RAM Upgrade Prices at Apple Store are Crazy

[vbctv]

Decided to inquire about Apple doing RAM upgrades on the 2018 Mac mini. For future reference when I may be ready to upgrade the Ram from the 8GB it comes with. The support documents say to take it to an Apple Store or Authorized Apple Service Center (MicroCenter in my area).

16GB - https://www.apple.com/shop/product/...1ca520ae0a8d4566df9f7bbdd5a4b64378e75de551dfe

For 16GB they want $400 plus they told me another $50 to install it, which the guy claims they do in store. When you buy the machine they only charge you $200 to go from 8 to 16, but they want $400 for 16GB to upgrade. And $800 for 32GB and $1600 for 64GB. I thought it was a joke at first until the guy showed me the link above, I didn't even know they had it on their website.

Yea I think it's worth it to either go to MicroCenter and have them do it, or attempt to do it myself for a lot cheaper either way. The only thing that bothers me is if they decide to do something with that T2 chip in the future that makes Ram not work unless it's done by them.

 

[pinkoos]

That's helpful information, I had posted about trying to find this information out yesterday, so thank you for that. I noticed that you have the base model i3. How are you finding it? Any issues with 8GB RAM or the small 128GB SSD?

 

[Juggar]

Just do it yourself, they had 32GB for $215 recently. Think about that, massive savings.

Its sort of like working on your car, you can save hundreds doing it yourself, yes you need tools and it can be aggravating but I replaced all the suspension components on my SUV and saved about $400-500 doing so.

Yes it took me an entire weekend, but it was worth it.

 

[Planetary]

$50 for installation isn't that bad, as long as they will let you supply the RAM yourself, e.g. from Kingston.com for less than half the price.

If they won't do that, you'll have to buy the special screwdrivers from iFixit.com and do it yourself.
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Mac+mini+Late+2018+Memory+(RAM)+Replacement/115309

 

[vbctv]

That's helpful information, I had posted about trying to find this information out yesterday, so thank you for that. I noticed that you have the base model i3. How are you finding it? Any issues with 8GB RAM or the small 128GB SSD?

No issues at all mostly, have my Samsung T5 500GB SSD drive that I keep hooked up to store my iTunes & Photo Library and keep all my important documents on. So I only have the OS, iCloud & Apps on the main 128GB and still have 56Gb free. Ran into one issue using the emulator in Android Studio where my Mac mini reboots itself every time I try to use it. I also have 2 monitors hooked to it and it causes no slow downs. I did have to get an adapter HDMI to USB-C for 2nd monitor. The first one is an LG 4K Ultrafine USB-C, but for some reason when I plugged the 2nd Lenovo 2K monitor in via HDMI, it caused Netflix & Hulu to give me HDCP errors, so I got the adapter and now it works fine. I'm just assuming the HDMi is meant to be used as a single monitor port only.

 

[Cashmonee]

The only thing that bothers me is if they decide to do something with that T2 chip in the future that makes Ram not work unless it's done by them.

They won't. I think a lot of FUD has been spread about the T2, the most pronounced being the idea that it can be used as some sort of kill switch. That is not what it is designed for, and Apple would never use it that way even if it was.

 

[philipma1957]

Self deleted as promised as I was off topic

 

[Juggar]

T2 chip and Apple's newer 10.13 or 10.14 os defeat a lot of what I liked about apple.

lets say you have 3 2012 i7 mac minis you could have 2 hdds inside each one and two hdds outside each one.

3 of the hdds would be cloned boot drives 4 hdd a time machine.


I mine a lot of coins and have tons of wallets I used to be able to have very safe backups via super duper . and every boot drive with its backups could simply be mov ed to a different mini. The new os and the T2 both try to stop this and or make it hard to do. I don't need that protection and it is a real pain for backups. I am kind of disgusted with apples move to this as it makes my wallet backups harder to do.

Maybe apple is not the right hardware for you? I remember seeing your post over on Bitcointalk, small world. Certainly you have enough windows hardware lying around! haha

 

[Count Blah]

They won't. I think a lot of FUD has been spread about the T2, the most pronounced being the idea that it can be used as some sort of kill switch. That is not what it is designed for, and Apple would never use it that way even if it was.

https://www.theverge.com/2018/11/12...mini-t2-chip-security-repair-replacement-tool

 

[Cashmonee]

https://www.theverge.com/2018/11/12...mini-t2-chip-security-repair-replacement-tool

From the article:

Apple says that a vast majority of repairs can be conducted without needing the tool, and it’s certainly true that most Mac owners will never be in the position of needing to replace a logic board or Touch ID sensor on their own. Both components are parts Apple says only it distributes, while solid state drives on most modern Macs, like the new Mac mini, are not user replaceable because they are soldered either to other components or the housing unit.

Apple has gone on record saying that it is not a kill switch and that most repairs won’t require the software. I think it is reasonable that repairs a regular user would perform will not required the software check.

