upgrade my ram?

[seh80]

Now that there isn't an iPhone in my near future, I have an apple gift card, and some extra dollars I would like to put into my computer or setup somehow.

My first thought is to upgrade the ram from 1GB to 2. The computer is quick, but I would not object to snappier. I tend to always have open at least mail, safari, rapidweaver, newsfire, and eyetv. Right now, iPhoto and rapidweaver are slooow. I am getting a lot of beach balls when I switch between apps.

Should I go for it? Would it even be of benefit, or would I not be likely to notice? I've never had a computer with 2GB before, so I have nothing to base it on.

I don't want to throw away $350 because something sounds like a good idea to uninformed me, so any help is much appreciated!

 

[After G]

$350 for RAM? I recommend doing it. Don't buy from Apple.

Go to a computer store and they'll even install it for you for cheaper.

Did it myself and paid $160 for 2 GB, to help you gauge pricing.

 

[Scarlet Fever]

If you are noticing things are slow, then you could probably do with some more.

Open Activity Monitor (Applications -> Utilities), click System Memory, and check your page-outs. If the number of page ins and outs are similar, you definitely need more RAM.

 

[seh80]

$350 for two 1GB sticks is bad?? That price is from crucial, not apple...

Ok, my bad, I just checked again, its $339.99

No good huh?

 

[After G]

$350 for two 1GB sticks is bad?? That price is from crucial, not apple...

Ok, my bad, I just checked again, its $339.99

No good huh?

Sounds kind of high to me, but I haven't checked prices lately.

if you look at newegg.com, for example, you can get Crucial memory with heat spreaders for your iMac for $275 + $5 3 day business shipping (heat spreaders keeps your memory cool). You can get Corsair memory (what I use in my Macs) for $208 + shipping

 

[seh80]

If you are noticing things are slow, then you could probably do with some more.

Open Activity Monitor (Applications -> Utilities), click System Memory, and check your page-outs. If the number of page ins and outs are similar, you definitely need more RAM.

Does this count as similar? I've never looked at this particular area before, so I don't know what would be considered close or not.

 

[seh80]

I'm wanting to upgrade the iMac. I don't want to put any more money into the ibook since it will be replaced within a couple years. The iMac is going to be with me for a long time.

 

[After G]

Does this count as similar? I've never looked at this particular area before, so I don't know what would be considered close or not.

Wow, looks like my computer's system monitor. It would definitely help you if you had more.

 

[lamerlizer]

You Should Upgrade.

 

[Scarlet Fever]

Does this count as similar? I've never looked at this particular area before, so I don't know what would be considered close or not.

A page-in is when an instruction or process is sent to the RAM. A page-out is when there isn't enough RAM for that instruction or process to be stored, so it sends it to virtual memory in the HDD (which is the VM size). By the figures you have, you definitely need some more RAM!

 

[iW00t]

Is an iMac easy to upgrade?

If it is involves stripping the whole computer down I'd say it is a good idea to get it done by the pros.

 

[After G]

A page-out is when there isn't enough RAM for that instruction or process to be stored, so it sends it to virtual memory in the HDD (which is the VM size). By the figures you have, you definitely need some more RAM!

Would I need more? Don't want to start an extra thread to ask but usually i have more pageouts, like 3-5x more. Or should I look for a leaky app?

 

[Scarlet Fever]

View attachment 66011
Would I need more? Don't want to start an extra thread to ask but usually i have more pageouts, like 3-5x more. Or should I look for a leaky app?

restart the computer, and do what you normally do in a day If the page-outs are still crazy high, look for the leaky app. 2GBs should be enough for everything. I don't get that many pageouts running PS CS1 on my MacBook with 1.5GB RAM.

 

[After G]

Thanks for the advice.

 

[seh80]

Thank you all for the advice, and extra thanks to Scarlet Fever for the explanation. It makes sense and is certainly good to know!

Looks like I am going to go ahead and place my order.

I will install it myself, doesn't look hard at all from the charts I've seen online. I love this computer and can't really think of anything else that needs improvement. I'm excited to cross this off!

 

[Scarlet Fever]

Thank you all for the advice, and extra thanks to Scarlet Fever for the explanation. It makes sense and is certainly good to know!

anytime! Give us an update on how the machine runs after the upgrade

 

[iW00t]

Sounds kind of high to me, but I haven't checked prices lately.

if you look at newegg.com, for example, you can get Crucial memory with heat spreaders for your iMac for $275 + $5 3 day business shipping (heat spreaders keeps your memory cool). You can get Corsair memory (what I use in my Macs) for $208 + shipping

Anyway that ram you linked to seems to be wrong. Didn't notice until I read what you said about heat spreaders. The ones used by iMacs are laptop memory modules right?