Whats up with Mac Pro ram?

[macenforcer]

When I first got my mac pro quad I got ram from crucial and it was full of ecc erros so I returned it and bough kingston dimms from newegg and they ran without error.

Now I upgraded to a 8 core and bought some ram from TransIntl. Got 4gb worth. When they got here there were no ecc errors except my mac would not restart. Just hung there and the dvd drive clicked. I sent those back and got 8gb from them. Rational is that A. its cheap, B. if I have a problem I have a better chance of getting some good ones and C. I was going to get more anyway.

Well ram arrived after I had to pay to ship back. NOT COOL.

4gb out of the 8gb is bad. JEEZ. Now this ram makes my fans spin up to 4000rpm when returning from sleep.

The other 4gb is fine but guess what. Heatsinks were different than the first 4gb. I looked on newegg and sure enough, its Wintech ram. Hmmm.

So moral of this story is that

A. Ram can be bad without showing errors or death screen.
B. Transintl ships all different brands of memory.
C. Restart issues are a major problem with bad ram.


Going to order crucial this time since now they have official apple heatsinks and see how that plays out. If they ever get in freakin stock though. I wish there was a better vendor for this stuff.

 

[Digidesign]

Sorry to hear about your FB-DIMM experience.

Similar to you, my newegg.com Kingston RAM was fine. I bought 2x1gb chips. These came with the thin heat spreaders (not like Apple), so I bought additional aluminum fins and stuck them on top of the heat spreaders. They've been ok, even under duress.

Last week, I bought 2x1gb RAM and 2x512mb RAM from Max Upgrades. So far so good. I ran a few Rember tests, and put it through its paces on some memory intensive apps. Max Upgrades has the best prices that I could find, but they've also had some reliability issues (search for Max Upgrades and you'll see what I mean).

Because of the high heat from these chips, I'd guess that the fault tolerances are much lower compared to other types of memory.

 

[tribe3]

When I first got my mac pro quad I got ram from crucial and it was full of ecc erros so I returned it and bough kingston dimms from newegg and they ran without error.

Now I upgraded to a 8 core and bought some ram from TransIntl. Got 4gb worth. When they got here there were no ecc errors except my mac would not restart. Just hung there and the dvd drive clicked. I sent those back and got 8gb from them. Rational is that A. its cheap, B. if I have a problem I have a better chance of getting some good ones and C. I was going to get more anyway.

Well ram arrived after I had to pay to ship back. NOT COOL.

4gb out of the 8gb is bad. JEEZ. Now this ram makes my fans spin up to 4000rpm when returning from sleep.

The other 4gb is fine but guess what. Heatsinks were different than the first 4gb. I looked on newegg and sure enough, its Wintech ram. Hmmm.

So moral of this story is that

A. Ram can be bad without showing errors or death screen.
B. Transintl ships all different brands of memory.
C. Restart issues are a major problem with bad ram.


Going to order crucial this time since now they have official apple heatsinks and see how that plays out. If they ever get in freakin stock though. I wish there was a better vendor for this stuff.

Sorry to hear all the problems you are having with memory!

I bought 6GB RAM from Crucial and it was the same Micron brand as the 2x512 that came OEM with my computer. I've also purchased from DMS in the past and it was good memory and good prices also.

 

[SMM]

You have already had a lifetime's worth of bad luck. The good news is, statistically you should be error free for many years. I have had really good (perfect actually) luck with OWC. Never really paid much attention to who the original manufacturer is. It all seems to work without issue.

 

[SDAVE]

I was going with OWC, but I have second thoughts

Should I just fork out $2k for Apple ram?

 

[suneohair]

I was going with OWC, but I have second thoughts

Should I just fork out $2k for Apple ram?

Don't waste your money. Go with OWC. They are a great company and they offer RAM with great heatsinks.

Besides RAM is guaranteed through most companies so getting it replaced isn't an issue if it turns out to be bad.

 

[macenforcer]

Don't waste your money. Go with OWC. They are a great company and they offer RAM with great heatsinks.

