Third-Party RAM for 27-inch iMac Still Far More Affordable Than Apple's Checkout Upgrade Options

[FaustsHausUK]

I have never bought an Apple-installed RAM upgrade on a machine with accessible slots. I splurged on the 64GB upgrade for the 16” MBP, but I anticipate that machine lasting (and every Mac I buy retains its resale value because I look after them).

If you disagree with how something is priced, don’t buy it. These are luxury goods, you don’t _need_ them, so vote with your dollars/pounds/euros.

 

[G4DPII]

This needed a whole article to be pointed out?

 

[FaustsHausUK]

Does anyone know if this is the same Ram from the 2019 model or different? I just ordered a 27" and want to upgrade the ram myself through someone like OWC ... Just wanted to make sure before I buy the chips.

It’s 2666MHz DDR4 SO-DIMM once again. This search should take you to viable options on OWC’s site:https://eshop.macsales.com/search/?...filter.dimension_error_correction_110=Non-ECC

 

[JimmyBanks6]

Fine, it's long term price gouging. When end users can get the same amount for a quarter of the price (not including what's already preinstalled as base 8gb ram), after the manufacturer, distributor, and the end seller make their profit, then it's price gouging.

They're industry standard SO-DIMMS that have been around for ages. It's not new or anything Apple specific.

The only saving grace is that they are still user upgradeable in the 27" iMac, so only the truly uneducated sheep would pay for the upgrades during checkout. But that will be ending with Apple Silicon Macs for sure.

It is not price gouging:
Has the cost changed drastically? No.
Is there a supply reduction in RAM? No.
Is there an unexpected demand increase in RAM? No.
Are there other available products available to replace the RAM or the overall product? Yes.

Also, as others have pointed out in this thread, Dell offers a similar cost for RAM upgrades.

It is an expensive mark up. If the cost is too expensive, buy 3rd party or a non-Apple product.

 

[Expos of 1969]

We all know this ... i mean, it's Apple and their usual shinanigans ...

But here in Europe (portugal for me, actually) it's getting ridiculous:
- upgrading the 16" MBP top model from 16GB to 32GB is +500€ (592$ usd)
- upgrading the 27" iMac top model from 8GB to 32GB is +750€ (889$ usd)

I'm sadly considering ditching my old "work horse"MBP (i7 from late 2013) for a Surface Book 3 .... i will feel the pain of loosing my beloved Mac OS .... but we are talking about a 500$ usd difference minimum ... and i still get a tablet (although probably a bad 15" windows table).

It's very sad the way Apple treats us european customers ...

I agree. And VAT is not the issue. They gouge the European customers. I recently sold my early 2013 MBP, my iPhone 3GS, my I Phone 5c, my iPhone SE and my wife's iPad 3. And cancelled Apple Music and iCloud storage. It was time to say bye bye to the Cupertino cabal.
Happily using a Samsung phone for 10 months and a Samsung tablet for 8 months and Spotify for 3 years. There is another life out here!

 

[magbarn]

Everyone does this, it’s not just Apple.

Sure everyone does this, but only Apple decides to solder all their crap in with the majority of their computer designs.
Majority of PCs are still upgradeable in SSD, memory, even CPU/GPU
Hard to believe 10 years ago, you can still easily upgrade macbook Pro's memory, and hard drive/ssd all on your own. Even replacing the battery was easy.
imacs back then were also easy to upgrade as the screen was only held by magnets instead of tape/glue

 

[compwiz1202]

“Far more affordable”

Understatement of the year 🤣.

These kind of markups shouldn’t be legal.

Especially if it is soldered.

 

[Harshan]

The radical redesign will come with the first or second Apple Silicon version of the iMac. Memory upgrades are expensive because Apple doesn't want to maintain a stock of a large number of SKUs. They want to motivate people to upgrade the RAM themselves, which is why they made it so easy to do, and even put the memory specs and the instructions (including pictures) on their websites. Upgrading the RAM in a 27-inch iMac is very simple to do, and following Apple's instructions, it only took me a couple minutes to do it without tools. Kwitcher bitchen and buy RAM from OWC.

See https://support.apple.com/guide/imac/install-memory-in-your-27-inch-imac-apdd768f6349/mac

 

[sully54]

I expect to see user upgradable ram go away with a redesigned iMac with Apple Silicon

 

[dannyyankou]

You can get it with a simple Google search.I already have it.I have the iPhone and iPad version too.

