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You don't need to have everything in triplicate unless you're in a seriously noisy environment. Most error rates due to cosmic radiation are low enough that simply adding one parity bit per 8 data bits (increasing transistor count by 12.5%. not 200%) is enough to eliminate virtually all bit flip errors.

I'm still using my 8 years old Precision M4400. That thing is rock solid, and the battery still last 2 hours. If I ever buy another laptop, it will probably be a Precision

Same here. The Dell M4400 is a charm. It also has a WUXGA display (1920x1200), and those extra 120 vertical pixels really help. We recently upgraded ours to have a 1050GB SSD. It already had 8GB RAM, which is apparently the maximum supported. We use Xubuntu 16.04 on it (no dual boot), after Xubuntu 14.04, but Ubuntu earlier than Xubuntu.

I tried to punt the details here toward the references provided, but you raise a good question: why not just use the lifetime percentage exposed at attributed 202/0xCA "Percent Lifetime Remaining". There's two problems with that data.

First off, that SMART attribute hasn't been consistent since the drive was released. See M500 960GB MU03 SMART Issue as one observation about the biggest firmware change. I believe that happened after the Tech Report review. The fact that Crucial changed exposing wear data over the life of the drive is itself enough to get it booted from some companies as an immature product.

But let's say you consider that ancient history now. The other side of the complaints here is that the M500 doesn't give wear data in terms of bytes written. If you have two M500 drives that show identical wear data as measured by 202/0xCA, what does that tell you about their respective workloads? Unfortunately, it doesn't tell you anything useful for that purpose without more context. And that's a critical failure for the standard way such things are rated and evaluated now.

Intel publishes white papers for the recommended drive in TFA like DC S3500 Series RAID Workload Characterization, and that gives a lot of data about how to compare production deployments against drive specifications. I did exactly that for their earlier drives in the blog article I referenced.

There's just not quite enough data available from a Crucial M500 to do a similar analysis on it. "Erase count" is really an implementation detail specific to the drive; you can't compare those across different manufacturers. The most useful standard that aims to eliminate the workload specific aspect from lifespan ratings is JESD218. That also looks at lifetime in terms of terabytes written. There are some really fundamental detaisl that so far seem missing on Crucial's drives. You can back out write data from some of the other statistics, but without a hard published spec for such things I don't consider that very useful.

Yeah, the early firmwares for the m4 series had some issues but it was nothing like the sandforce controller based drives at the time. Once they did that major firmware update that improved performance like 20% across the board it was more or less ironed out.

Now that i'm thinking of it though, I think there was an issue with the M4 drives where it would crash after 5000 hours of use... http://forum.crucial.com/t5/Solid-State-Drives-SSD/Crucial-M4-128-GB-Random-Freezes/td-p/95787

That was fixed with a firmware update well over a year ago now.

I didn't recall the type correctly... The drive I replaced in the Spectre XT Pro was actually an "mSATA" type of drive.

I guess it was something like the drive Crucial sells here:

http://www.crucial.com/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=433DDBDFA5CA7304

So I stand potentially corrected.... Perhaps the PCIe connector Apple is using here a little thinner and different. Looked very similar though.

No, that's not completely true. The Zen has both soldered and upgradeable RAM. It also apparently maxxes out at 10gig.

http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Asus-Zenbook-UX32VD-Teardown/10120/2

http://www.crucial.com/upgrade/ASUS-memory/ASUS+Notebooks/ZENBOOK+UX32VD-upgrades.html

There are also apparently upgradeable SSD for the Air, I think I linked one in a different post in this thread. I wasn't aware of these and they aren't standard form factor but they are out there. Looks like the same SSD may not work in every Air however. The Zen is nice enough to use a standard drive albeit just 5400RPM, it has a 24Gig SSD "cache" that's supposed to help. I think I'd swap to a full on SSD though as prices are dropping nicely on them. My current laptop has 60Gig and runs XP, it's barely enough. My desktop running Win7 has a 90 and it too is running out and I don't load software to the boot drive. I think about 240Gig would be enough in a laptop, I could probably get by with 128Gig for awhile. I'd like to be able to have some virtualized machines...

Dude, that is the 5,000 hour bug.

Update the firmware.

http://bit.ly/O1Fvzj

http://hothardware.com/News/Crucial-Acknowledges-Weird-5000-Hour-M4-SSD-Bug-Promises-Firmware-Fix-in-MidJanuary/

http://www.crucial.com/support/firmware.aspx

16GB DDR3 is available as a single stick for desktops at a reasonable price.

