Apple is charging us $216CAD to upgrade the RAM to 16GB on imac 5K. I went to a third party website and they're selling 32GB (4x8GB) RAM for $200US. Why is it significantly cheaper to upgrade the RAM ourselves? Is there any cons of doing it ourselves? Also, could someone recommend me a 1867MHz DDR3 SDRAM that is compatible with the newest imac 5K?
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Why is it a lot cheaper to upgrade the RAM ourselves?
- Thread starter vmflapem
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No real cons unless you're really scared about doing that sort of stuff. Just take your time and make sure it's inserted correctly. Check out some videos on YouTube for tips.
I bought Crucial RAM.
Why is it more expensive? Some people refer to it as the 'Apple tax'.
I bought Crucial RAM.
Why is it more expensive? Some people refer to it as the 'Apple tax'.
Thanks! I'm gonna buy the lowest RAM from Apple (2x4GB). When I upgrade, can I put in 2x8GB (for a total of 24GB) despite there being 2x4GBs in the slots? Not sure if I have to match the GB number in all 4 memory slots. Sorry if this is a noob question lol
Just put the 8GB in the empty slots leaving the Apple ram where it's placed. You can run 24GB no problem.
Storage and memory upgrades from Apple are always atrociously overpriced.
Replace them yourself and save a lot of money.
Replace them yourself and save a lot of money.
Only two current Macs in the lineup have upgradable RAM as of now, the 5K iMac and Mac Pro. But I can think of three advantages with doing the Apple upgrade on those Macs:
But from a business perspective it makes more sense to order the RAM from Apple than from a consumer one.
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- Apple-installed RAM is covered under the Apple warranty.
- No possibility of compatibility issues or improper installation (although it's not hard to find and install the right RAM).
- Simpler for those who just want to take it out of the box and get right to it.
But from a business perspective it makes more sense to order the RAM from Apple than from a consumer one.
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Yes you can.
Probably because Apple get stock machines made at the factory in volume.
As soon as you want something different (RAM or HD), they have a different supply line that they charge a premium for.
Look at it like this. When we order 15000 stickers at work (same design), it costs a couple of £100. Yesterday we asked for 15000 stickers using 16 different designs, and they wanted over £1000.
Like others have said do the RAM yourself is easy. Even my gorilla like digits can do it!
Crucial is a good choice. Enter your model and they show you which RAM you need.
I've always gotten my Mac RAM upgrades from CanadaRAM, the RAM is guaranteed to work.
http://canadaram.com/apple_imac_intel.htm
if you don't keep the current ones you can also buy faster RAM that are known to work with the iMac.
Part of the difference is that when you buy pre-installed RAM you're paying for a service as well as a component. When you buy it afterwards, you're buying just the component and doing the service yourself.
It's been this way since the earliest days of PCs, from any manufacturer. Manufacturers offer the convenience of out-of-box configuration, and can charge a premium for that.
You might as well ask why auto dealerships charge so much for parts like oil filters and batteries, when a person handy with tools could buy the parts at a lower price and do the work themselves.
Parts suppliers are competing for the business of people whose primary motivation is to save money. If they charge too high a price for their parts, the time and effort that goes into do-it-yourself repairs makes less sense, and they sell fewer parts. Manufacturers and repair shops are providing a service to people with different motivations - convenience, lack of knowledge/skill, lack of time, peace of mind, warranty coverage.... And as with anything else in this life, they're able to charge whatever the market will bear.
It's been this way since the earliest days of PCs, from any manufacturer. Manufacturers offer the convenience of out-of-box configuration, and can charge a premium for that.
You might as well ask why auto dealerships charge so much for parts like oil filters and batteries, when a person handy with tools could buy the parts at a lower price and do the work themselves.
Parts suppliers are competing for the business of people whose primary motivation is to save money. If they charge too high a price for their parts, the time and effort that goes into do-it-yourself repairs makes less sense, and they sell fewer parts. Manufacturers and repair shops are providing a service to people with different motivations - convenience, lack of knowledge/skill, lack of time, peace of mind, warranty coverage.... And as with anything else in this life, they're able to charge whatever the market will bear.
You do not have to match all 4 slots, but there are performance advantages to matching pairs of slots. The existing RAM will be in one pair, so add your 2 sticks of RAM that are identical to each other (but do not have to match the existing RAM) to the empty pair.
Apple has a long history (we're talking ever since the Mac could take memory upgrades (the original macintoshes were sealed) of over charging for ram. The thought back in the PPC days was to buy the minimum ram that you could and then upgrade to what you actually needed. Now a days that's difficult to do, at least on the 21" iMac, and Apple's laptop line