IMAC G5 and mismatched RAM sticks?

[Marc Garrett]

About to take the plunge and dump the PC for a G5 Imac, but in doing my research I have come across conflicting info with regard to upgrading the RAM. I have read some posts where they say it is ok to have mismatched RAM in the two slots, and others where they say it's just fine. The installed RAM is only 256, and I was going to buy a 1GB stick. Can I leave the original 256 in there, or am I better off just using one slot with the 1GB, and then buy a matching one when I can afford it?

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[Scottyk9]

This is the best reference I have found:
http://www.barefeats.com/imacg5d.html

For what it is worth, I bought an iMac G5 with 512 of RAM installed, and added 1Gb bought from another vendor, going with the more RAM is better than matched RAM premise.

My opinion would be to leave the 256 in there, and add a 1 Gb stick.

Edit: by the way, I left the PC world about 9 months ago, and will never look back. Welcome! I think you'll love the iMac (I sure do).

 

[rdowns]

Mismatched sticks are fine- I have 2 mismatched 512s in mine. The confusion seems to come from being able to have a 128 bit memory path with 2 same sticks installed but benchmarks showed no performance improvement. Slap the 1 GB stick in it and enjoy. Just make sure you get quality RAM, my first stick (Crucial from Newegg) caused kernel panics. Newegg replaced it quickly and no problems since.