Apple-Certified RAM?

I'm planning to upgrade my RAM in my MacBook Pro (Late 2008) from the base 2GB to 4GB. I'm planning to buy RAM from Kingston.

There's two types of Kingston 1066 2GB RAM here. (Laptop-sized RAM)

• Normal RAM
• Apple-certified RAM?

Can I just buy the normal RAM, or do I have to buy the Apple-certified RAM? Is this not like how the hard drives work with the MacBooks - You can use any as long as it's 2.5" and it fits into the hard drive bay?

There's one important thing, and only one important thing, about Apple-certified RAM.

If you:

• Buy RAM that isn't Apple-certified
• Install it (or have it installed by a non-Apple tech) in a Mac
• Later have a (non-RAM-related) problem with that Mac and send it to Apple for servicing without taking out the added RAM

Then you may get a little love note in the box when it comes back:

During the testing process, it was determined that a part Apple has not approved for use with your product resulted in your product's failure. When the part was removed, your product successfully passed all Apple diagnostic and reliability tests…

Continued use of this part (or parts) may cause another failure or damage to your Apple product, which Apple will not cover in a subsequent repair.

The part (or parts) that did not pass Apple's diagnostic tests for your product is identified below:

      __X__ RAM Memory
      _____ Other

And yes, I'm speaking from my own personal experience (part one, part two).

I have had good experience with Crucial and then OWC, which is less expensive and never, that I know, gave me a problem I could attribute to the RAM. I’ve brought memory for Powerbooks, Macbook Pros and Mac Pros.

Theoretically any RAM will do; I remember that Powerbooks (and PowerPC in general) had a “different chip” and not every memory DIMM would work (despite being the same type/speed), but my memory is lost after all these years of Intel Only Macs.

All in all, as far as I can remember, the “Apple Certification” was due to the reliability of the memory. I know that Crucial/OWC and some others are Certified, but that’s because certain machines (i.e. Mac Pro) expect to have a heatsink in the modules, among other things.

It’s usually safe, but don’t pay “more” just because of that, because it tends to be the same thing.

In the Macbook’s case, there’s no heatsink involved (no room!) so pick something from newegg or those sites and you’ll be ok.