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.
__________________
“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.” Bishop Desmond Tutu
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.
__________________ Apple Certified Macintosh Technician (ACMT) / Support Professional (ACSP) MacBook Air (13-inch, Mid 2012) 8GB RAM, 256GB Flash Storage Mac mini (Late 2012) 16GB RAM, Fusion Drive (128GB SSD/750GB 7200RPM) iPad mini 16GB, iPhone 4S 16GB
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
__________________
“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.” Bishop Desmond Tutu
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.
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