more RAM in G3 imac?

juble said:

I have a friend with an old 400MHz g3 imac, who has asked me about ways to make it a bit zippier (bar buying a whole new setup).

It currently uses 128Mb PC100 RAM (2 X 64Mb) under OS 10.3.9. Would an extra 256Mb provide a big enough boost? I found some cheap stuff on the net that would be OK. Keep in mind I'd probably have to take out an existing 64Mb RAM card to fit in the new one...

Cheers,
Juble

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Yes, more ram will make a difference. that model can take up to 1 gig of ram (two 512 meg chips). Check out ramseeker.com for prices and vendors. You are best off buying from a reputable dealer who specifies the module will work on a mac, as occasionally you can come across ram that doesn't conform to apple's standards. As you note, there are only 2 ram slots, so one fo the existing ram modules would have to be removed.

Any extra RAM would give it a much needed boost. My old G3 iMac used to run Panther with no problems with 384MB of RAM (the 128MB stick it came with plus 256MB I installed myself). The 320MB you'd end up with would help it a fair bit, but if you can get yourself a 512MB stick to pop in there so much the better.

What size dimms do you need? I'd say eating the shipping/waiting time for ebay is probably going to be your cheapest bet...

Also, 512s are proportionally more expensive; 512 totaly in that machine (2X256) is going to make it much, much faster at a cheaper cost that a single 512 (only downside is that if you ever want it to max out at a gig, it's more expensive to buy 2 512s later).

I have some 128s and I might have a spare 256 (though I doubt it) that I could sell you, but since I'm in the US and since I definitely don't have 2 256s or a single 512 for you. So yeah, I'd say check ebay, or if you have a good netlist or craigslist for NZ or AU, you might try there...

I would also suggest running 10.2.8 in that, as Panther and Tiger are RAM suckers.

Also watch out for cheap RAM not working -- the machine requires an 8-chip 256 Mb DIMM and a 16-chip 512 Mb DIMM. High density DIMMs wont work.

i'm pretty amazed it's running at all with 128 RAM under panther!

upping that to even 512 would make a world of difference!

Yep, that will work fine