How much ram do you recommend?

[beez7777]

I tried making this a poll, but the option has been turned off. Anyway, heres my situation: i have a 17" iMac with the standard 256 MB. From what I've been hearing here at MR, you can never have enough ram in OS X. My question is this- if i were to buy more, how much should I buy? I was thinking 256, but will 128 suffice? And how much of a speed difference will I notice? I don't run too many heavy duty apps, occasionally photoshop and such. Although im only 15 and money is quite a big factor, I think I'll be buying from crucial, they seem prretty reliable, unless anyone recommends any other reseller. I've been living on ramseeker.com for a while and am just not sure what to do. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

 

[irmongoose]

I would keep AT LEAST 512 in there... that's how much I have in my iMac.... but now I'm wishing I had waited a bit to let the RAM prices go down so I could have bought a 512 chip to bring the RAM u to 768.... anyways, yeah so get at least 512, if you can, get 768... that's how much Apple put in the iMacs at Macworlds...





irmongoose

 

[mnkeybsness]

i've noticed that os x likes to use as much ram as it can get...sometimes when using aquamon i see around 500mb of ram just being used by the finder, itunes, and aquamon...lowest i see is around 256 for those three

i'm up to a gig of ram now, but that's really not that necessary unless you really need to run lots of apps

 

[Nipsy]

While I can understand that money is a big factor for you, remember that you'll use RAM every time you use your computer...for as long as you own your computer.

Nowadays, a 128 stick is prolly about $13, a 256 about $25, and a 512 about $35 (pricewatch.com).

That $22 difference will be valuable over a period of a year (or 3), so skip 3 movies, and get the biggest, densest stick(s) you can!

 

[benixau]

good call nipsy.

look, you know how you cant have enough money? well use some of it cause you cant ever have enough RAM.

 

[sparkleytone]

just buy a 512 stick. Get it while its cheap. Thats the rule with RAM.

Go for it and get two. A 512 PC133 DIMM is about $25 right now. A 512 PC133 SODIMM for the other slot is about $85. Believe me its worth it.

 

[Bear]

As has already been said, ram is inexpensive enough and the more the better.

I'd recommend buying the 512MB stick for the slot you can access, and don't worry about the "internal" memory. Remember if you buy a 128MB stick now, and then you decide you need more, that stick will be unusable when you buy the bigger stick of RAM.

 

[medea]

I'm probably the only one that will post a different view on this, but do you always spend your money just because you have it to spend? look I have an 800mhz iMac with only 256mb Ram in it right now and it runs mighty fine, you stated yourself that you don't run much heavy duty software so it's probably not the biggest thing to worry about. Just my opinion though.

I do plan on buying more ram at some point, but like I said it's not neccessary at the moment so my money can go into other things.....

 

[rainman::|:|]

i upgraded my old iMac from 128 to 256 and then 384, and i definitely noticed a speed increase. i'm about poised buy a 512 and go to a total of 768... just to keep me occupied for a while, i'll probably be at a gig within 6 months. RAM prices are ideal for these big upgrades which really *are* worth it. Go get 512 and see how well it unclogs your system performance
pnw

 

[mcrain]

When i got my powerbook, one of the two memory sticks wasn't seated right, so I was running on just the one 512 stick. I thought it was brutally fast and wonderful. Then one day I clicked on the about this mac button, and lo and behold, I had a whole other 512 chip that just needed to be pushed gently to work. I powered down, took the chip out, re-inserted it, and you want to talk about really fast. There was a noticeable difference.

I say go with the max memory possible.

 

[mymemory]

Originally posted by Bear
As has already been said, ram is inexpensive enough and the more the better.

I'd recommend buying the 512MB stick for the slot you can access, and don't worry about the "internal" memory. Remember if you buy a 128MB stick now, and then you decide you need more, that stick will be unusable when you buy the bigger stick of RAM.

That is true,

Get the higher ammount of ram per slot, do not get 2 x 128 because in the future (yesterday actually) it will be worth nothing. Save for one full slot and then go to the other.

 

[jefhatfield]

i don't know what your max is on your machine, but max the baby out...because by the time you get one ram, then use it, then consider getting some more ram, you might already be tired of your machine and want to get the next latest thing

use the machine at its fullest right now because within 6 months, any machine bought from anywhere becomes obsolete...the software manufacturers see to that

 

[beez7777]

thanks everyone, i think i'm gonna go with the 512 stick. Any suggestions on where to buy it? i was thinking crucial because of their reputation, but i've also been told just to get it from the cheapest place becasue they're all made from the same few manufacturers. any suggestions?

 

[bousozoku]

Other World Computing.

http://eshop.macsales.com/

They have their own brand as well as TechWorks. They always have quality and good prices.

I'm sure you'll enjoy the extra speed from having more than 512MB available to the system.