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Practical Difference Between "Apple Certified" vs. "Apple Qualified" RAM?

A

astrostu

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 15, 2007
392
33
I'm looking into RAM for the Mac Pro that I've yet to buy. Fastermacs.com is soooo much cheaper than Apple, but they have two levels of RAM that confuse me: "OWC Mac Pro Certified" and "OWC Apple Qualified." I've read their descriptions of the two and so I'm aware of the technical difference, but is there a practical difference?

The "Qualified" RAM is cheaper by $100 (looking at 2x2.0 GB for now), and so I would much rather go for that since I can purchase Parallels and an upgrade to my Igor Pro software for the difference.

So my question is, is there a practical difference two the two? Is the "Qualified" RAM going to screw up my machine, crash and burn, etc.? Or is it just a marketing thing and they have to pay more for it to be "Certified" and it's really just as good?:confused:
 
The Netlist certified at OWC has heatspreaders that go beyond standard Apple and Jedec specs. So those heatspreaders offer even more cooling than the standard Apple hetspreaders.

Are they worth the extra? I say no. In some ways it depends on how much RAM you plan on loading it with.

I plan on doing this:
When the standard model gets bumped to 2x1GB I will have:

2x1GB
2x2GB
=6GB

That is 50% capacity of the risers. I will be going with the cheaper RAM.

If I was loading my slots, I may entertain the idea of the better heatspreaders. Chances are I would still go with the standard. That is what Apple would do. If it became an issue I would think about something like this.

http://www.maxupgrades.com/istore/i...&product_id=160&CFID=5240040&CFTOKEN=35270790


In short, go with the Qualified RAM. Unless you are extremely paranoid.
 
I'm getting Crucial Ram for my Mac Pro...I feel comfortable buying from them. 100% set on it already
 
Meh. $70 more doesn't seem worth it for the same RAM. Plus their pricing games don't sit well with me.

Let us know how it goes though. MaxUpgrades just dropped their price $10 :)

Only $289 for 4GB. :apple:
 
suneohair said:
The Netlist certified at OWC has heatspreaders that go beyond standard Apple and Jedec specs. So those heatspreaders offer even more cooling than the standard Apple hetspreaders.

Are they worth the extra? I say no. In some ways it depends on how much RAM you plan on loading it with.

I plan on doing this:
When the standard model gets bumped to 2x1GB I will have:

2x1GB
2x2GB
=6GB

That is 50% capacity of the risers. I will be going with the cheaper RAM.

If I was loading my slots, I may entertain the idea of the better heatspreaders. Chances are I would still go with the standard. That is what Apple would do. If it became an issue I would think about something like this.

http://www.maxupgrades.com/istore/i...&product_id=160&CFID=5240040&CFTOKEN=35270790


In short, go with the Qualified RAM. Unless you are extremely paranoid.
Click to expand...

This is incorrect. The heatspreaders are different but not better. The difference is the ram sucks. Its not tested and probably doesn't have temp sensors. Just went through all this with TransIntl. Their ram is $298 for 4gb but they don't have temp sensors. The rams is crap.
 
macenforcer said:
This is incorrect. The heatspreaders are different but not better. The difference is the ram sucks. Its not tested and probably doesn't have temp sensors. Just went through all this with TransIntl. Their ram is $298 for 4gb but they don't have temp sensors. The rams is crap.
Click to expand...

Are we talking about transintl? No. We are talking about OWC. If you look you will see their two types. One of which they claim has better heatspreaders than apples standard. Are they? I dont know, but that is not what asked.

You are once again spreading fud, as you did not buy these and have no direct experience. Yet you say it sucks. Please stop posting, you offer no real help.

So please tell me where i am incorrect.
 
I have to agree with suneohair on this one.

NetList is the only company on the technical note document by Apple that has produced heat spreaders that meets Apple's standards (Link). So if i interpret that correctly, the NetList modules are the only ones that have passed Apple's thermal tests and are fully compliant with the Mac Pro.

Also listed in the NetList modules specs is this:
"these exact same modules are Apple Certified Production modules for use in factory configurations"
which if i understand correctly, means that these modules are the same RAM chips that you'd get from a Mac Pro with upgraded RAM from Apple. Anyone feel free to correct me if i am wrong, thanks.

Cheers.
 
suneohair said:
Are we talking about transintl? No. We are talking about OWC. If you look you will see their two types. One of which they claim has better heatspreaders than apples standard. Are they? I dont know, but that is not what asked.

You are once again spreading fud, as you did not buy these and have no direct experience. Yet you say it sucks. Please stop posting, you offer no real help.

So please tell me where i am incorrect.
Click to expand...

Incorrect.

I was referring to the cheaper ram OWC sells when I said it suck. The netlist memory heatsinks are not better. That is what I was saying. The cheaper ram is the same as TransIntl. Please read next time. Thank you. :rolleyes:
 
ironic23 said:
I have to agree with suneohair on this one.

