Technical Question Regarding G4 iMac RAM

I want to pick up another 512MB DIMM for my G4 iMac, to bump it up to 1 GB and was talking to my friend who runs his own computer business, since he can get items at cost. I was going to buy through him to support him and to save some money.

The only SO-DIMM he can get though is Kingston RAM. This is not an issue for me, as I have heard great things about Kingston, and know Mac users who use it with no problems, however the issue is that the details on the RAM on his supplier’s website specifically list compatability for Toshiba laptops.

So, I’m wondering if this makes a difference or not when it comes to iMacs? Is a So-DIMM a SO-DIMM no matter what, regardless of what it is compatible with? Does this matter? Are SO-DIMMS very proprietary? Any advice would be appreciated.

And I already know that Crucial makes the best RAM, has good prices, yadda yadda, but as I said, I do know that Kingston RAM is very good, that it works in Macs, and also, I would prefer to save some money and support my friend if possible. Otherwise, I’ll go to RAMSeekers or CanadaRAM and pay the extra $30.

Thanks for any help!

Re: Re: Technical Question Regarding G4 iMac RAM

Originally posted by yellow
Which model, there are numerous versions?
You might want to look at RamJet as well, good prices and I've never had any troubles with their RAM.

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My apologies for not being more specific - it's a nice new 17" 1.25 GHz G4 iMac.

Originally posted by jxyama
when you talk about RAM quality, the difference is the tolerance. there's no magic formula or processing that makes certain RAM better than others.

crucial and other highly regarded memory manufacturers basically throw away more of their RAMs because they have more stricter definition of what RAM performance parameters are acceptable. those thrown away are usually bundled as "generic" RAM. i believe kingston offers two kinds of RAMs, generic and quality ones.

this does not mean generic RAMs will not work. they probably will - but have less margins for error.

anyway, i assume you asked for 1-dimm 512 chip when you originally ordered the iMac? iMac only has one user accessible RAM slot, so...

SO-DIMM is just slim outline DIMM. it's a generic name to describe higher density (in terms of memory per volume) RAMs used in laptops as opposed to desktops. there are parameters to consider like parity, and such, but for iMac, you need a SO-DIMM - this is easy to judge because regular DIMM simply won't fit.

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Thanks for the info on RAM quality, I didn't realize that. As for my iMac, yep, way ahead of you - I planned ahead and only ordered 1 DIMM of 512MB since I knew there were only 2 slots, and only one of those being user-accessible. (Well, without a lot of work and waranty-voiding at least!)