RAM = RAM unless it's Mac RAM?

[gr8gatzby]

It's time to up the RAM on my Mac Pro dual 2.66 Xeon from 4gb to 6gb. My mac buddy at work says he spent the $1k at the Apple Store for his memory and will never buy non Apple branded memory. As a tech, and a geek for as long as I can remember it has been my conclusion that all RAM is created equal if it is of the same type, and is not platform specific or dependent.

I'm looking at a price premium of $25 for a "certified Mac" 2gb kit from the online etailers, as opposed to just regular run-o-the-mill DDR2-667 PC25300 sticks.

I'm pretty sure I'm right, but if not, please explain to me what RAM manufacturers do when they wave a magic wand over a standard stick of memory to make it "certified for Mac"....

Thanks.

 

[goMac]

It depends. The heat situation on the 2008 Mac Pros meant that the RAM generally needed to have larger heat sinks, which not all sticks did. This is what's usually meant by "Apple Certified". The chips themselves are the same, it's just the heat sinks.

Pretty sure the 09 Mac Pro doesn't have the heat sink requirement.

 

[gugucom]

If you make sure you understand the requirements, which are usually different for each model you can play the market and save a lot of money.

 

[maghemi]

I don't fully understand it but not all ram is created equal. Not all brands will play nice with the Mac Pro.

Also the ram does get VERY hot in there, hence the need for the whopping great heatsinks on them.

If you're willing to chance issues go for any ram, but don't forget in all but the new quad cores you'll also need ECC Ram.

I don't think I'd ever buy ram direct from apple, however I definitely get my ram as 'certified for mac'. And yes even with it will mean paying a premium over non certified ram, but really it's worth it for a guarantee of a stable system.