Is OWC (Other World Computing) for real?

[dezignman]

OWC (Other World Computing) offers ram and drives at affordable prices AND gives a decent amount for trading in those items from the new computer purchased. If I understand correctly, I can buy a brand name 7200RPM drive and get 4GB of ram for a very good price and sell them the 2GB and 5400 drive that comes with the computer.

Does anybody know if they're reputable and really do that?

 

[geoduck]

I haven't done any trading of equipment with OWC, but have purchased plenty of hard drives, ram, CPU upgrades and small components from them during the past 15 years. I only have positive things to say. They are certainly a vital part of the Mac constellation.

 

[md0234]

OWC/macsales.com is a very legit company, I've used them many times over the years to buy RAM. In fact, every Mac I've ever had has had additional memory installed that was bought from these guys. They also have good deals often on external FW disks. I've seen their trade-in programme mentioned, but I've never taken advantage of it so I cannot comment on that per say, but they are certainly a real company so I wouldn't worry about that at least.

--
http://www.dicksonphotography.co.uk/

 

[Jim Trunck]

Excellent company. Just bought 8 GB of RAM and several HD drives for a new Mac Pro from them. Ordered on Monday and received the items on Thursday. They do what they say they will do and the products are as advertised.

BTW, they just lowered the price of RAM for the Mac Pro again. There HD prices are the best around or very competitive as well.

--
JT

 

[mrbill62]

They are my first choice and the customer service is excellent.

 

[pprior]

bought ram for my mac pro - good prices and was exactly the same as the OEM ram that came with my machine.

Never sold anything used - always find some other use for it...

--
Jeremiah 1:5

 

[Tom Ferguson]

Like most others here, my experiences buying from OWC have been great. Best advice/support of the internet shops. I've also never sold anything to them, like pprior, I always find another use.... a second drive is an external backup or an internal scratch drive. That extra 2G of memory means I can have 6G instead of 4..... you can never be too rich, too thin, or have too much memory
--
Tom Ferguson
http://www.ferguson-photo-design.com

 

[mikiev]

I've only made one purchase from them, an external FW-400/800 HD (complete unit - HD and enclosure)
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/hard-drives/external/elite-al-pro-quad

I'm very happy with that unit, so I will probably buy a matching "add your own HD" kit from them to upgrade my other ext HD - which is currently in an cheap usb/FW enclosure I got locally.

No complaints from me.

--



My Picasa albums:
http://picasaweb.google.com/mjvlev

 

[dezignman]

Thanks for the responses. I never heard of them before and didn't want to take a chance.

With regards to the ram exchange, the macbook pro maxes out at 4GB (only two slots to my understanding). So if I buy a new unit with 2GB (2-1GB chips, with one occupying each slot) it seems I can exchange them for 2-2GB memory chips, one for each slot to give me 4GB.

It seems I can also trade the 160GB 5400 drive for a 160GB 7200 drive in an exchange. They mention that they have to test it before issuing funds, but these would be from a new computer (whenever I buy it).

Buying the computer with 4GB and the faster drive installed would cost about $500 more from what I can see.

 

[Snook]

they shipped 2 days like promised..:+}
Have not installed it yet..

But $400.00 vs. 2000.00$ for 4 gigs of RAM where I live is quite a bit of savings!!!
Snook
--
1DsMII,5D,G5 D2.0---> Shooting RAW (Ofcourse)
http://homepage.mac.com/ekphotography/2006
http://homepage.mac.com/ekphotography/F30/

 

[Tim Ernst]

I just completed a RAM purchase and rebate for both a MacBook Pro and Mac Pro from OWC (been buying from them for years). The only kink during the tradein was that their RAM prices dropped by the time I got my old RAM to them so I only got the cheaper rate for the trade-in (actually it was a lot less) - they state this up front that the price is based on the day they receive your RAM and not the day you make the deal, so just realize that you may not get as much as you thought you were going to for the old RAM. I don't know anyone who does this at all so I think it is a great service!

