• Adobe After Effects

  I need a recommendation for 3rd party Memory dealers (as opposed to Apple’s expensive sticks)

  Posted by Harvest Walker on February 13, 2012 at 8:14 pm

  Hello out there…

  I use after effects on my Mac Pro duel 2.66 GHz 12-core computer. I currently have 16GB of Memory across 8 slots and I want to increase that up to about 32GB or maybe even 64GB to cut down on my render time and preview time.

  The problem is that Apple charges an arm and two legs for a 8GB memory sticks. ($500)
  Other 3rd party sellers offer 16GB chips for under $300.00.

  Does anybody have any recommendations on which companies make the most reliable memory sticks? Which companies play well in Mac computers? Any companies I should avoid? I’ve been looking closely at OWC and Crucial.

  Also, I have 8 memory slots on my unit. I’ve read that the order/placement of the memory sticks is important. Some one said you are not suppose to mix and match different sized sticks (exp: 8GB, 4GB, 2GB, etc) Is this true?

  Any advice will help!

  Andrew Somers replied 14 years, 6 months ago 3 Members · 7 Replies
• 7 Replies

• 

  Angelo Lorenzo

  February 13, 2012 at 8:46 pm

  I believe the mac pros use dual channel memory. Basically each pair of RAM slots will be married to each other (I would assume they have some kind of color coding) You should, to maximize the speed of your RAM, make sure each stick of RAM is paired. All memory, ideally, should be the same clock speed, and each pair should be the same capacity (you can mix pairs of 4’s and 8’s, but not so much three 4’s and one 8 for instance)

  I’m using Corsair in my system, although Kingston is a good choice as well. Crucial is reputable, but I’ve not heard of OWC.
• 

  Harvest Walker

  February 13, 2012 at 9:11 pm

  Awesome… thank you, sir.
• 

  Andrew Somers

  February 13, 2012 at 9:47 pm

  OWC is among the best – fully qualified to Apple specs. OWC is not the cheapest, but their service, support, and quality is excellent.

  I recently bought some RAM from “MacDimms” and the price was very good:

  https://www.macdimms.com/Mac-Pro-DDR3-1333MHz-ECC-Memory_c_138.html

  IF your machine is a 2009 or 2010 model, then you don;t need to install in pairs, but you do need to pay attention to the ordering of the RAM sticks per this document:

  https://support.apple.com/kb/ht4433
• 

  Andrew Somers

  February 13, 2012 at 10:01 pm

  OWC is an online store that specializes in Apple related products. They are among the best – the memory they sell is fully qualified for APPLE, and their service is second to none.

  https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/apple/memory/

  Also, not all Mac Pros need memory in pairs. 2008 models and earlier require memory in pairs.

  2009 and 2010 Mac Pros DO NOT. 2008 and earlier machines use dual channel memory. 2009 and later use triple channel.

  However, 2009 and 2010 machines DO care about the order of placement of RAM sticks.

  https://support.apple.com/kb/ht4433
• 

  Harvest Walker

  February 13, 2012 at 10:02 pm

  Nice… good find, sir. Thanks for sharing.
• 

  Harvest Walker

  February 13, 2012 at 10:12 pm

  One more thing, Sommers…

  That article you linked me to said my (2010 Mac Pro duel Processor 2.66 ghz 12-core with 8 memory slots) has a maximum memory of 32GB. But I talked to an apple specialist today and he said my machine has a max of 64GB.

  Any insight as to why there is this discrepancy?

  Thanks for all of your info!
• 

  Andrew Somers

  February 13, 2012 at 10:33 pm

  Yes, I believe that install article war written before 8 GB sticks were available. In order to go over 32 GB, you need to use 8 GB sticks. When the article was written, only 4 GB sticks were available, and thus the upper limit was 32 GB.

  EDIT TO ADD:
  
  You may find this article relating to triple channel memory interesting:

  https://www.barefeats.com/nehal02.html

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