2gb Ram Sticks in G5

[bunnspecial]

I was visiting one of my favorite bone yards today and uncovered a pair of 2gb DDR PC-3200.

Naturally, I'd like for these to find a home in my PM G5. Most of the references I find mention these maxing out at 8gb(8x1gb), and the information out on the internet about using high capacity sticks in these seems scarce.

So, I'm wondering if anyone has ever experimented with using 2gb sticks in a G5. My other concern(aside from compatibility) is that the ones I found are quite wide and have heat spreaders on them, so I'm wondering if there's enough physical space to install them.

I will be away from my G5 for a few days, which is why I don't just try it out for myself. The prospect of upping the RAM 7gb(6x512+2x2) from the current 4gb(8x512) is very tempting.

 

[robertdsc]

I think only the later model G5s (DC/Quads) were able to have more than 8 GB of RAM.

 

[gavinstubbs09]

When they have fat heastsinks they are ECC ram. From what I could find out, the regular G5 might be able to use them (DDR sticks), or late 2005 (with DDR2). The first model Mac Pro needed ECC ram to work and won't work off unbuffered sticks like the G5.

 

[Intell]

G5's can use ECC ram and even mixed non-ECC and ECC. When they have ECC ram in them, they use it as non-ECC.

 

[CanadaRAM]

IIRC The memory controller of the pre-October 2005 G5 can't handle 2 GB modules.
The Dualcore with DDR2 RAM is completely different architecture

 

[bunnspecial]

I finally got around to trying these out.

They physically fit the computer fine(I was concerned due to the width) but the computer did not recongize them. System profiler showed the two slots into which these were installed as "empty."

Interestingly enough, I had some 1gb PC-2700 sticks that I tried in both my MDD G4 and my G5, and they were not recognized in either computer. I'm not surprised about them not working in the G4, but I thought that the G5 would at least acknowledge them. I'm wondering if they're maybe just bad sticks.

 

[Intell]

Did you put them in the G5 as a matched pair?

 

[bunnspecial]

Did you put them in the G5 as a matched pair?

Yes, in slots 1 and 2(the two innermost slots). At least if I read the manuals right, one starts at the two inner slots and fills outward in pairs.

 

[Intell]

That is correct. Maybe they are high density sticks. That would cause them to either not work or only be half capacity in the G4, but I don't remember what G5's do with high density memory. Probably the same thing.