iMac 5K upgrades

[262Runnr]

so I'm going to be getting my late 2015 iMac 5K soon. It's coming with a 2TB fusion drive and only 8GB of RAM.
What type of RAM should I expect to be receiving....2-4GB sticks, 1 8GB stick?
I want to end up with 32 GB or whatever I can max out. I think that there are 4 slots onan iMac.

Also, I'm going to give the 2TB fusion drive a chance before I think about upgrading to an SSD.
Thoughts?

 

[DeltaMac]

Your 27-inch iMac has 4 slots - total.
(Maximum is 4 x 16GB for a total of 64GB)
If the RAM is what Apple originally installed, then you should expect that it is 2 x 4GB sticks, so two slots should be empty now.
You COULD add a pair of 16GB sticks, to give you a total of 40GB - or swap out the original sticks for 2 x 16GB to go to the maximum of 64GB - if you want to do that.
(personally, I would add 2 x 8GB. 24GB is a lot of RAM for the normal user, and a nice amount for the money that you spend)

 

[redheeler]

What type of RAM should I expect to be receiving....2-4GB sticks, 1 8GB stick?
I want to end up with 32 GB or whatever I can max out. I think that there are 4 slots onan iMac.

Either 1866 MHz or 2133 MHz 204-pin DDR3 RAM will work, for 32 GB you can get 4 x 8 GB sticks or two pairs of 16 GB (2 x 8 GB), or add 2 x 8 GB of 1866 MHz RAM to your existing 2 x 4 GB for a total of 24 GB, which should be plenty.

Though officially only 1866 / 1867 MHz RAM is supported in the Late 2015, mine has been running stable with 32 GB of 2133 MHz Kingston HyperX RAM (though initially one pair was defective / causing kernel panics and I had to exchange it).

 

[262Runnr]

thanks so I think 24GB would probably work for me.
It's 1866 and I think the iMac comes with 1867....?

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...cm_re=1866MHz_DDR3_2X8-_-20-231-560-_-Product

 

[redheeler]

thanks so I think 24GB would probably work for me.
It's 1866 and I think the iMac comes with 1867....?

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...cm_re=1866MHz_DDR3_2X8-_-20-231-560-_-Product

That's desktop memory. The 2015 27" iMacs take 204-pin (PC3L-14900) laptop memory.

 

[262Runnr]

thanks....is this better?

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...n_(PC3L-14900)_2X8-_-9SIA1K649M2379-_-Product

 

[redheeler]

thanks....is this better?

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA1K649M2379&cm_re=204-pin_(PC3L-14900)_2X8-_-9SIA1K649M2379-_-Product

It looks like the specifications match, though I'm not familiar with that brand. Crucial RAM is generally pretty reliable and in my experience works fine when added to the iMac's factory-installed OEM RAM.

 

[_Kiki_]

I have 4 x 8GB Kingston HyperX 2133 MHz and they working perfectly

 

[mreg376]

OWC and Crucial RAM have never failed me or anyone to whom I have recommended them.

 

[262Runnr]

thanks guy....anyone have anything to say about the 2TB Fusion drive?
that might come later on or not....

 

[mreg376]

There are many threads and probably hundreds of messages about fusion drives, all sizes, vs. SSD's, etc. You may want to take a gander at those.

 

[MandiMac]

thanks guy....anyone have anything to say about the 2TB Fusion drive?
that might come later on or not....

If you‘re using macOS with it, you‘ll be plenty happy with it. Are you planning to use Bootcamp for Windows? Then you might have a look at a pure SSD as the Windows partition only uses the HDD portion of the Fusion Drive which is a bit slower than SSD. But if you‘re looking at it from a price/performance perspective, nothing beats FD.

 

[262Runnr]

my iMac came in this morning and I initiated the backup before I left the house today. The only issue that I ran into was that it shipped with an earlier version of High Sierra than I used using on my TM backup. I had to first upgrade to latest High Sierra then ran the migration function from utilities to restore the backup.
When I came back tonight most of the waiting was done. I don't know how many times I signed into iCloud....haha.
The machine is fantastic even with only 8GB of RAM. I have 2 more 8GB sticks coming on Saturday for a total of 24.

I have to tell you that besides being completely impressed with Time Machine that I'm also running separate versions of both windows 8 and windows 10 in vMWare. I don't even have the latest version of vMware. Windows 8 runs great as is but with Windows 10 it is laggy because it needs more RAM. I also had some issues with retina resolution in vMWare and I had to disable it so I could read my windows programs.
All in all it is working better than I anticipated.
All apps tested and running Photoshop, GarageBand, Logic Pro X2, Lightroom, Adobe Premiere Pro...etc....no issues at all even with my 2TB Fusion Drive! All Mail accounts are there as well as Calendar.
I didn't hook it up to my 27" Thunderbolt display yet but that will be the icing on the cake... I'm happy!

 

[Mr. 123]

.

 

[262Runnr]

I finally got around to installing the 2X8 sticks of RAM. I noticed a big difference, especially when opening Windows 10 in vMWare. When I got the iMac a couple of days ago, Windows 10 just didn't want to work and it barely opened with only 8GB in the machine but with the 24 it feels snappy now.
I may end up replacing the 4GB sticks with 8GB in the future but it's not really necessary right now.
The 2TB Fusion drive is working great and I have absolutely no issues with it. I'm running the latest version of High Sierra with no problems.
Here's the RAM that I used....it was the best value that I could find and the reviews were pretty good.
I can tell you from my experience that I've used G SKILL before and never had any problems with it.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231732

 

[MandiMac]

Glad to hear! These forums are full of hate for Fusion Drives, but in reality, they work just fine. Have fun with your new machine!

 

[SketchyClown]

I have the same iMac with the 2TB Fusion Drive & 24GB RAM. I found that under certain load, and especially file copying back & forth, I could get lots of beachballs. So I split the Fusion up. The 2TB & 3TB all have 128GB SSD's + 2TB HDD, so at least it's not the crappy 32GB you get with the 1TB version. So you can have the OS on a pure PCI-E SSD if you want to with that model, and use the HDD for the file storage.