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amin

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 17, 2003
977
9
Boston, MA
My dad is going to get a 20" iMac Core Duo this weekend. RAM options of 2 x 512MB or 1 x 1GB both cost the same. I know the 1 x 1GB leaves room to upgrade to 2GB later. Is there any advantage to using 2 x 512MB? Better optimized for dual core? Otherwise, it's strange that both options are equally priced.
 

Glenn Wolsey

macrumors 65816
Nov 24, 2005
1,230
2
New Zealand
Paired RAM offers better performance in the Intel machine. But get the 1x1GB, way better if you plan to upgrade, and the performance drop will be very very minimal for now.
 

WildCowboy

Administrator/Editor
Staff member
Jan 20, 2005
18,375
2,801
I would get the single 1 GB stick...the possibility of expanding to 2 GB at some point greatly outweighs and possible benefits (not that I can really think of any in this machine) of having 2 x 512 MB. The paired RAM benefit is minimal on the iMac...it's more important on machines with integrated graphics.
 
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