On Oct 9, 4:07 am, "Simon Royal" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Peter
>
> I know the differences between SDRAM, DDR, DDR2, 144pin, 168pin, 200pin and
> 240pin.
>
> You do get PC RAM and Mac RAM, in the sense that some sticks will work in a
> PC but not a Mac.
>
> Some PC specific RAM will also work in a Mac. My question was, how do you
> tell.
>
> I pressume it is down to number of chips and CS latency.
SORRY: I put my first reply into the wrong thread, working from the
digest.
SImon:
By the technical standards of RAM design, there is no such thing as PC
RAM and Mac RAM. Things go awry when vendors do not comply with the
technical design standards. That is how some RAM gets to be dirt
cheap. Regrettably, one may learn of an incompatibility on a specific
Mac with a specific version of the OS only by trial, unless you buy
from a vendor who certifies, or at least claims, that the RAM will
meet the design standards assumed by Apple. If you are looking at
used RAM from PCs, or RAM that is otherwise non-specific, you get into
the trial and error mode.
This is a old issue. I do not believe you can isolate the RAM sticks
that will not work in a Mac by simply looking at its manufacturer's
specifications. Non-compliance with the design standard goes deeper
than that. I hope some experts on this list can weigh in with the
technical details, such as I have seen as recently as a couple years
ago. Or you may find previous discussions in the archives.
Even when third-party RAM is known to work on a Mac with a particular
version of the OS, users have occasionally discovered that RAM to be a
problem when attempting to upgrade the OS. Through the years, Apple
has demanded less and less tolerance for RAM production deviations.
I know this does not help much.
Al Poulin
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