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will adding ram to this machine boost performance much?!?

V

vegas-steven

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 14, 2007
200
0
that might sound a little crazy, but still

aboutthismacni3.png


i find myself with a lot of windows open most of the time.
i use imovie 08 and plan on trying out final cut.
i am using photoshop cs4 ect which complains that i dont have 2 gigs of ram.

so i think my late 2006 imac can do 3 gigs of ram... i wonder if it has open slots for more and what configuration i should get?

i find that my free memory while running some larger programs gets pretty scarce, and sometimes it slows a tiny bit but nothing like windows ever has.

should i invest? will i see a huge boost?
i think the graphics on this (x1600) are integrated so memory is being shared as i play games etc too.

what do you think?
 
Definitely, especially with integrated graphics. I just put 4GBs in my white macbook, makes general usage a bit smoother and heavy usage (logic) better too. I would get a 4gb kit just for simplicity - although you are right it will only utilise 3.3GBs.
 
With those specs its going to make a massive difference, but only when you have more than one window/application open at once, to be honest i'm suprised a dual-core only shipped with 1GB of Ram but there we go, you could get another 2GB to make it 3GB total for only $20 so go for it.
 
My question is since I am considering upping my RAM also...I have a Core 2 Duo iMac with 2 GB RAM. You hear so much about matching pairs, etc, but also, my machine will only recognize 3.3 GB RAM.

If money is not the issue, am I better betting two 2 GB sticks for a total of 4 GB even though my machine will only use 3.3, or getting a 2 GB stick and replacing 1 of my 1 GB sticks for a total of 3 GB, even though they won't be matching pairs.

I don't do any real heavy work, I just get tired of occaisionally getting the beach ball.

Thanks for your input!
 
Adding RAM is always a great option for pretty much any machine, and it's insanely cheap now compared to what it was 5 and 10 years ago.

I've gotten a lot from www.crucial.com (recommended to me by an apple store employee) and so far it seems to work well (knock on wood ...) and is really, really cheap. Installation isn't that hard on most machines either, so you can save a lot of money just ordering online and then installing it yourself if you have time/care about saving money.
 
well ,

I have in my hand the reciept for 4 gigs of 667mhz pc5300 low latency ram... 49.99 plus tax. not bad I don't think.

I bought more than I needed, and I need to know now what should I do... do I just install the four and sit on the 1 gig?
should I throw all 5 gigs in there?

I've read stranger stories where more ram than should be allowed is actually usable, maybe I will get lucky?
 
vegas-steven said:
well ,

I have in my hand the reciept for 4 gigs of 667mhz pc5300 low latency ram... 49.99 plus tax. not bad I don't think.

I bought more than I needed, and I need to know now what should I do... do I just install the four and sit on the 1 gig?
should I throw all 5 gigs in there?

I've read stranger stories where more ram than should be allowed is actually usable, maybe I will get lucky?
Click to expand...

Hope that is laptop memory you got there, only two laptop sized slots on the Intel iMacs.

So it'll be 4GB (2+2) or 3GB (1+2)
 
haha no I bought desktop memory!
patriot in fact. I thought it was desktop memory... guess I'll have to exchange it tomorrow :-(
 
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