iMac 20 inch 1GB vs 2GB

[QuoteMac]

I'm buying my first Mac and was told at the store that 1GB is not enough and the upgrade is not worth it cause might as well then get the 2.66 instead of the 2.4 which comes with the 2GB.
I just use it for internet and pictures, and probably will have; safari, itunes, photoshop and not much else running togther, several internet pages at the same time, but not much more.
Should I get the 2.66 and pay the 300 dollars extra or stick to the low end version?

 

[flopticalcube]

Stick to the low end version if that's all you need. If you find it runs a little slow because of lack of memory, third party RAM is $20 for an extra 1G stick or $40 for an extra 2G stick. You can install the RAM yourself it is very easy (1 screw).

 

[QuoteMac]

Memory 1GB vs 2GB iMac

How much do you need to use to find a computer to be running slow with 1GB ?

 

[aaquib]

How much do you need to use to find a computer to be running slow with 1GB ?

Just use it like you normally would, and if you find that its unresponsive or slow when multitasking, go ahead and upgrade it! Don't see why you'd pay $300 extra when you may not even need to spend an extra $20. The iMac comes with (1) 1GB stick, so you can just another 1GB, pop it in and get 2GB.

 

[txhockey9404]

I do basically what you will do on a 2.0ghz with 1 gig ram. It does the job better than my better specced dell did. Photoshop might slow down a little, but it won't be unbearable unless you really don't like to wait at all. I have created hours of video on this machine, as well as playing around in Garageband, ripping dvds, playing pretty resource intensive games (XPlane), etc and have not run into very many problems. It does tend to slow down during XPlane sometimes, but not enough to justify an upgrade of the RAM. So I say go ahead and buy it. You won't regret it. I have only had one major problem with my iMac and a few trips to the Apple store later, they just gave me an entirely new computer (It has Leopard too and my old one had Tiger so I got a free upgrade). This is my first Mac as well. The 1gb should be plenty.

 

[cdlxxvi]

Should I get the 2.66 and pay the 300 dollars extra or stick to the low end version?

I have got the 2.66 with no extras and during light use (10.5.3, Firefox, Thunderbird, iTunes, Adium, NeoOffice + sometimes some random apps open at the same time) the memory usage is usually between 800MB and 1.2GB, so I guess that if you need more apps at once, you will get lots of swapping on the 1GB machine.

As for buying 3rd party RAM upgrade vs. upgrading to 2.66 - well, apart from additional 1GB RAM you will get faster CPU (which you probably won't notice unless gaming), 320GB HDD and faster GPU (Doom3 and Quake4 demos run just fine on mine on high detail). If these matter for you, then go for 2.66; if you do not need faster GPU or bigger HDD, stick with 2.4 and spend 10 minutes on adding RAM yourself.

 

[Jon.Stewart87]

Just use it like you normally would, and if you find that its unresponsive or slow when multitasking, go ahead and upgrade it! Don't see why you'd pay $300 extra when you may not even need to spend an extra $20. The iMac comes with (1) 1GB stick, so you can just another 1GB, pop it in and get 2GB.

To the same extent - go onto crucial and get 2x2GB RAM for about $99.

It's one hell of a deal and beats the crap outta apple's offer.

4GB? I dont have to worry about anything.