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Is there an advantage to buy the 32GB option on iMac retina
- Thread starter letsudo
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You are right. Buy the extra RAM from elsewhere. There is no need to pay the Apple tax, which in this case is just insane. There are many places out there selling RAM for the iMac and they work great.
That is if you even need 32GB. For a big upgrade, adding a 16GB kit adds up to 24GB which is more than a lot of people will ever need in a long time.
It depends on your usage. I work with many virtual machines, so I need all the RAM I can get.
I would suggest that if you take out ram installed by Apple, keep it in case you ever require service. It's best to send it in without third party components. When you purchase third party ram, make sure to test it for bad sticks using memtest or something similar. It's a small inconvenience, but it's worthwhile.
As do I.
I bought my Late 2013 iMac with 16GB. That way, I just added 16GB (2 x 8GB) and there was nothing to remove.
I would recommend this for anyone who is eventually looking to upgrade to the full 32GB.
Apple charges daft prices for RAM upgrades.
I went for the stock 8GB and then removed it, and inserted 4x8GB chips myself to bring it up to 32GB.
The stock 8GB is now sitting in a mid-2012 13" cMBP.