Add Memory to iMac? (1 Viewer)

[Johnny Angell]

I was thinking of adding memory to my 8gb iMac. I use up memory pretty fast when I run Parallels. It's a 2.7ghz Intel Core i5 and the memory consists of 2 4gb 1333 mhz ddr3 chips.

So I'm thinking Apple must sell the memory, but I couldn't find it on their website. I did a google and window shopped at macmemory dot com. I can get 2 8gb modules for $179.

So I'm wondering several things: 1) is that a good price; 2) macmemory a good store? 3) can I mix memory module sizes? There are already 2 4gb modules in the system, can I add 2 8gb modules?

The memory they are selling is

Ramjet uses a Non-stacked module for the 4GB and 8GB DDR3-1333 module for the iMac. The cheaper stacked IC variety of 4GB SO-DIMM draws more power, which increases heat and can cause increased errors. Ramjet ONLY uses premium non-stacked chips.

This just a bunch of sales BS or is it important?

I appreciate your advice.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

What I would do....What I have always done...

Go to crucial.com

Download their memory advisory software.

Run it.

It will tell you the exact iMac model you have
and what memory you will need as well as the price.

Have a lot of trust in crucial memory, as most people do.

 

[Sam Posten]

Trust this man, he is pre-med!

 

[DaveF]

What Ron said. I've done just that, and it's pretty easy.

 

[Johnny Angell]

What I would do....What I have always done...

Go to crucial.com

Download their memory advisory software.

Run it.

It will tell you the exact iMac model you have
and what memory you will need as well as the price.

Have a lot of trust in crucial memory, as most people do.

I remembered Crucial once you mentioned it and that advisor is slick. It even tells me what slots the memory will take. I think I'll go with two 8gb modules, that'll give me a total of 24gb, which seems like a lot.

Why did this damn iMac come with two 4gb's? If I wanted the max memory, I'd have to replace those two.

And of course they tempt me with a 960gb SSD for $600, which doesn't sound to bad for an SSD. I just don't have the money.

Back when I was trying to diagnose a problem with my last Dell, I thought it was the boot drive. Replaced it was a small SSD (I had a secondary drive for big storeage and the programs would fit on the SSD). Oh man did that speed up the pc, but the problem was still there, so I sent back the SSD and got the iMac.

Edit: and the crucial is $50 cheaper.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Johnny,

Glad that worked out for you.

I think 24GB is a lot of memory, but I should be talking...

....I have 32GB installed. Only reason so much is because
it was pretty cheap at Crucial.com at the time. I went from
a 16GB to 32GB desktop.

Quite frankly, if I had to limit myself, I would thing 16GB is
plenty enough for most anyone. However, I do love to load
my computer with all kinds of software at startup, so that extra
memory keeps my iMac running nicely with all those programs
running at once.

 

[Johnny Angell]

It's good to have confirmation that 24gb is a lot, that's what I thought too. If in the future, I need more memory I've got the option of discarding the two 4gb modules and buying another two 8gb.

Just ordered them.

 

[Clinton McClure]

Ron is right... Crucial should do you good but if you want to stay more mac-centric there's always Other World Computing ( http://www.macsales.com/ ) which is where I bought more RAM for my macbook pro. It was recommended by several Mac users I know.

 

[Johnny Angell]

I ordered the memory on the 16th and got it today, the 20th. Not bad for free, snail-mail shipping. Viewed an install video on the crucial site and they have a 12 year-old kid doing it. So I had better be able to do it myself too. No pressure...no pressure.

The install went fine and the iMac is up and running and yes, the extra memory is making a difference. Fired up safari and then PS Bridge and PS and they are definitely popping up quicker. I presume this will carry over into actual use of the applications.

So now, I've got 24gb memory and with finder, safari, PS, Bridge all running there is still 20.20gb free.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Johnny,

Congrats on adding the memory. It is very simply on an iMac.

...even I was able to do it.

Glad you are seeing a significant difference. Memory is everything
on these machines. Glad you have plenty to spare.

 

[Johnny Angell]

So right now, I've got Parallels 8 running with ACDSee 7 (i think) running, over on the Mac side I've got Mail, and Safari running and I have 15.21gb free. Still in the Mac side I fired up PS CS6 and the memory only went down to 14.9gb. I then fired up Corel Painter and the available memory went down to 14.69gb.

Those seem like pretty low drops for big apps, but I'm not using them, I have no open images in them, so apparently they don't take much memory until they are being actively used.

BTW, before I started firing up the apps, I had a little over 11gb free, but I used an app called FreeMemory and it got me back about 4gb. I think the app was free, but don't remember. Seems to be a pretty good app. It's a good way to recover memory without rebooting.

I'm really happy with this extra memory. Thanks for pointing me to crucial.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Johnny,

Great news. We like helping you.

 

[Clinton McClure]

Glad it's working well. I was always used to 4GB (actually 3.5 addressable) with 32-bit WinXP, then a 64-bit Win7 laptop which was limited to 4GB by the BIOS. Now I'm loving having 16GB on my Macbook Pro. Most times I'm multi tasking with 10-12GB RAM free. It's probably overkill but I love having the overhead.