Best Place & Price for 32GB RAM for New iMac

Tanax said:

Are you doing all those at once? And are you doing any of those for a living or just a hobby?

I'd say that you might benefit from 16GB but still probably don't need as much as 32GB. In any case, getting 16GB(2x8GB) at first won't hurt. If you notice that things are running slow, get 2x8GB more and you'll have 32GB.

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What the hell does it matter to you if he wants to max the ram out, it's cheap to do and not difficult either? I run a Windows VM and like to give it a full 12GB on my machine, and also running LR with huge catalogs, ripping BDs, have 20 web pages open all at the same time, etc. I have frequently chewed up a full 32GB and I'm not doing anything "professional".

It's like you're stalking this guy because he's spending money on something that "you" don't think "he needs".... for all you know he could have money flying like monkeys out of his butt.

Gavzooka said:

I'm not doing any but the virtualisation but....I'm just suggesting so that people have an idea what extra RAM is useful for. Unsure on Mac OS but for 3D rendering on a Windows more RAM makes a huge difference as it reduces the time data has to spend on a scratch disk. Same applies on large images, not so sure about large video files though.

For virtualisation, I'd be running between 2-4Gb per virtual machine and therefore 16Gb is probably plenty. However, I have to mock up test environments from time to time where I have to run multiple workstations and servers within the VM environment, so 32Gb would help with that....on PC they're not the fastest as you have to balance the load across processor cores but it does the job for what I need....I'm hoping the same is possible on my iMac when it arrives...

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Of course more RAM makes a difference but there comes a limit when more RAM won't make a difference. If what you're doing only requires 8GB of RAM, having 16GB or 32GB or even 99999999999GB of RAM won't matter.

Just saying, I have no idea how your workflow is.
A lot of people here on Macrumors "max out" their Mac's even though they don't(and most likely never will) have use for the performance.

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jmpage2 said:

What the hell does it matter to you if he wants to max the ram out, it's cheap to do and not difficult either? I run a Windows VM and like to give it a full 12GB on my machine, and also running LR with huge catalogs, ripping BDs, have 20 web pages open all at the same time, etc. I have frequently chewed up a full 32GB and I'm not doing anything "professional".

It's like you're stalking this guy because he's spending money on something that "you" don't think "he needs".... for all you know he could have money flying like monkeys out of his butt.

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Having lots of money "flying like monkeys" out of his/her butt is no reason to spend it on something you won't use. In that case he can just buy the 16GB and donate the extra money to charity if he's that set on spending 32GB of RAM worth of money.

Currently I have 2 VM servers running, 20+ tabs open in Chrome, a bunch of tabs in Safari, PHPStorm and a few other programs. I'm barely using 3GB of RAM. I restate and stand by what I said before, 16GB of RAM will be plenty enough for most people.

Good for you. LR alone consumes nearly 10GB on my machine when I'm working with my photos. Running a Win-7 VM with anything less than 3GB is likewise counter-productive. All someone has to do is look at Activity Monitor to see how much memory they are using with their regular tasks and plan accordingly.

On the other hand you seem to be very concerned with what others are doing and 'wasting money' on... which would be humorous if it was not sad. An extra 16GB of RAM for the iMac can be had for as little as $60. Chump change for many, including me.

Tanax said:

What are you gonna be using 32GB for? Just curious

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TurboGrafx16Fan said:

I purchased memory from Crucial.

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sounddesigner said:

what about using amazon? and getting crucial ram?

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rjs2 said:

I got mine from crucial. Saved 7% via quidco as well

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sshambles said:

I'm in Australia... What's your point?
Did you need it tomorrow or something?

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turtlez said:

he probably does video and 3d work. If you do high res stuff it will quickly eat up even 32GB. Computers aren't only for gaming

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craigblues said:

Well shall I answer all these questions. Ha!

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paulrbeers said:

Now if you are running a laptop (i.e. Macbook Pro) then you have to toss the memory it came with since it only has two slots.

