ram upgrade question...

[myke323]

i have a 2.16 20" c2d which currently has the 1GB ram (2 x 512). should i:

- upgrade to 2GB by getting 1GB x 2, and get rid of the 2 512's

- upgrade to 2.5GB by getting 1 2GB stick and leaving one of the 512's - does anyone know if this is this even possible?

 

[Erendiox]

Wirelessly posted (Erendiox: Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A102 Safari/419.3)

your second option is possible. Mismatched ram sizes won't really make any difference in an iMac. It really boils down to price as far as picking between the two choices. The 2GB stick may cost more than the pair of 1GB sticks, so you need to decide if the extra .5GB of memory is worth that price difference.

 

[myke323]

Wirelessly posted (Erendiox: Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A102 Safari/419.3)

your second option is possible. Mismatched ram sizes won't really make any difference in an iMac. It really boils down to price as far as picking between the two choices. The 2GB stick may cost more than the pair of 1GB sticks, so you need to decide if the extra .5GB of memory is worth that price difference.

thanks for the reply. well, price isn't really an issue because both options are really cheap right now (like around $50!)... so i was wondering if the mismatch thing would even work or be beneficial... sounds like it could be according to what you are saying.

 

[Erendiox]

Sorry if I didn't make it clear the first time. Using a 2GB stick and a 512MB stick together, or using any memory sticks of differing sizes together, will absolutely work without any problems. You shouldn't hesitate to do that if the cost difference isn't an issue.

 

[myke323]

Sorry if I didn't make it clear the first time. Using a 2GB stick and a 512MB stick together, or using any memory sticks of differing sizes together, will absolutely work without any problems. You shouldn't hesitate to do that if the cost difference isn't an issue.

Hmmm... really?? Sweet. In that case I will go with a single 2GB along with one of my 512's. Might as well, seeing as it's the same price as 2x1GBs.

 

[Leon Kowalski]

well, price isn't really an issue because both options
are really cheap right now (like around $50!)...

Mushkin 'PerfectMatch' for Apple -- 4GB kit @ $60

Works fine on white C2D (OS reports 4GB but uses only 3.3GB).
Small 'matched pair' performance bump -- for very small price.

LK

 

[myke323]

Mushkin 'PerfectMatch' for Apple -- 4GB kit @ $60

Works fine on white C2D (OS reports 4GB but uses only 3.3GB).
Small 'matched pair' performance bump -- for very small price.

LK

Interesting... I hate mail-in rebates, but I might do it. Is Mushkin good? I don't really know much about ram brands at all...

Also, you are saying that a matched pair is somewhat beneficial. So like maybe 2x1gb would be better than 2gb+512gb?

 

[Leon Kowalski]

Interesting... I hate mail-in rebates, but I might do it.

Me too. OTOH, mushkin.com gets $46 each for the same
memory sticks. So, Newegg is cheaper even if you don't
apply for the rebate.

Is Mushkin good?

Check the customer comments on Newegg.com

Also, you are saying that a matched pair is somewhat beneficial. So like maybe 2x1gb would be better than 2gb+512gb?

The matched-pair "bonus" is very modest - only a few %.
OTOH, a 'wasted' 1GB costs only about $15, so it's a huge
bargain compared to Apple prices for CPU speed upgrades.

Here are some benchmarks for various RAM configurations:

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/Memory_Benchmark/Apple_iMac/

And a thread with additional info:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1448049&tstart=0

...happy hunting,

LK

 

[EasyRider]

Hmmm... really?? Sweet. In that case I will go with a single 2GB along with one of my 512's. Might as well, seeing as it's the same price as 2x1GBs.

I did the same thing on my 2.16ghz 24" imac. Works fine and performance has improved nicely. No more pauses. Well worth it.

 

[pazreal]

Load as much as you can in there. I think we are in that sweet spot of RAM prices for the Intel macs.