Excuse the newbie - RAM question

[speedwaygirl]

I just bought a new Mac Mini today (yes it took me forever to finally give in). I can't afford to buy 8GB RAM right away, but it seems wasteful to me to buy 2 2GB stick and then replace them later. Can I buy 1 4GB stick and add it for now and then another later? Pardon my RAM ignorance. I've always had Dells that need to be replaced in pairs, but am hoping this my be different. Thanks!

 

[spinnerlys]

You can use one 4GB stick if you want, no need to use pairs. You can even use one of the 1GB sticks + the 4GB stick to have 5GB of RAM.

 

[alust2013]

You can do that if you like. You could probably leave one of the sticks that came with it in there too, which would make 5 gigs.

 

[speedwaygirl]

Thanks! That's exactly what I wanted to hear! Guess I'll order 1 - 4GB stick for now and have 5GB of RAM. Perfect! Then maybe I can score another stick for CHristmas!

 

[MikieMcBikie]

1 one gig chip, 1 four gig chip it is what i am doing, and the 5 gigs is running great!!! plus if i wanna go to eight i am only throwing away the original 2 gig it came with.

 

[indg]

4+1 GB will work fine.

however, if you're a gamer or want to squeeze every bit of performance out of the nvidia 320m, you'll want to use matching pairs since it uses dual-channel with the shared system memory.

for most everyday tasks, you won't notice a difference in speed between 4+1 and 2+2 configurations.

 

[MikieMcBikie]

i doubt i would see a difference in games using dual channel memory on the mini. i may be able to get a FEW more FPS using it, but $100+ it isn't worth it. IMO

 

[mangrove]

Hey, I read on some thread that it is best to put one RAM stick in the first and another in the second.

Does anyone know if that is true? Is there a certain order to sticking non-matching RAM sticks into your Mini?