Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Adding extra ram.........

M

mitimac

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 13, 2007
11
0
AlbanyWestern Australia
Hi, I intend to add another 1GB stick of ram to my spare slot. (iMac Intel core 2 duo). On the other hand as I believe that ram at this time is fairly cheap. Is it okay to have 2GB in slot 1 and an additional 1GB in slot 2 making it 3GB, or should it be 2 plus 2, making it 4GB.

Thanks
 
mitimac said:
Hi, I intend to add another 1GB stick of ram to my spare slot. (iMac Intel core 2 duo). On the other hand as I believe that ram at this time is fairly cheap. Is it okay to have 2GB in slot 1 and an additional 1GB in slot 2 making it 3GB, or should it be 2 plus 2, making it 4GB.

Thanks
Click to expand...

Ideally, it should be 2+2GB to get the benefit of running the RAM dual channel. However, the performance boost is only fairly small...

Mind you, 2GB DDR2 SO-DIMMs are only $35-ish these days, so it's not a big leap to buy two.

http://www.staticice.com.au/cgi-bin/search.cgi?q=2gb+ddr2+so-dimm&spos=1

Also, you will need to check whether your RAM is 667MHz or 800MHz.
 
OP, are you sure you have 1 free slot? If you have a standard 2mb iMac, Apple put a 1mb stick in each slot already.
 
I have one of the aluminum C2D iMacs (late 2007 model MA876LL); it came with 1 Gb RAM, not 2. I looked up my system on several popular memory retail sites, and they all say that it does not support dual channel. Thus, matching the storage capacities offers no speed benefit to certain iMacs.

Of course, Your Mileage May Vary.
 
dXTC said:
I have one of the aluminum C2D iMacs (late 2007 model MA876LL); it came with 1 Gb RAM, not 2. I looked up my system on several popular memory retail sites, and they all say that it does not support dual channel. Thus, matching the storage capacities offers no speed benefit to certain iMacs.

Of course, Your Mileage May Vary.
Click to expand...

Those sites are wrong.

See http://guides.macrumors.com/Understanding_Intel_Mac_RAM ...
 
I don't think imacs have a slot free stock if it has 1gb of ram then it is probably 2 512mb sticks of ram. For the second question you could put in a 1gb stick and then a 2bg stick but it would not run very well because you are really supposed to have 2 ram sticks of the brand and capacity for the best performance. I would recommend that you just put in 2 2gb sticks of ram for the most bang for you buck.:apple:
 
gamer2502 said:
I don't think imacs have a slot free stock if it has 1gb of ram then it is probably 2 512mb sticks of ram. For the second question you could put in a 1gb stick and then a 2bg stick but it would not run very well because you are really supposed to have 2 ram sticks of the brand and capacity for the best performance. I would recommend that you just put in 2 2gb sticks of ram for the most bang for you buck.:apple:
Click to expand...

I have an iMac G5, purchased 3 months before the alu ones came out. Im pretty sure that the maximum ram is 3Gb, is this true? And if you I can obviously max it out with 1x 1Gb and 1x 2Gb, right? Am i missing something here?
 
chocolate632 said:
I have an iMac G5, purchased 3 months before the alu ones came out. Im pretty sure that the maximum ram is 3Gb, is this true? And if you I can obviously max it out with 1x 1Gb and 1x 2Gb, right? Am i missing something here?
Click to expand...

If you have an Imac G5, it was not purchased 3 months before the aluminum came out. The iMac refresh path goes like this:

G5 iMac -> Core Duo iMac (White) -> Core 2 Duo iMac (White) -> Aluminum iMac

I suggest that anyone who has questions about what type of ram and how much can fit download the application Mac Tracker. Really useful, and free.

Also, OWC is a good resource.
 
buddyguyman said:
If you have an Imac G5, it was not purchased 3 months before the aluminum came out. The iMac refresh path goes like this:

G5 iMac -> Core Duo iMac (White) -> Core 2 Duo iMac (White) -> Aluminum iMac

I suggest that anyone who has questions about what type of ram and how much can fit download the application Mac Tracker. Really useful, and free.

Also, OWC is a good resource.
Click to expand...

So I have the Core 2 Duo iMac, thank you very much for clearing that up for me, I was wondering this for a while now.
 
Assuming you have an aluminum iMac your maximum will be 4GB of 667MHz DDR2 RAM. If you have the C2D White iMac Late 2006 your maximum will be 3.3GB. Either way, they take the same RAM and you can install 4GB. Unless of course you have the Early 2008 latest iMacs that use 800MHz RAM.

The best price you'll find on 667MHz DDR2 is this 2X2GB kit for $34.99 of Crucial RAM from Newegg and free shipping.
 
Maximum amount of Ram!!!

I have a 20" iMac 2.66Ghz I just upgraded the Ram to 4gig. Just read that you can now get 4gig sticks. for the iMac. Would these work? Anyone?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back