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T'hain Esh Kelch said:

I have a 32MB stick you can have for free!

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Apologies for the multi-tag, can't find the answer anywhere and need to install RAM today. Do you install before or after the first boot?

jmpage2 said:

Good for you. LR alone consumes nearly 10GB on my machine when I'm working with my photos. Running a Win-7 VM with anything less than 3GB is likewise counter-productive. All someone has to do is look at Activity Monitor to see how much memory they are using with their regular tasks and plan accordingly.

On the other hand you seem to be very concerned with what others are doing and 'wasting money' on... which would be humorous if it was not sad. An extra 16GB of RAM for the iMac can be had for as little as $60. Chump change for many, including me.

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You are equally humorous and sad. Yes, some people may use 16+ GB, but not most. $60 can buy other things that would be more useful than idle RAM, like a trackpad or mouse.

Tanax said:

Currently I have 2 VM servers running, 20+ tabs open in Chrome, a bunch of tabs in Safari, PHPStorm and a few other programs. I'm barely using 3GB of RAM.

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Really? Two VMs in under 3GB? You are not doing much there, are you?

Tanax said:

I restate and stand by what I said before, 16GB of RAM will be plenty enough for most people.

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I have a feeling I have heard that before. Was it about 640KB?

There is a saying: "You can't be too rich or too thin". We should add "or have to much RAM" to it.

jmpage2 said:

Good for you. LR alone consumes nearly 10GB on my machine when I'm working with my photos. Running a Win-7 VM with anything less than 3GB is likewise counter-productive. All someone has to do is look at Activity Monitor to see how much memory they are using with their regular tasks and plan accordingly.

On the other hand you seem to be very concerned with what others are doing and 'wasting money' on... which would be humorous if it was not sad. An extra 16GB of RAM for the iMac can be had for as little as $60. Chump change for many, including me.

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vladfein said:

Really? Two VMs in under 3GB? You are not doing much there, are you?


I have a feeling I have heard that before. Was it about 640KB?

There is a saying: "You can't be too rich or too thin". We should add "or have to much RAM" to it.

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Of course, as I've also said, if you truly need a lot of RAM, then it's completely justified to purchase more. What I meant was that a lot of people here seem to max out their RAM "just in case" even though they use their computer for just browsing and light video/photo editing. And that is, in my view, a waste of money.

Tanax said:

Of course, as I've also said, if you truly need a lot of RAM, then it's completely justified to purchase more. What I meant was that a lot of people here seem to max out their RAM "just in case" even though they use their computer for just browsing and light video/photo editing. And that is, in my view, a waste of money.

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There are plenty of people who make the same point about owning a Mac at all, because a PC that costs 1/2 as much can "do the same things" that a Mac can.

Tanax said:

Completely useless if you're not using it.
"May as well max it out" is exactly the kind of reasoning that is plain stupid and quite frankly, even idiotic.

Having the full capabilities of something doesn't mean anything if you can't use the machine to its full capability. 16GB will be more than enough for some photo and video editing. As a reference, I did video and photo editing on my MBP '09 with 4GB of RAM and never had any problems.

As a sidenote, you can add more RAM later if you do end up needing more. I would get 16GB and add more as time goes on if I need more. Just my 2 cents. But hey, your life and your money. Spend it on useless things if you wish

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Ok as a motion graphics artist let me tell you that there is no maximum RAM. The more you have the more you are allowing After Effects etc, to eat up.

I'll try put it into a bit more perspective for you. Just say you have a 100frame render, ok 4GB will be fine. What if you have a 80000000000000000000000000000000 frame render? 16GB is just fine because you said so right? lol. Do you get where I am going with this? Photo editing can be said yeah 8gb is fine because if you are print, you are limited by the largest printer size so there is no reason to go to 70000000000000pixels. Video can last forever if you want it to (therefore as much ram as you can throw at it).

