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1.25GB RAM in an iMac?

C

chenley

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 22, 2002
7
0
Victoria, BC, Canada
A friend of mine has a spare 256MB DDR-667 memory stick from his Mac mini, and I was wondering if it would be possible to use it in my C2D iMac which has the stock 1GB RAM stick in it.

I realize that I'd be better off with another 1GB stick, but it's not in the budget right now, and 1.25GB of RAM should be at least a small improvement in performance when I have multiple apps open. Macintouch did some performance testing of iMacs with matched/unmatched RAM, and there was very little performance difference - basically, the more RAM the better, matched or not.

But I've never heard of anyone trying 1GB + 256MB in an Intel iMac, so is this possible?
 
chenley said:
A friend of mine has a spare 256MB DDR-667 memory stick from his Mac mini, and I was wondering if it would be possible to use it in my C2D iMac which has the stock 1GB RAM stick in it.

I realize that I'd be better off with another 1GB stick, but it's not in the budget right now, and 1.25GB of RAM should be at least a small improvement in performance when I have multiple apps open. Macintouch did some performance testing of iMacs with matched/unmatched RAM, and there was very little performance difference - basically, the more RAM the better, matched or not.

But I've never heard of anyone trying 1GB + 256MB in an Intel iMac, so is this possible?
Click to expand...

Combining different sizes is no problem at all. To check whether the RAM is the correct one for your Mac, you could go to Crucial, and check out the description of RAM that they sell for the Mac Mini and for your iMac and see if they match before opening the iMac, but I think that memory should be fine. I'm quite sure it works if it comes from an Intel Mac Mini, less sure if it comes from a PowerPC one.
 
Well, I know that it's the right type of RAM (PC2-5300 DDR2-667 SO-DIMM), I've just never heard of anyone using a 256MB stick in an intel iMac. If it works, I can post some before/after benchmarks (XBench I suppose, I've never benchmarked a Mac) to see what sort of difference there is.
 
As of now, RAM from all intel iMac, Mac Mini, MacBook, MacBook Pro are interchangeable. Just make sure it's a reputable brand.

1gb can be bought for as little as $10 shipped after rebate when they go on sale, but can be bought for $20.

Add: well name brand are about $30
 
Consultant said:
As of now, RAM from all intel iMac, Mac Mini, MacBook, MacBook Pro are interchangeable. Just make sure it's a reputable brand.

1gb can be bought for as little as $10 shipped after rebate when they go on sale, but can be bought for $20.
Click to expand...

I didn't know RAM was so cheap these days. I looked around and found 1GB Kingston RAM locally for $30, so I picked that up and won't be trying the 256MB stick. I was expecting it to be $70-80 dollars (haven't looked at RAM prices for a while) but for $30, I went for it and will just have to skip a few visits to Starbucks next week :)

Yay 2GB RAM! I can't wait to try it out, I've never had more than 1GB RAM in any computer I've had.
 
chenley said:
I didn't know RAM was so cheap these days. I looked around and found 1GB Kingston RAM locally for $30, so I picked that up and won't be trying the 256MB stick. I was expecting it to be $70-80 dollars (haven't looked at RAM prices for a while) but for $30, I went for it and will just have to skip a few visits to Starbucks next week :)

Yay 2GB RAM! I can't wait to try it out, I've never had more than 1GB RAM in any computer I've had.
Click to expand...

Congrats. Kingston for 30 Canadian sounds is a good price.

With more ram, you should be able to run MANY MORE open apps / documents / files at the same time. (not to say the default is bad, it's certainly much better than running under windows, but typically the more ram you have, the better.) Certain apps such as photoshop will see speed improvement.

Make sure you get: DDR2 667MHz PC2-5300 200 PIN SODIMM
(yeah it's a lot of modifiers) And take anti-static precautions!
 
Consultant said:
Congrats. Kingston for 30 Canadian sounds is a good price.

With more ram, you should be able to run MANY MORE open apps / documents / files at the same time. (not to say the default is bad, it's certainly much better than running under windows, but typically the more ram you have, the better.) Certain apps such as photoshop will see speed improvement.

Make sure you get: DDR2 667MHz PC2-5300 200 PIN SODIMM
(yeah it's a lot of modifiers) And take anti-static precautions!
Click to expand...

Yup, the RAM I bought has all of those acronyms attached :)

I notice my machine struggling a bit mostly in iPhoto (I have a couple thousand 6 megapixel images), and sometimes when playing World of Warcraft in very busy areas (and it's not a framerate issue, it just stutters for a second or two and I can see it loading new objects as I move around). I've also gotten in the habit of shutting down my apps after I use them, since having iPhoto, iTunes, Safari, Mail and iCal all up at the same time did cause slowdowns.

I'm firing up all my applications tonight and might even find a use for Spaces with all those apps running :)
 
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