Mac Book Pro 17-inch Mid-2010 memory compatibility

Question

I have a Mac Book Pro 17-inch, 2.66 GHz Intel Core i7 with 8GB 1066 MHz DD3 RAM. The RAM consists of two 4GB modules. I was just wondering if I can upgrade the RAM by putting DDR3 PC3-12800 1600MHz SO-DIMM PC laptop memory module RAM. Will it work?

Answer 1

Buying RAM off eBay is probally the worst thing you can do.
Not only that, it's some off name brand RAM made for PC's, so it's likely to cause issues or fail in the Mac, which the seller might not respond for a exchange or refund.
Inexpensive RAM is usually lower quality and more prone to not working but might so it's pawned off to third party resellers to appeal to the cheap crowd willing to work more to get their machines running.
Opening up the MacBook Pro is delicate work with fine screws that need to go back into each exact hole they came out of. The more you have to open it, the more potential damage can occur that is not covered by AppleCare or warranty.
If you want perfect RAM the first time, without having to keep trying over and over which costs you more money and headaches, buy the RAM directly from the manufactor here
http://www.crucial.com/mac/
When your looking at the RAM approved and tested to work for your machine, you can opt to spend more for the higher speed RAM however it will only work as fast as your BUS speed (aka: "Mhz") of the machine.
Benefit of the faster RAM is it will max the bus speed, whereas the matched speed spec-ed RAM can be a bit slower than the bus speed.
If your not into serious performance of the machine, then just opt for the most used spec-ed RAM speed.