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Kingston 2x1GB PC2-5300 FB-DIMM Memory Kit Review
Date Published: 01-15-2007 Written By: Millsy Edited By: Diceman Provided By: Kingston Where to Buy: Kingston Discuss Article: VH Forum link Pages: 1 2

Install:
 

Simple Latch

Pull to open

Pull out a riser

Fill with ram!

   Ok, PC hardware designers, take note of the Mac Pro please.. PLEASE?! Installing ram is such a painless experience. Flip open the latch at the back, pull off the panel. Slide one of the 2 risers out of the case (they have a hole in each corner you can fit a small finger through if it's a little stiff) push the ram into the slots that are about 1 inch apart (to make room for Apples extremely large Ram sink). There are no wires or any other objects even remotely close to the ram, so you don't ever need to worry about not having enough room for something else.

Testing:

Well, obviously I don't have any other options for testing Kingston's ram, but here are the specs of my Mac Pro again.

• 2 X 2GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon 5100

• NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT

• 160GB SATA

• 3 X 320GB SATA

Apple Ram

Kingston Ram

Different much?!

Cool apples

Here is the first thing I noticed. While it's the only problem I encountered during all my testing, it's a fairly big one. When I installed the Kingston 2GB kit, along with the 1GB Apple ram I already had, Windows does not get past the logon screen.

It's always something isn't it? I can hear the sound it plays after I login, however the screen freezes up, I can't see the mouse except for a few spurts here and there, and thats all that happens. The thing is, booting into OSX doesn't seem to cause any issue at all. I ran all my stress tests, benchmarking programs. Games didn't crash (yes OSX has games), played movies, did everything I always do. 2 Weeks with the 3GB of ram and not one issue in OSX. There is nothing to indicated that either ram is misbehaving at all.

It gets even more confusing when I only use one type of ram. Windows boots up perfectly with either type of ram. No issues period. So who is causing the conflict? I really don't know. It could be Apples ram not wanting to play nice with others. It could be Kingston not doing something in sync with the Apple ram. I have no way of knowing. This is definitely a MAJOR issue, one of the main features of the Mac Pro's is that they can run Windows natively, so there is no emulation performance loss. On top of that, because the Mac Pro can handle 16GB of ram, it's going to be rare for someone to simply be “replacing” ram, instead of simply adding more.

I know I'd LIKE to stick with the 3GB of ram, but what a pain the butt to remove 1GB every time I want to go into Windows. Seeing as I can't find any reliability issues with only the Kingston 2GB kit installed, that's how I have been running my setup. The extra speed advantage of 2GB over 1GB of ram is far too nice to give up on.
 

512MB Top, 1GB on Bottom

Apples is cleaner

Back sides

Close Up

As far as Temperatures go, I said earlier that the Kingston ram does not have onboard sensors that are compatible with any of the programs I have found for monitoring. I do have a fairly good idea about what they are putting out, as there are temperature sensors on the memory risers that you plug the ram into. During my testing, the riser with Kingston Ram was always around the same temperature as the riser with the Apple memory. Both fluctuated a few degrees, but never more than 2 or 3 Celsius. They all averaged around 36-39C at the risers, with the Apple Ram reporting around 55-59C Those should be well within the range of “Safe” temperatures.

Benchmarks:

   Because I'm not comparing a 2GB kit, to another 2GB kit, it's not a fair comparison to benchmark with real world applications and games. Everyone already knows there is a big advantage of adding more ram. The more ram you have, the fewer things need to be stored in virtual memory on the hard drive. The fewer times you need to go to the hard drive, the better. In theory though, things like Bandwidth and Access times, should be fair game to compare.

Here are the results of the Sandra benchmarks. This of course was done in Windows using Bootcamp
 

Apple Bandwidth

Kingston Bandwidth

This is the largest difference of all the tests, this one makes me rethink my earlier bandwidth statement.
 

Apple access times

Kingston Access times

Virtually identical results for access times. At least one of my theories isn't retarded :P
 

Apple Cache speeds

Kingston Cache speeds

I didn't actually think this would show any difference at all. But a decent difference regardless, and more speed is always better.

So, either I'm mistaken about my “theory” of bandwidth and access time tests still being valid across different quantities of ram, or the Kingston ram is faster than Apples variety. Faster by quite a margin at that. I can understand why the bandwidth test would go faster if you have more ram (though a real test of bandwidth should not be any different). I'm not really surprised with this finding though. Apple would not want to push any of its hardware close to the limits, as that would degrade the hardware faster. The only way for me to really test this, would be to tell you in a year or 2 if the Kingston Ram has died. But with a lifetime warranty, a failure like that would be covered by Kingston.

Conclusion:

   So here is the 64K question, do I recommend this Ram? I honestly don't know quite what to think. While it's true there is a problem with having both types of ram installed, and trying to boot into windows. I don't know if this is just a one-off problem because of my system, or if one type of ram is doing something out of spec. If someone has a method that would narrow down the culprit, I would love to hear it.

I can say that I wouldn't want to give up the extra 1GB, especially when I haven't had any problems with just the 2GB installed. The fact that I could sell my Apple branded 1GB stick for almost the same price as the Kingston 2GB kit also makes me lean towards recommending it. It's still not cheap though, so risking that much money isn't my usual hobby.

If Kingston helps me work things out, I will update this review (and email anyone who asks about it) with any new information.

For now, I would say 'Go for it' as long as you take into account my results. The Lifetime warranty makes me feel a lot better about everything. Plus Kingston is a well known company who isn't going to be going anywhere for a while.
 

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