Powerbook RAM suggestions

[mjua]

On a recent trip to the Genius Bar at the Apple store, I overheard another customer discussing a problem with generic RAM purchased for her Powerbook. She claimed that her Pb stopped functioning after inserting the RAM. The tech looked at it and said that the RAM was of the right kind and installed properlly. He then went on to say that generic RAM of any sort will cause harm to Powerbooks. I know it's always best to go with a trusted name-brand, but is there any truth to this? Is it absolutely necessary to purchase name-brand RAM (Kingston, Crucial, Viking, etc)?

Any suggestions and/or experiences with this would be most appreciated.

 

[Norouzi]

No it is not absolutly necesary to use name brand RAM. IMO however I would highly recomend using a good quality name brand RAM. Using cheep no name RAM may not cause any problems at all, or it may cause your machine not to boot, to kernal panic, or other nasty little bugs that will make yor Mac very difficult to use. The other advantage with Brand name RAM is it typically comes with a better warranty and support. Personally I won't buy RAM that dosen't have a lifetime warranty on it and I've never had problems with any RAM I've bought. I've seen quite a few Mac's that either stoped functioning or had so many program crashes due to bad RAM that they were unusable. Once a stick of good memory was put in the machine worked fine. So yes, you can use generic cheep RAM, but I wouldn't recomend it.

 

[Applespider]

I have cheap Outpost.com/Fry's RAM (since it was a great price and several other people on Mac boards had bought it) and so far (5 months), there are absolutely no problems with it.

So long as it meets the PB's specs I can't see any reason for it to damage the PB permananently.

 

[Norouzi]

So long as it meets the PB's specs I can't see any reason for it to damage the PB permananently.

Applespider is correct, I have never seen bad RAM cause any permanant, or physical damage to a computer. If someone has seen that happen please correct me.

 

[Scottyk9]

I concur - kernal panics yes, permanent damage no.

I went through 2 name brand 1 G sticks of RAM for my powerbook, then finally found one that worked (different brand).

Bottom line - buy RAM from a retailer who will allow you to return it if it does not play nice with your finicky Mac.

 

[Mertzen]

Cause harm my ass .. I never take advice from a Genius ever again .. quoted me over $750 for a Wallstreet logic board + labor .. 3rd party reseller fixed it for $200 ..

Sadly enough the " genius" bar is filled with people who are 75% sales staff and 25% genius ..

 

[mactropy]

How do I know the Genius doesn't have an order by headquarters to push Apple RAM. And in order to justify that, they just tell you that generic RAM is bad for you. And your computer.
I'm skeptical . . .

 

[Chip NoVaMac]

Cause harm my ass .. I never take advice from a Genius ever again .. quoted me over $750 for a Wallstreet logic board + labor .. 3rd party reseller fixed it for $200 ..

Sadly enough the " genius" bar is filled with people who are 75% sales staff and 25% genius ..

Don't blame the Genius, they can only quote you what Apple has on their repair price list. You did what any consumer should do, and shop around.

 

[Mertzen]

Don't blame the Genius, they can only quote you what Apple has on their repair price list. You did what any consumer should do, and shop around.

Problem is he didn't offer a repair .. just a replace .. he didn't even look at the machine ..

The other dealer looked at my machine and had an easy repair solution ..

 

[Chip NoVaMac]

Problem is he didn't offer a repair .. just a replace .. he didn't even look at the machine ..

The other dealer looked at my machine and had an easy repair solution ..

Can't explain your experience. With my PB's SDD failure the Genius did take the time to make sure that the PB had to go in.

 

[HiRez]

I doubt he really could tell all he needed to about the RAM just by looking at the chip. He probably just looked at the number of pins. Many Macs are very picky about the exact type of RAM they use, including speed, chip layout, CAS latency, error-correction, voltage, registration, and buffering. G5s are notorious picky about needing very specific specs for RAM. I've gotten RAM that works from Fry's and RAM that causes kernel panics there. I bought 2 x 512 MB "PNY" RAMs from ChumpUSA (scary, I know) for my dual G5, and miraculously, it has worked perfectly. I first tried to get Crucial RAM but those chips were backordered.

 

[mjua]

Thanks for the advice. It just seemed odd that the apple website lists a 512mb RAM upgrade for $300 and 1gb RAM upgrade for $700. I've found these much cheaper on the web. And the names were well known (kingston, crucial, viking, etc). I suppose as long as I stick to those brands I should be in good shape.

 

[Norouzi]

Thanks for the advice. It just seemed odd that the apple website lists a 512mb RAM upgrade for $300 and 1gb RAM upgrade for $700. I've found these much cheaper on the web. And the names were well known (kingston, crucial, viking, etc). I suppose as long as I stick to those brands I should be in good shape.

Yes, all of those brands are good quality. The Apple RAM is very overpriced, I wouldn't recomend getting your RAM from Apple unless you've got extra cash that you just want to get rid of.

 

[Chip NoVaMac]

Thanks for the advice. It just seemed odd that the apple website lists a 512mb RAM upgrade for $300 and 1gb RAM upgrade for $700. I've found these much cheaper on the web. And the names were well known (kingston, crucial, viking, etc). I suppose as long as I stick to those brands I should be in good shape.

Since I have had good luck with OWC, you might want to look at them too.

 

[Scottyk9]

Thanks for the advice. It just seemed odd that the apple website lists a 512mb RAM upgrade for $300 and 1gb RAM upgrade for $700. I've found these much cheaper on the web. And the names were well known (kingston, crucial, viking, etc). I suppose as long as I stick to those brands I should be in good shape.

Yeah, but there is always variability. I tried 2 different sticks of 1GB Crucial RAM, both which led to kernal panics. Quality retailers will offer a return (the store that sold me the Crucial RAM did) - make sure of this upfront!!

 

[Chip NoVaMac]

Yeah, but there is always variability. I tried 2 different sticks of 1GB Crucial RAM, both which led to kernal panics. Quality retailers will offer a return (the store that sold me the Crucial RAM did) - make sure of this upfront!!

And I hope that someone like OWC will too....