[UK] £124.40 for 4GB for the new MBP. Best price?

[nicklad]

I wasn't going to pay the stupid prices (£400 odd) that Apple want for 4GB in a SR MBP, so I've been looking around for better prices for the upgrade.

The best price I can get, including shipping, is £124.40:

http://www.shopmagenta.com/product/MAU1001839.aspx

I've posted this because I'm interested if anybody has managed to find a better price and also to let people know that better deals are available if you look.

BTW: Hope nobody made the mistake of purchasing from Crucial:

http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=FF1F93F9A5CA7304

£270.24 !!! Ouch!

-EDIT-

Crucial have dropped their price now by ~£100.

Memory arrived, very well packaged and it's genuine Kingston.

Uses Micron chips - identical to those found on a stick of Crucial.

 

[RedTomato]

You've got a lovely top-of-the line MBP, worth maybe 1.5 grand.

RAM memory is one of the most highly stressed parts in a computer. Apple macs are well known for being more picky / stressing RAM more than Windows PCs.

Everything I've seen indicates for Macs, you should avoid the bargain basement cheapest memory. Especially stuff described as "value" RAM.

Look up some of what CanadaRAM says, and he's the expert.

Is getting random crashes and loosing your work and data on a 1.5k machine worth saving a few quid on RAM?

You might be able to get a cheaper price from Crucial by clearing your cookies / using a different computer at a different location and going straight to the type of RAM needed without going through the product/ brand selector.

I dont know who else in the UK does good RAM, but OWC have a good reputation and do international shipping.

http://otherworldcomputing.com/

xx RedTomato

 

[nicklad]

You've got a lovely top-of-the line MBP, worth maybe 1.5 grand.

It doesn't follow logically to spend more money than you need to just because you have already spent a lot.

RAM memory is one of the most highly stressed parts in a computer.

There are no moving parts, so I wouldn't personally consider it to be a part put under relatively high stress when compared to, say, a hard disk.

Aside from this RAM is made to a specification, so whatever stress needs to be handled is designed in.

Apple macs are well known for being more picky / stressing RAM more than Windows PCs.

Source? Apple are using Intel parts, present in an order of magnitude more PC's than Mac's.

For the SR MBP, Apple are using Intel's 965 Express Chipset.

Everything I've seen indicates for Macs, you should avoid the bargain basement cheapest memory. Especially stuff described as "value" RAM.

Look up some of what CanadaRAM says, and he's the expert.

Again, RAM is made to work to a specification. I accept that some parts inevitably have more tolerance built in than others, but I am not intending on overclocking or changing the voltage.

The Kingston part fully meets the required specification:

http://www.valueram.com/datasheets/KVR667D2S5_2G.pdf

It is, apparently, extensively tested and comes with a lifetime warrenty.

The company are also an Apple approved memory manufacturer.

Is getting random crashes and loosing your work and data on a 1.5k machine worth saving a few quid on RAM?

You rase an emotive point, but a fair one in-so-far as I certainly would not want anything that compromised the stability of my MPB in anyway. I'll do some extensive memtest86 run in tests when I get a pair.

You might be able to get a cheaper price from Crucial by clearing your cookies / using a different computer at a different location and going straight to the type of RAM needed without going through the product/ brand selector.

No, sadly you get the same price.

I dont know who else in the UK does good RAM, but OWC have a good reputation and do international shipping.

http://otherworldcomputing.com/

Thanks! I'll have a look.

 

[AndyR]

What about this http://orcalogic.co.uk/asp/prodtype.asp?prodtype=31359&ft=m&st=3

Very good memory, used them in the past and they are excellent. Works out at £210 delivered for 2x 2Gb for the new MBP?

 

[nicklad]

What about this http://orcalogic.co.uk/asp/prodtype.asp?prodtype=31359&ft=m&st=3

Very good memory, used them in the past and they are excellent. Works out at £210 delivered for 2x 2Gb for the new MBP?

Thanks It's still substantially more expensive though.

I've ordered two of the Kingston's - which I will extensively test and run in and post back here with my experiences.

 

[nicklad]

Memory arrived today, very well packaged and it's genuine Kingston.

Uses Micron chips - identical to those found on a stick of Crucial.

 

[Counter]

BTW: Hope nobody made the mistake of purchasing from Crucial:

http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=FF1F93F9A5CA7304

£270.24 !!! Ouch!

You might be able to get a cheaper price from Crucial by clearing your cookies / using a different computer at a different location and going straight to the type of RAM needed without going through the product/ brand selector.

Yup, on clicking the above Crucial link the price I get is £178.59 inc. VAT

£100 off for going to the products page directly? Insanity. And seriously good tip!

 

[nicklad]

Yup, on clicking the above Crucial link the price I get is £178.59 inc. VAT

£100 off for going to the products page directly? Insanity. And seriously good tip!

Nah, not true. Crucial have the same no matter how you get to the page...

They dropped the price yesterday by £100.

And it is still not a good deal - £50 more expensive than the Kingston that uses the same Micron memory chips.

 

[weckart]

Hmmm. Similar price at LambdaTek.

In fact, similar stock levels. Seems like these are virtual stores sourcing from the same distribution centre. If anyone works out how to cut out the middlemen (Magenta et al) you might get this memory even more cheaply.


