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iMac 8GB vs 16GB Ram

Slinkington

Slinkington

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 22, 2008
62
0
Hey guys,

Just in the process of getting a new iMac - the standard 21.5" model from the Apple store. I'm getting it with the normal 4GB of Ram, but will want to upgrade to at least 8GB. I was wondering though, as it's not too much more for me to go to 16GB, should I go all out for 16GB or will I hardly notice a difference from 8GB?

I usually have Final Cut Pro, Motion 5 and Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop running at the same time. Think I'll benefit from the 16GB?

Thanks for your time. :)
 
Running those apps will certainly require plenty of RAM so get as much as you can afford. But I would recommend buying the iMac from Apple with 4GB and then adding the extra RAM from OWC. You'll save a ton of money.
 
Thanks for the info - I was planning on getting the iMac for £1000 and then buying 16GB (x4 4GB) from crucial ram for £70. (Buying the 8GB from Apple costs a whopping £160!)
 
Yeah i just bought 8gig ram for my 2year old imac from OWC for $48.00 shipped. Had i maxed it out at the time of purchase direct from Apple it would have cost me near $1000 bucks.

OWC always lifetime backups their Ram, so you dont have to worry about bad ones, and they have a rebate program to Send in your mac ram for cash back as well.
 
I'd recommend 12GB of RAM at least for a start. Leave the 2x2GB and then add 2x4GB. If you feel like you need to add more than pull the 2x2GB and add in another 2x4GB. 12GB makes the most sense at least to begin with (2x4GB is not a whole lot more than 2x2GB and 4x4GB means you are buying 16GB but "tossing" 4GB it came with).
 
Crucial.com?

I work with Final Cut Pro X and motion 5 and just upgraded to the fully loaded 27" imac i7 processor. I bought the 8gb (2x4gb) of ram thinking i can just upgrade to 16gb myself. I've read this thread but I'm curious about 2 things: 1. Crucial.com has been recommended to me by both the retail mac store and the mac people directly from mac sales via phone. Some people upgrade with 4x4gb but crucial recommends 2x8gb cards to upgrade. Any thoughts on this? I'm wondering if crucial is just some spin off of mac to still get our business, those of us who know we can upgrade and save a ton of money or if there's some bigger reason to use crucial? Thanks...I'm really praying this new set up solves the world's problems, it sure better for that amount of money! :eek:
 
maclovr2theend said:
I work with Final Cut Pro X and motion 5 and just upgraded to the fully loaded 27" imac i7 processor. I bought the 8gb (2x4gb) of ram thinking i can just upgrade to 16gb myself. I've read this thread but I'm curious about 2 things: 1. Crucial.com has been recommended to me by both the retail mac store and the mac people directly from mac sales via phone. Some people upgrade with 4x4gb but crucial recommends 2x8gb cards to upgrade. Any thoughts on this? I'm wondering if crucial is just some spin off of mac to still get our business, those of us who know we can upgrade and save a ton of money or if there's some bigger reason to use crucial? Thanks...I'm really praying this new set up solves the world's problems, it sure better for that amount of money! :eek:
Click to expand...

buying 2 sticks of 8gb ram and adding to the 2 sticks of 2gb ram will give you 20gb ram. I have no idea what work you do or what ram you need.

If the 2 sticks of 8gb ram are low cost buy them. My theory is almost no iMac users needs 20gb of ram and pageouts will not happen (page outs slow the machine)> Also prices are low right now.


for low cost 80 pounds a stick is pretty good. here is a seller on amazon selling them at 110 pounds a stick



http://www.amazon.co.uk/memory-upgr...1C/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1324746554&sr=8-12.

From the way you write your question. buying a pair of 4gb sticks is 8gb adding to your 4gb in the machine is 12gb that would be low cost and should be enough ram for you.


this kit looks like a pair of 4gb sticks for 29 pounds

http://www.amazon.co.uk/memory-upgr...3UES/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1324746554&sr=8-3


add to your machine's 4gb and you get 12gb for only 29 pounds! most likely this would work well for you.

If I had to guess more people are better off adding this rather then the more expensive option above.
 
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thanks philipma1957, i'll look into your suggestions...i think i'm gun shy on type and manufacturer of RAM because of some nightmare stories I've heard. Thanks again
 
OWC RAM and Warranty?

Hey all, great information here I really appreciate it.

I am wondering if I were to get the Imac with 4gb of RAM and update it to 8gb or 16gb of RAM from OWC would there be any repercussions in regards to the warranty on the computer or an Apple Care package?

Also, how easy it is to get into an Imac to actually perform the upgrade?

Cheers!
 
I would not buy ram from OWC. I have had issues with faulty ram and getting to replace it and so has a friend of mine. You can also get better pricing than OWC.
 
DarwinOSX said:
I would not buy ram from OWC. I have had issues with faulty ram and getting to replace it and so has a friend of mine. You can also get better pricing than OWC.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice. Is there a manufacturer you would recommend?
 
DarwinOSX said:
I would not buy ram from OWC. I have had issues with faulty ram and getting to replace it and so has a friend of mine. You can also get better pricing than OWC.
Click to expand...

I think you'll find this the very rare exception - most people have extremely good luck with OWC memory.
 
ANlMAL said:
Hey all, great information here I really appreciate it.

I am wondering if I were to get the Imac with 4gb of RAM and update it to 8gb or 16gb of RAM from OWC would there be any repercussions in regards to the warranty on the computer or an Apple Care package?

Also, how easy it is to get into an Imac to actually perform the upgrade?

Cheers!
Click to expand...
It won't affect the warranty as long as the RAM is correct (204 pin DDR3-1333MHz notebook RAM).

As for changing it, it requires 5 mins of your time and a Phillips screwdriver. It's under the panel on the bottom (below the screen when the iMac is standing up normally). Lay it face down on the screen, flip the stand up out of the way and you will see the cover. :)

You can find all the info you need here: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1423
 
I can tell you OWC has been awesome for me. My current 32GB from them has been flawless, and prior to that I had a 16GB (4GBx4) kit that was flawless for over two years. One 4GB stick was bad when I bought it in Dec. 2009, and they sent a whole new set of 16GB to me, and let me return the first set back in their box *after* verifying the new set was all good. This allowed me to use the good 12GB while the new set came 2nd Day Air. They paid shipping, too.

That is good service!
 
What paulrbeers said.

I did exactly that and never maxed the 12GB RAM out. Usually running VMWare with Win7 (2GB), Photoshop, Illustrator, FlexBuilder, Flash Catalyst, Firefox and Chrome both with Flashplayer all at the same time.
 
Thank all very much.

I am going to save some serious cash not paying the extra $600 for 16gb to Apple.
 
richpjr said:
I think you'll find this the very rare exception - most people have extremely good luck with OWC memory.
Click to expand...

Nope. I know several other people who have had issues. Plus plenty of people report issues right here on this forum.
 
DarwinOSX said:
Nope. I know several other people who have had issues. Plus plenty of people report issues right here on this forum.
Click to expand...

You can find people having issues with virtually every brand of ram right here on this forum. OWC makes a good product.
 
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