21.5" iMac with 8GB of RAM

[PodHead]

Anyone put 8GB of RAM into their base model 21.5" iMac yet? I want to use the money I would otherwise spend on the mid-level 21.5 incher and just add more RAM and a matching firewire 800 external HDD. Graphics card is not an issue for me, neither is 1TB of disk space. How is that extra RAM working out for you?

 

[Sun Baked]

Probably won't do diddly for you ... unless you are using apps that really load the memory and force you into pageouts at 4GB.

http://www.barefeats.com/mbpp16.html

The money is likely better spent on stuff that will affect the benchmarks now, and upgrade the memory next year or when you need it.

 

[PodHead]

So you think 4GB is cool....ok. Thanks for the imput. I'm not really sure what extra RAM does anyway. I heard it speeds things up and makes it so the beach ball doesn't appear as often. I'll try anything to avoid that.

 

[dbmnk]

What if you run virtual box - would that justify getting more RAM?

Say I allocate 2GB RAM to the virtual machine, wouldn't they be reserved for the virtual machine then, meaning only 2GB available for OSX - sufficient for normal browsing, ituning, mailing, officeing, youtubing in OSX?

 

[PodHead]

I haven't thought about that....VMware Fusion is a possibility for me as I will be installing Windoze 7 in one form or another.

 

[jmonfire]

worth it?

Anyone put 8GB of RAM into their base model 21.5" iMac yet? I want to use the money I would otherwise spend on the mid-level 21.5 incher and just add more RAM and a matching firewire 800 external HDD. Graphics card is not an issue for me, neither is 1TB of disk space. How is that extra RAM working out for you?

I think above 4G, adding more RAM is diminishing in return as the processor cache is 3mb. 6G sounds ok but 8G? I'm not sure if it's worth it.