 

[gaussian blur]

It seems I can also trade the 160GB 5400 drive for a 160GB 7200 drive
in an exchange. They mention that they have to test it before
issuing funds, but these would be from a new computer (whenever I buy
it).

Swapping the hard drive on the MacBook Pro is a fair amount of work, and will also void the warranty. If you want a bigger hard drive, get it from Apple, or have an authorized dealer install it.

The memory is easily installed and won't void the warranty.

 

[Ian Eisenberg]

Very true. I swapped an additional HD for the Superdrive in my MBP and regret it now. Don't get me wrong, I love the extra space but it was a PITA to do and now I find I want to switch back but it is just too much trouble.
That and having to carry around the SD as an external device is kind of a chore.

Swapping the hard drive on the MacBook Pro is a fair amount of work,
and will also void the warranty. If you want a bigger hard drive,
get it from Apple, or have an authorized dealer install it.

The memory is easily installed and won't void the warranty.

 

[CMMcCallum]

Another strong vote of support for OWC here. Use them for both work and home purchases.

Cheers,

Mike

--
D40, (18-55 DX), (50 f1.8), (70-300 VR)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikemccallum/

 

[bic50]

Both OWC and SmallDog are good source to buy your Apple components.
I dont know they have been running 20 years?
I know their boss, Larry O’Connor, very well. He starts his biz when he was 15.
He is working very hard to make sure every customer is a satisfied customer.
Don from SmallDog is also a very nice person.

 

[Greg Eddinger]

I wanted a 160, 7,200 drive for my MBP a couple of months ago.
I found that provantage.com was much cheaper. Downside is shipping time.

They have some weird shipping policy's that are stated up front but are just strange and delay shipping. They ship to another state and have it resent back to them then it is shipped to me. They said it's because I live in California. ????

I purchased my external enclosure from OWC. I even spoke with them before I ordered it because the one I had to return to amazon did not state it was for ata drives and of course the MBP requires a SATA connection and I wanted to confirm I was making the right purchase. I love the little thing and if you don't mind booting from usb then it is a great way to add HD space. The sales and tech staff at OWC were just great to speak with and offered knowledgeable information. In my book its worth the extra cash to get things done right the first time. BTW Amazon did a full refund including shipping since their site info was not complete.

If you know what you want and want to save money and don't mind a few extra days provantage will be cheaper. However my experience tells me OWC has a high customer satisfaction rating. I would recommend them to anyone that wants things done right the first time.
--
Gregory Eddinger
Those that believe they can, CAN, because they BELIEVE!

 

[Tom Obszanski50651]

Exchanging the RAM might be a good idea, but why not get an external firewire enclosure for your existing internal drive - it will double your storage, or give you a drive for use with Time Machine when Leopard is released.

 

[geoduck]

gaussian blur wrote:
[deleted]

Swapping the hard drive on the MacBook Pro is a fair amount of work,
and will also void the warranty. If you want a bigger hard drive,
get it from Apple, or have an authorized dealer install it.

The memory is easily installed and won't void the warranty.

Sorry to hijack the thread, but where does it say that a simple change of hard drive will void your warranty? I'm thinking that you are inaccurate.

 

[reddog99]

They do that so you don't have to pay California sales taxes.

I found that provantage.com was much cheaper. Downside is shipping time.
They have some weird shipping policy's that are stated up front but
are just strange and delay shipping. They ship to another state and
have it resent back to them then it is shipped to me. They said it's
because I live in California. ????

 

[gaussian blur]

Sorry to hijack the thread, but where does it say that a simple
change of hard drive will void your warranty? I'm thinking that you
are inaccurate.

Hard drives aren't considered customer replaceable parts on the MacBook Pro (they are on the regular MacBook -- it just slides right out of the battery bay).

If you know what you're doing and are careful and don't break anything, they might not void it, but given that some of these Macs are ridiculously difficult to open (notably the iBook), the possibility to screw it up is very real. The MacBook Pro isn't anywhere near as involved as the iBook was (only 23 screws versus over 40), but the clips holding the keyboard can be easily bent.