Memory Upgrade Question

RAM is pretty cheap (in my opinion). I just went from 4x512 to 4x512 and 2x2gb. So now I have 6 GB of RAM. I went through MacSales.com. If you really only want to go up to 4GB of RAM I think they will even purchase your old 4x512 for around $100 making the upgrade to 4GB cost about $90.

Go with whatever configuration is affordable and with whichever configuration won't cause you to have to repurchase RAM later. If you get 4x1GB now and keep your 4x512 you will max out your RAM slots. That's fine if 6GB is your max but if you want to go to 8GB later or more you'll wish you had gotten 2x2GB instead.

 

From personal experience I would buy an additional 2x2gb. I have the stock 2x512mb plus the 2x4gb for a combined 5GB, and I have yet to max it out in photoshop, even with a working 1.3gb .psb file. There is however a cs3 patch that should help with that but I cant think of what its called. cs3 maxed out at about 2gb or so and wouldn't take any more even though there was free memory left, I would look into that patch, it basically uses the extra ram as a scratch disk (from what I understand)

There's also the issue of increased latency with the more sticks you add, from what I can research 4 sticks total is the ideal number, however I don't know if an additional 2 would really make all that big of difference. You could always sell the 4x512 for around $100 on ebay and buy a second 2x2gb pair, making 4x2gb = 8GB total.

I bought 2x2GB (4GB) for a whopping $175 from Omni tech. via ramseeker, and they are even certified heatsinks/sticks. I have also used their 2GB pair in my MBP and they work flawlessly. The best bet in my opinion.

4GB Mac-Pro Ram