[douglas.martin]

What brand of RAM does Apple ship with the PowerBooks and the iMacs? Is there any advantage in terms of reliability or value retention by using factory installed 9or separately purchased) o.e. Apple RAM over the "premium" aftermarket stuff? I'm about to spring for one or the either of these machines and qualify for the educational store discount, bringing the cost of a BTO with upgraded RAM within a couple hundred bucks of the current Apple retailer offers with free aftermarket RAM. Any insight here greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[ghporter]

There is no real difference between the RAM Apple uses and what's available from reputable third-party sources. Apple doesn't use "premium" RAM because there is no such thing. They do use GOOD RAM, products that are made by high-quality manufacturers.

Further, they charge about DOUBLE what you can get a similar size of RAM for. If you go with a good brand (Kingston, Crucial, Corsair, etc.) you get high quality parts at a better price than Apple charges. I would go with an Apple-sourced computer and direct purchased RAM from one of the vendors I just listed.