If you need DDR2, you can get that as 2x8GB modules, but it'll cost ya.

If you need DDR3 SO-DIMMs and can afford to drive a Bugatti, you can even get 32GB modules.

16GB DDR3 is available as a single stick for desktops at a reasonable price.

If you need DDR2, you can get that as 2x8GB modules, but it'll cost ya.

If you need DDR3 SO-DIMMs and can afford to drive a Bugatti, you can even get 32GB modules.

16GB DDR3 is available as a single stick for desktops at a reasonable price.

If you need DDR2, you can get that as 2x8GB modules, but it'll cost ya.

If you need DDR3 SO-DIMMs and can afford to drive a Bugatti, you can even get 32GB modules.

The fact that you found a page with the right memory does not take away the fact that when I chose a model it gave the wrong memory. Specifically this:
http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.aspx?model=Mac%20Pro%20Quad-Core%20MC250LL%2FA%20Mid%202010&Cat=RAM

Why are you trying so hard to be right, but your works are consistently wrong?

I'm not trying hard to be right. I just tell the truth. It's really easy for me to be right that way.

After changing her oil, she got a flat tire. Sure, they both involved the same car, but the cause/effect relationship simply is not there.

At no stage did I say that the problem with your GFs Mac Pro must be the memory. Only that it's the first thing worth checking. I repeat, because it's the last thing that you changed, and because it costs you nothing to do so.

I'll give you two tales. One a computer one. When I was doing computer support many years ago, a client complained that her computer stopped working about 2 o'clock in the afternoon. She'd had visits before and no one had found out the problem. Thing was, no one had visited her at 2pm. turned out the sun came through the window at the right angle to hit the computer, and it pushed it over the edge into overheating.

Second is a car one. My first car, I replaced the HT leads. Several months later, the car started mis-firing, and then broke down completely. For sure that could be faulty HT leads. But before opening the hood, no one could have predicted the HT leads weren't faulty. They were just longer than the old ones, and one of them had found it's way into the fan, which had gradually sliced through the lead.

Lessons: The causes of problems are not always obvious, especially overheating. And it is worth checking the last component you fitted, even if you can't imagine the specific way it causes the fault.

When I drew the analogy with the car I specifically specified the engine, because that's the reasonable equivalent. Third party fuel injectors is a good equivalent. Talking about tires is like if you'd reported a fault without the mouse or monitor. It's a far distant component. It's silly.

And yet again I'll point out I never said you shouldn't use third party parts. And indeed for both computers and cars I use third party parts. Why the fuck won't you just accept I gave you honest and well intentioned advice, rather than trying to start a fight?

But.... Crucial does show the right memory for that machine.

From the link you provided:
http://store.apple.com/us/memorymodel/ME_MACPRO_S10_RAM

Apple Memory Module 4GB 1333MHz DDR3 ECC SDRAM - 1x4GB

From Crucial:
http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.aspx?model=Mac%20Pro%206-Core%20Mid%202010&Cat=RAM

DDR3 PC3-10600 - CL=9 - Unbuffered - ECC - DDR3-1333 - 1.5V - 256Meg x 72 - Part #: CT1431613

4GB = 4GB
1333Mhz = DDR3-1333 = 1333Mhz
DDR3 = DDR3
ECC = ECC

Why are you trying so hard to be right, but your works are consistently wrong? If you can't even get this right, why should I listen to anything else you have to say? You can't even work a simple menu guided tool to purchase memory, even for the wrong machine. I provided the spec on the machine early on in this conversation.

Exactly the same would be true if you bought a cheap third party component for the engine of your car.

Well, you're close, but so far off. I guess the closest thing I can think of is if I bought fuel injectors directly from Bosch, rather than buying them for a substantial markup from the dealer. As was already discussed, Crucial isn't cheap, nor are they crap. I'm picky about the parts I put in my car too, which frequently are better aftermarket parts.

Since you brought this up, we can make a very fair comparison. My girlfriend has a Mini also. She needed an oil change. She wanted both the filter and oil purchased from the dealership. It has a weird filter, but no impossible to find. It was a lot cheaper to buy a better spec filter at a parts store. As for the oil, they recommend Castrol synthetic oil, so getting the BMW brand on the bottle would have just been an extra expense.

