Mac RAM? Is it different

[RaNDoMMAI]

Just entered the Mac world with my first purchase of a MacBook 13" Unibody.
It uses DDR3 and came with 2 gigs of ram. I looked on newegg and they have a whole section "Mac Memory" and I was really wondering if I had to buy "Mac" ram
So far I am looking to purchase 4gig DDR3 here

Can I reuse old ram from a pc?

 

[alcoholbob]

It says 204pin DDR3, vs 240pin DDR3 for PCs. I *don't* know if its a typo though.

 

[RaNDoMMAI]

The apple site says nothing about "mac ram" just normal 204-pin DDR3
The same 4gigs of mushkin ram is cheaper
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820226019
But a rep says there is some potential problems

I just dont get it. why would it be different

 

[alcoholbob]

I don't know, it could be voltages or timings.

You have 204-pin DDR3 from a PC?

 

[taltamir]

the question is... what is your MOTHERBOARD.
your mobo determines what kind of ram you can use. as part of its DRM lock apple likes making its things incompatible. (of course some people buy a REAL pc and run hackintosh)

according to wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh_hardware#Memory

For memory, Apple has used standard SIMM's (30 and 72-pin), proprietary 168-pin DIMMs, and later, industry-standard SDRAM and DDR. Current Macs use regular 1066Mhz DDR3 SDRAM, except for the Mac Pro and the Xserve that uses 1066MHz DDR3 ECC SDRAM.
All current Macs, save for the Mac mini and MacBook Air, allow the user to upgrade the memory via an access door or removable panel.

 

[VaultDweller]

204 versus 240 pin is not a typo.

DDR3 DIMMs have 240 pins. DDR3 SODIMMs (laptop memory) have 204 pins.

The only difference beween "Mac memory" and other memory is certification (aka Apple Tax) and potentially latency timings. It's conceivable that the SPD timings on an uncertified module could be incompatible with some Macs, and because they're Macs you wouldn't have any ability to change the settings to resolve the issue.

I haven't seen any problems using third party memory for modern Macs. I used to work at a digital arts school that had a lot of Macs, and for memory upgrades we always went third-party (usually Kingston ValuRAM).

 

[anthonee1230]

My friend plugged THIS into his unibody Macbook Pro and it works perfectly fine.

http://ncix.com/products/?sku=...66&manufacture=Corsair

 

[specialk90]

Yes, the "Apple" Ram has a sleek Aluminum heatsink and costs $150 for a 2GB stick. The price premium is totally justified because it looks cool and runs cool.





Hope that made someone laugh.

 

[taltamir]

its a hidden cost for macOSX. unlike windows, macosx cost increases with the cost of your hardware.