RAM question for MacPro 2006

[davidnssbm]

My dad has a MacPro from 2006 or so. It's REALLY been slow lately. It's hard to get the cursor to do anything with out the pinwheel spinning. He does a lot of Photoshop with HUGE resolutions of pictures (I'm talking thousands of pictures) for work.

He thinks its time for new RAM, and I agree, but I'm sort of a newbie when it comes to ram.

Under his specs it looks like he has 8 slots. The first 4 are taken up with a 1GB stick with DDR2 FB-DIMM.

Does this mean I can fill up the other 4 slots with any combination of RAM that I desire? Like two 4GB sticks, or four 2GB sticks? Do I ever have to remove the 1GB sticks? Can someone explain to me how this works?

Also, this is the right page to upgrade his RAM right?

http://eshop.macsales.com/search/DDR2+FB+DIMM

Thanks,

David

 

[Hellhammer]

You must install RAM in matched pairs so e.g. 2x2GB in BANK 0 and 2x4GB in BANK 1 etc, you'll notice it if you've done it wrong but the idea is you can't have 2GB and 4GB modules in same BANK.

OWC is great place to buy RAM

I would also perform a clean install and upgrade to Snow Leopard if he hasn't yet

 

[Lone Deranger]

If you find that you're getting a lot of spinning beach balls whereas before not so much, then other problems might be at hand.
I would check the SMART status of your Hard Drives first and foremost. See if they are not failing.

But hey... more Ram and a clean install of SL is never a bad thing either.

 

[Cindori]

 

[davidnssbm]

so if I have 1GB (x4) in one bank, in the second bank I have 4 empty slots, what combo do I need to do if I want to upgrade to say, 8GB of RAM?

Can I leave the four 1GB sticks in the one bank, and put two 4GB in the second bank (leaving two blank) giving me total 12GB RAM?

 

[Hellhammer]

so if I have 1GB (x4) in one bank, in the second bank I have 4 empty slots, what combo do I need to do if I want to upgrade to say, 8GB of RAM?

Can I leave the four 1GB sticks in the one bank, and put two 4GB in the second bank (leaving two blank) giving me total 12GB RAM?

If you want 8GB, you can buy 4x1GB or 2x2GB. You can also buy e.g. 2x1GB and 2x2GB to get 10GB or 4x2GB to get 12GB. BANK was maybe a wrong word but as seen in Cindori's pic, you need to install them in pairs (2x2GB in the top and 2x1GB in the bottom)

 

[nanofrog]

so if I have 1GB (x4) in one bank, in the second bank I have 4 empty slots, what combo do I need to do if I want to upgrade to say, 8GB of RAM?

Can I leave the four 1GB sticks in the one bank, and put two 4GB in the second bank (leaving two blank) giving me total 12GB RAM?

Look at the above graphic, and it's 8C (find the 8GB row, and look right for C, which is the second to last).