Need RAM advice from someone who knows!

[cleo]

Ok, let me preface this by saying that I know next to nothing about RAM (other than how to put it in an iBook, basically). So please be gentle.

I bought my grandma a G3 350 Blueberry iMac for Xmas (xMas?). All she uses is AOL, but her ancient eMachine POS isn't hacking it anymore. So, right, I got this iMac for $200 and it's in awesome condition, but I need to install OS X and, therefore, upgrade the RAM. It currently has 64 MB, and I figured I'd drop another 256 in. I used Crucial's memory finder, and these appear to be my options. (I was psyched to see how cheap it is... looks like I scored a nice investment.) Anyway, then this morning's Fry's Outpost ad email featured this piece of RAM. Obviously the price caught my eye, but what I need to know is whether this will work in the iMac, based on what Crucial is recommending. Is it, indeed, the kind of RAM I need?

(On a lesser related question, has anyone tried putting a gig of RAM in an iBook 800? I've read that it's possible, but I don't want to waste my money to find out it's not.)

 

[pncc]

Ok, let me preface this by saying that I know next to nothing about RAM (other than how to put it in an iBook, basically). So please be gentle.

I bought my grandma a G3 350 Blueberry iMac for Xmas (xMas?). All she uses is AOL, but her ancient eMachine POS isn't hacking it anymore. So, right, I got this iMac for $200 and it's in awesome condition, but I need to install OS X and, therefore, upgrade the RAM. It currently has 64 MB, and I figured I'd drop another 256 in. I used Crucial's memory finder, and
... then this morning's Fry's Outpost ad email featured this piece of RAM Obviously the price caught my eye, but what I need to know is whether this will work in the iMac, based on what Crucial is recommending. Is it, indeed, the kind of RAM I need?

I am not even going to look at either URL you cited. Crucial is high quality RAM that will absolutely work and won't fail. They are competitively priced too. Fry's is a discount electronics retailer and I don't waste my time and energy on them for important hardware like RAM. Buy the Crucial stick, you won't be disappointed.

(On a lesser related question, has anyone tried putting a gig of RAM in an iBook 800? I've read that it's possible, but I don't want to waste my money to find out it's not.)

I don't know if it can be done offhand, again look at the Crucial compatibility table. If they say it is OK, go with it, if you have to buy a third party stick from an unknown vendor, you roll the dice as far as I am concerned. OS X is VERY, I mean VERY!! picky about RAM quality. The vast majority (I would guess near 60-70%) of kernel panics in OS X are due to faulty RAM.

 

[Makosuke]

They don't tell you much, but although that Frys DIMM should work, I wouldn't even consider buying it:

A) Though it should, there's no guarantee it'll work.
B) There's only a 90-day warranty, whereas any decent memory company will stick a lifetime warranty on their stuff.
C) Though half the time it'll probably work fine, I don't trust no-name, no-warranty memory since it's far more likely to cause weird instability problems down the road.

If you want to save some money, have a look at DMS (datamem.com). They don't sell big-name memory, but they offer a lifetime warranty and a 30-day money back guarantee, plus they have a memory finder that'll tell you what should work in your Mac. As it happens, I bought a 256MB DIMM for exactly the computer you're talking about from them a few weeks back.

Their 512MB sticks for your computer are only a bit cheaper than Crucial, but you'll note that they sell 256MB DIMMS for about $40, only $10 more than that Fry's deal for a guaranteed-good chip and a lifetime warranty. I use Crucial almost exclusively, but on some smaller, older chips they seriously overcharge so it pays to look elsewhere:

http://www.datamem.com/viewcat.asp?C=1080

(Also, it's worth noting that Crucial can occasionally be a bit overly optimistic about the RAM that's compatible with older computers; I was about to buy a large stick from them that they said would be compatible with an old Yikes G4 tower, but in fact isn't. DMS's memory finder, surprisingly enough, correctly informed me of this.)

 

[cleo]

Thanks for the help! I went ahead and bought the 512 chip from Crucial (free 2-day delivery sucked me in)... it may be overkill for Grandma's needs, but in a few years the computer will be mine again, so it's a good investment. But thanks for recommending DMS... I see that they give the thumbs-up to 1.25 gigs for my iBook, so I have it bookmarked for a Xmas gift to myself.

Thanks!