[mfbernstein]

So Newegg had (temporarily) rather good pricing on a 2GB memory module (GSKILL DDR2 667 PC5300 CL-5-5-5).

Everything's working fine, but I was surprised to see that 'About this Mac' now says I have 3GB of 533MHZ memory (whereas before I had 1GB of 667MHZ memory).

Anybody seen anything similar with this? Is this just a result of running with mismatched DIMMS, or is this Apple's way of getting even with me for buying cheap generic memory? Are there any other drawbacks besides (potentially) reduced performance?

[Rev-O]

My C2D was ordered from Apple with 3 GB and shows up as 3GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM.

[SierraDragon]

My 17" C2D MBP has one 1 GB DIMM in it from Apple plus a 2 GB DIMM from OWC that I added. System Profile reports 667 MHz bus speed. It sounds like you got 533 MHz RAM and the bus is therefore bottlenecked to that speed; bummer.

RAM is something that can be a nightmare when it's lame, so personally I only buy best quality RAM from best quality vendors. Over the years OWC has been great, giving good telephone tech advice and even taking RAM back when I changed computers before installing the RAM I had bought. Apple MacBook Pro Memory upgrade and hard drive options for all Core 2 Duo 2.16GHz and 2.33GHz models 15" or 17" at OtherWorldComputing.com

As to drawbacks: cheap RAM sometimes can be flaky, which is hard to diagnose; and heat dissipation on some DIMMs can be better than on others.

-Allen Wicks

[mfbernstein]

Okay, thanks for the references. From Rev-O, I gather my results are not usual.

I agree that cheap RAM can be flaky, but it doesn't necessarily have to be, and I figured $100 off the lowest price I could find (OWC - $340) was worth the risk.

Here's the odd thing though: the module is definitely labeled as PC5300 (a.k.a. DDR2 667). They also come with a heat spreader (first time I ever saw one of those). I'll try booting into Windows to see what it thinks. If it's not, then back to Newegg it goes...

[spice003]

i have gskill 2gb 1gig sticks im macbook pro. been using it for almost 8 months everything works fine, shows up as 667

this look cool

[Frugle]

cheap ram, like gskills or kingmax usually run at a lower speed than their label... when buying cheap ram, I've always bought one level up....

[proh1]

mfBernstein, I just recieved my single stick of 2gb g.skill ram from newegg today and i have the same problem. Let me know if you find a solution or what newegg says about it. I believe they charge a 15% restocking fee.

[hkim69]

I have experienced same problem after buying GSkill's 2GB module here in Europe. It was labeled as 667MHz memory but is actually only 533Mhz...