The difference between regular ram and "apple ram" from 3rd parties

[craigc_]

So I made a previous post regarding whether the RAM issues in the Unibody MacBook have been resolved or not: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/692653/

It seems that most people who bought OCZ ram have had no issues what so ever. I am located in Canada so a store like CanadaComputers is great for me because I can go pick it up instead of having it delivered and pay shipping costs (as opposed to Newegg.ca). On their website, they have two modules with similar specs expect one is found in the Apple ram section and the other is in the regular ram.

Apple Ram (OCZ)
http://canadacomputers.com/index.php?do=ShowProduct&cmd=pd&pid=023180&cid=RAM.188

Regular Ram (OCZ)
http://canadacomputers.com/index.php?do=ShowProduct&cmd=pd&pid=019880&cid=RAM.187.778

When comparing the specs, the only difference I can see is that the CL on the Apple ram is 7-7-7-20. The CL on the regular ram is CL 8-8-8-27.

The price difference between the two is $57! OCZ's website confirms that one is made specifically for Apple Notebooks and the other is just regular.

Can anyone explain what CL is and whether it is something that needs to be taken into consideration. Thanks.

 

[elfxmilhouse]

CL or Cas Latency is one way performance of RAM is shown.

the lower the better. its the time it takes before the information requested from the memory is available to the system

as far as if you need the cl 7 for macs, im not sure.
i just bought mushkin ram for my macbook and had no problems so far i believe its cl 7

 

[flopticalcube]

CanadaRAM has CL7 Crucial for CAD$94 + $8 shipping.