Stealing RAM (nothing illegal in here!)

[ClarkeB]

I've got a stick of 512MB RAM from an old Dell PC and it is PC-3200, DDR and I don't know if it will work with my iMac G5, 1.8GHz 20in. If I try it and it doesn't will it screw up my (glorious) machine?

Thanks

 

[edesignuk]

Should be fine.

 

[Nermal]

It may cause expected crashes and other problems, as a lot of computers come with cheap memory. One of the reasons that Macs are comparatively stable is because Apple always uses high-quality memory.

Try it, and if you start to have problems you can always take it back out again.

 

[combatcolin]

Yes it should work, although if the Ram will work at the speed of the slowest Ram.

 

[Nermal]

Wow, we're on a reply spree!

 

[CanadaRAM]

Yes it should work, although if the Ram will work at the speed of the slowest Ram.

Wha...?

Macintoshes run the RAM at the speed the Mac dictates, not the "speed" of the RAM. Putting in "faster" RAM does not change the performance - therefore there is no question of one RAM stick "slowing down" another

However, installing RAM that is slower than the nominal speed of the machine will be buggy or will flat out fail to boot.

 

[ClarkeB]

I opened my machine and checked on the little measurer on the back panel that has a little diagram of how big it should be, etc. And I go to put it in and it fits, but the little hammer things weren't high enough for the notches on the RAM. I checked the little sticker on it with the preinstalled one and it had the same PC3200U-30330-01 code on it and the stick fit up perfectly with the little diagram on the back door. Why doesn't it fit?

 

[ClarkeB]

Well, another day another dollar and another try! I reopened my computer and decided to try again! Well, I gave the stick a push and *click* the little hammers locked it in and I almost screamed! I put the back back on, screwed it up, plugged all my little wires back in (power, speakers, printer, iPod, ethernet) and hit the power button. Logged in and went to the About this Mac menu and BAM! 1GB RAM! Thank y'all for your help!

 

[AdamR01]

Wha...?

Macintoshes run the RAM at the speed the Mac dictates, not the "speed" of the RAM. Putting in "faster" RAM does not change the performance - therefore there is no question of one RAM stick "slowing down" another

However, installing RAM that is slower than the nominal speed of the machine will be buggy or will flat out fail to boot.

Half true. Lets say your machine needs PC133 SD-RAM and you use PC100. The machine will run the PC100 ram at 133 and it may or may not work properly. If use use ram thats different cas latency, the machine will use the slowest speed for all of the ram.

 

[Platform]

It may cause expected crashes and other problems, as a lot of computers come with cheap memory. One of the reasons that Macs are comparatively stable is because Apple always uses high-quality memory.

Try it, and if you start to have problems you can always take it back out again.

So what would be high quality RAM i have two 256MB DDR 400 PC 3200 sticks from Kingston in my PC is that high enough quality for a mac (iMac G5/ PM G5)

 

[Nermal]

Yeah, Kingston should be fine
Just avoid the 'generic' stuff with no brand name.

 

[Platform]

Yeah, Kingston should be fine
Just avoid the 'generic' stuff with no brand name.

Ok thanks, then upgrading RAM for apple just buy PC RAM from good makes
But if anything went wrong apple would not accept it or