Best ram?

[big-mac]

Hi guys. I was wondering if you could lend me your expertise. I want to upgrade my stock mac-pro from 1 gb of ram to 4 gbs of ram but don't want to buy it from apple because of the price. What type of ram do I need? I want the best available. I here that the ram needs big heat sinks. I am looking for a 4 gb set (2x 2gbs). Thanks.

P.S. If I install 4 gbs of ram and leave the other 1 gb of stock ram installed, will the 4 gbs still run in dual channel?

 

[smurfy]

try Crucial. They have a handy, and also 53.67235% dandy, memory advisor that will let you find exactly the memory you'll need.

 

[mac-daddy]

Cool. Do you know if their apple ram comes with the large heatsinks apple recomends?

 

[smurfy]

Hmm?

What does RAM have to do with a heatsink?

I have no idea, but, providing it's the same type, RAM is pretty much RAM.

 

[technologist]

Hmm?

What does RAM have to do with a heatsink?

Like the guy said, Apple recommends RAM with heatsinks on the Mac Pros.

I have no idea

Mmm hmm.

 

[smurfy]

well jee wiz, looks like someone caught ol' quiz kid smurfy smith out.

 

[cowasaki]

I have done quite a bit of research on this subject prior to placing my order (I am getting a mac pro next week). The mac pro obviously has 8 slots and you can technically put 512Mb, 1Gb, 2Gb & allegedly 4Gb FB Dimms into these slots in PAIRS in any combination.

HOWEVER because of the way the memory channels work there is a distinct performance drop when using 2 of the same type rather than 4. I have seen a reliable review where the memory performance increased by 15% when the memory was increased from 1Gb to 2Gb using 2X512Mb. Obviously there was an increase in performance of the whole computer both because of the increase in available ram AND its performance.

For this reason it is actually better to get 4X1Gb (to give 4 of one type) and rather than spoiling it with 2X512Mb I am buying another 2X512Mb to give me a total of 4X512Mb + 4 X1Gb = 6Gb

This will be cheaper than 2X2Gb and give me more performance.

Shop around for the ram though I have found a massive difference in price from one place to another.


Hope this helps

 

[mac-daddy]

I want to put in 2 2 gig modules (4 gig pair) and then in a few months when I have more cash buy another identical pair. Do you know what specifications to look for or a brand name?

 

[cowasaki]

Just stick to well known brands that offer lifetime guarantees and sell it specifically for the mac model you have, then look for the cheapest. I am in the UK where we suffer 17.5% vat and its £107 for 2x1Gb inc postage or £71 for 2x512Mb inc postage for Kingston!

How much ram do you want? 4x1Gb would be much cheaper and still leave you another 4 slots. You could still put 4x2Gb in those when the price drops further and sell off your 2x512Mb on ebay.

Oh the spec is FB-Dimm 667Mhz ! But I wouldn't buy any that are not listed for the mac just to be on the safe side!

Thats what i'm doing.

 

[mac-daddy]

Thanks cowasaki.

I want to be able to max out the ram if need be, so I will need to get 2 gig sticks. Someone said that the mac pro could theoretically use 4 gig sticks, but I have no clue if that would work or not.

 

[mac-daddy]

I just got off the phone with a guy from a computer store, and he said that the newest mac pros can ddr800 ram as opposed to ddr2 667. What does this mean? I just want to get the fastest ram available for the mac pro. This is annoying me.

 

[cowasaki]

There is another post under another thread where someone has 32Gb in their Mac pro so yes the pro CAN use 4Gb FB Dimms unless the forged it !!

I read a long article about FB Dimms when it first came out and basically there is a chip on the FB Dimm which communicates with the computer this chip then communicates with the ram. Basically so long as the comms ship is compatible it should work with any ram of any speed so long as the comms chip is designed to do that. With this in mind I would suggest that any pro can work with 800MHz FB Dimms the question is whether the pro will transfer the data any quicker from the comms chip!

That is unless I am going mad and just imagined the whole thing.....

 

[mac-daddy]

Thanks cowasaki.