[Official] SSD/HDD/RAM queries

[omnilancer]

I'm using 4 x Strontium rams in my imac 27'' now. So far so good

 

[Ddarksire]

OWC ram is prohibitively expensive due to their so-called "Mac-Tested" gimmick. If you want good premium quality ram for cheaper, go for brands like Crucial and Corsair instead. And avoid budget rams at all costs.

you mention budget rams? which are the ones that are budget? Kingston? Strontium? Samsung?

I am using a mbp 5.1 2.4ghz. Read online that it support 8GB after the latest EFI firmware upgrade. Beside OWC? Any brand good to recommend?

And OWC also launched a new 30GB SSD at only USD$70. Anyone using one? Care to share the performance?

 

[skipper]

strontium and kingston both are value ram,if you ask recommendation in this forum most will say strontium for sure

 

[Ddarksire]

what abt samsung? are they good?

 

[skipper]

yes Samsung is good as they are also used by Apple for their official ram.

 

[negativzero]

you mention budget rams? which are the ones that are budget? Kingston? Strontium? Samsung?

I am using a mbp 5.1 2.4ghz. Read online that it support 8GB after the latest EFI firmware upgrade. Beside OWC? Any brand good to recommend?

And OWC also launched a new 30GB SSD at only USD$70. Anyone using one? Care to share the performance?

All brands of ram have premium and budget ranges. You have to go visit their websites and check their specs. Most common budget ram would be Kingston KVR.

strontium and kingston both are value ram,if you ask recommendation in this forum most will say strontium for sure

Not true, Strontium has both premium and budget lines. Their budget range is like KVR while their premium one I've not tried, so I don't know

what abt samsung? are they good?

Depends. Like I've been saying, it all depends on wether you buy their budget or their premium rams.

 

[djzilch]

Strontium uses hynix chipsets, a quick search on google yielded generally positive or acceptable results, i have been testing out my 8GB ddr3 strontiums with heavy applications (logic 9 running in 64 bit mode and fully maxed out tracks and plugins and also cubase 6 running in 64 bit mode) no problems whatsoever

I guess some people who are experiencing problems perhaps received a bad batch or something? Anyhow they have a lifetime warranty so it should be okay

 

[skipper]

All brands of ram have premium and budget ranges. You have to go visit their websites and check their specs. Most common budget ram would be Kingston KVR.

Not true, Strontium has both premium and budget lines. Their budget range is like KVR while their premium one I've not tried, so I don't know

Depends. Like I've been saying, it all depends on wether you buy their budget or their premium rams.

so do you think strontium ram selling locally is value or premium ? giving price range from $30 - $35 ,i seriously doubt so.

 

[Hyori]

hi.. if i buy a brand new macbook pro.. should i just use their online shopping to upgrade or go sls to upgrade manually.. and reinstall the OS myself??

is it the standard 2.5" HDD?

 

[davi502]

Why do you need to reinstall Mac OS?

Are you trying to upgrade to SSD?

 

[heart8ker]

OWC ram is prohibitively expensive due to their so-called "Mac-Tested" gimmick. If you want good premium quality ram for cheaper, go for brands like Crucial and Corsair instead. And avoid budget rams at all costs.

I'd second Crucial and Corsair, although I seem to remember there were certain timing issues with some Mac laptops and certain brands at one point, which led people to recommend Samsung by default for any upgrades as these seemed to have no problems. I guess those issues might have been resolved by now or were simply Urban Myth...

What's specifically gimmicky about OWC though?

 

[heart8ker]

Macbook 2008 Upgrade Quest: SSD vs Hybrid vs RAID vs...

Sorry, new visitor here and second post already:

I've got a late Macbook 2008 unibody (worst Apple purchase ever, really...) and whilst it's not an amazing laptop for most things it works and I'm kind of fond of the thing and wanted to give it a little speed boost.
I will definitely get the 8Gb RAM upgrade, that's a given.

But then comes the question of the HDD. I've got a stock 250Gb 5400rpm disk in there. The options to replace are multiple and are really only limited by budget.

I don't want to spend a fortune as I could just sell and buy a later model, but I'm happy to spend say S$500 on this project.