After changing her oil, she got a flat tire. Sure, they both involved the same car, but the cause/effect relationship simply is not there.

A few years back, I did change the oil in my car, using a different brand oil and filter. Like, a brand I didn't normally use. A couple days later, the car overheated. Before jumping to the conclusion that the oil caused the overheating, and replacing the car, I diagnosed the problem. A paper towel had blown up on the radiator and was blocking the airflow. While I was diagnosing it (at a gas station at midnight, of course), a "helpful" person such as yourself came over. He diagnosed it a blown head gasket, without any supporting facts other than "overheating".

Both for my cars, and for my computer, I am picky about what I put into them. I use good parts. Those parts may not be (and likely aren't) OEM parts, but with a bit of experience, we can select the best parts to do the job, without going broke doing it.

Bzzt. Try again.

http://www.crucial.com/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=60826169A5CA7304

That's, as of this posting, $339.99 for two 8GB DDR3 ECC DIMMS for the current-generation Mac Pro. To get to your precious 64G goal, you'd buy four of those two-dimm bundles which would total $1359.96 before taxes and shipping. And that's prices a well-known seller, without whatever coupons might be offered. I'm sure there's a newegg deal or something that'd make it even less. But that's "retail" right there. A far cry from your claimed "more than 5k by itself."

Yesterday.

2 minutes with google (pro-tip: search for e.g. "8GB SODIMM" to find 2x4GB packages) says you can even get an 8GB SO-DIMM now -- if you can afford it...

Firefox 4, built in bartab. When you set browser.sessionstore.max_concurrent_tabs=0 , only tabs you click on get loaded.

If that's not good enough for you, get the same setup on lubuntu or similar lightweight Linux, or just go buy some more RAM and install it yourself. Should be $30-60 for 2 1-gig sticks depending on the type needed. If that's too much to expense or pay out of pocket, can't you help much.

64GB Crucial M225 2.5" Solid-State Drive (refurb), US $64.00. YMMV.

That's surprising. Buying directly from Crucial is $500. The part numbers match, so NewEgg must have some extra discount. Looking at suppliers in the UK, I can't find anyone who sells it for less than Apple charges for the upgrade, although it still works out slightly cheaper if you sell the old modules afterwards.

Crucial's M225 (I own the 128GB version) 1711 firmware had significant bugs and was quickly yanked. In order to upgrade to the latest 1819 you have to downgrade back to 1571.

http://www.crucial.com/support/firmware.aspx

Seems as if most consumer SSD products are still a bit in the "beta" stage.

Apple's standard RAM pricing ranges from the 'moderately acceptable' to 'insane' depending on a number of things.

The 4GB > 8GB pricing is overpriced, but not as far off standard market value as you might think. The iMac only has two slots, meaning 8GB RAM requires 4GB sticks; even on Newegg they're $360 each, and straight from Crucial they come in at $490. That puts Apple's upgrade at about $300 overpriced - certainly unpleasant, but then so's Crucial's.

Here's some research I did quite recently (less than a month ago). Prices should still be about the same.

Bare minimum:
Dell PowerEdge T100 â" GBP 279
Quad Core Intel Xeon X3220 2.40Ghz
http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=uk&cs=ukbsdt1&kc=305&l=en&oc=PE1T1001&s=bsd&sbc=%20server-poweredge-t100

4x 2GB DDR2 RAM â" GBP 82.76
http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/partspecs.aspx?IMODULE=CT25664AA667

2x 1TB 32MB Cache 7200RPM HD â" GBP 163.30
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?WD-10EADS

Total: GBP 525.06

Medium setup:
Dell PowerEdge T300 - GBP 569
Quad Core Intel® Xeon® X3363, 2.83GHz
http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?b=&c=uk&cs=ukbsdt1&kc=N4XT3001&l=en&oc=SV1T300&rbc=SV1T300&s=bsd

6x 2GB DDR2 RAM - GBP 124.14
http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/partspecs.aspx?IMODULE=CT25664AA667

4x 1TB 32MB Cache 7200RPM HD â" GBP 326.6
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?WD-10EADS

Total: GBP 1019.74

Over the top:
Dell PowerEdge 1900 â" GBP 1359
2x Quad Core Intel® Xeon® E5345, 2x4MB Cache, 2.33GHz
http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?b=&c=uk&cs=ukbsdt1&kc=N4XM2301&l=en&oc=SV11901&rbc=SV11901&s=bsd

8x 2GB DDR2 RAM â" GBP 165.52
http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/partspecs.aspx?IMODULE=CT25664AA667

6x 1TB 32MB Cache 7200RPM HD â" GBP 589.9
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?WD-10EADS

Total: GBP 2114.42

Here's some research I did quite recently (less than a month ago). Prices should still be about the same.

