Apple RAM gone rotten

REPORTS ABOUND that the latest Macbook might be shipping complete with some grim new flaws to go with that gorgeous new facelift.

It seems that the memory controller being used in the motherboards is incredibly finicky about the particular type of DDR3 RAM that's bunged in. Users all across the Apple imperium (should we just say orchard?) are reporting that RAM upgrades from companies such as Crucial and Corsair are causing system instability, lock-ups and crashes after installation.

There is a hot market in third-party RAM upgrades for Mac machines, thanks in part to the outrageous premium Apple itself charges to spec up its machines. For example, Apple charges £98 to go from 2GB to 4GB of RAM, whereas the same upgrade will set you back just £48 from a third party supplier.

However, whether it is merely chipset issues with the DDR3 RAM, or whether Apple is up to something more sinister is unclear. We wouldn't put it past the Cupertino Cappuccino crowd to lock out external memory chips in order to line their own pockets.

So far there appears to be no answer to the lock-up problems beyond ditching the third party memory kit and buying RAM from Apple. There's one problem though: Apple is out of stock at the moment. Nice.

L'Inq
Tuaw