" high-end and 17" MBPs support 1600Mhz RAM.
 
awer25 said:
10600 and 10666 are the exact same, it doesn't matter. Like was mentioned above though, it seems that 1600MHz RAM is supported too (and apparently works at that speed). It's only $10 more from Newegg - I'd probably go with that one just for bragging rights ;)
Click to expand...

The 1600mhz is only supported by the quad core i7 models (i.e. the 15 and the 17'' models only)
 
gorskiegangsta said:
why not 10666? are there compatibility issues?

just want to know, for future reference
Click to expand...

I have no experience with it but the guy above says it works so...

However 10600 is what shipped out of the factories and is the one that is commonly used/supported for this processors.
 
gorskiegangsta said:
why not 10666? are there compatibility issues?

just want to know, for future reference
Click to expand...

10666 is simply better "quality" can't remember what exactly is changed. Basically the are nearly the same thing.

Actually I was wrong i was reading a old incorrect article.
10666 is just a misconception created by the manufacturer, to do with the timings in the RAM.
They are both 667Mhz RAM.

Oh and incase the RAM noobies here didn't understand, DDR is Double Data-Rate, so 667Mhz * 2 = 1334Mhz
 
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