Next scenario, if you don't need it don't get it. Ok fair enough but what if you can afford it (very cheap)? Well why not? Maybe you will pick up video editing in 2 months and then you will need it right? What if you are going to sell it to a person who does video work? I just don't see why this is affecting you so much. It is not like someone buying RAM when they don't need it is going to make your life worse or give your pets diseases. Why the tantrum?

PS. Just did a cinema4d render at work and my 12GB machine was paging out in 4 minutes. The render took about 1.5 hours (90 minutes) 90/4=22.5. 22.5*12=270. So I would need 270GB of RAM to do that render without any pageouts (Slowdowns) there you go, case closed.

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jmpage2 said:

There are plenty of people who make the same point about owning a Mac at all, because a PC that costs 1/2 as much can "do the same things" that a Mac can.

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omg I wish i had thought of that one in my first reply to him. That sums it all up!

turtlez said:

Ok as a motion graphics artist let me tell you that there is no maximum RAM. The more you have the more you are allowing After Effects etc, to eat up.

I'll try put it into a bit more perspective for you. Just say you have a 100frame render, ok 4GB will be fine. What if you have a 80000000000000000000000000000000 frame render? 16GB is just fine because you said so right? lol. Do you get where I am going with this? Photo editing can be said yeah 8gb is fine because if you are print, you are limited by the largest printer size so there is no reason to go to 70000000000000pixels. Video can last forever if you want it to (therefore as much ram as you can throw at it).

Next scenario, if you don't need it don't get it. Ok fair enough but what if you can afford it (very cheap)? Well why not? Maybe you will pick up video editing in 2 months and then you will need it right? What if you are going to sell it to a person who does video work? I just don't see why this is affecting you so much. It is not like someone buying RAM when they don't need it is going to make your life worse or give your pets diseases. Why the tantrum?

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omg I wish i had thought of that one in my first reply to him. That sums it all up!

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Buy it when you need it, not before. Yes, you may decide to do video work later, but you can always buy the extra ram at that time...probably at a reduced price.

nosnhojm said:

Buy it when you need it, not before. Yes, you may decide to do video work later, but you can always buy the extra ram at that time...probably at a reduced price.

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Yep someone should make it a law to do this.

turtlez said:

Ok as a motion graphics artist let me tell you that there is no maximum RAM. The more you have the more you are allowing After Effects etc, to eat up.

I'll try put it into a bit more perspective for you. Just say you have a 100frame render, ok 4GB will be fine. What if you have a 80000000000000000000000000000000 frame render? 16GB is just fine because you said so right? lol. Do you get where I am going with this? Photo editing can be said yeah 8gb is fine because if you are print, you are limited by the largest printer size so there is no reason to go to 70000000000000pixels. Video can last forever if you want it to (therefore as much ram as you can throw at it).

Next scenario, if you don't need it don't get it. Ok fair enough but what if you can afford it (very cheap)? Well why not? Maybe you will pick up video editing in 2 months and then you will need it right? What if you are going to sell it to a person who does video work? I just don't see why this is affecting you so much. It is not like someone buying RAM when they don't need it is going to make your life worse or give your pets diseases. Why the tantrum?

PS. Just did a cinema4d render at work and my 12GB machine was paging out in 4 minutes. The render took about 1.5 hours (90 minutes) 90/4=22.5. 22.5*12=270. So I would need 270GB of RAM to do that render without any pageouts (Slowdowns) there you go, case closed.

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Sometimes I wonder if you people read what I write
If you're a motion artist, you're doing it for a living, hence justifies maxing out as much RAM as you can get even from the start. Time is money, right? Saving a few extra seconds/minutes here and there are going to add up.

nosnhojm said:

Buy it when you need it, not before. Yes, you may decide to do video work later, but you can always buy the extra ram at that time...probably at a reduced price.

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turtlez said:

Yep someone should make it a law to do this.

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Oh cool, so when I say that people should start out low and then buy more if they notice they need more, I'm wrong and "stalk" people. But when nosnhojm says the same thing, it "should be a law".

