[drnkn_stylz]

I'm hoping to pick up 2GB of RAM around X-Mas time (hopefully I can get some on sale!) and I am wondering what is the best RAM (quality and performance) to purchase?

I have heard of a lot of people using G.Skill and Patriot RAM. What's so special about these brands, and how do they compare to Apple RAM?

Anyone know of any sales going on online???

[Tuoder]

Crucial is a very good brand of RAM. I have not heard of G.Skill, and I have always thought of Patriot as a bargain brand.

[gregfripp]

I recently purchased 2gb of ram on ebay uk.
They are kingston brand and turned out to be fine, although they were purchased from hong kong.
I would class them as one of my better buys
Greg

[acoustix]

Canada RAM sells Mac memory in Canada - DIMMs, SIMMs, PowerBook, iBook, iMac, Mini, G5
OWC: Apple Mac G4 upgrades, Laptop Batteries, Memory, Drives

[Tomchu]

There's nothing special about different brands of RAM, unless you're an overclocker and require the higher-quality chips that are capable of running much higher than spec.

DDR2-667 at 5-5-5-15 will be the same regardless of brand, and a stored bit is a stored bit. Just because you spend $50 more than the next guy doesn't mean your bits are stored in higher quality. :-)

[drnkn_stylz]

Hey thanks for the links, at least I know how much I'm going to need to spend roughly.

Any other input for good brands?

[mduell]

Brands that I've been burned by: G.Skill, GeiL, PNY

Brand I love: Crucial

[tonton]

How come I don't hear much about Kingston any more?

[all2ofme]

+1 Crucial.

[drnkn_stylz]

Originally Posted by Tomchu 

There's nothing special about different brands of RAM, unless you're an overclocker and require the higher-quality chips that are capable of running much higher than spec.

DDR2-667 at 5-5-5-15 will be the same regardless of brand, and a stored bit is a stored bit. Just because you spend $50 more than the next guy doesn't mean your bits are stored in higher quality. :-)

That make a lot of sense. I guess the better question would be which brands are crap and will fail?

[Tomchu]

RAM generally doesn't go bad over time either. It's not like fruit or children.

[jokell82]

Originally Posted by drnkn_stylz 

That make a lot of sense. I guess the better question would be which brands are crap and will fail?

You're going to get the same kind of answers you would if you asked about hard drives - everyone has a horror story about every manufacturer. If you just go with something with a warranty you'll be fine.

[all2ofme]

I agree with Tomchu above about it generally not going bad over time, but it definitely happens. In an unrepresentative sample size of 1 (me ) it's happened before. It was a 1GB stick I had in my Powerbook and it was a right pain in the arse.

[Ruddigger]

My Patriot RAM is working better than the apple ram in my moms macbook, which is now getting kernel panics...

[drnkn_stylz]

Great info thanks everyone.

[xsphat]

I put two 1 gig Kingston sticks in mine, works fine so far.