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Upgraded Memory at Purchase or Buy Memory separately?
- Thread starter Aquaporin
- Start date
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Upgrade AFTER the purchase. It will be much cheaper. RAM upgrades are super easy and don't effect the warranty.
I usually buy aftermarket from OWC, but if the prices are cheaper from Apple, go with Apple (this has never been the case for me, but I have heard that Apple is getting much more aggressive with their RAM upgrade prices).
well i'm not so sure. My brother had an ordeal with upp'ing RAM. He had issues with Kingston and OWC. Granted this could very well be a fluke. He was so fed up he went to the Apple Store this morning and bought RAM for $200. Such a freakin rip off. But he almost got it for $100+tax as the kid ringing him up for whatever reason put it in as $100. Well another Apple worker saw that and corrected the kid. darn it!!!!! I guess if you buy the MBP right then and there they will just add $100 for the upgrade. So in reality their RAM is only $100 and you are paying an extra $100 for?????? I guess they return the 1 GB sticks and they get recycled.
i'm expecting my first mac purchase to be next week and i've done alot of research and came to the same conclusion.
$90 from apple and they'll install for you vs. $100+ and you still have to do the install (not saying the install's complicated or anything).
$90 from apple and they'll install for you vs. $100+ and you still have to do the install (not saying the install's complicated or anything).
You have to keep in mind that by doing it yourself, you are basically left with 4gb and 2gb in memory... if you purchase the upgrade from apple, you are only getting the 4gb. The difference in price (apple being cheaper) gets greater when going from 4 to 8 or 8 to 16 because of this reason.
The way RAM prices are right now, it's probably cheaper to just have Apple install it - it's going to cost on average the same anyway. The advantage of having Apple install it is that you won't have extra SODIMMS lying around, the RAM will be covered by Applecare, and should you ever have to send the computer in for service, you won't have to swap the Apple RAM back in.
If you search the forums you will find instances where people have sent their upgraded machines in for service, only to have them returned in the stock configuration - allegedly this is what Apple does when they restore a machine back to stock condition, but I can't confirm that.. I don't know if this is how it's done in general, or if the people in question were just unlucky, but it's something to consider. I was planning on selling my stock 2GB of RAM, but after reading these anecdotes, I'm going to hang onto them for a while at least.
If you search the forums you will find instances where people have sent their upgraded machines in for service, only to have them returned in the stock configuration - allegedly this is what Apple does when they restore a machine back to stock condition, but I can't confirm that.. I don't know if this is how it's done in general, or if the people in question were just unlucky, but it's something to consider. I was planning on selling my stock 2GB of RAM, but after reading these anecdotes, I'm going to hang onto them for a while at least.
Pretty sure you can with Apples return policy. just dont open the box!
i think it'll be a little hard to have a new mbp laying around without opening it!