silly question on RAM

mac's girlmac's girl
Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
hi everyone!!! im new to this forum. actually, i've been reading stuff here every now and then but never posted until now. i've learned a lot from all of you so far. i confess, i dont know as much as many of you, so i hope you guys wont mind my being here.



here's my silly question: i ordered a imac g4 800mhz but i want to upgrade the RAM from day 1(whenever that will be). is it better to spend $400 for kingston ram or some other really well-known brand, or should i go with with generic that costs half the price?
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 27
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    Welcome to AppleInsider!!



    [edit] Ignore what I said! I'm an idiot!



    [ 01-31-2002: Message edited by: starfleetX ]</p>
  • Reply 2 of 27
    russsrusss Posts: 115member
    Whoa there starfleetx! :eek: The new iMacs use 144 pin SO-DIMMS.

    Going somewhere like Crucial.com is a good idea though. 512MB is only $216 from Crucial compared to over $400 for the same thing from Kingston.
  • Reply 3 of 27
    eugeneeugene Posts: 8,254member
    I will put in my proverbial thumbs up to Other World Computing ( <a href="http://www.macsales.com"; target="_blank">www.macsales.com</a> )
  • Reply 4 of 27
    russsrusss Posts: 115member
    Eugene, I absolutely, 100% agree with you about Other World Computing. I buy all my memory from them.

    Strangely though they don't show the new iMac in their memory listings (Probably because it's not out yet), but they should realize that alot of people who have ordered new iMacs are gonna be shopping for memory ahead of time.
  • Reply 5 of 27
    thegeldingthegelding Posts: 3,230member
    mac's girl...i already have my extra ram from crucial sitting in a box at the computer desk waiting for my iMac...have bought ram from them twice....very fast and nicely packaged...good prices too...free shipping if you're in the states....the ram i bought for my current iMac worked great, i expect this ram to work great also...have fun with your new iMac (mine shipped today from Apple!!) and welcome to the board....g
  • Reply 6 of 27
    murbotmurbot Posts: 5,262member
    [quote]Originally posted by starfleetX:

    <strong>Welcome to AppleInsider!!



    Anything from RamJet.com or Crucial.com should be fine for you. Both of these vendors have excellent reputations. Just look for 168-pin, PC100 RAM. In my experience, paying a lot extra for RAM doesn't really make much of a difference.</strong><hr></blockquote>





    I don't have the URL handy, but you will need to buy PC133 RAM for the iMac. There's a page on the Develepor section of Apple's site explaining this...



    I'm sure it's because Apple puts PC133 RAM into the internal slot, and you can't mix PC100 with PC133 in the same machine.
  • Reply 7 of 27
    guitarblokeguitarbloke Posts: 125member
    I will vouch for Crucial - great prices and excellent service. And, after all that, the RAM even seems to work
  • Reply 8 of 27
    thegeldingthegelding Posts: 3,230member
    yes you need PC133 so-dimm for user access ram



    heres a link to the ram i bought (you can buy different ram though):



    <a href="http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.asp?Mfr+Productline=Apple+iMAC&amp;model =iMAC+%28G4-800%29&x=14&y=16" target="_blank">http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.asp?Mfr+Productline=Apple+iMAC&amp;model =iMAC+%28G4-800%29&x=14&y=16</a>



    g
  • Reply 9 of 27
    macaddictmacaddict Posts: 1,055member
    Play it safe and go either Crucial or Corsair. They both (I believe) make Micron RAM, and Crucial is Apple's parts supplier. Both are very good. I've never heard anything bad about either of them.



    I myself bought 512MB (2 DIMMS) of el-cheapo generic memory from some random online store a few years ago. It was wicked cheap but it works fine. Plus, it's PC133!
  • Reply 10 of 27
    mac's girlmac's girl Posts: 556member
    Thanks. I keep seeing this Micron name around, not only at Crucial, but at another supplier or two also. I didnt have a clue who they were, and I thought it was some fake brand company at first. I did check out the Crucial site, and it is really informative. Prices are good too.



    [ 01-29-2002: Message edited by: mac's girl ]</p>
  • Reply 11 of 27
    mac's girlmac's girl Posts: 556member
    hi gelding! hope you get your new imac soon. let us know! i ordered mine a week ago, so it might be a while. but i refuse to attempt to run anything on 256mb...it must be 768 at least.



    i was going to have apple put in a 512 dimm in the factory slot, but then i figured i can always have that changed that later if i need to go from 768 to 1 gig in the future. it just seemed high to pay $200 for it. i thought the 168-pin DIMMs are supposed to be cheaper than 144-pin soDimms.
  • Reply 12 of 27
    mac's girlmac's girl Posts: 556member
    [quote]Originally posted by murbot:

    <strong>



    I'm sure it's because Apple puts PC133 RAM into the internal slot, and you can't mix PC100 with PC133 in the same machine.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    greetings, murbot! i think i have read that. actually, at this point i am dizzy from technical specs on memory--haha. i have seen a couple of stores labeling their PC100 RAM as iMac compatible, but I knew better. i wonder why apple would use PC133 on a 100mhz system bus anyway, since it slows down to that speed. regardless, the thing they never tell you on any of those sites is if generic memory can be trusted. i'm on a budget for the moment, and dont want to shell out big bucks for viking, edge, kingston, etc if i dont have to.
  • Reply 13 of 27
    bodhibodhi Posts: 1,424member
    Whoa! Don't spend $400 on RAM anywhere!
  • Reply 14 of 27
    thegeldingthegelding Posts: 3,230member
    mac's girl sez: hi gelding! hope you get your new imac soon. let us know!

    _______________________________________________



    hi back at you....my iMac is with Fed Ex in TAOYUAN CITY, Taiwan right now and it is heading to ANCHORAGE, AK today...then it needs to make it from alaska to new mexico...hoping to get it tomorrow, but will probably be thursday....i ordered on 1/7/02, so it was with the first shipments out....hope your wait isn't too long and that you have a sucessful search for more ram....i went with the standard superdrive config with 256 internal ram and have a 512 so dimm sitting at home from crucial...will put it in as soon as i de-box that iMac....thought i was doing fine with 384 ram in my old iMac 400 dv...so i think 768 will be great with the new one...have a good day....g
  • Reply 15 of 27
    murbotmurbot Posts: 5,262member
    I just came across this today, and it's about as black and white as you can get.



    <a href="http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=88298"; target="_blank">Knowledge Base Article #88298</a> clearly states that you have to use PC133 RAM in the iMac.



    A small snippet from the text:



    The user-accessible slot requires PC133 speed RAM. PC100 RAM is not to be used with the iMac (Flat Panel) computer and may create performance and reliability issues.



    I wish more people knew this. I bought RAM specifically for this machine from a reseller, and they gave me PC100 RAM. It has since been exchanged, but I got the feeling they thought I was nuts to demand a PC133 chip. I'm going to have to show them this article next time I'm down there.



    Apple's iMac specifications page doesn't even mention this. Odd.



    (BTW - this wasn't Crucial that did this, I'm talking about the place locally that I bought the computer from. It was a 256 MB chip and will be used elsewhere. The 512 MB chip I got from Crucial is PC133)



    EDIT - typo



    [ 01-30-2002: Message edited by: murbot ]</p>
  • Reply 16 of 27
    eugeneeugene Posts: 8,254member
    Hmm, murbot, I don't know. I wish I had the iMac in the lab now so I could see if there's any noticeable difference in performance and stability. Soon, I guess.
  • Reply 17 of 27
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    Hmmm. <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" />



    Sorry about that mix-up. It's just that I had just read this from Apple's store: [quote]You should purchase PC100 or PC133-compliant SDRAM that has been tested and approved for your system.<hr></blockquote>and figured that PC100 was okay. Sorry! :o



    [ 01-31-2002: Message edited by: starfleetX ]</p>
  • Reply 18 of 27
    terryterry Posts: 5member
    I have another question for those in the know on this RAM issue. Doesn't the user accessable RAM slot take a 144pin chip and the apple slot take a 168pin chip. My confusion is this. Does the 133mHz chip have 168pins or 144pins? Does it come both ways? Maybe I should reed the tech specs again and make sure the pin number thing is correct. Thanks again for any info.



    Terry
  • Reply 19 of 27
    thegeldingthegelding Posts: 3,230member
    terry...does this help??



    <a href="http://developer.apple.com/techpubs/hardware/Developer_Notes/Macintosh_CPUs-G4/iMac/4_Expansion/index.html"; target="_blank">http://developer.apple.com/techpubs/hardware/Developer_Notes/Macintosh_CPUs-G4/iMac/4_Expansion/index.html</a>;





    g
  • Reply 20 of 27
    thegeldingthegelding Posts: 3,230member
    mac's girl...glad you made it back to the boards...if the appleinsider main page is down, try coming straight to the forums...it usually works for me:



    <a href="http://forums.appleinsider.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi"; target="_blank">http://forums.appleinsider.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi</a>;





    did you order your ram yet?? g



    youngest broke arm snowboarding this weekend...i am a bad father....she is doing fine, but may not make her cheerleading competion....which is sad since she doesn't really like cheering at games too much, but love working on routines and stunts for competions....g



    she did get a pretty purple cast....

    <a href="http://homepage.mac.com/gavinmcc/PhotoAlbum4.html"; target="_blank">http://homepage.mac.com/gavinmcc/PhotoAlbum4.html</a>;
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