RAM for old Mac Pro (2008)

bloodiedathame · 11 Jul 2013 at 13:04

Sat trying to work on a 2008 Mac Pro with 4GB RAM and it's slower than a slow thing.

Can I buy and use any old DDR2 PC2-6400 ECC DDR2-800 RAM for these things or do I have to buy from a specific manufacturer? Only the Crucial site states stupid money for a RAM upgrade.

Logsi · 11 Jul 2013 at 13:17

Think it needs to be fully buffered ECC RAM, hence the prices.

Akagi · 11 Jul 2013 at 18:31

Fully buffered ECC DDR2? That is going to be crazy expensive. Sell the Mac and run a million miles.

Swap for my dual core PowerMac G5 with 8GB DDR2?

What do you mean 'get stuffed'?

paradigm · 11 Jul 2013 at 21:14

I filled my old 2006 with loads of cheap 2GB and 4GB modules pulled from retiring IBM Socket 771 Xeon servers.

Think I managed 22GB for less than £200. Brand means nothing, just as long as it's either 5300 or 6400 FB-DIMM.

Kinsy · 11 Jul 2013 at 21:20

Logsi said:
Think it needs to be fully buffered ECC RAM, hence the prices.

Erm, no.

I had a Late 2008 MBP that took 1066mhz DDR3. Upgraded it from 4 to 8GB with no problems. Internet said some worked, some didn't, I took the gamble and was rewarded.

Macs take the same memory as PCs, don't get suckered into buying expensive RAM.

Akagi · 11 Jul 2013 at 21:30

Kinsy said:
Erm, no.

I had a Late 2008 MBP that took 1066mhz DDR3. Upgraded it from 4 to 8GB with no problems. Internet said some worked, some didn't, I took the gamble and was rewarded.

Macs take the same memory as PCs, don't get suckered into buying expensive RAM.

This is a Mac Pro, not a Macbook Pro.

PC's sometimes take FB ECC memory as well.

Kinsy · 11 Jul 2013 at 21:34

acme15 said:
This is a Mac Pro, not a Macbook Pro.

PC's sometimes take FB ECC memory as well.

Yes thank you I did read the post.

If it is DDR2 based you won't get any more than 4GB in it. I have upgraded a couple Mac Pro desktops and the most they would take was 4GB.

Best thing to do is google the model number and see what others have been able to do with it...it's how I found out my MBP would take 8GB - Apple site said 4GB max.

bloodiedathame · 11 Jul 2013 at 21:39

The mac pro has 8 slots in it, and the crucial site says max 32GB (8x4GB sticks). I'm scouring the bay for RAM but yeah, expensive!

Akagi · 11 Jul 2013 at 21:53

Kinsy said:
Yes thank you I did read the post.

If it is DDR2 based you won't get any more than 4GB in it. I have upgraded a couple Mac Pro desktops and the most they would take was 4GB.

Best thing to do is google the model number and see what others have been able to do with it...it's how I found out my MBP would take 8GB - Apple site said 4GB max.

I have no idea what you are going on about... :rolleyes:

Even some of the DDR1 based PowerMac G5's could take more than 4GB, and that's going back a decade......

If you couldn't get Mac Pro's to accept more than 4GB, clearly either the Mac was faulty, the RAM was faulty, or you were doing something wrong.

Kinsy · 11 Jul 2013 at 21:59

acme15 said:
I have no idea what you are going on about...

Either way you are wrong... So err... Right-O.

Ummm...

I've been sitting here thinking were talking about these:-

http://apple-history.com/images/models/imac_07_both.jpg

When you're asking about these:-

http://eshop.macsales.com/images/Items/CS5 Benchmark Pictures/MacPro20069BenchTop.jpg

** No Hotlinking - Please read the Rules on posting images before replacing image tags***

So yes I am a retard. It's been a long day...

bloodiedathame · 11 Jul 2013 at 22:00

You are forgiven.

