To buy and where to buy 6GB ram for iMac?

[flyersgl]

I have an early 2008 24" iMac with original 2GB ram. I am planning to buy the 2GB + 4GB upgrade. Last weekend when I started researching this there was a site that had a decent price that I can't find anymore in spite of searching. OWTC or something like that. Anyone know who I am thinking of? Barring that, any advice on where the best price can be found?

Also, this is an expensive upgrade relative to just going with 2GB + 2GB (and more than 4GB + 4GB, which I know my machine won't handle)--is the extra 2GB worth it? I am not a heavy duty user.

 

[NJRonbo]

I always buy from Crucial. I download their free software that scans my computer and tells me which memory is compatible.

I don't know if they are the least expensive, but they are damn dependable.

And, yes, you should see a nice improvement with an extra 2GB ram.

 

[xkmxkmxlmx]

OWC?

http://www.macsales.com

 

[Mike in Kansas]

I have an early 2008 24" iMac with original 2GB ram. I am planning to buy the 2GB + 4GB upgrade. Last weekend when I started researching this there was a site that had a decent price that I can't find anymore in spite of searching. OWTC or something like that. Anyone know who I am thinking of? Barring that, any advice on where the best price can be found?

Also, this is an expensive upgrade relative to just going with 2GB + 2GB (and more than 4GB + 4GB, which I know my machine won't handle)--is the extra 2GB worth it? I am not a heavy duty user.

I have the same machine - 2008 24" iMac. I bought it with 2GB but immediately upped that to 4GB a day after I got it. Purchased from NewEgg at the time. Over the years, as the OS has gotten more complex, and I've moved from iPhoto to Aperture, the amount of my available RAM has been decreasing. Finally, I bit the bullet in February of this year and replaced one of the 2GB sticks with a 4GB stick to max it out to 6GB, which I got from OWC. The difference was immediately noticeable. Aperture ran much faster, iMovie was snappier, etc. My beachballs almost dropped down to zero.

I knew I'd see an improvement as my Activity Monitor showed a fair amount of page outs occurring prior to bumping up to 6GB; they have dropped dramatically.

Not being satisfied with just that, I also replaced my HDD with a 240GB SSD right around the same time. Both of those upgrades are allowing me to get at least another 1-1/2 years out of the machine, maybe more. Beachballs are non-existant and everything runs great. As far as page outs go, even if I am still getting the occasional page out, the SSD is so fast that I don't really notice them.

OWC

 

[flyersgl]

Ah, yes, OWC--I missed it b/c website was macsales, and I was looking for something different. Thanks.

And I am convinced to go with the 6GB. I am too timid to do anything with the hard drive, but I will hopefully get another 2 years of work out of it with the memory upgrade.

 

[Mike in Kansas]

What will finally force me to upgrade will be an OS release that no longer supports my hardware. This year the 2006 iMacs were dropped... who knows how much longer the 2007s/2008s will be supported??

 

[old-wiz]

What will finally force me to upgrade will be an OS release that no longer supports my hardware. This year the 2006 iMacs were dropped... who knows how much longer the 2007s/2008s will be supported??

I have a 24" 2008 myself and ask the same question. They still support the core2duos, which are 64 bit. It's hard to guess.

 

[fig]

OWC?

http://www.macsales.com

I get most of my components from them, great little shop.