RamJet has 2x 2GB for $399.
I got that am am quite happy with it. No issues in the last 3 months.
I got that am am quite happy with it. No issues in the last 3 months.
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Practical Difference Between "Apple Certified" vs. "Apple Qualified" RAM?
- Thread starter astrostu
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Same boat as you. Still deciding how I will handle the shipping refund. I can't believe I have not heard this about TransIntl before. They advertise everywhere. Whats funny is they act astounded when I told them it doesn't work in my mac pro. LOL. Right.
suneohair / macenforcer
Personally as a Mac newbie I think your in-fighting and the manner in which you phrase your posts is a large disservice to the rest of the people that use MacRumors as an alternative source of information and opinions about Apple products and 3rd part parts and services.
Saying something "sucks" without providing 1st hand accounts as to "WHY" doens't provide any information. And in some cases makes it more difficult to determine what products don't "suck".
Plus your inane banter and finger pointing increases the difficulty of removing the wheat from the chaf as it were.
So as stated by a previous poster.... get over each other and yourselves.
And lets see which one (hopefully both) of you can turn it around and start providing meaningful information and credible opinions
Personally as a Mac newbie I think your in-fighting and the manner in which you phrase your posts is a large disservice to the rest of the people that use MacRumors as an alternative source of information and opinions about Apple products and 3rd part parts and services.
Saying something "sucks" without providing 1st hand accounts as to "WHY" doens't provide any information. And in some cases makes it more difficult to determine what products don't "suck".
Plus your inane banter and finger pointing increases the difficulty of removing the wheat from the chaf as it were.
So as stated by a previous poster.... get over each other and yourselves.
And lets see which one (hopefully both) of you can turn it around and start providing meaningful information and credible opinions
A couple days late to the fight man! 
I apologize for confusing or bothering anyone. My goal was to help the community by making sure misinformation was not served up as fact. OWC is a big name around here, and macenforcer decided to be libelous when it comes to their product which he has not owned.
I have first hand knowledge of OWC, I have bought many products from them without any problem. Including Mac Pro memory, however, as I said this was months ago. I don't know if they have made changes and thus I can't comment on the quality of it today. However, making the argument that OWC "sucks" because of experience with a different company is ridiculous, as I hope most of your could see.
However, some were confused and macenforcer again offered misinformation. Why? I don't know. Is it because he wanted them to now pay Crucials higher price (which he also doesn't own yet). I really don't know what reason he has for making claims about OWC memory. However, I was not about to let him say that without calling out the fallacy inherntt in his claim.
Anyhow, I made my point. I was simply frustrated as macenforcer continued to make claims when they clearly were incorrect. Then he turned into a joke, which is when I removed myself by adding him to my block list.
I again apologize.
I apologize for confusing or bothering anyone. My goal was to help the community by making sure misinformation was not served up as fact. OWC is a big name around here, and macenforcer decided to be libelous when it comes to their product which he has not owned.
I have first hand knowledge of OWC, I have bought many products from them without any problem. Including Mac Pro memory, however, as I said this was months ago. I don't know if they have made changes and thus I can't comment on the quality of it today. However, making the argument that OWC "sucks" because of experience with a different company is ridiculous, as I hope most of your could see.
However, some were confused and macenforcer again offered misinformation. Why? I don't know. Is it because he wanted them to now pay Crucials higher price (which he also doesn't own yet). I really don't know what reason he has for making claims about OWC memory. However, I was not about to let him say that without calling out the fallacy inherntt in his claim.
Anyhow, I made my point. I was simply frustrated as macenforcer continued to make claims when they clearly were incorrect. Then he turned into a joke, which is when I removed myself by adding him to my block list.
I again apologize.
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?
I got really lost in this post--I'm looking at owc and had the same question. Correct me please if I'm getting this wrong.
Netlist=Certified=more heat control=higher prices
Crucial=Qualified=apple specs heat control=lower prices
That's what I got out of everything. Just trying to sum up for my own knowledge.
killerrobot:
OWC also offers heat spreaders which are probably similar to Crucial in their Apple Qualified modules, which are less than Crucial.
Here is the pricing for 4GB (2x2GB) today:
OWC Qualified: $319.99
OWC Netlist: $429.99
Crucial: $399.99
Transintl: $328.99
DMS: $358
MaxUpgrades: $289 (they offer their custom heatsinks and apple heatsinks for the same price)
OWC also offers heat spreaders which are probably similar to Crucial in their Apple Qualified modules, which are less than Crucial.
Here is the pricing for 4GB (2x2GB) today:
OWC Qualified: $319.99
OWC Netlist: $429.99
Crucial: $399.99
Transintl: $328.99
DMS: $358
MaxUpgrades: $289 (they offer their custom heatsinks and apple heatsinks for the same price)
Gotcha. I was reading it as though OWC was making the crucial, thus confusing all the names. It all makes sense now. I'll read a lot closer next time. Thanks.
On a Brighter Note I found a good deal on Crucial Ram
154$ for 2 x 1gb sticks of crucial, beats the 4gb of owc for 354.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148046
154$ for 2 x 1gb sticks of crucial, beats the 4gb of owc for 354.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148046
So about $320 with shipping and newegg isn't going to test it or give you advance replacement like OWC.
