I was going to buy 4x4GB of DDR3 1066mhz ram from macsales.com for a decent price. I found an ebay seller with good feedback selling it for about 60 dollars cheaper but I dont see on the ram. Is there a difference them buying OWC which is probably so name ram or just buy the same ram at a cheaper price even though its no name can anyone please help me out.
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Would it be a bad idea to buy no name ram?
- Thread starter JSmoove05
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The one and only time I tried "no-name" RAM, it caused nothing but headaches. With the factory RAM everything was great; with the no-name RAM I had continual crashes, spinning-beach-balls-of-death and so on. It had never occurred to me that all RAM is not created equal, even if it has equal specs. Since then, I've done my upgrades using RAM from OWC and everything has worked fine.
Apple buys RAM from various manufacturers - as long as you purchase name brand RAM (i.e. Kingston, Mushkin, Corsair, Crucial, Samsung, etc.) you'll be fine.
Just don't buy the crap "refurb" stuff you see on eBay. It's hit or miss - not worth the headaches.
Just don't buy the crap "refurb" stuff you see on eBay. It's hit or miss - not worth the headaches.
I've had very good results with memory from Data Memory Systems:
http://www.datamemorysystems.com/
(no financial interest)
Good prices, good service.
http://www.datamemorysystems.com/
(no financial interest)
Good prices, good service.
Spend a small amount of money and buy good stuff (from Crucial.com or wherever). It is far too important to the computer to penny pinch, and Macs are generally pickier about RAM than the typical computer.
crucial.com is a good site for affordable RAM, also check the usual sites, Newegg, Tigerdirect. Corsair is my favorite but when they don't have what I'm looking for Mushkin or Crucial works great.
There's name brand I don't touch too because of past experience. Stay away from PNY or any other budget RAM. Corsair ValueSelect is hit or miss as it isn't designed for Apple but the price is tempting even though the specs on paper line up perfectly.
There's name brand I don't touch too because of past experience. Stay away from PNY or any other budget RAM. Corsair ValueSelect is hit or miss as it isn't designed for Apple but the price is tempting even though the specs on paper line up perfectly.
The only RAM "designed for Apple" is old Mac Pro RAM, which came with an Apple-approved heat spreader. Buy the ValueSelect!
I usually buy from Kingston just because I've never had an issue with any of the RAM purchased from them, and it is pretty cheap. Have you considered second hand? If it isn't DOA it will probably work fine and save you some $$$.
Just a note from experience for anyone reading: keep away from Corsair's ValueSelect line. If you're going to buy Corsair, buy proper Corsair. If you want good RAM, buy that, or a proper offering from Crucial, Kingston, etc.
The only RAM "designed for Apple" is old Mac Pro RAM, which came with an Apple-approved heat spreader. Buy the ValueSelect!
I usually buy from Kingston just because I've never had an issue with any of the RAM purchased from them, and it is pretty cheap. Have you considered second hand? If it isn't DOA it will probably work fine and save you some $$$.
From my own experience I've had RAM randomly work in my own Mac, I sent back 2 in a row that didn't work until I got a 3rd that did. Said RAM worked fine in other PC's. Maybe Apple hardware is just more finicky
I ordered from http://www.crucial.com/mac/index.aspx and once installed my benchmark went up. Seems to be decent RAM.
2x4GB DDR3 1066 - $105
I doubt that anyone on eBay ships 16GB for $150. I have the G.Skill ones installed, they work fine. I don't think that iRAM is bad either. If you search around for those, I guess you'd even find them for <$100.
I doubt that anyone on eBay ships 16GB for $150. I have the G.Skill ones installed, they work fine. I don't think that iRAM is bad either. If you search around for those, I guess you'd even find them for <$100.
Try Crucial
Try the Crucial site it will supply a small program to determine compatible ram and its cost. I have upgraded a 17" 2009 Macbook Pro 4g to 8g and an 21.5 2010 iMac 4g to 12g using Crucial's recommendations. It's reasonably priced very quick delivery, and testing with Geek Bench before and after revealed a good score. Also used Apple's Tech Tools and it reported everything working okay.
Try the Crucial site it will supply a small program to determine compatible ram and its cost. I have upgraded a 17" 2009 Macbook Pro 4g to 8g and an 21.5 2010 iMac 4g to 12g using Crucial's recommendations. It's reasonably priced very quick delivery, and testing with Geek Bench before and after revealed a good score. Also used Apple's Tech Tools and it reported everything working okay.