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New Ram for iMac

H

hasteveha

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 27, 2008
67
0
Doesn't the iMac use notebook memory? My system has 2gb, I want to get another 2gb, what's the best price and place to order it?I have the newest iMac

Thanks
 
So I'm looking to upgrade to 4 gigs for my iMac. It's a 2.8 Intel Core 2 Duo aluminum iMac that was bought right before the 3 Ghz speed bump. The memory in it right now is 2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM. I've been reading on different forums and getting mixed answers. I would like to get RAM that is certified to work with my iMac. I'm don't want to go cheap cheap because RAM is very important. So what have others done? What do you recommend? And what store to buy from?

So I've read about Kingston, Corsair, OWC(?) and Crucial but not sure what to get. Which is best, most compatible/reliable and has a lifetime warranty? If it falls into all of these categories then cheap is good ;) I think OWC may fall into that category? Anyone used their product?

Thanks!

One thing that I'm pretty sure about is that I cannot get the 800 MHz since that is for the newest iMac models. Right?
 
pjryan3 said:
So I'm looking to upgrade to 4 gigs for my iMac. It's a 2.8 Intel Core 2 Duo aluminum iMac that was bought right before the 3 Ghz speed bump. The memory in it right now is 2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM. I've been reading on different forums and getting mixed answers. I would like to get RAM that is certified to work with my iMac. I'm don't want to go cheap cheap because RAM is very important. So what have others done? What do you recommend? And what store to buy from?

So I've read about Kingston, Corsair, OWC(?) and Crucial but not sure what to get. Which is best, most compatible/reliable and has a lifetime warranty? If it falls into all of these categories then cheap is good ;) I think OWC may fall into that category? Anyone used their product?

Thanks!

One thing that I'm pretty sure about is that I cannot get the 800 MHz since that is for the newest iMac models. Right?
Click to expand...

You need 667MHz ram for your model.

I bought OWZ from NewEgg for my 3GHz iMac. $67 for 4GB 800Mhz after rebate and shipping. So far it has been great and many others are also using this brand. It has lifetime warranty.
 
pjryan3 said:
So I'm looking to upgrade to 4 gigs for my iMac. It's a 2.8 Intel Core 2 Duo aluminum iMac that was bought right before the 3 Ghz speed bump. The memory in it right now is 2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM. I've been reading on different forums and getting mixed answers. I would like to get RAM that is certified to work with my iMac. I'm don't want to go cheap cheap because RAM is very important. So what have others done? What do you recommend? And what store to buy from?

So I've read about Kingston, Corsair, OWC(?) and Crucial but not sure what to get. Which is best, most compatible/reliable and has a lifetime warranty? If it falls into all of these categories then cheap is good ;) I think OWC may fall into that category? Anyone used their product?

Thanks!

One thing that I'm pretty sure about is that I cannot get the 800 MHz since that is for the newest iMac models. Right?
Click to expand...

RAM speed is backward compatible. 800 MHz RAM will work, but will run at the slower 667 MHz speed. I have Crucial in my iMac.

Dave
 
Snoguy said:
RAM speed is backward compatible. 800 MHz RAM will work, but will run at the slower 667 MHz speed. I have Crucial in my iMac.
Click to expand...

Except for when it doesn't work. It depends entirely on whether the Serial Presence Detect values are correctly programmed on the module. Many generic modules don't have the right SPDs.

MacBook Pro Penryn machines are widely reported to fail with 800 MHz modules of all brands.
 
I brought my Aluminum iMac 20" (the first gen that came out last summer) in for repair to the Apple Store because of random shutdowns. They called me today and told me that because the part that is causing it is backordered, and isn't expected to arrive for a while, they're just replacing my machine.

It's going to be one of the newer models, with the 800 MHz RAM, so it'll come with 2x1 GB 800MHz RAM installed, I assume. My question is...will the 2 GB chip that I had installed on my older machine (which I assume I'll get back since I bought/installed that myself to raise the RAM to 3GB) work on the newer machine, or will I need to buy new RAM (assuming that the 2GB RAM ends up not being sufficient)?

Thanks!
 
CanadaRAM said:
Except for when it doesn't work. It depends entirely on whether the Serial Presence Detect values are correctly programmed on the module. Many generic modules don't have the right SPDs.

MacBook Pro Penryn machines are widely reported to fail with 800 MHz modules of all brands.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the input. Maybe I've been lucky, but I've never run into any modules with SPD problems.
 
drewfus said:
It's going to be one of the newer models, with the 800 MHz RAM, so it'll come with 2x1 GB 800MHz RAM installed, I assume. My question is...will the 2 GB chip that I had installed on my older machine (which I assume I'll get back since I bought/installed that myself to raise the RAM to 3GB) work on the newer machine, or will I need to buy new RAM (assuming that the 2GB RAM ends up not being sufficient)?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

No, you don't want to install the 667 MHz module into the new iMac. It may work, but if it does it will drag the RAM speed of the machine down to 667.

I would ask the Apple store to deliver you back a 3 GB machine, since their inability to fix it means your 2 GB SODIMM purchase will be made useless.

Also, don't assume that you will get your 2 GB SODIMM back, or any of your data & programs from the old hard drive.
 
Yes it should. I actually installed it and it worked fine. But when I tried to do a fresh reinstall of the osx, it would fail. When I put back the original ram, the install worked. I will RMA this ram.
 
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