Early-2009 iMac upgrade recommendations

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

Hi, anyone tried inserting a single 8 GB SODIMM module in the RAM slot of an early 2009 iMAC 20''? If so, did it worked?

My dad's early 2009 imac 20'' started failing to boot up while 2 x 4GB SODIMM are in place by making a three beep sound (hardware error) and when removing the second slot SODIMM then it booted up correctly.

Hope someone can tell me if tried the single 8GB SODIMM.

Thanks.

Can you really buy 8GB SODIMM DDR3 1066MHz?
Because 1333MHz modules are not supported by iMac early 2009.
This mean the system is not stable.

 

[kschendel]

Can you really buy 8GB SODIMM DDR3 1066MHz?
Because 1333MHz modules are not supported by iMac early 2009.
This mean the system is not stable.

Any memory module ought to be able to run at downclocked speeds. I'd expect the memory to run at whatever speed the rest of the system knows about. I suppose the worst that could happen would be for a really dumb EFI implementation to refuse to recognize the memory at all if it described an unknown speed. It wouldn't be unstable, though, it simply wouldn't work.

 

[Old Muley]

Interesting thread to see pop up. I just inherited my parents late 2009 iMac and was going to see how far I could upgrade it. It's only got 4GB of RAM and the original HDD and boot times are ridiculous.

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

Any memory module ought to be able to run at downclocked speeds. I'd expect the memory to run at whatever speed the rest of the system knows about. I suppose the worst that could happen would be for a really dumb EFI implementation to refuse to recognize the memory at all if it described an unknown speed. It wouldn't be unstable, though, it simply wouldn't work.

I've read some threads that SODIMM 1333Mhz modules would cause kernel panic in iMac 2009.
Anyway, I'll try this weekend and report the result here. I happen to have 1 4GB SODIMM 1333 in a PC. Will try to put it to an iMac 2009 to see if it works without any problem.

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

Test result.
My iMAC ran fine with 1 4GB 1333Mhz SODIMM modules. It recognized the SODIMM at exactly 1333Mhz as well.

When mixing 2GB of 1066Mhz and 4GB of 1333Mhz, it ran at 1066Mhz. (Brand: the 2GB module is Sk Hynix, 4GB module is Kingmax)

 

[LayzyNath]

Follow-up! I put a WD Blue 3D NAND 500GB SSD into the HDD bay in the iMac early '09 24" and it's been working stable at 3Gb for a couple of days (running OSX El Capitan). Fingers crossed that it stays good!

The SSD model is WDC WDS500G2B0A. I believe this drive uses the Marvell 88SS1074 controller. Seems to work fine with the MCP79 chip on the iMac.

Will be putting the flickery Crucial MX500 drive into another computer that runs at 6Gb!

Just wondering if you are able to provide an update on how the WD Blue SSD is going for you? Is it still consistently negotiating to 3gb/s?

I have an early 2009 24" iMac as well (2.66ghz, 4gb 1066mhz ram, El Capitan), and so far I have tried the Samsung 860 Evo 500gb in the regular HDD bay and it would only do 1.5gb/s, which seems to be contrary to someone else's results in this thread. Is your iMac the same specs as mine?

Any advice would be much appreciated! Cheers

 

[DahoodG4]

Hi guys, thanks for all posters for the help, for me all is working well .

iMac early 2009 20inch - OSX Yosemite - 2.66Ghz Core2Duo and the buggy Nvidia controller.

Tested many SSDs, but something might be wrong.
Superdrive replaced with a SSD casing bought on Amazon

Tested Crucial MX500, ref. CT250MX500SSD1, controller Silicon Motion SM2258
- as main drive, no boot problem, SATA II negociated at 3Gb/s
- as second drive instead of Superdrive, check at reboot System profiler, got only 1.5Gb/s

Tested Sandisk Ultra II, ref. SDSSDHII480G, controller Marvell 88SS9187
- as second drive instead of Superdrive, check at reboot System profiler, got only 1.5Gb/s

Tested Crucial BX500, ref.CT480BX500SSD1, controller is Silicon Motion SM2258XT (DRAM less controller)
- as second drive instead of Superdrive, check at reboot System profiler, got only 1.5Gb/s, but, I did a SMC reset, then a PRAM reset with 4 startup chimes (bong), then got it fully working @3Gb/s .
Benches are showing close to the same transfer rates, which I guess, are fully filling the SATA II bus.

I have onlw noticed that both SSDs had TRIM deactivated, and had to activate with sudo trimforce in terminal.

So that makes me wonder, what if I would have done those PRAM and SMC reset with the other disks ?
As SSDs with Silicon Motion controller were reported in this thread as safe picks.
I bet the crucial MX500 might work, but I have no more patience after disassembling 5 times the iMac

 

[pilotanatoliy]

Hi. What do you think of imac 9.1 (early 2009), I want to install an intel T9900 processor (now it costs e8135)?

 

[zgagato]

Using DosDude's HighSierra 10.13 patcher works with the 09 iMac if sb is interested. I have done it 5 years ago on a top 24" model with geforce gt120 and 2.93 C2D cpu. I used a sandisk plus SSD in hdd bay. It worked for years after that.
I believe i also used a pair of 1333 ddr3 ram 4GB for total of 8GB. 2009 macs are not peaky about faster ram.