why is apple ram so expensive??

Why does apple charge £450 for 4gb ram, when you can buy 4gb from a shop for about £70? Do they use a special type of ram?

 

because its apple certified ram ;D

 

Use the search button and read this thread first lol

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=215362

 

It's because all manufacturers sell memory for a hefty price to add to profits. A small portion of it has to be figured into labour (Pulling it off the line when it's done to add whatever goodies you want), but it's pretty small.

Apple wants $850 to upgrade their MacBooks to 4GB (Oddly, it's $700 to upgrade the MacBook Pro to the same amount)
Dell wants $450 to upgrade their laptops to 4GB
HP/Compaq want $375 to upgrade to 4GB

Why Apple wants twice the amount as Dell, I'm not sure. They make a damn good profit off of it. Apple's are only slightly picky about the RAM, and want it to be right to maximise speed, but other than that it's basically the same stuff.

 

If you are talking MB ram... it's the same stuff as Dell; Corsair Value Select PC25300 SODIMM 200PIN. Just buy it online, it's much cheaper than Apple.

 

the question is... why is Apple so expensive?.. the answer is because they have a HUGE markup. you pay to have an apple product. when you could pay half the price and get something better.

 

A special message to jcovelli; Do you just come into the Apple board to flame and troll?

Post facts rather than pulling numbers out of your underwear.
Find me a laptop from ANY manufacturer that has the same processor as a Macbook, with similar memory/hard drive specs that is half the price.

Zero discounts, just the flat out normal price brand new... Half of $1099 is $549.50.
Needs to be 2.0GHz (Core2Duo) or faster, any amount of ram, any hard drive size.

Find it or just shut up with your whining and complaining.

 

Everyone knows Apple is more expensive but only by a few hundred dollars not $500.

To awnser the question all RAM from PC builders is overpriced Apple just goes completly over board. Save yourself $700-$1000 and go buy some at Frys or from Newegg

 

Yeah, almost all manufacturers' RAM is expensive. There's really no reason why, its just another way to make money. The advice has always been to purchase RAM elsewhere and install it yourself. The same goes when you're configuring basically any notebook or desktop computer out there.

 

Do you even own a mac? Or is that just an opinion solely based on someone else's opinion?

 

Apple RAM is quite expensive, so is RAM you get from a PC vendor like Dell. Vendors need to make a profit somewhere, so the markup on RAM is a common target. You'd be surpised how often people will pay the money because of the convenience over DIY. Also, people less technologically inclined would rather leave hardware upgrades to the manufacturer, that way the system stays in Warranty and they can be sure anything that goes wrong is not their fault.

I suppose it is a little bit underhanded, but revenue is revenue.

 

You can change the Ram in your brand new Dell it does not void the warranty. Changing the CPU or MB however would. Same goes for Apple I believe.

 

Umm... Replacing the Ram does not void the warranty on any machine. I guess you mean some people think that DIY replacement will void the warranty, but it just does not. Worst case, apple care will tell you to put the original ram back in for testing if you have a problem.

But what is more odd... Why are the HDD not insanely marked up on the MBP?

 

I think the issue with DIY for a lot of people is that while replacing things like RAM is fine, people sometimes feel uncomfortable doing it in case they screw that process up themselves, for example by forcing the sticks in too hard that something breaks or by not discharging static and then zapping the sticks or a component in the machine etc... That's where the "safe and convenient" method of letting the manufacturer do it becomes appealing to some.

But the price manufacturers charge is just astronomical which is a turn off for many of us.

 

Yeah...its hard to picture it from the consumer's point of view as we're all such techies here...but if you think about it, the average consumer thinks "pay $100 more, and have it all done for you, or you might ruin your $2000 notebook just because you were being cheap", and they're scared to DIY.

 

I bought ram 2 weeks ago for my MBP, and when i was searching for it, i contacted my apple dealer and he got 2GB slot for 133$ so for 4GB is 266$, but went to computer shop and bought them with same PC2 667 for 114$ not for 2GB but for the 2 slots 4GB. only 114$, so thats allot cheaper than apple store it self.

 

Yeah that's it.

 

It's a money grab...All companies do it

 

Because they can. Apple isn't in the ram business, and the price of ram changes daily. I'd be willing to pay a SLIGHT premium to have Apple install it for me, but the price they charge for 4 GB ram on their laptops is insane! You'd have to be nuts to go for that!