Mac Pro 1,1 Yosemite RAM question

[Zeke D]

Hello all,
Using the piker yosemite installer, I've got 10.10.5 running on my original 2.0Ghz. I'm running an EVGA Geforce 210 1GB with the quattro mac drivers from nVidia's site. [love the passive cooler, bus-powered, and DVI/SVGA/HDMI] (It took a while to find the proper drivers that matched the OS ID.) I'm running the OEM 160GB WD drive, and 8x 512MB ram chips.

I saw an A-Data 8GB (4x 2GB) set on Amazon for $20. Now I know that all the ram slots on the risers must be populated, but do I need to worry about which chips are in which slots? If I'm mixing capacities, which slots should I put the 2GB sticks in, and what slots should have the 512MB sticks?

I use my MP mainly for photoshop CS6. Will the bump from 4GB to 10GB make a serious difference? Am I better off spending some money on a modern SATA drive?

 

[hwojtek]

http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_pro/faq/mac-pro-how-to-upgrade-memory-what-type-ram.html

"As is printed on the inside of the door of the Mac Pro, FB-DIMMs must be installed in a particular order.
The default configuration shipped with a pair of 512 MB FB-DIMMs installed in the first and second slots (towards the "gold fingers" in the top riser card), which leaves six slots free. The next pair of FB-DIMMs must be installed in the first and second slots of the bottom riser card, the next pair in the remaining slots of the top riser card (slots three and four), and finally the last pair in the last two slots (three and four) of the bottom riser card."

It does not matter which chips are in which slots as long, as they are installed in pairs.

4 GB in Yosemite seems a constants struggle for me, however your computer will be much faster if you switched to SSD (and set up Photoshop to use it as a scratch drive). Also, consider as much RAM as you can afford.

 

[Zeke D]

http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_pro/faq/mac-pro-how-to-upgrade-memory-what-type-ram.html

"As is printed on the inside of the door of the Mac Pro, FB-DIMMs must be installed in a particular order.
The default configuration shipped with a pair of 512 MB FB-DIMMs installed in the first and second slots (towards the "gold fingers" in the top riser card), which leaves six slots free. The next pair of FB-DIMMs must be installed in the first and second slots of the bottom riser card, the next pair in the remaining slots of the top riser card (slots three and four), and finally the last pair in the last two slots (three and four) of the bottom riser card."

It does not matter which chips are in which slots as long, as they are installed in pairs.

4 GB in Yosemite seems a constants struggle for me, however your computer will be much faster if you switched to SSD (and set up Photoshop to use it as a scratch drive). Also, consider as much RAM as you can afford.

THanks for the reply. I read in another thread that the 512MB sticks required more wattage, and produced more heat than higher capacity sticks.

 

[hwojtek]

THanks for the reply. I read in another thread that the 512MB sticks required more wattage, and produced more heat than higher capacity sticks.

I have never noticed that problem. Actually, during my last round of upgrades (from 16 to 24 GB RAM) I was so lazy, I left the regular small, non-Apple radiators on a pair of 4 GB sticks and my hardware monitor didn't even notice, no change in temperatures.
There is an excellent technical article on FB-DIMM memory in Mac Pro on Anandtech, helped me understand a lot (including slightly lower memory benchmarks each time I have added more RAM).

 

[666sheep]

Don't overthink it. Just get 32GB, especially as your'e using PS CS6 and want to install some of newer OSes. It won't be wasted. RAM is cheap and your'e in the US, so...

 

[Zeke D]

I have never noticed that problem. Actually, during my last round of upgrades (from 16 to 24 GB RAM) I was so lazy, I left the regular small, non-Apple radiators on a pair of 4 GB sticks and my hardware monitor didn't even notice, no change in temperatures.
There is an excellent technical article on FB-DIMM memory in Mac Pro on Anandtech, helped me understand a lot (including slightly lower memory benchmarks each time I have added more RAM).

What do you guys think about this: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00VN1WBAW/ The MA356LL isn't in the compatibility listing, but everything else matches.

 

[hwojtek]

It's a go.

 

[Zeke D]

It's a go.

All right, ordered. I figure when I get another royalty check in a month or two, I'll get that PCI-e mSATA card from OWC, and a 32GB SSD to speed this sucker up.