Bare minimum:
Dell PowerEdge T100 â" GBP 279
Quad Core Intel Xeon X3220 2.40Ghz
http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=uk&cs=ukbsdt1&kc=305&l=en&oc=PE1T1001&s=bsd&sbc=%20server-poweredge-t100

4x 2GB DDR2 RAM â" GBP 82.76
http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/partspecs.aspx?IMODULE=CT25664AA667

2x 1TB 32MB Cache 7200RPM HD â" GBP 163.30
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?WD-10EADS

Total: GBP 525.06

Medium setup:
Dell PowerEdge T300 - GBP 569
Quad Core Intel® Xeon® X3363, 2.83GHz
http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?b=&c=uk&cs=ukbsdt1&kc=N4XT3001&l=en&oc=SV1T300&rbc=SV1T300&s=bsd

6x 2GB DDR2 RAM - GBP 124.14
http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/partspecs.aspx?IMODULE=CT25664AA667

4x 1TB 32MB Cache 7200RPM HD â" GBP 326.6
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?WD-10EADS

Total: GBP 1019.74

Over the top:
Dell PowerEdge 1900 â" GBP 1359
2x Quad Core Intel® Xeon® E5345, 2x4MB Cache, 2.33GHz
http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?b=&c=uk&cs=ukbsdt1&kc=N4XM2301&l=en&oc=SV11901&rbc=SV11901&s=bsd

8x 2GB DDR2 RAM â" GBP 165.52
http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/partspecs.aspx?IMODULE=CT25664AA667

6x 1TB 32MB Cache 7200RPM HD â" GBP 589.9
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?WD-10EADS

Total: GBP 2114.42

Here's some research I did quite recently (less than a month ago). Prices should still be about the same.

Bare minimum:
Dell PowerEdge T100 â" GBP 279
Quad Core Intel Xeon X3220 2.40Ghz
http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=uk&cs=ukbsdt1&kc=305&l=en&oc=PE1T1001&s=bsd&sbc=%20server-poweredge-t100

4x 2GB DDR2 RAM â" GBP 82.76
http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/partspecs.aspx?IMODULE=CT25664AA667

2x 1TB 32MB Cache 7200RPM HD â" GBP 163.30
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?WD-10EADS

Total: GBP 525.06

Medium setup:
Dell PowerEdge T300 - GBP 569
Quad Core Intel® Xeon® X3363, 2.83GHz
http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?b=&c=uk&cs=ukbsdt1&kc=N4XT3001&l=en&oc=SV1T300&rbc=SV1T300&s=bsd

6x 2GB DDR2 RAM - GBP 124.14
http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/partspecs.aspx?IMODULE=CT25664AA667

4x 1TB 32MB Cache 7200RPM HD â" GBP 326.6
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?WD-10EADS

Total: GBP 1019.74

Over the top:
Dell PowerEdge 1900 â" GBP 1359
2x Quad Core Intel® Xeon® E5345, 2x4MB Cache, 2.33GHz
http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?b=&c=uk&cs=ukbsdt1&kc=N4XM2301&l=en&oc=SV11901&rbc=SV11901&s=bsd

8x 2GB DDR2 RAM â" GBP 165.52
http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/partspecs.aspx?IMODULE=CT25664AA667

6x 1TB 32MB Cache 7200RPM HD â" GBP 589.9
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?WD-10EADS

Total: GBP 2114.42

No, the iMacs come standard with 4GB. Upgrading to 8GB is damn expensive, because the iMac has two memory slots and 4GB SODIMMs ain't cheap.

You're usually always paying a slight premium from a retailer. It's DDR3 SODIMM memory, so expect to pay a HUGE premium (especially at that size).

http://shop.crucial.com/1/1/302292-ct2kit51264bc1067-8gb-kit-4gbx2-204-pin-sodimm-ddr3-pc3-8500-memory-module.html

The 8GB kit (4GBx2) = US$1179.99

It is a little to go from 4GB, that you're already paying for, up to 8GB, but nobody is holding a gun to your head. You're still better off buying it third party, and selling the sticks that come with it, but then you don't have the same level of support than if you purchased with it. Any manufacturer will be quick to assume the memory is the problem and refuse warranty until the original sticks are put back in place.

