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32 Gigs of Ram for IMac Retina
- Thread starter N2bnfunn
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I like OWC for big memory sets.
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/iMac/Retina-5K/DDR3L
$378 today.
2 sets of these for $130 each - $260, more or less - nice price, I think.
http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-PC3-1..._sbs_pc_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=0SJTJX6RQ2YGPA394AXS
I bet there's others that will post their fav memory setups, too.
(I just looked at Apple price for your iMac, and that shows (only) $600 for the 32GB.
Not $800, but still a lot. )
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/iMac/Retina-5K/DDR3L
$378 today.
2 sets of these for $130 each - $260, more or less - nice price, I think.
http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-PC3-1..._sbs_pc_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=0SJTJX6RQ2YGPA394AXS
I bet there's others that will post their fav memory setups, too.
(I just looked at Apple price for your iMac, and that shows (only) $600 for the 32GB.
Not $800, but still a lot. )
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One advantage for OWC, is they offer to buy back your old memory - so that can make some difference, too. http://eshop.macsales.com/tech_center/support/rebates/memory.cfm
Yeah right they wanted to give me like 12 bucks when I put 16 gigs on my on Imac.. I will pass
32 is a lot of ram
It is a lot of RAM. I went the cheaper route and got 2x8 GB to add to the 2x4 GB already installed for a total of 24 GB. I would never notice the difference between that and 32 GB.
The retina iMac uses 204-pin DDR3 memory clocked at 1600 MHz. Just buy RAM at that specification and you're good to go.
Here are some quick examples I found:
G.Skill 2x8 GB for $134, CAS latency 9. Just buy two; you'll have 32 GB for $268. Pretty cheap. G.Skill also has a model with CAS 11 for about $8 cheaper, but with that price difference you might as well step up for the faster RAM.
If you've never heard of G.Skill (popular among gamers and hardware enthusiasts) and prefer brands that are better-known among the Mac community, there are some comparable offerings from Crucial:
Crucial Ballistix 2x8 GB for $126, also CAS latency 9. The timing on this one is slightly tighter than on the G.Skill, so this is actually the better deal...
And again, if you prefer to shave off a few bucks for slightly slower RAM, Crucial 2x8 GB for $121, CAS 11.
Either way, you're looking at going for under $300. Still, it's a shame that the price of RAM has gone up. Back when I bought my 2x8 GB setup for my MacBook Pro, it was around $70... and the price fell even farther after that. With DDR4 memory on the horizon, I wouldn't expect the cost of RAM to go down at this point.
If you mix apple stock RAM with low latency RAM, your memory will run slower (1333MHz), because Apple stock memory cannot run CAS9 at 1600MHz, so the system slow down to 1333Mhz.
If you choose CAS9 memory, all your modules must be CAS9.
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Same here: 24GB is a lot of RAM, and even with 2 active sessions, running a lot of apps and never reboot the system, 24GB is enough (I think I would be fine with 16). But a lot of people just buy 32GB to have the best of the best, to have the max... But how many people really need 32GB today? Some, for sure, but it is not 10% of people who spen 300 bucks in their modules...
I bought 2-16gb kits from Crucial.com Here are some pics..
Here is the received product... They are high density as well.
Order Total with shipping. I received it in 3 days.
32gb RAM for $319.31 shipped. OWC is $400+ shipped if I remember correctly.
Here is the received product... They are high density as well.
Order Total with shipping. I received it in 3 days.
32gb RAM for $319.31 shipped. OWC is $400+ shipped if I remember correctly.
Do they work ?
No Kernel panics ?
Got me the same ram but haven't got my Imac 5K yet.
Talked to an Crucial employe and he said these would work just fine...
I've got one of this kit with 8GB Apple RAM, and it works just fine.
RAM compatibility isn't really an issue nowaday. Macs are PC, the RAM controller is in the Intel CPU, "normal" RAM will run fine if it respects Apple specs (SODIMM, PC3-12800 1600MHz), and Crucial RAM for Apple will run fine too.
And when you buy at Crucial's, use their configurator: if the RAM doesn't work on your machine after using their configurator, they exchange it for free.
yeah everything works great for me.. I even performed Apple diagnostic at startup after installing by holding down 'D' during startup and apple diagnostic reported everything is good to go.
It is, indeed, low density but so long as it is working for you no worries. I returned a set of the low density Crucial that was bad but there is no proof that the density had anything to do with it. The replacement I got was high density and has been perfect, but I added it to the 16GB of stock Apple RAM which is low density.
That's all that matters.
Do you really think RAM prices will continue increase as DDR4 trickles out? If so, then I might upgrade from my 16GB to 32GB quicker than I thought.
RAM is slightly unusual in its pricing. With technology it's usual that older, slower parts become discounted in the face of newer, faster things. The pricing behind RAM seems to be a bit more like oil, though: when production is high, the cost goes down, and when production becomes limited, the prices rise. DDR3 RAM production will decrease in favor of DDR4 production, which - if it follows past trends - will cause the prices to rise.
I'm not advocating that you rush out to buy it right away, though. The last time I was in the market for RAM was about 2.5 years ago. At that time DDR3 prices were roughly half of what they are now, and they still dropped even further a few months later. Because I haven't been following prices I don't know if this is a temporary high point in DDR3 RAM prices. However, it looks like DDR4 RAM is already on the market, even if Apple isn't deploying systems that make use of it. I'd be surprised if DDR3 prices returned to what they were two years ago.
Now the price is lowest in 6 months...
https://pcpartpicker.com/part/crucial-memory-ct2k8g3s160bm?history_days=180
https://pcpartpicker.com/part/crucial-memory-ct2k8g3s160bm?history_days=180