Whats more, you would then have 4 of your slots taken up since you would have 4x1GB. 2GB DIMMS are cheaper and give you more upgrade capability.
2GB sticks are the way to go based on current pricing. If you wanted 4GB would it not make sense to get 2x2GB instead of 4x1GB, keeping 2 extra slots open. Plus you are only paying $320 for 2x2GB, pretty competitive with the 1GB.
I can't say it isn't a decent price, but I wouldn't buy 1GB DIMMs today while 2GB DIMMS are so cheap.
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.
I bought some cheap OWC RAM for my dad's mac pro. It had temp sensors and the heatsinks were fine.
I did a full mem test too and that too turned out fine.
I've read only one report of someone who had bad OWC RAM, but OWC is presumably selling to hundreds if not thousands of mac pro customers. If problems were widespread, you would probably hear more about them.
However, since anecdotes are apparently indicative of some wider reality now, I submit this: the OWC RAM I got is awesome, therefore all OWC RAM is awesome, therefore, you're wrong.
My "personal experience" grants me +12 reliability factor, so, in the mental-masturbation that is forum arguments, I win.
Edit: I should add that in my mac pro, I have crucial ram I bought off newegg and installed GPU RAM heatsinks on the heat spreader myself. That too worked great, but it's only slightly cheaper than OWC, and like suneohair said, OWC's replacement policies are better (even though newegg is freaking awesome). At the time though, OWC's prices were $200 higher than now.
Ok. So what is the difference between the cheap owc ram and netlist certified ram? Don't say heat spreaders. Not worth $100.
LMAO. Wow!! I may have to borrow that line some time if I have your permission to do so.
EDIT:Sorry I didn't add anything to the discussion. I'll beat myself severely for it.
Netlist certification is the difference. Here you go:
Netlist: http://www.netlist.com/
"Premium Quality, Apple Certified Modules, backed by OWC Lifetime Advance
Replacement Warranty.
Netlist supplies these same modules to Apple for use in systems factory configured with additional memory. Equipped with Netlist's unique Apple Qualified Heat-Spreader, these modules come off the same line as the module produced for Apple and are subject to the additional post-production certification testing which Apple requires."
Qualified:
"Premium Quality, fully tested Modules with Apple Qualified Heat-Spreader and backed by OWC Lifetime Advance Replacement Warranty.
These premium modules fully meet and/or exceed all Apple specifications for use in the Mac Pro Quad Xeon for a liftetime of high-performance, reliable operation. Use of the best major brand components and a true Apple Qualified Heat-Spreader ensure you can utilize these modules with full confidence."
Whether or not it is worth $100, i dont know. But the Crucial is only $30 less than the Netlist and doesn't boast Netlist certification. So if you are paranoid and want the best (beyond JEDEC specs), at $30 more than Crucial it isn't a bad deal at all.
Apples to Apples, the Crucial would be on par with the OWC Qualified based on the descriptions. So I would say the $80 more for the Crucial isn't worth it. But that depends on the individual of course.
Owc
I ordered 2 x1 gb of the OWC netlisted back in April. First set kernel panic.
RMAed. 2nd set would sometimes boot with the full 3 gig, other times it would boot with 2 gigs and the daughter card had a red led that followed a particular dimm no matter where I reseated it.
Just RMAed that set and am waiting for the 3rd set.
I'm thinking of ordering the crucial from newegg.
I ordered 2 x1 gb of the OWC netlisted back in April. First set kernel panic.
RMAed. 2nd set would sometimes boot with the full 3 gig, other times it would boot with 2 gigs and the daughter card had a red led that followed a particular dimm no matter where I reseated it.
Just RMAed that set and am waiting for the 3rd set.
I'm thinking of ordering the crucial from newegg.
I have seen many posts like this about OWC ram for macpro. So did they pay for the shipping back?
Not sure where you are looking but one 2GB stick of Crucial RAM from Newegg is running $420 as of today. That makes 8GB cost $1,680. An 8GB kit from OWS is $679. Wintech was $1,180, Techworks $1,200, Mushkin $1,280 for 8GB.
The nice guys over at http://www.barefeats.com/ seem to like OWS too and have not reported any problems with it in the dual or quad core setups.
Well if I remember correctly we were talking about 4GB kits. And my point in this post was that the Netlist was on par with the standard crucial 4GB kit. Plus, this was like a week ago I am sure prices have changed.
So sure you can add points to the thread, but don't respond to my post as if my information was wrong. Because you are coming extremely late and you didn't pay attention to the context in which my post was written.
And who is OWS?
And if you look at a 4GB kit at Crucial today (not newegg and not single sticks) it is $409.99, the same price as a 4GB KIT of Netlist certified from OWC. That is what were talking about at the time of my post you responded to. At the time the Netlist was $30 more.
Now that the de-rail looks over...
Can the OP or someone else report on how their Crucial RAM worked out? That is what I am thinking of buying as well to go into a new MacPro.
Can the OP or someone else report on how their Crucial RAM worked out? That is what I am thinking of buying as well to go into a new MacPro.
Sean - to your point - I added 4 GB of RAM from Crucial to my Mac Pro 2.66 and the service AND product were excellent - as usual.
I just ordered a macpro, shipping with 512x2
when it arrives, I 'll have the crucial 4gig kit ready, 2gig x 2.
How do I then put them in the banks, since I'll want to keep the 512's?