Micron didn't fail. They still make really good memory :)

Mac Pro and Xserve:

Look at the price of RAM on the Apple Store, then look at the SAME RAM, on http://www.crucial.com/ or http://www.kingston.com/.

Thousands of dollars difference, for maximum you can get RAM, dude...
(or it was, last spring: not bothering with Apple unless they stop shoving their monopoly/extortion in their customers)

Also the fact that I cant choose the monitor I want for the 'mid-range', because it's built in.

Fock 'em- I'm not their dog, I'm independent, and I require sufficient screen res, sufficient CPU, and sufficient RAM, and they give me only one choice, that being the Mac Pro, which is stupid for what I need.

(looked at different configs for different purposes: not just one)

Do the math. Most flash media are good for at least 100,000 writes. They also use wearing algorithms so that each block averages out to about the same. Even if you try to write to a certain block over and over, the algorithms take over and move blocks that are not written very often to those locations, so blocks end up being written to about the same.

With that in mind, let's take the 64 gb model for $899 as an example. Let's say you have a huge workload and are writing at the max of 35MB/sec. At 100,000 writes, 64GB gives you 6.4e15 bytes that can be written before the disk wears out. At 3.5e7 bytes per second, that comes to 1.83e8 seconds. There are 3.16e7 seconds in a year.

That means that at THE MAX write rate and only 100,000 write cycles (not 10 billion), the drive should last at least 5.8 years. Unless you are simply writing to a logging database, you won't be using anywhere near the max write speed and the drive should last decades.

no.
http://www.crucial.com/store/listmodule/SOLID%20STATE%20DRIVE/~Solid%20State%20Drive~/list.html

and crucial isnt exactly a market leader in pricing.

and currently, the 64gb drive is a $500 upgrade at Dell on the m1330.

so you can get a T7250 proc, 3gb ram, 64gb SSD, LED display, DVD burner, 8400M GPU, wireless N, Bluetooth built in, 2MP camera, Fingerprint reader, etc all for less than $2k currently.
Thats without any special deal other than going to Dell's site.
Now through in a coupon or two and you can gain a fairly steep discount.

is this it? i have one myself. got it on sale on $15. it's my smallest and my largest drive (used to be. got a 4GB sandisk on sale).

The Pro is really a workstation, not a desktop PC. Xeon, ECC memory, etc.

iMacs have a little screwed in panel covering the ram slots, and are very easy to change.

As for the Mac Mini, yes it looks difficult to do the upgrade yourself, and if you don't want to buy the upgrade from Apple, try the 1GB and decide if that's enough for what you do.
Crucial sells a 2GB kit suitable for the Mini here for $59.99. RAM prices change very fast btw, the prices jumped up near what Apple was charging for a few months at least after the Intel iMacs started using this package.

If you really want to dip your toe in, why don't you buy a used iMac? With the new aluminum ones out now, there ought to be a lot of old ones up for sale.

ECC may be available
( I always build systems with http://www.crucial.com/ ECC RAM,
and no I'm nae affilliated,
but they're the ONLY brand who've never once proven flaky,
in my experience. . . )

but the problem is that almost no motherboards support ECC.

Gigabyte's GC-RAMDISK and GO-RAMDISK ( up-to 4GB ) hardware-ram-drive without ECC *support*,
is typical of this idiocy:
The only way to make the things trustworthy is to run a RAID5 or RAID6 array of 'em,
and that gets bloody expensive
( though the speed. . . kernel-raid5 is quick, eh? )

http://usa.asus.com/ is the only consumer-brand I know-of,
other-than maybe Abit ( it's been awhile for me to've seen one of 'em. . . )
that provides ECC support.

Gigabyte generally don't, and if they don't. . . who does?

Supermicro & Tyan? No SLI/Crossfire/sea-of-ports on them, eh?

Many places carry RAM for Apple systems:

  crucial: http://www.crucial.com/mac/index.aspx
  newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCa tegory=551&name=Mac-Memory
  welovemacs: http://www.welovemacs.com/apple-memory.html

etc etc

When looking for a very nice 17' laptop, I went to Apple and Dell for a Mac book Pro and 17'inch Inspiron. After building a 17'inch laptop on each (with specs as close as I could get them and usually favoring Dell when no direct match was available), the Mac book Pro was roughly $1000 more then the Dell.

