PC memory on a Intel MacBook Pro??

hi.. im about to buy a new macbook pro and i would like to know if there is any issue on using 4 gigs of DDR2 667 200-pin "made for pc"on my new MBP... both memory appear to be physically the same but there may be some issue related to OSx or maybe the latency ( i guess mac's are smaller like CAS 4) ...


thaks...

I think the only problem would be that the memory for the macbook pro I think has to be pc2-5300...

actually PC2 5300 and DDR2 667 are the same kind of memory... but written in a different way...
I.e DDR 400 and Pc 3200 is the same thing...

the question is.. mac ram is about 2x the price of pc ones of the same kind.. this is related to some compatibility issue or just the "mac stuff" that makes it 2 times the price?

if the core components of the motherboard are intel chipsets. I would guess that as long as its the correct pin count and 667( or whatever your particular computer requires) i don't' see why it would be a problem.

If its the correct kind of ram then wouldn't it not matter how it was "written" so to speak. that just be like switching RAM manufacturers some advertise the ram one way (PC 3200) and some will use the other way.
perhaps im wrong though

There is no technical difference.

2x2gb sticks from Crucial were about $100 shipped a few months back. Not too shabby.

Oh and the 2x1gb sticks that came out of my MBP before I even booted it? Samsung.

I swapped out the stock memory on my MBP and used 2x2GB of OCZ (PC2-5400) and it worked like a charm.

Although Crucial is a reputable company and they develop some of the best memory out there, I'd also check Newegg for OCZ, Mushkin and G.Skill (who all make 667MHz SO-DIMMs). IMO, Crucial might have a strong presence on this site with their advertising, but they're not the only game in town. The OCZ modules that I bought came to about $50 after the mail-in rebate - and that's for 4 gigs. Can't really beat that.

This is true, but I trust Crucial and that has NOTHING to do with the advertising on this site (I don't see ads anywhere anyway). I'm willing to pay more for that.

The typical strategy of savvy memory purchasers is to ignore any store links to "Mac Memory." Just find the specs of the memory you need (i.e., 2GB DDR2 PC2-6400 800Mhz, unbuffered, non-ECC, 1.8V SO-DIMM) and purchase it from the cheapest/most reliable PC memory source you can find. The low-level hardware between PCs and Macs are much more similar than they are different, and they definitely use the same RAM.

As others have said, there is no difference. However, one positive thing I will say about Crucial's "Mac memory" is that Crucial has some sort of compatibility guarantee when you buy those modules.

I bought my memory in a local computer store and it works beautifully and was hugely cheaper than any other.

In UK, I paid about £50.00 (about $100.00) for basic memory of the correct spec. Why pay more?

Discerptor said:

As others have said, there is no difference. However, one positive thing I will say about Crucial's "Mac memory" is that Crucial has some sort of compatibility guarantee when you buy those modules.

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They don't need one since the RAM is exactly the same. In fact I bought this RAM (just cuz I like Corsair RAM in general) and the RAM I took out of the MBP was Samsung RAM, identical down to the part number on the chips to the RAM that came in my Dell laptop.

The Corsair stuff is CAS4, which doesn't really mean much but it just gives an extra sense of leeway on tolerance.

I keep wondering how long it will take people to figure out that RAM is RAM.....

just make sure the CAS Latency timings are the same.. like CAS 2.5 or 3.0.

S.SubZero said:

They don't need one since the RAM is exactly the same. In fact I bought this RAM (just cuz I like Corsair RAM in general) and the RAM I took out of the MBP was Samsung RAM, identical down to the part number on the chips to the RAM that came in my Dell laptop.

The Corsair stuff is CAS4, which doesn't really mean much but it just gives an extra sense of leeway on tolerance.

Click to expand...

This is true, but there's a certain convenience to having the manufacturer willing to take back RAM for a reason other than it being blatantly defective. When I say the guarantee is the good part, I mean the policy itself.