adding ram to imac

[munshi]

hello,
i have a late 2006 20'' imac that was handed down to me.according to apple official website,this imac can handle up to 3GB of ram(it came with 1GB as 2 512MB rams) can i install 4GB as 2 sticks with 2 gigs each? what kind of trouble might i face if i do so? and do you have any brand recommendations for the purchase of the new rams?

 

[old-wiz]

the chipset will only recognize 3gb of ram. Go to crucial.com and run their system checker and it will tell you your options.

 

[i.shaun]

if apple specs say it can only handle up to 3GB, I'd say 4GB (as in 2x2GB sticks) is too much.


I'd probably go with a single 2GB stick, and a 1GB stick to give a total of 3GB.

 

[munshi]

well even crucial said the max is 3GB, but i recall reading somewhere for the new models,apple said the max is 4GB and some seller added 8GB and there was no issues there.any ideas?

 

[i.shaun]

from what I've been able to look up really quick, adding more RAM than your computer can handle is not a good idea. You can damage the motherboard in some way or cause it to slow down.

If the mac cannot handle more than 3GB, I would not go over 3GB. I currently run 1GB of RAM on my 17" iMac (late 2006) running Tiger 10.4.11 and it is plenty for basic usage (especially with how well OS X seems to handle memory).



I personally could use more for video processing, but the 1GB is decent. I can run iTunes, surf the web, rip a DVD in Handbrake, and iTunes shouldn't skip a beat. I cannot however run Visual Hub and burn a DVD without skipping a beat, that seems to take more memory and slows me down, so I usually do it at night or when it's not in use.


I can't even imagine what anything over 1GB could do, because I've honestly never owned anything over 1GB (sad i know). Old PCs seemed so slow, this mac is the fastest computer I've ever had.





If you really need more than 3GB RAM that badly, you should probably save up and get a macbook pro or something that can handle more up to 8GB (mac pro's might actually go higher than 8GB, I'm not sure).

 

[munshi]

i am sorry to bring this topic out of the dead. but do you recommend the crucial rams or other memory brands like kingston or samsung?

edit: and any special deals you can point me to will be highly appreciated.