Besides RAM is guaranteed through most companies so getting it replaced isn't an issue if it turns out to be bad.

Only I heard that OWC makes you pay for return shipping. TransIntl does too and if they keep sending crap then it can turn costly. I'm already in for $22 return shipping.

 

[macenforcer]

Here is another important tidbit.


The factory ram in my mac is crucial. It registers the temps with istat pro. The ram from Transintl does not register. It does not have temp sensors. This is a problem. This cheap ram is cheap for a reason. Thinking about buying the apple ram myself.

 

[pastrychef]

I just returned 2x2GB sticks to OWC because I was getting ECC errors when the A/C wasn't turned on. We'll see how the replacements turn out...

I also recently got 2x2GB sticks from TransIntl and they've been working fine. The ones I got have temperature sensors and Temperatur Monitor reports it fine.

 

[suneohair]

Only I heard that OWC makes you pay for return shipping. TransIntl does too and if they keep sending crap then it can turn costly. I'm already in for $22 return shipping.

I would tell them to shove it. They sent me a bad product, they can pay for it for it to be returned. They can't sell you a bad product and expect you to eat money for something that is clearly their problem. What if you didn't want to pay to send it back? You are supposed to now sit on hundreds of dollars of bad product? Ha. If you want to let them take you, be my guest, but a company that is shipping a decent volume of stuff (OWC) can afford to send a label with it costing them next to nothing. They may say that is how it is. But I wouldn't take it.

Besides, if Transintl isn't sending what they advertise, but instead something else. I would stay away.

 

[suneohair]

Here is another important tidbit.


The factory ram in my mac is crucial. It registers the temps with istat pro. The ram from Transintl does not register. It does not have temp sensors. This is a problem. This cheap ram is cheap for a reason. Thinking about buying the apple ram myself.

I honestly don't believe there is any real difference between any of the RAM, especially not a temp sensor. Whats more, do you have any real proof of this? There is no special interface for temperature, so unless you have popped of the HSs and saw a difference I call FUD on this.

Don't spread misinformation.

Also, high fan spinup is normal for any Mac when returning from sleep.

 

[suneohair]

Double post.

 

[macenforcer]

I honestly don't believe there is any real difference between any of the RAM, especially not a temp sensor. Whats more, do you have any real proof of this? There is no special interface for temperature, so unless you have popped of the HSs and saw a difference I call FUD on this.

Don't spread misinformation.

Also, high fan spinup is normal for any Mac when returning from sleep.

In istat pro it the temp for Memory Module B1 or B2 or A1 etc..

There is no temp for the location of the Transintl ram. Just the apple ram.

4000rpm spinup from sleep is NOT normal. Don't care what you say.

 

[tribe3]

In istat pro it the temp for Memory Module B1 or B2 or A1 etc..

There is no temp for the location of the Transintl ram. Just the apple ram.

4000rpm spinup from sleep is NOT normal. Don't care what you say.

How long does/ did the spinup last? Mine spins up about 1 second and than settles down to normal. I even like that

 

[suneohair]

In istat pro it the temp for Memory Module B1 or B2 or A1 etc..

There is no temp for the location of the Transintl ram. Just the apple ram.

4000rpm spinup from sleep is NOT normal. Don't care what you say.

So you ae basing your assumptions on a third paty program, when you have zero evidence. Are you positive it actually shows temps for every module? I dont have Mac of a Mac Pro for that matter to know myself. Have you tried to reconfigure istat? Not to mention if the ram is bad, what do you expect?

Whats more, you havent given any evidence that proves your RAM is bad other then "it doesnt restart," instead you conclude that RAM is bad when you have this symptom.

So i ask what else have you done to test this and show that the RAM is really bad?

 

[Fearless Leader]

is Fully Buffered less stable then say normal or unbuffered ram? or are you just some sort of bad luck charm.

also suneohair as a demi you can delete your own posts.

