Adding Memory - Apple or non-Apple Certified?

I would like to get everyones feeling on this. I am planning on adding memory to both of my Macs. A lot of times I see that it says "Apple Certified" or "Will work on Apple Computers". Several techs I talked to told me that Macs can sometimes be fussy with their memory and and if it's not tested and certified to work on a Mac you could have issues down the road. Other people tell me that as long as the speed is correct it's fine.

I am looking for technical reasons why the memory needs to be "Apple Certified" or not. On a side note, several friends added NON-Apple certified memory to their Macbook Pros and did have some Kernel Panics afterwards. When they switched to Apple Certified memory the problems went away. Coincidence, or is there some truth behind the whole Apple Certified memory issue? Thanks.

I've personally never seen any convincing evidence to suggest that "uncertified" memory is of a lesser quality. Personally, having never used "certified" memory and having never had issues with the chips that I've bought, I find it hard to believe that "Apple certified" means anything.

I'm not going to get into any discussion about "Apple Certified Memory" because it strictly all about Apple and opinions. All I will tell you is that we recommend purchasing memory modules from a dependable reseller. We usually specify purchasing from either Crucial or Other World Computing (Mac Sales). You can look up their respective URLs and visit the sites.

I have used OWC memory in G3s, G4s, G5s, Mac Pros and now iMacs exclusively and fully support chscag recommendation. Have never purchased 'Apple' memory other than what came with new units. And this is not Apple, but usually Toshiba, Hynix, Samsung etc.

For what it's worth, Crucial memory has been running happily in my Power Mac G5 since July 2009.

Perhaps you have mixed up the expression 'Apple Compatiblle' rather than certified? Macs are pretty fussy about the correct low density modules, and some models are extremely fussy. That is why OWC and Crucial are recommended as Mac specialists.