Awesome double-morale there, Mr. turtlez

I just ordered 32Gb from crucial.com, less than $200.

I could have lived with 16Gb, damn 8Gb would probably be enough right now but I figured I ordered the top 27" with most upgrades so why not go all out with the RAM?

Plus its good bragging rights.

I'm be holding on to my 8Gb Apple RAM for the time being but will probably sell it on eBay at some point.

BTW did anyone bother fixing the thread title 32Mb?

Confuzzzed said:

Apologies for the multi-tag, can't find the answer anywhere and need to install RAM today. Do you install before or after the first boot?

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It should not matter, many people install before if they have the RAM when their new iMac arrives but it really should not matter if it's done then or later. IMO it's probably easier before as you won't have to mess around with unplugging everything and laying your new iMac down to spend 5 minutes putting in the new RAM.

Low voltage ram

I bought the same RAM you specified. However, I noticed the ram is DDRL (L for low voltage). I'm curious if that will be an issue as the stock ram is not low voltage. Any intelligent person know if this affects the iMac differently?

Lancer said:

I'm be holding on to my 8Gb Apple RAM for the time being but will probably sell it on eBay at some point.

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I would sell it right away, while everyone knows that it is "new".

Tanax said:

Completely useless if you're not using it.
"May as well max it out" is exactly the kind of reasoning that is plain stupid and quite frankly, even idiotic.

Having the full capabilities of something doesn't mean anything if you can't use the machine to its full capability. 16GB will be more than enough for some photo and video editing. As a reference, I did video and photo editing on my MBP '09 with 4GB of RAM and never had any problems.

As a sidenote, you can add more RAM later if you do end up needing more. I would get 16GB and add more as time goes on if I need more. Just my 2 cents. But hey, your life and your money. Spend it on useless things if you wish

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Being a photographer using Lightroom 4 and Photoshop I easily use 16gb. Sort through thousands of Raw images at 26 Megapixels each and then opening 25-30 at a time in PS for more enhancing can easily chew through 16gb. 24gb may be enough though. Start there.

GXPvince said:

Being a photographer using Lightroom 4 and Photoshop I easily use 16gb. Sort through thousands of Raw images at 26 Megapixels each and then opening 25-30 at a time in PS for more enhancing can easily chew through 16gb. 24gb may be enough though. Start there.

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I don't see the point in your post? I said that it's useless to max out the RAM if you're not using it.
Obviously you are using it since you have thousands of Raw images.

I use NCIX here in vanc,cdn...yet to find computer parts cheaper anywhere.

http://www.ncix.com/

I bought the same RAM you specified. However, I noticed the ram is DDRL (L for low voltage). I'm curious if that will be an issue as the stock ram is not low voltage. Any intelligent person know if this affects the iMac differently?

Tanax said:

Awesome double-morale there, Mr. turtlez

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I was being sarcastic

Lancer said:

I just ordered 32Gb from crucial.com, less than $200.

I could have lived with 16Gb, damn 8Gb would probably be enough right now but I figured I ordered the top 27" with most upgrades so why not go all out with the RAM?

Plus its good bragging rights.

I'm be holding on to my 8Gb Apple RAM for the time being but will probably sell it on eBay at some point.

BTW did anyone bother fixing the thread title 32Mb?



It should not matter, many people install before if they have the RAM when their new iMac arrives but it really should not matter if it's done then or later. IMO it's probably easier before as you won't have to mess around with unplugging everything and laying your new iMac down to spend 5 minutes putting in the new RAM.

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Sell it to me .... Save money on eBay listing and PayPal fees ?

vladfein said:

I would sell it right away, while everyone knows that it is "new".

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I'll hold on to it for a few months, just in case there are any issues with the new RAM. Did the same with my G5 2 years ago.

Plus if everyone floods eBay with the RAM the price will go down.

jDW194 said:

Sell it to me .... Save money on eBay listing and PayPal fees ?

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I'll see how it goes