What type of ram for G4 imac internal slot?

[RandomDeadHead]

My wife's computer is a first gen G4 iMac 700 mhz. She has been complaining that it doesn't have enough ram to adequately do the photoshoping that she does at home.
it is a stock machine with A 128mb chip in the internal slot and a 512 chip in the user accessible slot. I would like to replace the stock 128 chip with a 512 one. I have found some instructions on how to disassemble the machine, and I feel that I have the necessary skills to perform the upgrade.

However, I have been told that the ram in the internal slot is of different specs then the user accessible one. What type of ram do I need for the internal slot?

Also I have a spare 60-gig 7200 rpm hard drive that I would like to exchange for the stock 40-gig 5400-rpm drive the came with the machine, Will their be any problems with changing them out? I read that the iMac uses ultra ata drives, but the drive I have is a sata drive that I removed from an external case. Does this matter?

One last question, Where in the hell am I supposed to get thermal paste? I called my local Radio Shack and they had no idea of what I was talking about.

 

[manitoubalck]

Re: What type of ram for G4 imac internal slot?

Originally posted by RandomDeadHead
1. My wife's computer is a first gen G4 iMac 700 mhz. She has been complaining that it doesn't have enough ram to adequately do the photoshoping that she does at home.
it is a stock machine with A 128mb chip in the internal slot and a 512 chip in the user accessible slot. I would like to replace the stock 128 chip with a 512 one. I have found some instructions on how to disassemble the machine, and I feel that I have the necessary skills to perform the upgrade.

However, I have been told that the ram in the internal slot is of different specs then the user accessible one. What type of ram do I need for the internal slot?

2. Also I have a spare 60-gig 7200 rpm hard drive that I would like to exchange for the stock 40-gig 5400-rpm drive the came with the machine, Will their be any problems with changing them out? I read that the iMac uses ultra ata drives, but the drive I have is a sata drive that I removed from an external case. Does this matter?



3. One last question, Where in the hell am I supposed to get thermal paste? I called my local Radio Shack and they had no idea of what I was talking about.

1. http://www.pricwatch.com, since RAM is RAM,
2. SATA to my knowlege doesn't use an IDE connector hence can't be swaped.
3. http://www.coolerguys.com for all you overclocking and case modding ambitions

 

[Makosuke]

Actually, the last poster was not correct on the RAM you need; the G4 iMacs do not use the same type of RAM in both slots; I believe the user-accessable slot uses a standard 168-pin DIMM, while the internal one uses a 144-pin SODIMM; both, as you said, can accept up to 512MB modules.

The page at LowEndMac gives some details on this machine you might find useful:

http://www.lowendmac.com/imacs/fpimac.html

If you need any shoppping help, http://crucial.com is a good place to go for decent, cheap RAM, or you could also try http://dealram.com if you're a bargain hunter.

It's true that your SATA drive isn't going to do any good, though, since SATA is not backward compatible with PATA, which is what every Mac other than the G5s use (I didn't even realize anybody made a 60GB SATA drive, but I guess the Maxtor Diamondmax Plus 9 series came in that size).

 

[manitoubalck]

Originally posted by Makosuke
Actually, the last poster was not correct on the RAM you need; the G4 iMacs do not use the same type of RAM in both slots; I believe the user-accessable slot uses a standard 168-pin DIMM, while the internal one uses a 144-pin SODIMM; both, as you said, can accept up to 512MB modules.

I was careful in my post not to touch this subject, as I wasn't quite sure. I had heard that the RAM slots were of different standards but have not seen it first hand. That's why I just said 'RAM is RAM' meaning that you don't require Apple specific memory.

The new iMacs use DDR333 which only occurs to my knowlege in a 184pin DIMM

 

[wr0x2]

For the thermal paste, try arctic silver. (I think http://www.arcticsilver.com) BTW why do you need it?

Also, SATA does not work with ata. You could put it in a G5 but not your wife's imac.

 

[Makosuke]

Originally posted by wr0x2
For the thermal paste, try arctic silver. (I think http://www.arcticsilver.com) BTW why do you need it?

Because he's planning on getting to the internal (not usually user-accessable) RAM slot on his iMac, which involves reapplying some thermal paste when you reassemble the computer. It wasn't designed to make it easy to get in there.