I would not argue that Apple is pro-user repair. I also think it is a bit tin foil hat wearing to suggest they would retroactively disable computers because of user upgraded RAM. The reason behind the “kill switch” as so many have taken to call it, is to ensure something like a logic board isn’t installed that will break the Secure Enclave.

https://www.imore.com/regarding-t2-security-chips-blocking-independent-mac-repairs

 

[F-Train]

I mine a lot of coins

Thanks for helping to make GPU vendors and speculators rich and forcing lots of people to pay through the nose for gear that they need for actual productive work.

Your complaint about Apple is?

 

[philipma1957]

Self deleted as I was off topic

 

[rmdeluca]

None really my complaint is about you failing to realize that AMD made a fortune due to mining and that the threadripper and eypc cpus were created due to lots of money coming into their company. The amd threadripper and eypc cpus forced intel to make 4 core i3's 6 core i5's and 6 core hyper thread i7's which are in the very mini you are defending.

Threadripper was not a result of mining - that's physically impossible. Threadripper/Epyc development started in 2015 and it became an official product mid-2016. The Zen architecture they are based on started development in 2012. Ryzen/Threadripper and Epyc were introduced early to mid 2017, right around the time the mining boom started.

You can clearly see the GPU S&D curve becomes significantly affected by mining AFTER Ryzen/TR was released:

https://pcpartpicker.com/trends/price/video-card/#gpu.chipset.radeon-rx-580

Because AMD does not break down individual product segments in their financial reports, it's impossible to know how much of their 2017 revenue increase was due to crypto and how much was due to Ryzen/TR and GPU sales for gaming and in Apple computers. Ryzen has also proven to be hugely popular and scored significant OEM wins in 2017.

Throughout all this, AMD's gross income was up only $825M y/y in 2017. Their R&D budget (which is an order of magnitude less than Intel's) has been relatively flat the last five years.

The reason why AMD got such a jump on Intel is that Intel got complacent and overcommitted to their original 10nm plans, which were extremely ambitious.

 

[philipma1957]

Self deleted as I was off topic

 

[rmdeluca]

Nope they built the threadripper because they realized power savings don't mean much when you can mine with the cpu.

I understand that you're a very low signal-to-noise ratio poster, but I'm going to respond to your trolling one more time because what you are writing is simply untrue.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/antony...d-the-processor-that-beat-intel/#1e65bc9e230c

 

[philipma1957]

The. Article states we were kicking the idea around in 2014 to 2015 but did not have a business plan.

But in 2016 we got green lighted to develop it.

Why is that? Coins and cpu/gpu mining took off.

In 2016 xmr came out and CPUs mine did it making a ton of money. These causing the financial incentive to develop a high power cpu. The threadrippers were making over 1.50 usd a day Mining xmr. If you don’t think the financial desire created by mining caused the quicker threadripper development you and I will have to agree to disagree. As for trolling I did not misquote anyone I was misquoted by F-train. I simply gave a set of reasons why he is wrong and why I think you are wrong.

Since this was a thread about expensive ram in Apple my posts will be self deleted in an hour or two.

I deleted the posts made here as they are off topic.

My opinion on the price of ram is that Apple is overcharging for it.

 

[MacWorld78]

Does it make any difference to the performance DDR4 with the following brands

- Apple (SKhynix)
- Crucial
- CORSAIR Vengeance
- Kingston HyperX Impact
- OWC

 

[rmdeluca]

Does it make any difference to the performance DDR4 with the following brands

- Apple (SKhynix)
- Crucial
- CORSAIR Vengeance
- Kingston HyperX Impact
- OWC

Not really. Some of them have slightly better latencies (CAL), but that’s splitting hairs in the grand scheme of things.

 

[MacWorld78]

Not really. Some of them have slightly better latencies (CAL), but that’s splitting hairs in the grand scheme of things.

which brand is better the for latencies?

 

[revmacian]

Decided to inquire about Apple doing RAM upgrades on the 2018 Mac mini. For future reference when I may be ready to upgrade the Ram from the 8GB it comes with. The support documents say to take it to an Apple Store or Authorized Apple Service Center (MicroCenter in my area).

16GB - https://www.apple.com/shop/product/...1ca520ae0a8d4566df9f7bbdd5a4b64378e75de551dfe

For 16GB they want $400 plus they told me another $50 to install it, which the guy claims they do in store. When you buy the machine they only charge you $200 to go from 8 to 16, but they want $400 for 16GB to upgrade. And $800 for 32GB and $1600 for 64GB. I thought it was a joke at first until the guy showed me the link above, I didn't even know they had it on their website.

Yea I think it's worth it to either go to MicroCenter and have them do it, or attempt to do it myself for a lot cheaper either way. The only thing that bothers me is if they decide to do something with that T2 chip in the future that makes Ram not work unless it's done by them.

If you decide to do it yourself, have a look at the prices at Macsales.. their prices look attractive.

 

[rmdeluca]

which brand is better the for latencies?

Kingston and CORSAIR. Again though, until someone boots into Windows and checks the actual timings of each of these different RAM kits in a 2018 Mini and benchmarks them, you’re firing blind. The Mac’s firmware will not necessarily utilize them at their specified timings.

 

[MacWorld78]

Kingston and CORSAIR

Thank you.