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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

New Mac Pro

yeah just want to know can you buy 3rd party ram and then install it yourself? Please let me know about that if that is true then I will buy the 12 core with 1TB and the rest of the best stuff and just get the base ram and then buy 3rd party ram and then good to go. I just hope i can do that!!!!
 
Neil Dearman said:
yeah just want to know can you buy 3rd party ram and then install it yourself? Please let me know about that if that is true then I will buy the 12 core with 1TB and the rest of the best stuff and just get the base ram and then buy 3rd party ram and then good to go. I just hope i can do that!!!!
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No apparently not, which sucks cause Apple's RAM prices are ridiculous !
 
what!!!!!! Dude say it ain't so why god why!!!!!
 
Dominik Muench said:
No apparently not, which sucks cause Apple's RAM prices are ridiculous !
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Where are you getting this from? From everything I've read the past months, RAM on the New MP is user repleacable.

And their RAM prices are still pricier than 3rd party but a lot less then in the past.
 
so is there hope for swapping out to 3rd party ram?
 
Keep in mind Ram pricing is not simply because some manufacturers/oems want to make more. Ram is divided into grade levels which are the quality of chips. Ram chips are manufactured in a gas construction process and that process starts from the center of the die and builds out. The farther away from the center you get the lower the grade. This is why ram chip pricing is so different even with the same or similar specs. When the Ram manufacturers go to the bidding market to bid on chips for their modules, the pricing and availability of each grade often decides what grade level of chips are used in that production. Then on top of this Dram Wafer Fab manufactures have different pricing on their chips such as Samsung versus Crucial. Registered sticks are often the higher grade ram because of the density used and the likely customer base. This is why Apple an HP have very different pricing from others.
 
Implications and benefits

Implications and benefits

Eric Bowen said:
Keep in mind Ram pricing is not simply because some manufacturers/oems want to make more. Ram is divided into grade levels which are the quality of chips. Ram chips are manufactured in a gas construction process and that process starts from the center of the die and builds out. The farther away from the center you get the lower the grade. This is why ram chip pricing is so different even with the same or similar specs. When the Ram manufacturers go to the bidding market to bid on chips for their modules, the pricing and availability of each grade often decides what grade level of chips are used in that production. Then on top of this Dram Wafer Fab manufactures have different pricing on their chips such as Samsung versus Crucial. Registered sticks are often the higher grade ram because of the density used and the likely customer base. This is why Apple an HP have very different pricing from others.
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Very interesting insight and explanation, Eric ... thanks for sharing.

Given your obvious deep understanding of the FAB and construction process involved in RAM production, what do you see as the pros and cons of going with different graded RAM modules?

1) how would we know if a particular RAM stick was Grade A or Grade D - how do they tag them?

2) I've never used Apple RAM to upgrade but always gone for an after market vendor like OWC or Crucial ... does the premium pricing of Apple RAM justify the extra cost?

3) what's the typical performance gains of Grade A RAM over Grade D?

4) any other issues we should be aware of using non Apple RAM on the new Mac Pro cylinder? ... is it worth shelling out the extra cost for 64 GB of Apple to get max performance between CPU and twin GPUs?

Cheers,
Neil
 
DJ Meyer said:
It's standard 1866mhz ECC. Nothing exotic. Has been out for months.
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It needs the thermal monitoring sensor. Also not a bit deal because most of the good modules have this and it seems with the 1866MHz stuff, only the good ones are available anyway.

For all you guys looking, Crucial has the proper RAM in stock -- less than $1K for 64GB. OWC should have theirs in stock soon, they may start taking orders when the systems launch. Mushkin and Samsung have the modules already, but they're a bit harder to come by. I have Micron/Crucial modules in my dual 10-core v2 system I just built. It's all the same stuff.

If the speculative pricing turns out to be close to the mark and it's $550 or less to move to 32GB on the Mac Pro, I would just buy from Apple if you only want the 32. I'm going to order the minimum amount from Apple and use the stuff from Crucial as I already have some here.

Apple is using Hynix RAM as they usually do. Very hard to get 1866MHz Hynix right now as Apple seems to be gobbling it all up. HP and Dell are hogging all the Samsung and Crucial modules, but Crucial is making some available.

Avoid the stuff from Kingston... It hasn't been so great for the 1600/1866 MHz stuff.

As for the different grades of RAM, that is the actual chips. I can tell you that right now, there are no 1866MHz chips out there that are not grade-A. Just buy the RAM from a good module vendor. The chips themselves are made by Micron (Crucial), Samsung and Toshiba. The best modules come from Micron/Crucial, Samsung and Hynix. Kingston is budget-oriented RAM. Then there's even lower budgeted RAM like A-Data and whatnot, but they're not going to have modules like these for a while.

OWC offers good stuff, typically their just Samsung modules with the OWC sticker on them.
 
Interesting that OWC's kit lists 7-7-7-20 CAS. Haven't seen that before on 1866.
 
https://twitter.com/tim_cook/status/413335029264429056/photo/1

"We have begun manufacturing the Mac Pro in Austin. It’s the most powerful Mac ever. Orders start tomorrow."

Bbx2BNlIIAAiqJJ.jpg:large
 
DJ Meyer said:
Interesting that OWC's kit lists 7-7-7-20 CAS. Haven't seen that before on 1866.
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Has to be a goof or a carry-over from a 1066/1333MHz product page.
 
What about mixing RAM from different vendors? It used to be a very bad idea to have mismatched RAM sticks, to the point where, on a couple of upgrades I did several years ago I pulled the stock Apple sticks and replaced with matched OWC RAM. Is this still something to pay attention to?

I think its worth noting that the 16GB 1866ers in particular are still in relatively short supply and significant discounting may be a few months down the road. IMO, if the savings vs Apple sticks are marginal, I'd rather pay a bit more for the benefit of being able to keep Apple on the hook if I have problems. Just sayin'

Cheers - #19
 
Still best to not mix and match RAM specs or vendors' modules. In the new Mac Pro, there are 4 DIMM slots, two on each side of the CPU module. Each two slot pair must have identical modules installed in them. It's best if all 4 are identical to ensure the highest reliability and performance.
 
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