Older dual 2.5 G5 ram question & RAM prices

[aussie_geek]

As we know the new G5's can all have up to 16 Gb of memory. Will the older ones ( with 8 dimm slots) be able to accept 2 Gig sticks. I don't think I will be running out today and getting them but it would be good to know for the future.

Also, since the introduction of the new ram for PowerMac's, do you think this will end up reducing the current prices of G5 ram down??


aussie_geek

 

[Makosuke]

Probably not, but there is a chance. I haven't heard of anybody trying it yet, which doesn't bode well for it working, but then 2GB sticks are so expensive right now that it's entirely possibe it's just that nobody has a pair laying around to try. You'll just have to wait untill somebody eventually gives it a shot, but I wouldn't hold out much hope. 8GB is a friggin' lot for most purposes, anyway.

And I seriously doubt this'll impact the price of RAM one way or another--it's just RAM, and Apple isn't so big of a company that a change in their product line will affect component prices. Well, except for the iPod, which indeed does have enough market share to directly impact flash memory prices for everybody else.

 

[swordcoast]

Older dual question

I'd say probably not to the RAM question although this might be affected by future versions of OSX. As far as cost goes, I would say the cost of older RAm will drop, but not for some time. Hows your weather this time of year. Us hot & humid at the mo.

 

[RatVega]

As we know the new G5's can all have up to 16 Gb of memory. Will the older ones ( with 8 dimm slots) be able to accept 2 Gig sticks. I don't think I will be running out today and getting them but it would be good to know for the future.

Also, since the introduction of the new ram for PowerMac's, do you think this will end up reducing the current prices of G5 ram down??


aussie_geek

I'm betting no, because although there have been PC3200 2GB boards available for quite a while, no one is offering them for Mac. Macs have pretty exacting RAM specs. And there may be an address line issue in the hardware as well.

Not to worry, even the PC 3200 boards are overly expensive and I can only think of a few applications that would really benefit from more than 8GB - maybe Motion or Maya. If you are deep into either, you can probably afford the Quad.

 

[50thVert]

IIRC, the XServes were capable of 16GB for some time now. So there technically is no reason why the PM G5's wouldnt be able to run with 2GB sticks in them.

Macs dont really have any more "exacting" memory specs than any other manufacturer. In fact, they have lesser specs, making their memory run at cas3 instead of cas2.5 or 2. It seems like they are more stringent, only because less memory is "certified by apple" to work in their machines.

 

[Bear]

IIRC, the XServes were capable of 16GB for some time now. So there technically is no reason why the PM G5's wouldnt be able to run with 2GB sticks in them.

Unless the motherboard isn't designed to address 2GB memory DIMMs. Remember the PowerMac and XServes use different motherboards.

Macs dont really have any more "exacting" memory specs than any other manufacturer. In fact, they have lesser specs, making their memory run at cas3 instead of cas2.5 or 2. It seems like they are more stringent, only because less memory is "certified by apple" to work in their machines.

Actually stringent and exacting are synonyms. So the original poster was correct in calling Apple's requirements exacting.

 

[aussie_geek]

I'm betting no, because although there have been PC3200 2GB boards available for quite a while, no one is offering them for Mac.

Yep - my point exactly. The 1gig sticks for a G5 at a Mac retailer are the most expensive pieces of memory at the moment. From a retail point you would think by getting the new ram in for the new Macs would make the prices of the old stuff go down yeah?


aussie_geek