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Best ram brand for Mac Pro

stigc56

Senior Member
Hi
I have had some really weird crashes on my Mac Pro 6.1. The computer suddenly just gave me black screen and rebooted, often every 10 min.
I had it repaired, they replaced one of the graphic cards. When it came back it worked fine, but then I checked the "About this Mac", and suddenly there was not 64 Gb ram but only 48! Then I opened the Mac and checked the ram, and one of the blocks wasn't quite in place. So I took it out and put it back.
Now the "About this Mac" showed 64 but guess what the crashes came back!!
Now I have reinstalled the 4 x 4gb ram and so far the machine is working fine, but I need MORE ram, and want my 64GB back.
So here is the question: What brand of ram is the best?

Stig
 
Hi
I have had some really weird crashes on my Mac Pro 6.1. The computer suddenly just gave me black screen and rebooted, often every 10 min.
I had it repaired, they replaced one of the graphic cards. When it came back it worked fine, but then I checked the "About this Mac", and suddenly there was not 64 Gb ram but only 48! Then I opened the Mac and checked the ram, and one of the blocks wasn't quite in place. So I took it out and put it back.
Now the "About this Mac" showed 64 but guess what the crashes came back!!
Now I have reinstalled the 4 x 4gb ram and so far the machine is working fine, but I need MORE ram, and want my 64GB back.
So here is the question: What brand of ram is the best?

Stig


fwiw most of the ram I’ve bought(OWC) comes with a warranty,if so the dealer might replace the ram.
 
I replaced the 4 x 16gb with the original - 4 x 4gb - and worked in Logic and Dorico and DP10 for 4 hours, without any problems. So, so far I conclude that at least one of the 16 gb, could be causing the problem.
 
Any of the name brand ram is just as good as the others. I personally have bought ram used from one of the companies that sells refurbished Macs. They test all the memory and warranty it. They wouldn’t even tell me what brand it would be for sure ahead of time they only ensured it would be one of the name brands and all matching. It has been working great
 
@stigc56
Where did you buy the ram? Have you contacted the vendor to see if they'll replace a bad stick?
IMO it would be a good 1st step to contact them and ask, no harm.
As Dewdman42 stated: the ram has to be matching so if you can get the original vendor to replace the bad stick it would be easier and cheaper than replacing 64gig of new ram.
 
Not Mac Pro per se, but for my late-2015 iMac I had serious crashes and kernel panics for nearly 3 months which I was finally able to trace to OWC-branded RAM.

Crucial has been much better for my Mac.
 
There is no single brand that is immune from having problems. A certain percentage of RAM chips will have them. The larger name brands do a better job of testing their ram before sending it out, but its still always possible.

Crucial and OWC are both fine and both imperfect. I have had great luck with Samsung myself, which is what is in my mac now, purchased second hand from https://ipowerresale.com. Have also had great results from Crucial and I know others that have had great results with OWC.... Corsair, Kingston, its all fine. Just make sure it matches and its the most optimized specs for your system.
 
Did you test if it was the slot and not just the ram?
Well I know that I need for sure to do some more testing. But at the same time I have to fulfill a contract, so for now I will work today with the original 4 x 4 gb ram, to see if it works!
 
I went to place an Amazon order for a 32GB Crucial RAM kit (16GBx2) for my new iMac 2019 and found that it's out of stock until early October. Seems that it's on back-order from the manufacturer. Just a heads-up in case you need your RAM ASAP.
 
I've had 64GB and 32GB of OWC RAM running on my iMacs for +24 months now, without issue. OWC/MacSales is a good company in my experience. When the CEO gets off his bed, to help a complete stranger from twitter and solves his -purchasing- problem, you know this is a solid partner to have. :emoji_thumbsup:
 
Dewdman is right - name brands are fine.

My philosophy is that it costs a fortune to set up a memory factory, so pretty much any kind with a lifetime warranty is good. I go by the vendor and the warranty more than the RAM brand. 18004memory.com is my favorite, because their prices are always good, but mainly because the one time I had a RAM go bad they replaced it under warranty really quickly.
 
OWC is good, but always really expensive - whatever they're selling.

Having said that, I bought one of their SATA 3 cards that went bad, and they replaced it right away.
 
Well I consider several options, but there are differences in the data rate. Some of them is 1333 mhz (32gb blocks OWC) and some are 1866 (16gb blocks Mac-Speicher - German). Is there a difference in performance due to the data rate speed?
 
Well I consider several options, but there are differences in the data rate. Some of them is 1333 mhz (32gb blocks OWC) and some are 1866 (16gb blocks Mac-Speicher - German). Is there a difference in performance due to the data rate speed?

Apple specs:

 
I consider to put 128 gb ram in, but it’s impossible to find 32gb blocks with data on 1866. How come?
 
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