A few months ago I did the same, though I added HP. Going to their websites I selected a base system then configured systems as close as I could get on Apple's Dell's and HP's websites. The lowest price was Apple's. Admittedly I used the standard amount of RAM on the Macbook Pro and used it for the others, Apple charges an arm and a leg for more RAM. Why yesterday I configured a MBP and saw the difference in the price between 2GM and 4GB was $600. I just checked Crucial and they have 4GB, not 2GB upgrade, for the MBP for less than $300. But leaving the stock amount of RAM on Macs, they generally have comparable prices.

Back in the days when I was still using windows .... 9 virtual desktops, each one filled with application, sometimes brought Windows to its knees

Perhaps "back in the day", your computer wasn't very good. Get more memory for it.

Running Linux isn't magically going to upgrade your computer, so don't pretend that it's Windows' fault. I'm currently running XP Pro, 2GB of memory. I've had 10 minor utilities / widgets, 5 major applications open for most of the day = no problems. In fact, task manager tells me Windows is only really using 700MB of memory at the moment (fyi, my largest single app is using 250MB).

Windows 2000 was still better than present-day Linux for heavy multimedia (I'm looking at you, video playback and editing). I don't claim that it can't be done, but the serious voodoo to get the codecs + drivers + configuration working in Linux is simply not worth it compared to dual-booting into Windows.

Hmm, well save your old mouse or buy a new one. You probably won't be happy with the Apple-supplied mouse, it's intresting for sure but geared a bit more to a novice. Pretty much any USB mouse will work on a Mac and the same thing with keyboards, although you might need some minor key-remapping on a keyboard. For multibutton mice (more than 2) I recommend downloading USB Overdrive - an inexpensive, 3rd-party input device "driver" that really makes your input devices a lot more effective.

You'll have to get used to slight differences in how things work, give it a bit and keep an open mind, once you get used to the Mac way of doing things you'll find it's actually pretty intuitive. Use the Help menu in the Finder, it is very complete and tells you tons of shortcuts that would take you a while to stumble across.

Macs have been a bit less forgiving of borderline RAM because they actually check to see if the RAM is in spec. Some other hardware manufacturers are a bit more lax so the memory seems like it is working and then causes lots of little headaches down the road. With the Mac a questionable piece of RAM will usually cause a big problem quickly, like not being able to boot right after installing it. Crucial has always had decent prices, excellent RAM, and amazing customer support, I use them a lot and rarely have any RAM troubles.

Dunno if there are really any other major things you should know. The Mac community is pretty supportive so if anything gives you a concern just ask around and you'll probably get dozens of people who will try to help. Good luck with it!

I just bought myself a completely new gaming rig -- my first such rig in about seven years. Prior to that I'd been upgrading various components in my old box. But the newest games were starting to far outstrip my machine's ability to play them (Doom 3/Quake 4 were the earliest offenders). Thanks to a pleasant year-end bonus from my employer (and rather serious prodding from my partner), I got a completely new box:

• ABIT AN8-32X SLI (nForce 4) motherboard,
• AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ CPU,
• eVGA geForce 7900GT CO SC graphics card,
• Creative X-Fi XtremeMusic sound card,
• 2 Western Digital WD2500KS SATA drives, 7200RPM, 250G each,
• LiteOn SHM-165P6S DVD-RAM/DVD+-RW/DVD+-R/CD-R/CD-RW drive,
• 2G (1Gx2) Crucial CT2KIT12864Z40B PC3200 RAM,
• Enermax Liberty 500W power supply (12V @ 22A for the gfx card),
• ASYS CK-1022-5 "Eiffel Tower" case, complete with chasing blue-LED rice

Sadly, the graphics card has turned out to be the biggest problem in the new rig. It seems that everyone is having trouble with the new NVidia 7900-based boards. My first card would display "exploding" geometry once it warmed up a bit. Happily, eVGA have been very good to deal with, and performed a free cross-ship RMA. The new card still exhibits a few glitches, but only when I expressly go looking for them. When actually playing games, it's been very well behaved. It's only done the exploding geometry thing once since then, during a game of Oblivion. I'll keep leaning on eVGA to perfect this card.