NetList is the only company on the technical note document by Apple that has produced heat spreaders that meets Apple's standards (Link). So if i interpret that correctly, the NetList modules are the only ones that have passed Apple's thermal tests and are fully compliant with the Mac Pro.
Click to expand...
The Apple document is dated November 2006. It was accurate at the time, no longer is.
From that document BTW:
"There are several companies that have produced heat spreaders that meet the thermal conditions for the Mac Pro." --therefore Netlist is not the only company...
 
macenforcer said:
Incorrect.

I was referring to the cheaper ram OWC sells when I said it suck. The netlist memory heatsinks are not better. That is what I was saying. The cheaper ram is the same as TransIntl. Please read next time. Thank you. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Because you own them right? Otherwise what you are saying is bs. Do you really think you can generalize because of your bad experience with one company?
 
macenforcer said:
Incorrect.

I was referring to the cheaper ram OWC sells when I said it suck. The netlist memory heatsinks are not better. That is what I was saying. The cheaper ram is the same as TransIntl. Please read next time. Thank you. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...



i would like to know..if u are talking about the cheaper ram OWC sells. then why do you say netlist is not better. the netlist are NOT the cheaper memory OWC sells. The netlist is the more expensive memory at OWC. So..are you says none of OWC memory is any good?

Brad
 
Spikeanator6982 said:
i would like to know..if u are talking about the cheaper ram OWC sells. then why do you say netlist is not better. the netlist are NOT the cheaper memory OWC sells. The netlist is the more expensive memory at OWC. So..are you says none of OWC memory is any good?

Brad
Click to expand...

The netlist heatsinks are not better than the apple heatsinks and everyone uses the apple heatsinks now. As far as the ram is concerned, I am sure its just as good as apple ram, its the same. Apple uses netlist, samsung and crucial. They are all good quality. The ram that sucks is the cheaper ram they sell. That is bargain basement ram. I bought that kind of cheap ram from Transintl and it does not have the temp sensors on them. Caused my mac pro to behave very irratically. I went through 3 orders with them and its all junk. Ended up ordering crucial ram seeing as how that is the brand that came with my mac pro from apple.

Either way, netlist not a good value. $449 for netlist, $399 for crucial. Why buy the netlist? Again, the heatsinks are not better. I would say they look inferior by the look of them but they probably cool the same. I wouldn't say they cool better but have no test results to verify that.

Hope that clears it up.
 
ok macenforcer..i understand what you are saying now. i cant say i know the OWC ram works bc i dont know and i dont have a MP either. but..i have heard many good things about OWC ram and from what i gathered you havent used it? just think bc trans ram was bad OWC is too? i cant say your wrong. but if thats the case, then u cant say your for SURE right.

now seriously, idk about everyone else, but almost every thread i go to has you two fighting in it. i say this with as much respect as i can, just seriously get over each other/over yourselves. say your opinion/ share your knowledge and experinces but dont jump all over each other bc someones opinion or experince is different.

"Respect is not agreeing with each other, its agreeing its ok to disagree."


Brad
 
I don't need to own a Mac Pro to call out your BS macenforcer. You are saying that the OWC memory is bad when you have not owned it.

You also, misquoted the OWC pricing here:
Either way, netlist not a good value. $449 for netlist, $399 for crucial.
Click to expand...

The 4GB is actually $429.99, whats more you don't even own the Crucial yet you are talking it up as if it is the best. Do you really think that because the Crucial is more than the "cheap" memory it is better?

The heat spreaders on the Qualified modules are the same as the Mac Pro standard memory. I say that from my experience of owning OWC RAM in my Mac Pro, this experience is about 5 months old. So I don't know if they have changed them. From the looks of it, they have not.

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/53FB2MPK04GB/

OWC also offers a lifetime advance replacement warranty and they test their modules before shipment.

I am not saying OWC is the best, however it is not right for macenforcer to wrongfully slander a company whose product he has not owned.

And you have no basis in fact on the Netlist modules since you don't own them either.
 
Spikeanator6982 said:
now seriously, idk about everyone else, but almost every thread i go to has you two fighting in it. i say this with as much respect as i can, just seriously get over each other/over yourselves. say your opinion/ share your knowledge and experinces but dont jump all over each other bc someones opinion or experince is different.

"Respect is not agreeing with each other, its agreeing its ok to disagree."


Brad
Click to expand...

Good advice. suneohair has taken a liking to me. Been crapping on every single post I make. Not very macrumors like being a demi and all.

suneohair said:
I don't need to own a Mac Pro to call out your BS macenforcer.
Click to expand...

See what I mean. :rolleyes:
 
Your posts are inaccurate. You spread misinformation. Combatting terrible information is very MacRumors like.
 
My experience with many RAM purchases: Crucial / Micron is my first choice for quality & service - never had a problem including the 4 GB I just installed in my new Mac Pro. SAMSUNG modules purchase from OWC have all been perfect - excellent customer service. TransIntl - modules that did not work, some odd Swiss brand of memory if I remember correctly - some hassle getting my shipping fees for returning the memory refunded - finally gave up on it - have decided to not do business with them again.

Hynix, Micron, Samsung, Nanya are all used by Apple OEM. The Crucial (Micron) DIMMs heatsinks look to be exactly the same as the ones supplied by Apple - impressive.

That is my 2¢
 
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