4 or 8GB of ram in an iMac

twl845twl845
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
I'm considering buying the 21.5" iMac and am wondering whether to order it with 4 or 8GB of RAM. Someone once told me to get more than you'll ever think you will need that you can afford, when buying a computer. Right now 4 GB will be more than enough, but what about 4 years from now? I'm not a gamer, but who knows what will strike my fancy in a few years as time goes by. What's been your experience as iMac users? Did you get 4GB and are happy with it, or did you get 8GB and are glad you did? Thanks for any responses.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 4
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    NEVER. BUY. RAM. FROM. APPLE.



    Get the base RAM and then buy more from macsales.com or another third party.



    Oh, and don't buy an iMac now unless you need one. Update's in a few months.
  • Reply 2 of 4
    twl845twl845 Posts: 21member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post


    NEVER. BUY. RAM. FROM. APPLE.



    Get the base RAM and then buy more from macsales.com or another third party.



    Oh, and don't buy an iMac now unless you need one. Update's in a few months.



    Hi Tallest Skil, Thanks for the response. Why do you say never buy RAM from Apple? Is it just because of the price and it would be cheaper from macsales, or is there a more sinister reason?

    I am aware of the update coming. Thanks for the tip. What about your opinion on whether to get 8GB or is 4GB enough?
  • Reply 3 of 4
    tontontonton Posts: 14,067
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by twl845 View Post


    Hi Tallest Skil, Thanks for the response. Why do you say never buy RAM from Apple? Is it just because of the price and it would be cheaper from macsales, or is there a more sinister reason?

    I am aware of the update coming. Thanks for the tip. What about your opinion on whether to get 8GB or is 4GB enough?



    Price. 8GB is certainly better if you regularly run several applications at once. I've got 8GB in my MacBook Pro and it's way faster than when I only had 4GB. Of course the iMac is much faster than the MacBook Pro already...
  • Reply 4 of 4
    twl845twl845 Posts: 21member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by tonton View Post


    Price. 8GB is certainly better if you regularly run several applications at once. I've got 8GB in my MacBook Pro and it's way faster than when I only had 4GB. Of course the iMac is much faster than the MacBook Pro already...



    Thanks for the heads up. That's a good point. I'm mainly thinking about 8GB as insurance for the future, say 4 years from now. When I bought my Dell in 2004 with WinXP they were typically putting 500Mb of RAM in their over the counter pc's. I ordered one with 1GB to insure that I'd have enough for a while. So now it's 2011 and it's starting to bog down because software and updates typically need more RAM.
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