I have very mixed feelings about the Creative sound card. Creative has a very spotty reputation for drivers, especially when multiple CPUs are involved. However, virtually all the competing sound card vendors have gone away, or have chosen instead to go for a race to the bottom in terms of price (and, sadly, quality). So I got the Creative X-Fi. It makes the games sound pretty good (it's breathed new life into QuakeWorld), but I would have much preferred something that works with Linux. I have my eye on the upcoming Razer Barracuda sound card, though...

I'd have to say that I'm probably happiest with the case. I was very paranoid that I wouldn't have enough space for all the cruft I planned on putting in it, or that it would be very difficult to work with, but it's turned out to be just lovely. It weighs a ton, but no more than the old Antec tower it's replacing. It's very accessible, has a large interior, very well ventilated, very sturdy, has a clean appearance, and the blue LEDs don't hurt, either.

As I said, this is the first new rig I've put together in seven years (the last machine I built was a dual-Pentium III on a PC-100 motherboard). I'd appreciate commentary from a more experienced eye. Could I have selected better RAM? Better drives?

Schwab

While all OEM RAM is a lot more expensive, it's not as bad as the difference you are seeing. If you go with bargain basement RAM then the price is really that low, but if you want any gaurantee that the RAM will work in your MacBook(or at all) then it's more like $360.

If you are going to go the cheap route then I recommend using a reputable dealer and buying respectable brand(Transcend, Corsair, crucial). NewEgg is a pretty good place to buy cheap RAM. Dealing with shoddy RAM from a shoddy dealer over the internet just isn't worth it.

1. Ludvig Strigeus is associated with anti-P2P firm, PeerFactor. Whatever he says on his website about any agreements with them, the fact that muTorrent is closed-source speaks volumes in my book. I'm not saying there's anti-P2P stuff in there... I'm just saying we don't know. That doubt is enough to make paranoid me stick with something else.
2. Azureus, while it really does suck up memory and CPU cycles, it's full featured and open source. Considering that a 512MB SODIMM stick is $69, and that it will provide such a boost to other programs, I'd rather buy one than switch to muTorrent.

I always found Crucial to be a good supplier for memory bits and bobs (no personal link, just a satisfied customer), but so far I've been lucky with serious hardware (touch wood). Where I work, the tendency is to throw old stuff and buy completely new, but then it's hardly mission critical.

We've also got piles of old boxes that aren't used and can be press-ganged into service if needs be. Not ideal, but it helps over tricky periods. Hmm, come to think of it, that could be why I'm not allowed to put them into a Beowulf cluster for tinkering around with on my statistics work...

Crow T. Trollbot

There still is a US DRAM manufacturer. Micron is still alive and kicking (and has been continuously in business since 1978), selling to consumers via the Crucial brand. There was price-fixing (which Micron doesn't seem to be completely innocent of, either), but one thing to keep in mind is that RDRAM, even if it weren't patented, required approximately 5-7 extra mask steps to create, as compared to DDR DRAM. In the cut-throat world of DRAM manufacturing, where every penny counts, this is a deal-breaker. Samsung was able to make money off RDRAM only because it was so expensive. Was it illegal for these companies to team up and kick down RDRAM? Yes. Am I sad to see it go? No way.

Tyan S2895: ~£320
2*Opteron 265; dual core 1.8GHz: ~£1000
4*1GB ECC Registered memory: ~£500
Nice Supermicro EATX case: ~£300

That's over £2k without storage, hardware RAID, graphics, etc, with a fairly modest amount of wriggle room for further savings. I hope you have a really good use for all those cores, or at least enough money that the cost is largely irrelevent. You save a lot going dual single core, and there are still reasons you might prefer a simple dual Opteron over an X2 (like support for >4G of memory and more readily available PCI-X), but if you're just looking at a nice desktop rather than a professional graphics workstation or big multi-user server, they probably don't apply much in this case.

Personally, I went for a mid-range X2, left the dual dual Opteron in the data centre and am awaiting a handmedown IBM eServer for my home serverish needs. YMMV.

The only place I'd trust that'll beat Newegg's prices [sometimes]

#1 Problem, you don't have enough RAM!
#2 Problem, you don't have enough RAM!
#3 Problem, Dude, you dont' have enough RAM!

I've got two PowerBooks and a PowerMac, all three have at least a Gig of RAM and they all run rather fast and reliably.

Office X 2004 runs great! It's better then the latest Windows Office 2003. If it's crashing on you it may be the lack of RAM or some corrupted Office X files.

