Introduction:

Kingston FB-DIMM

Naked Stock

In the past few years, we have seen a jump in not only the performance of RAM, but also in the shear number of kinds of RAM available. Generally though, you only have to deal with two standard types, DDR, and DDR2. The former is almost finished being fazed out of the enthusiast market as everyone converts to DDR2.

Another type of RAM that has been around for just over a year now, is FB-DIMM, which stands for Fully Buffered - Dual In-line Memory Module. This however, has been relegated to the Server side of computer for the most part. FB-DIMM RAM was created because of a need to allow servers to have even more ram, access it faster, and maintain as high a level of reliability as possible.

Unlike DDR2, where you can only have 8GB of memory per channel, FB-DIMM allows for up to 192GB of RAM per channel! (That might actually be enough for Vista!) It also allows for more bandwidth per channel too, 40GBs vs 10GBs for DDR2. However both of those numbers are theoretical, and it will be a long time coming before we see anything near that level of performance.

The first (that I know of) 'Workstation' to use FB-DIMM's, is Apples Mac Pro. This is because they use Intel Core 2 XEON processors, instead of the more common processors that most users would install.
 

It's a Pro!

In November last year, I decided to give Apple a shot and ordered a Mac Pro. While there are lots of claims of Mac's being cheaper than a similarly equipped PC, I'm going to go out on a limb and say 'Macs are still freaking expensive' At least when you get into the level of the Mac Pro, which to be fair is meant for professionals and power users. While I'm glad I didn't settle for a cheaper machine, mostly because I've ended up using it as my main computer and I really would notice the lower performance of the other options (especially a Mac mini!).

Keeping that in mind, I still ended up picking the cheapest Mac Pro you can. The 2ghz, version (which still has 2 dual core processors) is very nice, but when I was pricing things out, I also skimped out on the ram. 1GB is the lowest amount you can go with, but at the time, I didn't think that adding $359 just to add 1 more GB was worth it! Now really, anyone who thinking about getting a Mac, you don't really have to worry about “only” having 1GB of ram. Everything will run just fine, there are a few programs that you really want more ram for. Of course those programs are some of the things that Mac's are well known for, such as Photo shop, iPhoto, or any video editing software.

After a while, I started looking around for 3^rd party FB-DIMM's that would work with my Mac Pro. This is where I found a few things about the Mac Pro that everyone should probably know before purchasing them.

1. Because they wanted them to be so quiet, there is very little airflow in a Mac Pro. All the Apple supplied RAM has GIANT heat sinks. Early reports of some 3^rd party vendor supplied FB-DIMM's had problems with overheating.

2. Apple supplied FB-DIMM's have sensors built on that are compatible with programs like Temperature Monitor (available as a Dashboard app) If 3^rd Party ram has this, I don't know how to enable it.

3. FB-DIMM's on Apple machines MUST be installed in pairs.

4. Currently I can find no means of over clocking a Mac Pro (aside from the GPU), due to the EFI bios, so picking out ram because it is a good over clocker on a PC, won't translate to any performance gains.

First Impressions:

Freshness locked In!

Evaluation

2 X 1GB sticks

It's Hot!

When I looked at Kingston's options for FB-DIMM ram, I was sort of leery at first for one main reason.

Compared to Apples $700 cost for a 2GB kit (2 1GB sticks, remember, pairs only!) You can find Kingston 2GB Kits, for almost 50% apples price!

Heres what I do in my head. I think there is going to be one of 3 options.

1. Something is different with the Kingston ram, and it won't work at all.

2. Something is slightly different with the Kingtson ram, and it will Crash.

3. Something is wrong with apple, and they are making a huge profit off ram!

I mean really, what else can i think? I've read about heat problems with other brands of FB-DIMM ram, but there are 3^rd party heat sink kits available for $60 that should just about take care of any heat related issue you could ever have. So unless there is a huge reliability difference, the way I see it, you can get (mostly) guaranteed ram from apple, and still only have a 1 year warranty. Or I can risk everything, get a Limited lifetime warranty from Kingston on the ram itself, and be able to buy twice as much ram for the same price!