When we bought the MBP, I was stunned at the price of RAM. Of course who am I to object, since I’m not in the Mac Brotherhood. Maybe it’s magic RAM.
Anyway, I’m not the only one who’s noticed:
In configuring this MacBook at the online Apple Store, it struck me how much Apple *still* charges for RAM, and gets away with. This is not a new phenomenon as it’s been happening for many, many years, but the total cost difference between Apple-installed RAM and third-party RAM now stands at a whopping $730 for 4GB of RAM! Note that they are both third-party products, from a manufacturing standpoint.
In other words, to max out my MacBook’s RAM, Apple charges me $850, while if I go through my trusty RAM comparison shopping site DealRam, I am pointed to NewEgg, which ships me the same amount of RAM for $120. As a point of comparison, Dell charges $465 for an extra 4GB… still outrageous, but not a 700% markup!
…
And I don’t want to hear any arguments about quality of RAM either. If you happen to get some bad RAM, you can always exchange it (note: I’ve gotten bad RAM from Apple before too… it can fail no matter who makes it).
700% markup… don’t tell me that’s good value. When I say “Macs are expensive” this is the sort of thing I’m thinking of.
Of course Apple aren’t the only manufacturer to put a hefty markup on RAM. As ever, my point here is that Apple are bastards just like the rest of them.