Always run the latest *PATCHED* version of any software, especially Office X. The reason for the patches is to fix bugs and improve stability!

If you are running Panther, you should have Journaling turned on and periodically running the Repair Permissions and Repair Disk within the Disk Utility.

Also, DON'T BUY CHEAP RAM!!! Apple hardware is notoriously picky about the RAM it uses. Buy something cheap and slightly out of spec and you will have intermittent problems crashing and kernel dumps.

I would recommend a quality RAM supplier like Crucial Memory - http://crucial.com/ http://crucial.com/mac/index.asp -- Hey, they even have an Apple page just for us!

I've been buying RAM from Crucial for years and years, never ever had a problem with their RAM.

#1 Problem, you don't have enough RAM!
#2 Problem, you don't have enough RAM!
#3 Problem, Dude, you dont' have enough RAM!

I've got two PowerBooks and a PowerMac, all three have at least a Gig of RAM and they all run rather fast and reliably.

Office X 2004 runs great! It's better then the latest Windows Office 2003. If it's crashing on you it may be the lack of RAM or some corrupted Office X files.

Always run the latest *PATCHED* version of any software, especially Office X. The reason for the patches is to fix bugs and improve stability!

If you are running Panther, you should have Journaling turned on and periodically running the Repair Permissions and Repair Disk within the Disk Utility.

Also, DON'T BUY CHEAP RAM!!! Apple hardware is notoriously picky about the RAM it uses. Buy something cheap and slightly out of spec and you will have intermittent problems crashing and kernel dumps.

I would recommend a quality RAM supplier like Crucial Memory - http://crucial.com/ http://crucial.com/mac/index.asp -- Hey, they even have an Apple page just for us!

I've been buying RAM from Crucial for years and years, never ever had a problem with their RAM.

Same here. I used to buy whatever was cheapest, but after the time that a series of flakey bugs was solved by switching to good quality DRAM, I'll never go back. I probably spent two days troubleshooting it, which at my hourly rate, is many times the amount I "saved" by buying cheap memory.

Blatant promotion: I've never had a bad stick from Crucial

Chip H.

There are a few possible solutions you might want to look at for a big-RAM server. Now, if you really want 64GB and AMD Opteron processors than you really only have one choice, the HP Proliant DL585. That's the only Opteron solution that I know of which supports 64GB of memory.

If you can get by with a bit less memory then you have some other solutions. Tyan carries quite a number of boards with varying capabilities. The trouble here is that the Opteron processors are limited to 8GB of memory per processor, so to get 16GB you're going to be looking at a dual-processor board (quad processor for 32GB). Since the memory controller is right on the CPU with the Opteron you will actually need a second processor in the socket to use this memory.

For this reason, you might actually want to consider one of Intel's new 64-bit Xeon chips. I know that Supermicro offers some boards that can handle up to 32GB with only a single Xeon processor. Something like the X6DHE-XB seems like it might fit you're bill reasonable well. Fairly inexpensive to get you up to 16GB of memory, though going to 32GB is quite expensive. Crucial has a list of compatible memory for this board, including some 4GB modules.

Of course, if you're not limited to x86 systems then there are other solutions that would work. You could get something like an IBM Power system or Sun UltraSparc system with pretty much any amount of memory you need (or can afford).

I doubt you'll find a 512 SODIMM in PC100 cheap...Crucial has a stick of 256 for $112 (they don't even have a 512 listed, but from their prices I'd guess a 512 stick would go for $150 or $200. Good luck, though.

It actually is for Macs though. $300+ for the 1G upgrade on a mini? ouch.

You shouldn't buy RAM from Apple, just as you wouldn't buy it from Dell. They sell it at ridiculous prices.

The Mac Mini uses standard 184 pin PC2700 RAM. You can get it for $196 from Crucial, or $137 from NewEgg, and I guess you could find it cheaper if you search for five minutes more.

It's still like that.

512MB Memory upgrade

Apple (1.33 GHz) 17" Powerbook - $139.99
Apple (1.50 GHz) 17" Powerbook - $95.99

Fortunately I did some digging before I ordered to figure out that the two machines use the exact same memory and ordered the cheaper of the two. How many people don't realize that they are paying $44 more than they need to?

I can understand using different 'external' part numbers for statistical tracking purposes, but they should all come out to the same 'internal' part number and price in the end.