With regard to value ram, just bear in mind that these chips may also be refurbished, which is why they are branded as "value". Macs today are much less fussy than they used to be about memory tolerances, so no reason to overspend. My macbook is happily chugging along on the cheap stuff. The original supplied memory from Apple was not premium, either.

 

[nicklad]

Hmmm. Similar price at LambdaTek.

In fact, similar stock levels. Seems like these are virtual stores sourcing from the same distribution centre. If anyone works out how to cut out the middlemen (Magenta et al) you might get this memory even more cheaply.


With regard to value ram, just bear in mind that these chips may also be refurbished, which is why they are branded as "value". Macs today are much less fussy than they used to be about memory tolerances, so no reason to overspend. My macbook is happily chugging along on the cheap stuff. The original supplied memory from Apple was not premium, either.

Does seem to be a virtual stores system. Very interesting...

Kingston are one of the respected brands and I have not seen anything to suggest that their ValueRAM memory, aimed at those who understand specs, is refurbished...

Quality and Reliability:
http://www.valueram.com/products/quality_reliability.asp

Testing and Compatibility:
http://www.valueram.com/products/testingcompatibility.asp

 

[AndyR]

Nah, not true. Crucial have the same no matter how you get to the page...

They have dropped the price but be careful, Crucial have been done in the past for there variable pricing depending on cookies. I had it at work once where both me and my colleague looked at the same memory for a server from different machines at the same time and both got different prices. Don't trust them now and use Orcalogic instead.

 

[mokal]

Nicklad, would the RAM you ordered work on a C2D MB or is just for MBP?

 

[Eraserhead]

Nicklad, would the RAM you ordered work on a C2D MB or is just for MBP?

All Intel Mac's (so far!) except the Mac Pro use the same type of RAM, but the C2D MB only takes up to 3GB RAM not 4GB and 3GB doesn't offer much better performance over 2GB as the RAM isn't paired.

 

[dcv]

Wow, the new Crucial price is great. I'm so tempted but guess I should decide if I'm definitely keeping this (or another) MBP first!

 

[Eraserhead]

Wow, the new Crucial price is great. I'm so tempted but guess I should decide if I'm definitely keeping this (or another) MBP first!

I'd get the RAM, RAM prices are really low atm and will only go up in the near future.

You could always sell it to someone else with an MBP (or someone else who has an Intel Mac) if you decide against keeping it .

 

[Igantius]

All Intel Mac's (so far!) except the Mac Pro use the same type of RAM, but the C2D MB only takes up to 3GB RAM not 4GB and 3GB doesn't offer much better performance over 2GB as the RAM isn't paired.

Don't want to get too o/t, but here's some benchmarks courtesy of OWC:
https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/Memory_Benchmark/Apple_MacBook/
https://eshop.macsales.com/Reviews/Framework.cfm?page=/Benchmarks/Core2_RAM_benchorig.html

Sure that most people have seen them, but makes quite interesting reading.

From what I've read generally, not matching sticks reduces the MB's graphical performance but if you're doing stuff that's RAM-hungry or CPU intensive, there is a boost to perfomance.

 

[RedTomato]

https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/Memory_Benchmark/Apple_MacBook/
https://eshop.macsales.com/Reviews/Framework.cfm?page=/Benchmarks/Core2_RAM_benchorig.html

The older article (the second link) was a bit dodgy - in several of the benchmarks, 2GB (2x1GB) performed *worse* than 1GB (2x 512), or the 1GB pair was worse than the 2x256MB, which I find hard to beleive.

The newer one (the first link) was much more convincing. Seems the value sweet spot is definitely 1GB (with an almost insignificant difference between single or pair)

When I get my new refurb macbook, if it's 2x256, I'll deffo throw in a gig stick, then depending on prices, will put in either a 1GB or if prices fall, a 2GB stick later in the other slot.

3GB seems a nice sweet spot if 2GB prices fall a bit more.

 

[yetanotherdave]

I'd get the RAM, RAM prices are really low atm and will only go up in the near future.

Really? Where did you get that from?

 

[Eraserhead]

Really? Where did you get that from?

Well 2x1GB RAM now costs just £50 from Crucial, which is crazily cheap, I paid £160 for 2x1GB RAM in October, and Crucial were charging £220 at that point. That means in 9 months the price has dropped 3x over what I paid and 4x over Crucial's price.

The reason for this apparently is that the RAM manufacturers thought more people would upgrade to Vista than actually did, so there is now a glut of too much memory. You can read more in this Arstechnica thread.

 

[kumbaya]

Thanks It's still substantially more expensive though.

I've ordered two of the Kingston's - which I will extensively test and run in and post back here with my experiences.

anything to report yet?

 

[nicklad]

anything to report yet?

Yeah, I'm happy to report that it's working, as I expected, with absolutely no issues what-so-ever.

I left the machine running memtest for over an hour before I got bored.

Cheers,

Nick

 

[Donnacha]

Yeah, I'm happy to report that it's working, as I expected, with absolutely no issues what-so-ever.

I left the machine running memtest for over an hour before I got bored.

Cheers,

Nick

Thanks Nick, I intend to order the same but do let us know if you machine explodes or anything