PowerMac G5 512MB -> 1.5GB

[Ryan T.]

like night and day

any of you PowerMacers still living with less, do yourself a favor. It's like getting a new computer.

see further down for why I need help

 

[TMA]

My Dual 2.0 came with 512mb and I purchased an additional 1gb to in at the same time. I didn't even boot up with just 512mb, I knew the extra 1gb would make such a difference. Kind of wish I had tried 512mb just to experience the difference!

Funny story at work today - A lady bought 2 x 1Gb sticks to go in a Powermac G5. When she rang earlier in the day to check we had them in stock, she said she had 3 empty slots!!! When I politely tried to correct her and explain that any RAM inside a PowerMac G5 must be in matching pairs she threw a bit of a strop! She also explained, in quite an irritated tone, she was sat in front of the G5 and could see 3 empty slots and 1 x 512mb chip. I gave in. Explain that one to me!

 

[dmw007]

like night and day

any of you PowerMacers still living with less, do yourself a favor. It's like getting a new computer.

Glad to hear. I am planning on upgrading my RAM in a few months, gonna go from 1GB -> 3GB.

 

[CanadaRAM]

My Dual 2.0 came with 512mb and I purchased an additional 1gb to in at the same time. I didn't even boot up with just 512mb, I knew the extra 1gb would make such a difference. Kind of wish I had tried 512mb just to experience the difference!

Funny story at work today - A lady bought 2 x 1Gb sticks to go in a Powermac G5. When she rang earlier in the day to check we had them in stock, she said she had 3 empty slots!!! When I politely tried to correct her and explain that any RAM inside a PowerMac G5 must be in matching pairs she threw a bit of a strop! She also explained, in quite an irritated tone, she was sat in front of the G5 and could see 3 empty slots and 1 x 512mb chip. I gave in. Explain that one to me!

Sure. It's a G4

 

[dmw007]

Sure. It's a G4

That or she was on hallucinogenic narcotics.

 

[sparky76]

I bought my G5 2.5 with 512MB and only had to wait for the extra 1GB to arrive (too expensive from Apple). Still too long with 512. Upgrad asap - OS X is a memory hog.

 

[Ryan T.]

Well now I'm having problems. I was experiencing freezing problems when I first got this machine, and I determined it was the stock RAM. I took it out, and everything was fine. Now, I installed the new 1GB, and it registered as 1.5GB, perfect. Then it froze. ARGGH. Definately a memory issue. I unplugged and switched the memory locations. Now it only registers 512MB. Is there some specific way I should be putting these in? Other than in matched pairs? Big outside to small? Something like that?

 

[Eric5h5]

My Dual 2.0 came with 512mb and I purchased an additional 1gb to in at the same time. I didn't even boot up with just 512mb, I knew the extra 1gb would make such a difference. Kind of wish I had tried 512mb just to experience the difference!

I ran my dual 2.5 with 512MB for a little while before adding a GB, and didn't notice any particular speed increase for most general activities. (Launching apps, web browsing, iTunes, etc.) Even 3D modeling and animating with Blender didn't show any speed increase, though granted I don't work with multi-million polygon models. After all, memory doesn't make your computer actually run faster, it only reduces virtual memory paging operations to disk if you start to run out of memory. Still, memory is cheap enough that there's no point not getting more if you can...I'm sure I would have eventually pushed the limits of 512MB if I'd kept it that way.

--Eric

 

[Ryan T.]

Well now I'm having problems. I was experiencing freezing problems when I first got this machine, and I determined it was the stock RAM. I took it out, and everything was fine. Now, I installed the new 1GB, and it registered as 1.5GB, perfect. Then it froze. ARGGH. Definately a memory issue. I unplugged and switched the memory locations. Now it only registers 512MB. Is there some specific way I should be putting these in? Other than in matched pairs? Big outside to small? Something like that?

help?

 

[toothpaste]

I don't know for sure, but if you check apple's site or help RAM installlation you will see a diagram for proper installation. Sorry couldn't help more.

 

[Ryan T.]

I don't know for sure, but if you check apple's site or help RAM installlation you will see a diagram for proper installation. Sorry couldn't help more.

Thanks. I just find it odd that with the 512MB inside and 1GB outside it reads 1.5GB, but with the opposite it only reads 512MB total.

 

[Artful Dodger]

Ryan T.
Quote:
Originally Posted by toothpaste
I don't know for sure, but if you check apple's site or help RAM installlation you will see a diagram for proper installation. Sorry couldn't help more.

Thanks. I just find it odd that with the 512MB inside and 1GB outside it reads 1.5GB, but with the opposite it only reads 512MB total.

So is everything Gooood now or still...hang head

 

[Ryan T.]

So is everything Gooood now or still...hang head

Well it happened last night and I let out a really loud profanity. I took it apart, switched the DIMMs and it registered as 512MB for some reason. I switched the DIMMs back, and it's reading 1.5GB now (runs awesome) and hasn't frozen since yesterday evening, but this wasn't something that happened often when it was happening before, maybe once a day. They only thing I can think of is that the PM is just being really picky and doesn't want 2 different brands/sizes of RAM in there.

 

[SpaceMagic]

My Dual 2.0 came with 512mb and I purchased an additional 1gb to in at the same time. I didn't even boot up with just 512mb, I knew the extra 1gb would make such a difference. Kind of wish I had tried 512mb just to experience the difference!

Funny story at work today - A lady bought 2 x 1Gb sticks to go in a Powermac G5. When she rang earlier in the day to check we had them in stock, she said she had 3 empty slots!!! When I politely tried to correct her and explain that any RAM inside a PowerMac G5 must be in matching pairs she threw a bit of a strop! She also explained, in quite an irritated tone, she was sat in front of the G5 and could see 3 empty slots and 1 x 512mb chip. I gave in. Explain that one to me!

The other FOUR RAM slots are hidden beneath the easily removable (just pull) fan.