Single options:
Single 500Gb Momentus XT
Single 240Gb Vertex 2
Single 1Tb Samsung Spinpoint F3

Dual options (if removing Superdrive):
Dual 500Gb momentus XT
Dual 120 Vertex 2

I really want to stay with SATA2 for SSDs, but I can only find the Vertex's (from Fuwell).

There's plenty of online opinions on some of the above options, but not many has a genuine comparison. I'm really thinking the XT is "ideal" but then there's alsways someone with a nagging story about "how diappointed" there were and how "much better" and SSD turned out...

 

[pinksugar]

just purchased 2x4GB RAM from simplymac.sg

OWC RAM. more expensive than other brands (corsair, kingston etc) i suppose... $125.

patrick @ simplymac gave me his word that they will work with mac mini 2011. so i bought them.

afraid that other brands might have some compatibility issues. afraid of trial and error and waste $$$$!

the OWC RAM works just fine for my mac mini 2011! they have the samsung label on them.

patrick helped me to install them as well @ his convenient place!

 

[aileen99]

Sorry, new visitor here and second post already:

I've got a late Macbook 2008 unibody (worst Apple purchase ever, really...) and whilst it's not an amazing laptop for most things it works and I'm kind of fond of the thing and wanted to give it a little speed boost.
I will definitely get the 8Gb RAM upgrade, that's a given.

But then comes the question of the HDD. I've got a stock 250Gb 5400rpm disk in there. The options to replace are multiple and are really only limited by budget.

I don't want to spend a fortune as I could just sell and buy a later model, but I'm happy to spend say S$500 on this project.

Single options:
Single 500Gb Momentus XT
Single 240Gb Vertex 2
Single 1Tb Samsung Spinpoint F3

Dual options (if removing Superdrive):
Dual 500Gb momentus XT
Dual 120 Vertex 2

I really want to stay with SATA2 for SSDs, but I can only find the Vertex's (from Fuwell).

There's plenty of online opinions on some of the above options, but not many has a genuine comparison. I'm really thinking the XT is "ideal" but then there's alsways someone with a nagging story about "how diappointed" there were and how "much better" and SSD turned out...

why must u spend $500. I do only about $200 with upgrade to 500 gb HDD (samsung)/ maximum can use 500 only. with kingston 8gb ram and free install of lion os. my macbook same year as yours. and everything work fine and Facebook games running smoothly.

 

[heart8ker]

why must u spend $500. I do only about $200 with upgrade to 500 gb HDD (samsung)/ maximum can use 500 only. with kingston 8gb ram and free install of lion os. my macbook same year as yours. and everything work fine and Facebook games running smoothly.

Well, the Momentus XT is only S$175, so it doesn't have to be S$500. That's if I go the SSD route.
Which is the point - is there a speed gain enough to justify the price hike?

Momentus XT/500Gb/S$175 vs Vertex2/240Gb/S$499.
I reckon the SSD will be about 2x faster than the hybrid, but half the half the storage and three times the price...

Maybe I've given the answer right there.

 

[skipper]

just purchased 2x4GB RAM from simplymac.sg

OWC RAM. more expensive than other brands (corsair, kingston etc) i suppose... $125.

patrick @ simplymac gave me his word that they will work with mac mini 2011. so i bought them.

afraid that other brands might have some compatibility issues. afraid of trial and error and waste $$$$!

the OWC RAM works just fine for my mac mini 2011! they have the samsung label on them.

patrick helped me to install them as well @ his convenient place!

too ex,much cheaper if you order directly from OWC $67.99 + $5.90 = $73.89 USD = $96.85 SGD. that means you pay another $30 SGD extra.

 

[coolstardy]

Hi guys!! Let's just say I wanna upgrade my hdd. Is there any free easy way I can duplicate my old hdd which has bootcamp in it?

 

[heart8ker]

Hi guys!! Let's just say I wanna upgrade my hdd. Is there any free easy way I can duplicate my old hdd which has bootcamp in it?

Carbon Copy Cloner

 

[LesPaulSG]

Curious, for the 2010/slightly earlier MBAs, what is the thickness of SSD that they can take ~

 

[Pete]

Just got 2x 4Gb Strontium Ram 1333mhz from PK at Funan for $39 each two days ago. Everyone else seems to have raised their prices. One shop even quoted me $69! Only catch is PK's rams use Spectek chips. Not great but runs mine in my MBP so far.