2015 iMac RAM Upgrade: What brand of RAM?

I bought my late 2015 iMac with 16GB of RAM and am planning to bump it up to 32GB.

Amazon Canada sells 2x8 GB upgrades from Komputerbay ($108.00 CAD) and Crucial ($194.62 CAD).

Is it worth paying the extra for Crucial? Any other brands worth considering?

Thanks!

Crucial RAM is made by Micron Technology, and Micron actually owns Crucial. They’ve a great reputation and have a lifetime warranty. I’ve bought directly from them, several times over the years.

Most sellers, like Kumputerbay are resellers, and you are dependent on their willingness to make things right. They also offer a lifetime warranty, though it’s a little odd that the Amazon page also offers a 2-yr warranty add-on.

Nothing wrong with a reseller as long as they have a good reputation. In the US I’ve only bought RAM from Crucial and from OWC, a reseller. Great experiences with both.

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Thanks for your response, @bowline. That’s very helpful!

Another vote for OWC. I had problems with an SSD I bought from them. They refunded the $600+ without any hassle.
I personally would stick with a name you recognize. Off brand ram could be out of spec (timing, etc) and result in problems. IMHO, not worth the risk.
Enjoy that 32GB, I’m jelly.

Thanks, @JohnAtl. I looked at OWC, but it’s not a very attractive option here in Canada. The shipping is very expensive (e.g. $37.27 USD for FedEx)…and even after paying all that money I may end up with a C.O.D duty charge

I will be nice to have 32GB, especially since I do a lot of video work.

Go for Crucial, don’t think of anything else, they are #1 RAM manufacturer for Mac.

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My last purchase from Crucial was upgrading a late 2012 iMac. Still happy.

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Another vote for Crucial. I’ve had good luck with them. John Siracusa has mentioned that they’ve replaced his ram on his 10 year old Mac Pro a few times and never any hesitation.

Go with people who stick behind their product. You’ll be happier in the long run even if you never need their help because you bought a better product in the first place.

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As a friend of mine said, “Buy quality, cry once.”

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Obviously your friend was not a dominatrix.

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Only 2 brands that I use: Crucial and OWC. Recently I choose Crucial OWC isn’t what they used to be from my perspective.

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Hmm i had a 2017 iMac and purchased some Corsair Vengeance extra RAM. Seemed to be good.

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Glad it works for you but in my experience the only 3rd party brands that I had pul form clients Mac’s because of failed memory were branded “Kingsten” and Corsair".
Crucial has never let me down, unfortunately, OWC has skipped a few beats in the past year.

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Thanks for your advise, everyone! I just ordered 16GB (2x8GB) of additional RAM for my iMac. I decided to go with Crucial to minimize the possibility of any issues.

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Crucial, Micron or OWC. I love OWC but their prices are always high. Best to spend more on RAM though because troubleshooting bad RAM is a bear! Luckily RAM is either bad when it arrives or it isn’t. In general RAM doesn’t “go bad” over time so if you have a problem it will usually occur in the first days/weeks of use.

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As a heads-up sometimes people think they have bad RAM when it turns out they just slotted it in the wrong paired slots. My memory is hazy but I remember seeing lots of discussions on the macrumors forums when the 2017 iMacs came out with people discussing how they’d use slots 1 & 3, or 2 & 4, or how they used new RAM alongside their existing RAM and they had to swap the RAM into other pairings otherwise their systems would not turn on properly. It got properly confusing.

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Mission accomplished!

2018-10-29%20(17-49-17)%20-%20About%20This%20Mac

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Gigidy!

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