1) it’s a little difficult to search google for an image with no description

2) If you already had it, the proper response to that post would he sharing the image.

 

[IlluminatedSage]

In a bad economy wish Apple would be kinder to customers on ram priding. It is a bit obscene to price it this high... it has always been obscene.

the notion that they may go to non-user upgradable for ARM macs would be horrible

 

[TiggrToo]

Sure everyone does this, but only Apple decides to solder all their crap in with the majority of their computer designs.

Again, not just Apple. Lenovo are starting to go down that road and others are also following.

 

[KikoPT]

I agree. And VAT is not the issue. They gouge the European customers. I recently sold my early 2013 MBP, my iPhone 3GS, my I Phone 5c, my iPhone SE and my wife's iPad 3. And cancelled Apple Music and iCloud storage. It was time to say bye bye to the Cupertino cabal.
Happily using a Samsung phone for 10 months and a Samsung tablet for 8 months and Spotify for 3 years. There is another life out here!

I'm still not prepared to go full Android (i have an iPhone X as my primary and a el-cheapo Android for when i travel to not-so-recommended countries) .... however, after using Windows 10 + WSL (so full linux below windows) ... i feel i will missing less and less MacOS.

It's like Apple DOES NOT want the European customers ...

 

[jasnw]

It's also annoying that there are only two Thunderbolt ports. What's the best current option for adding more ports?

 

[dogslobber]

I bet user upgradable ram is gone in arm iMacs.

Everything is soldered down. Even the solder isn't removable.

 

[UK-MacAddict]

This has always been the case.

It would be a massive shame if they take away the ability to upgrade the RAM yourself in future iMac re-designs.
😬

Guarantee RAM will be inaccessible when the redesign drops. They'll say they had to do it to make the chassis slimmer. Also just to force us to pay their prices.

I am going to pick up one of these iMacs just released myself. It will give me time to see how Apple Silicon pans out over the next few years.

 

[ArrayDecay]

What lunatic would buy ram from apple?

The U.S. Government.

 

[ondert]

Asking for landlords to cut the rents by %50 while still ripping its customers off. Tim Apple should have gone long ago. His attitudes bring only hatred to me.

 

[dannys1]

This has always been the case.

It would be a massive shame if they take away the ability to upgrade the RAM yourself in future iMac re-designs.
😬

The will. 100% this is your last chance to save money on 3rd party ram upgrades. From redesigned ARM iMac on wards that little door will be gone and you'll need to pay at the point of purchase for what you actually need/want.

 

[SkiHound2]

I bet user upgradable ram is gone in arm iMacs.

That would be my guess.

 

[dannys1]

Asking for landlords to cut the rents by %50 while still ripping its customers off. Tim Apple should have gone long ago. His attitudes bring only hatred to me.

These are the same margins Steve decided to charge for RAM upgrades too.

 

[compwiz1202]

Again, not just Apple. Lenovo are starting to go down that road and others are also following.

Lenovo already stank lately because even though you can swap it, there is no longer a panel so you have to take off the entire bottom and whatever else just to access it. Does anyone even still have a panel anymore?? Used to be so easy to upgrade then. Was still a minor pain to clone the drive and stuff, but at least the physical swap was easy.

 

[arvinsim]

The radical redesign will come with the first or second Apple Silicon version of the iMac. Memory upgrades are expensive because Apple doesn't want to maintain a stock of a large number of SKUs. They want to motivate people to upgrade the RAM themselves, which is why they made it so easy to do, and even put the memory specs and the instructions (including pictures) on their websites. Upgrading the RAM in a 27-inch iMac is very simple to do, and following Apple's instructions, it only took me a couple minutes to do it without tools. Kwitcher bitchen and buy RAM from OWC.

See https://support.apple.com/guide/imac/install-memory-in-your-27-inch-imac-apdd768f6349/mac

if that is the case, why did they make the RAM in the Mac Mini harder to install?

 

[Darth Tulhu]

This is where Tim's profit genius shows. Apple has been moving towards full lockup since 2012, folks.

This will be the last Mac besides the Mac Pro (they CANNOT get away with it in that segment) to have user-upgradeable anything.

The AS transition will remove this. I bet even the Mini will fall victim to this.

 

[robjulo]

The company that claims ”we lover our customers” has zero ethical issues about gouging those same customers. Keep propping Tim and company up on a pedestal though.