Late 2013 21.5" iMac RAM Upgrade

[Stuke00]

Purchased a new iMac a month ago, and it came with 8GB of RAM which I thought would be fine. It seems like the system is running VERY slow and always seems to be using all available RAM. On Apples website it says that the RAM is not user upgradable but I should take it to an authorized service center. The 2 service centers I contacted says it cannot be done. I am past my 14 days to return this thing, any ideas?

 

[Fatboy71]

Purchased a new iMac a month ago, and it came with 8GB of RAM which I thought would be fine. It seems like the system is running VERY slow and always seems to be using all available RAM. On Apples website it says that the RAM is not user upgradable but I should take it to an authorized service center. The 2 service centers I contacted says it cannot be done. I am past my 14 days to return this thing, any ideas?

Unfortunately the 21.5" iMac's ram can only be upgraded by separating the screen with the back and accessing the inside. It isn't that easy of a job to say the lease and could potentially void your warranty.

With the 21.5" iMac, the amount of ram needs to be chosen at the time or purchase.

It might be still worth contacting Apple and seeing if they would be prepared to accept your return and if they were you could then re-order another iMac, but this time you could choose more ram at the time of purchase.

Another suggestion if you budget allows. Is to purchase the 27" iMac. This has a little pop off access door at the rear of the iMac. This allows for user replaceable ram to be installed when you so wish, and is a lot cheaper than getting the ram off of Apple.

 

[Stuke00]

Unfortunately the 21.5" iMac's ram can only be upgraded by separating the screen with the back and accessing the inside. It isn't that easy of a job to say the lease and could potentially void your warranty.

With the 21.5" iMac, the amount of ram needs to be chosen at the time or purchase.

It might be still worth contacting Apple and seeing if they would be prepared to accept your return and if they were you could then re-order another iMac, but this time you could choose more ram at the time of purchase.

Another suggestion if you budget allows. Is to purchase the 27" iMac. This has a little pop off access door at the rear of the iMac. This allows for user replaceable ram to be installed when you so wish, and is a lot cheaper than getting the ram off of Apple.

Yes my 2011 iMac was like that. I didn't realize the 2013 wasn't.. I will contact apple and see..

 

[joe-h2o]

As a matter of interest, what are you doing that is causing it to run slow and with all the RAM used?

I have a rMBP and push it pretty hard at work - it runs a VM with a Win 7 install with a healthy amount of RAM reserved for it and it barely breaks sweat. The machine has 8 GB RAM.

Are you sure it's the RAM that is slowing you up? Check the number of page outs over a few days. If you have very few or zero then it's not the RAM that is the issue. It might be the speed of the hard drive (assuming you didn't go for an SSD or fusion).

8 GB of RAM is more than adequate for the bulk of people's computing needs.

 

[Fatboy71]

Yes my 2011 iMac was like that. I didn't realize the 2013 wasn't.. I will contact apple and see..

Whereas with the earlier iMac's the glass front was help on by magnets which resulted in a easier separation.

The Late 2012 and onwards iMac. The glass is bonded to the rear with high adhesive tape. To separate it, there is a tool you can buy which looks like a miniature Pizza cutter, which is slid between the glass and the rear. After you have separated it, you then need to remove the remnants of the old adhesive tape, and then apply the replacement high adhesive tape, this can be purchased online.

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It might be worth doing what joe-h2o has suggested before contacting Apple, especially if it isn’t the amount for ram you have causing the slowness.

I presume your iMac has Mavericks installed, if you go into the Activity Monitor and click the Memory tab. The part you are interested in, is now called “SWAP USED” instead of Page Outs.

 

[yjchua95]

Purchased a new iMac a month ago, and it came with 8GB of RAM which I thought would be fine. It seems like the system is running VERY slow and always seems to be using all available RAM. On Apples website it says that the RAM is not user upgradable but I should take it to an authorized service center. The 2 service centers I contacted says it cannot be done. I am past my 14 days to return this thing, any ideas?

First, check your RAM usage in Activity Monitor. If the memory pressure remains green, it's fine.

What you need probably is an SSD. My SSD iMac boots up in just 8 seconds.

 

[Stuke00]

First, check your RAM usage in Activity Monitor. If the memory pressure remains green, it's fine.

What you need probably is an SSD. My SSD iMac boots up in just 8 seconds.

Memory Pressure seems to always be in the green. My girlfriend and I both log in, and I am guessing with 2 users always logged in it was hogging resources. Just seems like things were running slow. I didn't upgrade my HDD to the Hybrid or anything. I see I have the option of adding a Thunderbold SSD so I may end up going that route.

 

[Stuke00]

Whereas with the earlier iMac's the glass front was help on by magnets which resulted in a easier separation.

The Late 2012 and onwards iMac. The glass is bonded to the rear with high adhesive tape. To separate it, there is a tool you can buy which looks like a miniature Pizza cutter, which is slid between the glass and the rear. After you have separated it, you then need to remove the remnants of the old adhesive tape, and then apply the replacement high adhesive tape, this can be purchased online.

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It might be worth doing what joe-h2o has suggested before contacting Apple, especially if it isn’t the amount for ram you have causing the slowness.

I presume your iMac has Mavericks installed, if you go into the Activity Monitor and click the Memory tab. The part you are interested in, is now called “SWAP USED” instead of Page Outs.

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This is great info. Thank you very much. Usually swap is at 0 or a very low number. I will keep an eye out for that