Portable USB drives and the Mac Pro

Depends what local tariffs are.

Down Under no GST on purchases less than $1000.00 (about £380/£400). Personally always deal with OWC. Even with premium air mail much much cheaper than buying locally. OWC offer lifetime guaranty and havd one module in Mac Pro replaced f.o.c. with air mail.

harryb2448 said:

Down Under no GST on purchases less than $1000.00 (about £380/£400)

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That's just unfair! You got the weather, the lifestyle and now this! ;D

Last time I checked, VAT was chargeable on anything over £17 Mind you, that was back when VAT was 17.5%, it's now 20%, so perhaps the threshold gone up a quid or two ...

harryb2448 said:

Personally always deal with OWC. Even with premium air mail much much cheaper than buying locally. OWC offer lifetime guaranty and havd one module in Mac Pro replaced f.o.c. with air mail.

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They are great, aren't they. When I lived in Miami/Nassau, I even had my coffee from them ... well, almost

The weather yeah!

-2º on the sub-tropical coast with winds straight from the Antarctic. Fools on skis loving it lol!

MBP17•David said:

The OWC memory kit, you mentioned, will not be subject to import duties, but VAT will be charged on full price (cost + shipping), so with the cheapest shipping offered, at $4.99 (which is excellent, by the way), your total will be $325 or £190, so is still cheaper than Crucial here - certainly something to think about. ;D

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Thanks for this. So is the 'unbuffered' variety relevant in any way? The Crucial site doesn't say which model it's suitable for but it's exactly the same spec as the OWC item I linked to. I ask because it's a little hard to know what to look for when the site doesn't tell you about the specific type or types of computer they're meant to be used in.

MBP17•David said:

That's just unfair! You got the weather, the lifestyle and now this! ;D

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You're English aren't you David?

Last time I checked, VAT was chargeable on anything over £17.

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My understanding from recent dealings with these bloodsuckers is that it's now anything over £18. My understanding might be defective of course.

They are great, aren't they. When I lived in Miami/Nassa, I even had my coffee from them ... well, almost

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Yes. Definitely an Englishman. lol

plumpjack said:

Thanks for this. So is the 'unbuffered' variety relevant in any way? The Crucial site doesn't say which model it's suitable for but it's exactly the same spec as the OWC item I linked to. I ask because it's a little hard to know what to look for when the site doesn't tell you about the specific type or types of computer they're meant to be used in.

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Assuming that the Crucial UK website works the same way as the US site. At the Crucial home page there's something called "Two ways to find compatible upgrades."

The 2nd option is the "Crucial System Scanner". Use this…and it should tell you the exact ram to purchase (if this is the plan).

- Nick

pigoo3 said:

Assuming that the Crucial UK website works the same way as the US site. At the Crucial home page there's something called "Two ways to find compatible upgrades."

The 2nd option is the "Crucial System Scanner". Use this…and it should tell you the exact ram to purchase (if this is the plan).

- Nick

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I was rather puzzled when the searches I ran got nothing [meaning I probably ran badly worded searches]. You're a life saver yet again Nick. Thanks cock. I've learnt so much on this thread alone it's really hard to quantify. I'll try OWC and see how that works out. Returns might be iffy [expensive] if I buy a dud but that seldom happens more than likely.

Actually the previous OWC product I linked to for this model might have been wrong. Here's OWC's memory selection page and the correct item when buying 24GB memory for an early 2009 Mac Pro just in case anyone's interested:

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/Mac-Pro-Memory#1066-memory

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/85MP3W8M24K/

Still a decent price.

plumpjack said:

I'll try OWC and see how that works out. Returns might be iffy [expensive] if I buy a dud but that seldom happens more than likely.

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Use their cheaper shipping option, and keep the packaging, unlikely as it may be that, you'd need to return it. Now, I'm not suggesting, you understand, in such a case, repackaging it carefully and writing "package rejected / return to sender" on it ... lol

One of the advantages of a simple USPS / Airmail package ("Small Packet" in Royal Mail speak) is that Mount Pleasant might not even charge VAT at all (happened to me on more than one occasion). Will definitely slap on a hefty handling charge, plus VAT on anything sent by UPS/FedEx/DHL et al.

plumpjack said:

Thanks for this. So is the 'unbuffered' variety relevant in any way?

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It's been nigh on twelve years, since I last owned a desktop, but from memory (pun intended ;D), one can use fully buffered ECC where unbuffered was originally specified, but not mix the two together, or go unbuffered, where fully buffered was specified (mostly high-end servers at the time). I could be entirely wrong here, as I said, it's been a while. The best approach is, as Nick suggested, either to use Crucial System Scan, or rely on OWC compatibility chart - they certainly know their stuff.

plumpjack said:

You're English aren't you David?

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Whatever gave you that idea?

I only use 2.5, each at least 1TB, especially b/c I don't have enough slots on my surge protector for a power source. I buy my hard disk separate from my enclosure so I'm aware of the quality of the disk I am using. You won't go wrong with the Western Digital brand. Besides using the Velociraptor in my internal machine, the scorpio model has been a really good choice for my externals. Just my 2 cents.