which brand of memory should I use for self-upgrade?

Crucial is always a safe bet, but lately there have been several other players that I have considered.

I recently purchased ADATA memory for my Mac Mini i7 machine, and I have used them for several systems in the past. They are very reasonably priced, and good sticks.

Right now 8GB of DDR3-1333 memory will cost you about $60, which is very reasonable.

Well you have probably already bought your RAM but I am a huge fan of G.SKILL ram as it is dirt cheap and has yet to fail on me in any of the 4 computers I use that brand in. Nor has it failed AHT or memtest86+ (haven't figured out how to run memtest86+ on my macs yet). Anyways I recently like 2 weeks ago upgraded my mini to 8GB as I figure 16GB will take awhile to be affordable.

At the time of purchase Aug/3/2011 it was $39.99 at Newegg w/ free shipping and a free 4GB USB flash drive which I used for extra space in my 360.

GSKILL F3-10600CL9D-8GBSQ

Two things, (1) so called apple certified RAM is the same stuff with a higher price, (2) buy wherever it is cheapest, i.e. I have no allegiance to Newegg but happend to be the cheapest that day.

In the past I have also had good luck with Corsair and Mushkin RAM and would buy from those two again if G.SKILL didn't have the part or huge price diff.

Ryan

ps The G.SKILL boxes are all the same and I find them very funny.

I purchased 8GB of RAM for my '09 MacMini from Crucial on Friday mid day, free 3 day delivery. Very surprised when the RAM arrived Saturday morning, and by following iFixit guide I MacMini was fully upgraded in 10 minutes. This is in the UK. It only cost me £44 which is very reasonable.

Keith.