Will a single 4gb work with the Mini?

[deepakvrao]

Or do I have to have 2+2gb? Planning to get the cheapest Mini and only upgrade the RAM to 4gb.

Was thinking of getting this

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/1333SAM3S4GB/

Also, The Mini that I buy will have 1gb X 2, and my daughter has an iMac with 4gb. Would it be possible to put the 1gb cards in her iMac? I suppose the iMac has 2+2gb?

 

[simsaladimbamba]

What exact Mac mini are you talking about?

Identify your Mac and Mac OS X version, visualised in a more elaborate image
Identify your Mac and Mac OS X version using this 25 second video tutorial (3MB, .mp4, H.264)​

 

[paulrbeers]

As stated by simsaladimbamba, we need to know what versions of the iMac you have.

The mac mini will run with just 1 4GB memory stick, but will take a small hit (usually less than 10% at peak processing) because you will not be running dual channel memory (i.e. same size/speed ram in both slots).

As for the iMac, if the iMac is in the last couple of revisions, they have 4 memory slots and therefore you should be able to put the two 1GB sticks in with the 2 2GB sticks already in her iMac. However, older iMacs only had 2 slots (and some even 1 if I am not mistaken), and many of the older ones ran DDR2 RAM rather than today's DDR3 and thus wouldn't be compatible.

 

[deepakvrao]

Sorry, my mistake.
Planning to buy the 2011 Mini with the Core i5 and 2gb RAM, and the iMac is also the 2011 with the Core i5 and 4gb RAM.

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Was actually wondering if you can put in 1gb cards when it has existing 2gb cards.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Yes, you can put one or two 4 GB RAM sticks into the Mac mini.
You can also put one 1 GB RAM stick into it, but currently 8 GB of 204-pin DDR3 SO-DIMM RAM* costs less than 50 USD (Indian prices surely vary).

* Mac mini and iMac both use that RAM.