RAM upgrade for late 2006 iMac worth it?

What do you think of upgrading the ram in a late 2006 iMac Core 2 Duo?

It currently has 1GB.

Playing a 720p h264 video with 6 Firefox tabs only uses like 35% CPU usage, but eats over 900mb of ram.

A lot of time's things can go sluggish and the beach ball of death appears!

I believe these iMac's could only use 3GB of ram.

This is also related to my Lion topic because I would like to upgrade if more ram helps.

On PC's I found was 4gb plenty for anything, even gaming. Certain triple A titles used 6gb+ but it's not like this Mac can even play those. This is more related to a smooth computing experience overall.

Well my model is iMac5,1 and I looked it up on wikipedia and your right it says 3GB.

You think 3GB is enough for a smooth Lion experience?

Too bad I guess I have to stick with Snow Leopard.

Where can I find cheap DDR2 because OWC is expensive.

Single won't work I need a kit. The 1GB is 2x512mb.

Yes I know an SSD would be great even on SATA 2. Until this Hard Drive fails though, I don't think I will switch. Mainly because opening up this iMac is a pain.

I checked eBay and the prices are awful. Like $50-80 then with $40-80 shipping. Ram with only 1 year warranty as well, where as known companies offer lifetime.

Looks like OWC has a 4GB Kit for $62.99 not including shipping and tax. Says it has a Lifetime warranty and reviews are good.

What do you guys think?

Thank you for your link. I was browsing eBay.ca since I am in Canada and didn't come up with great results.

I did find this putting in HYMP125S64CP8-Y5.

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/KINGSTONE-2G...6851552?pt=US_Memory_RAM_&hash=item3cd1bcd660

$19 for 1x2GB stick. Cheaper than OWC. Not as cheap as yours.

The thing about these modules is the warranty. I see nothing about it... Only a 60 day guarantee on yours? So should I assume since they are used no warranty at all?

I checked some sites like Newegg and NCIX and the prices were a rip off. DDR2 is not easy to find at cheap prices brand new. Amazon had it for $27 for 1x2GB and $3.99 shipping then I find out they don't ship to Canada after adding to cart.

666sheep said:

These modules have lifetime manufacturer's warranty, like most of (if not all) Kingston RAM. http://www.ec.kingston.com/ecom/configurator_new/partsinfo.asp?ktcpartno=KTL-TP667/2G

Click to expand...

Thanks but they don't ship to Canada, I thought they did until I added to cart.

I was wondering about the Hynix he linked me. I looked on the page and it just says 60 days.

Right, but I am not familiar with Hynix. I know they are one of the biggest ram manufacturers - but I have always gone with Samsung, Crucial, Kingston, Mushkin, etc.

Some Kingston ram has only 5 year warranty where as some DDR2 I still have is Lifetime.

Anyway they don't ship to Canada so that one I linked is useless.

Mopar66 said:

I have used laptopaid a few times over the years and have always found them easy to deal with and they do deliver to Canada.

Click to expand...

'mikew103' was the seller of the Kingston ram. The Hynix was from laptopaid.

It doesn't look like they have warranty though.

So like $45 after shipping / tax with no warranty or...

$65 after tax with Lifetime from OWC.

Both will take like 2-3 weeks to ship.

666sheep said:

They do from what I see. It would be pretty weird if user located in "Toronto, Ontario, Canada" wouldn't ship to Canada

Click to expand...

Sorry I was talking about the Amazon one.