Akagi · 11 Jul 2013 at 22:00

Sorry Kinsy, I did edit my post to sound a bit less 'dickish' but you saw it and quoted it before I did so.

You are quite right about Apple only stating a maximum of 4GB for the 2008 iMac's. Though I have never tested it myself.

Kinsy · 11 Jul 2013 at 22:02

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4433?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US#4

Memory card specifications - 800 MHz, DDR2, FB-DIMMs
- 72-bit wide, 240-pin modules
- 36 memory ICs maximum per DIMM
- Error-correcting code (ECC)

So yeah you need retardedly expensive RAM, sorry dude

bloodiedathame · 11 Jul 2013 at 22:07

Would be faster working off my laptop I think.

v0n · 12 Jul 2013 at 01:20

You have 8 slots, max 4Gb per slot, max total of 32Gb.

Unlike DDR3 Mac Pro's in 2008/3.1 MP it has to be 800 MHz, must be FB-DIMMs (Fully Buffered) and due to design of the air tunnel all chips have to have heat sinks or the memory will run at crazy temps and become unstable. And not the flat PC heat sinks but proper "hedgehogs". Check how the raisers are positioned in the tunnel, you'll quickly figure out what design is needed.

Now, few years back the prices were quite crazy so I decided against spending small fortune on original Apple memory and instead bought three sets of 2x4Gb Samsung FB-Dimms (server spec) and a lot of 6 cheapest damaged/non functioning chips with heatsinks from old mac pro 1.1 on flebay. I then stripped the heat sinks off the old, dead chips and applied them to Samsung DIMMs with new thermal paste. It's an ugly, long and painfully DIY job as the holes and notches for the mounts and clips in Apple heat sinks don't match any regular patterns of third party memory, so you have to create your own spring clips and make sure everything is positioned correctly and tight for low temperatures while minding spacing in slots (I used some extra cable ties around heat sinks to make sure nothing moves). I'm not saying do it, as you will hate every moment of it, but once done it works fine, stable and without any issues.

Akagi · 12 Jul 2013 at 02:13

^ As I said, sell it on eBay and run a million miles.

paradigm · 12 Jul 2013 at 07:40

v0n said:
Unlike DDR3 Mac Pro's in 2008/3.1 MP it has to be 800 MHz, must be FB-DIMMs (Fully Buffered) and due to design of the air tunnel all chips have to have heat sinks or the memory will run at crazy temps and become unstable. And not the flat PC heat sinks but proper "hedgehogs". Check how the raisers are positioned in the tunnel, you'll quickly figure out what design is needed.

There's a really simple solution to that though.

The 256MB and 512MB sticks sell for peanuts. Just buy enough to swap the heatsinks over.

Like I said before, I had 22GB of "normal" flat-heat-spreader IBM server RAM in my 2006 Mac Pro, and it ran fine (hot, but fine) for a month or so until I scavenged enough low end "official" Mac Pro RAM to swap the sinks over. Still cost me under £250 including the "donor" RAM for the heatsinks.

v0n · 12 Jul 2013 at 09:34

paradigm said:
There's a really simple solution to that though.

The 256MB and 512MB sticks sell for peanuts. Just buy enough to swap the heatsinks over.

I wrote about that just few lines below of what you quoted. Trouble is MP heatsinks mostly do not fit regular memory chips, you have to do some DIY butchery, straighten the clasps on the side and either drill or make your own springs to hold them in place.

Still cost me under £250 including the "donor" RAM for the heatsinks.

16Gb of brand new 800Mhz DR-DIMMs with proper mac pro heatsinks goes for about £240-250 these days, so it's not that bad, but yeah, I remember when set of 4x4Gb chips had price tags just few tenners short of four digits.

bloodiedathame · 12 Jul 2013 at 09:57

Where did you get those prices for 16GB v0n?

Nexus · 12 Jul 2013 at 12:13

I upgraded mine to 12GB a couple of years back.
It's a pricey upgrade given the cost of the RAM, but it really made the difference.