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User profile for user: sl3656
sl3656 Author
User level: Level 1
1 points

PC3-8500 and PC3-10600 Compatibility

Earlier today I went and bought 2x2GB Kingston ValueRAM (KVR1333D3S9/2G) spec'd at PC3-10600 (1333Mhz). When i got home, realised that I should have actually bought the same RAM rated at PC3-8500 (1066Mhz) which came with my Macbook Aluminium (Late 2008).

Anyhow, I went ahead and installed the new memory modules (half expecting it not to work based on the comments on the internet on the matter), but to my surprise, not only did it work, but now my Mac is reading 4GB memory speeds at PC3-10600/ 1333MHz speeds 🙂 My only question is, is this at all stable and has anyone else had a similar experience? Lightroom, PS and VM running sweet as with more and faster RAM!

Thanks

Macbook Aluminium (Late 2008), Mac OS X (10.6.7)

Posted on Apr 15, 2011 7:45 AM

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User profile for user: JoeyR
JoeyR
User level: Level 6
8,305 points

Apr 15, 2011 8:57 AM in response to sl3656

While the memory is rated at a faster than spec'd speed, it will not actually run any faster than the system bus. Regardless... running faster memory in a system should typically not be an issue... it will just run at the same speed as the system bus. There are sometimes benefits for getting faster rated RAM in desktop systems if their BIOS allows for overclocking.... this is generally not applicable to notebooks however. Having said that... Macs are typically very picky when it comes to RAM. It is not uncommon for even RAM running at the right speed to have stability issues. If your new RAM is running fine, you should be fine. It certainly won't hurt your system. If you just want to make sure it's stable, you can try running the Apple hardware test:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2684

You should be able to burn a CD with MemTest which will run through your memory until you stop it. It is compatible with Mac as well as it is a boot CD and will run on any Intel machine:

http://www.memtest86.com/
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PC3-8500 and PC3-10600 Compatibility

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