# OWC RAM any good?



## Pelao (Oct 2, 2003)

May be shopping for a 2GB stick for my iMac. Does anyone have any experience with OWC RAM. The price is excellent, at US$209.00. Seems very low compared to others.

It's C$406.00 at Canadaram.

At crucial it's over US$600.

A difference appears to be that the OWC is 128x64, whereas the more expensive ones are 256x65.

Can anyone advise if this makes a difference?

Thanks in advance.


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## pollux (May 1, 2000)

All (I mean all) my RAM for my Macs (including G5s, iBook, PowerBook, G4s etc etc) were purchased from OWC since 1999.

Their prices aren't the lowest but the RAM they sell is guaranteed to work.

Have no problem


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## JumboJones (Feb 21, 2001)

How are shipping costs and duty fees with them?


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## AdamS (Jun 7, 2005)

I have 2GB on the way for my MacBook. I'll post how they were (+ install pics maybe) once they arrive.


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## CanadaRAM (Jul 24, 2005)

OWC is a reputable seller.

The things you have to watch for are shipping cost, the 2 percentage points extra profit the charge card company will take on your US exchange, (Official rate 1.115, bank rate 1.135, Visa rate 1.155) the customs brokerage, and the costs to ship back cross-border on any warranty issues. There is no Duty, you will pay GST and Provincial tax (varies by province) on entry, and there will be customs brokerage of between $8 and $30 depending on the carrier.

The 128 x 64 vs 256 x 64 describes the density of the chips, for a given size of module, the 128 x 64 will use twice as many chips on the module as a 256 x 64. If OWC are stating compatibility with your model Mac, then that would be OK, just be aware that sometimes a module with more chips on it is physically too large for some machines.

Our #50628 2 Gb DDR2-533 DIMM is now $397, and we have an new brand #50628E at $297 (still guaranteed compatible)

Thanks 
Trevor 
CanadaRAM.com


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## madgunde (Mar 10, 2006)

Bought RAM from OWC about 4 or 5 times now, as well as CPU upgrades and other PCI upgrade cards. Always very fast shipping (usually 2-3 days, including weekends), never had a problem with any of the RAM, or my orders, so never had to ship anything back. Prices are always very competitive.

The latest was for my MacBook Pro, a 1GB module, and a 512MB for my bro's G5 iMac. Very happy to recommend OWC to anyone.


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## TommyC (Apr 9, 2005)

I just bought 2x1GB from them a couple of weeks ago for my macbook pro and so far it seems ok (I'm planning on doing more thorough testing when I have some time.) 

They ship with USPS so you should only get an $8 brokerage fee + whatever taxes bringing into canada. I think I got hit for both PST and GST since my total cost at the post office was around $45. Even with these fees, it was cheaper than the base cost of canada ram. However, if you are concerned about having to send it back across the border (and the fees involved with that) then it would be better to order from a canadian merchant. I opted to take my chances since I've got an amerifriend so I can get stuff sent down there to avoid the import fees (If Im not in a rush like I was for the macbook)

I've also been running 2 gigs (2x1GB) from them along with the stock 512 (2x256) in my PowerMac G5 2x2.0 for a while now and havent had any problems.

All of the memory I've gotten from them has been the store brand (ie the cheapest they sell) although they do sell other brands as well


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## Pelao (Oct 2, 2003)

Thank you all. It appears OWC have a good rep.


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## adam1185 (Feb 16, 2005)

I ordered 1 gig of RAM for my iMac about a month ago from http://www.datamem.com/ and it works great. The shipping was only about 3-4 days through Purolator and I didn't get charged any taxes or import fees which was pretty sweet. Shipping was $19 and the 1 gig RAM stick was only $117 compared to $184 currently at crucial.


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## Chipper (Aug 31, 2004)

I had an excellent experience with OWC when I bought 512 MB RAM for my iBook 600 a few years back. The RAM appeared not to be recognized by my iBook and was returned and replaced twice. The third time round they suggested that I have my iBook checked. As it turned out, it was the logic board that was at fault and not OWC's RAM. Once the iBook was finally repaired after a very flaky first year, thanks to the faulty logic board, it has run smoothly ever since.

I have US purchases shipped to a friend in the US.

I highly recommend OWC.


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## mflynnster (May 22, 2006)

CanadaRAM: What's the difference between your standard 50189 and Gauranteed Generic 50189E 1GB sticks?


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## CanadaRAM (Jul 24, 2005)

The price, primarily, and the fact that we have a longer track record on the 50189 modules, the generics are a new line. 
They are both guaranteed to work, and both have a lifetime warranty. The Guaranteed generics are just that - a generic module that has been tested and is guaranteed by the manufacturer for use in the Mac. If you want, you can trade up within the first 10 days for full credit towards the 50189 or Kingston module.


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## AdamS (Jun 7, 2005)

Just got my 2 GB of RAM from OWC today.

Initially, I thought it would be a quick upgrade, but it took much longer than I expected. Taking the RAM out is the easy part, it's getting them back in properly that's quite difficult.

As has been shown on vids online, you just remove the battery, metal plate, then pull each RAM bay's lever to remove the existing sticks. They pop out, then you can just remove them. When it comes to replacing them with the new sticks, however, it took a crazy amount of force to get them in.

On my first try, I booted up only to be greeted with a system freeze. I rebooted and it happened again, so I took another stab at installing them, this time making sure they were in tight. That seemed to work pretty well, just make sure they're in *tight*.

I was a bit hesitant to push that hard on them to get them in, but it did the trick.

Overall it has been a great upgrade. I can now run Parallels and devote about 600-800 MB of RAM to XP comfortably and still keep OS X running "like butter." Everything opens almost instantly, and bootup has got to be less than 20 seconds now. I'll get around to timing it at some point, but it has really sped up since the upgrade.

*Edit:* Forgot to mention, I had to pay $42 in customs when picking up the RAM. So in total it was US $225 (~252 Canadian) + $42, so about $300 total.


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