I have a mid 2008 24" iMac that has been replaced at work. Not sure what I am going to do with it yet, but I am wanting to max the ram out from the 3 gigs it has now. According to Mactracker it says the maximum memory is 6 gigs, while apple says its 4 gigs.

Cant really find 3 gig sticks of ram, but plenty of 2's and 4's.

Is it better to have matched ram? ie 2 x 2 rather then 2 and a 4. Could I put in 2 - 4 gig sticks and it would only use the 6 gigs? or would the system not even start?

Hope that makes sense.

That machine should take 6 gigs (a 4GB and a 2 GB) but it might take 8GB if the boot rom is new enough. My mothers unibody MacBook got a "free" upgrade to take 8 GB of ram with the boot rom update that apple released. Apple still says 6 GB max but 8 is stable. You might want to google it and see if your machine was affected by that as it is similar aged to the unibody macbook.

Is it a 2008 or 2009 iMac 24"? Subject and body conflict...

Nevermind, I see the subject was updated... It will take 6GB, not 8GB. Go 4 and 2.

I think I am just going to leave it as is, ram is not cheap for ddr2 and its not something I want to sink much money into. It is still functional with 3 gigs of ram.

thanks all

a 4GB stick (combined with your 2GB you already own) isnt really that much scratch. 3GB of RAM is borderline unusable today running anything but maybe 10.5

I have a mid 2008 24" iMac that has been replaced at work. Not sure what I am going to do with it yet, but I am wanting to max the ram out from the 3 gigs it has now. According to Mactracker it says the maximum memory is 6 gigs, while apple says its 4 gigs.

Cant really find 3 gig sticks of ram, but plenty of 2's and 4's.

Is it better to have matched ram? ie 2 x 2 rather then 2 and a 4. Could I put in 2 - 4 gig sticks and it would only use the 6 gigs? or would the system not even start?


There are 2 GB SODIMMs and 4 GB SODIMMs.

Whether 4 GB or 6 GB is faster depends what you are doing. If you are multitasking a lot, use Photoshop or video production software, then you want the most RAM you can get.
The 4 GB DDR2-800 SODIMM module will set you back about $108 plus tax

If you mostly use one program at a time, and don't do heavy graphics or video, 4 GB may be sufficient, and slightly faster because of Dual Channel memory access

Dual Channel memory access - where you have two modules of the same size, speed and composition - allows the machine to access the RAM faster (theoretically up to double the speed), and increases real-world performance about 6% - 8%.

If you add a 2 GB module to the one you have, try to match it for brand, model and makeup - that is, the same number of memory chips on the modules. That is your best chance of achieving a Dual Channel pair. Apple doesn't say that two different sticks won't pair, just that they have to be the same 'composition', which they don't define. If you send me a photo of the 2 GB module both sides, I can offer an opinion what might work.

List of all iMac models and the RAM that goes in them
Q. What Memory and Drives fit my iMac Intel? | CanadaRAM: Memory and Computer Q&A (http://www.computer-answers.ca/2012/computer-questions/macintosh-questions/q-what-memory-and-drives-fit-my-imac-intel/)

All other models
Q. What memory and hard drives fit Macintosh computers? | CanadaRAM: Memory and Computer Q&A (http://www.computer-answers.ca/2012/computer-questions/macintosh-questions/q-what-memory-and-hard-drives-fit-macintosh-computers/)