[noka]

My new baby (revB PowerMac Dual 2) should be arriving in the mail on Monday... I'm interested in upping the RAM...

I've found Techworks RAM to be decently priced w/ full lifetime warranty. Anyone care to comment about Techworks RAM or any other good RAM deals? I DO NOT WANT CRAPPY RAM.... but don't have a fat wallet (after getting my new machine ) either... any input?

This is what I'm thinking about: http://eshop.macsales.com/Catalog_It...WK12565PAIRKIT

[AC Rempt]

I bought a Gig of OWC's RAM for my Dual 1.8 (Rev. B), and it's solid as a rock after a week of pretty intense computing. The Apple Hardware Test also gives it a pass. I had some Kingston Value RAM in there for awhile, and that was a huge bust. I would go with the Techworks or with whatever else OWC is offering. They are a solid Mac company.

[noka]

Cool! Thanks OWC/TechWorks it is!

[Cadaver]

Do a search here... lots of threads on G5 RAM.

My vote is for Crucial; my G5 has 2GB worth of Crucial RAM (and 512MB of Apple factory stuff), though I do have some OWC RAM in my G4 at work.

[Big Mac]

Here's my advice: Don't buy the cheapest (i.e. Coast-to-Coast/1800-4-MEMORY), and don't buy the most expensive (i.e. Crucial). When you buy from cheaper companies, you don't get name brand RAM. Most all RAM is produced by a small number of oversees vendors, but I have been told that the cheap resellers use chips that failed the rigorous testing the name brand companies perform. Here's a secret, though: Crucial is not the only name brand memory seller.

There are at least five name brand manufacturers: Crucial, Kingston, Viking, PNY and Corsair. (I wasn't aware Samsung is also major developer.) Crucial is too expensive, IMO, and their site, while pretty, is unhelpful because their memory selector presents too many module variations.

Kingston is more reasonably priced than Viking; both provide lifetime warranties. OTOH, PNY, the cheapest of the name brand RAM, only provides a 10 year warranty. Finally, I've written off Corsair entirely, since that company seems to cater exclusively to PC "enthusiasts," and a search for Apple yielded 0 results.

I've found the easiest path to price comparison is Froogle, and it's important to compare prices - one could easily get screwed over otherwise. Try search terms that reference the specific part and/or part number you're looking for. Be aware of the fact that some companies sell/price the modules individually, whereas most others sell/price them in kits. (G5 RAM needs to be added in pairs.) You'll find a lot of smaller tech companies through Froogle; I bet most are reputable. The really difficult part is determining which companies have which parts in stock and then figuring out which is the cheapest after taxes and shipping.

For my G5 I selected Kingston brand RAM. The cheapest reseller of a 512MB kit was at the time ewiz.com, charging $92. Now I see the price has dropped slightly to $89. Here is the direct link. In comparison to generic RAM this was/is a good deal, and I feel better using high quality components. (A generic 312MB module failed in my iBook months ago, prompting me to look to name brand RAM.) ewiz.com does charge CA tax and $11 shipping, I believe. Hope this helps!

Addendum: bob_hearn taught me something by referring to "stacked RAM," a term which I had not heard of previously. According to this Mac Observer page, "stacked RAM" is synonymous with cheaper, lower-capacity chips. The RAM is stacked because more chips are required, making the module bigger and requiring more power. Although I could be wrong, stacked chips are only really a concern with laptops, because bigger modules may not fit properly in them.

[Turnpike]

Originally posted by Big Mac:
PNY, the cheapest of the name brand RAM, only provides a 10 year warranty.

Yeah, and you know how horrible it would be if in ten years you had to get new RAM!

point being, worst case scenario and your RAM croaks the day the warranty expires, you are probably a computer or two down the road by then. This computer will probably be the one the kids use or the one you leave in the bathroom in case you really need to check your email while showering/on the pot.

More than likely, PNY's RAM will last just as long as the other guys', but they don't want to have to deal with finding possibly now-obscure types of RAM to replace RAM on a 30-year-old machine because some jerk decided to exercise his warranty on an obsolete product just because he could.

Also, somebody should verify/correct this, but I've been under the impression that RAM doesn't really just "go" bad... it either ships bad or it is good. You could damage it via ESD, but I doubt if that is technically covered by those warranties anyway.

If you've got the money, get some PNY or Kingston.. if you've got a LOT of money, get Crucial. If you don't have the money but you need RAM, get something a little more generic. Anything with a nice warranty should be fine. OWC is great.

[Big Mac]

Originally posted by Turnpike:
Also, somebody should verify/correct this, but I've been under the impression that RAM doesn't really just "go" bad... it either ships bad or it is good. You could damage it via ESD, but I doubt if that is technically covered by those warranties anyway.

RAM can go bad after years of fine performance. The original 256MB chip I had in my iBook caused my iBook to slow to a crawl one day, with top reporting a maximum of 5% CPU usage. Interestingly enough it did not crash the system. Took it out and everything was fine.

[ChrisB]

I too had problems with PNY. I bought another 1.5 GB of it to upgrade my XServe G4 a year and a half ago, and it caused nothing but kernel panics. I called the Apple Enterprise support area and they said that they only ship Samsung with the Xserve - so I bought the Apple RAM (Samsung) and all is well.

[unimaxium]

I don't know about techworks, but I got 1GB from crucial and it all works perfectly. They weren't the cheapest I fount, but they were only a little more expesive than some others I looked at. Although almost anything is cheaper than Apple's RAM, which can be significantly more than price of crucial (for example, 2x512 MB for the G5 is $211 from Crucial, but $300 from Apple)