 

[macenforcer]

So you ae basing your assumptions on a third paty program, when you have zero evidence. Are you positive it actually shows temps for every module? I dont have Mac of a Mac Pro for that matter to know myself. Have you tried to reconfigure istat? Not to mention if the ram is bad, what do you expect?

Whats more, you havent given any evidence that proves your RAM is bad other then "it doesnt restart," instead you conclude that RAM is bad when you have this symptom.

So i ask what else have you done to test this and show that the RAM is really bad?

You are starting to bore me.

 

[tribe3]

I was going with OWC, but I have second thoughts

Should I just fork out $2k for Apple ram?

Before getting raped by Apple take a look at the difference between Apple OEM and Crucial RAM: http://web.mac.com/tribe3/iWeb/Site/Library.html

 

[SDAVE]

Before getting raped by Apple take a look at the difference between Apple OEM and Crucial RAM: http://web.mac.com/tribe3/iWeb/Site/Library.html

So now I should go with Crucial??? I haven't bought the RAM yet, next week I'll have enough in my bank. Crucial & OWC are the same price....PLEASE help me decide within a day or two! On the Crucial site (they're out of stock for 4x2GB sticks) they say that not all RAM looks the way it is pictured.

How is the Crucial lifetime warranty? Is it good? I've used Ballistix and Crucial ram alot back in the day and have never been dissapointed...

 

[CanadaRAM]

1) 8-core machines require memory that has been tested for 8-core. Only about half of the MacPro FB-DIMMs on the market are 8-core compatible - it is essential when you are ordering to specify you have the 8-core machine.
In particular, Kingston 8-core RAM has to be model KTA-MP667AK2, not KTA-MP667K2.

2) A good memory vendor pays shipping both ways on DOAs (failures immediately after purchase).

3) MacPro RAM needs to report temperature data to the machine, If it doesn't, send it back for replacement.

 

[tribe3]

So now I should go with Crucial??? I haven't bought the RAM yet, next week I'll have enough in my bank. Crucial & OWC are the same price....PLEASE help me decide within a day or two!

Well I guess all RAM can eventually fail... I purchased OWC in the past and had no issues; now I went with Crucial and I had the nice surprise to see that it's the same Micron RAM that Apple uses. (Works like a charm)

I believe Macenforcer had a megadose of bad luck, or there is something else wrong with his machine.

A picture says more than a thousand words

 

[SDAVE]

Well I guess all RAM can eventually fail... I purchased OWC in the past and had no issues; now I went with Crucial and I had the nice surprise to see that it's the same Micron RAM that Apple uses. (Works like a charm)

I believe Macenforcer had a megadose of bad luck, or there is something else wrong with his machine.

A picture says more than a thousand words

When did you order your Crucial RAM? They're out of stock now. I don't want to be surprised.

 

[tribe3]

When did you order your Crucial RAM? They're out of stock now. I don't want to be surprised.

7 days ago. I ordered 3 sets of 2 x 1GB sticks. Plus the 2 x 512 that came with the machine makes 7GB total memory.

 

[SMM]

1) 8-core machines require memory that has been tested for 8-core. Only about half of the MacPro FB-DIMMs on the market are 8-core compatible - it is essential when you are ordering to specify you have the 8-core machine.
In particular, Kingston 8-core RAM has to be model KTA-MP667AK2, not KTA-MP667K2.

2) A good memory vendor pays shipping both ways on DOAs (failures immediately after purchase).

3) MacPro RAM needs to report temperature data to the machine, If it doesn't, send it back for replacement.

CanadaRAM,

What would be the difference between ram which runs well with 8 cores, as opposed to ram that does not?

 

[SDAVE]

7 days ago. I ordered 3 sets of 2 x 1GB sticks. Plus the 2 x 512 that came with the machine makes 7GB total memory.

I'm getting two sets of the 2x2GB modules for my 8Core Mac Pro.

F it...I'm going with Crucial. Their return policy looks a bit shady though, 20% restocking fee? Also what the hell does "Limited lifetime warranty mean"??