memory upgrade?

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Greetings all! I just purchased a refurbished 24" aluminum imac, with core 2 duo 2.4 ghz and a gig of ram. I wanted to upgrade to more ram, but needed to know something. I know that the slot on the bottom of the case is empty, designed to make upgrading ram very very easy, and I like that.

However, it shipped with a gig of ram. I wanted to stick 2 gigs in the slot under the case, but I really dont want to open the thing up the first day I own it. I thought that on some machines the slots had to be balanced (i.e. you cant stick 2 gigs in one slot and one gig in another.) Is this the case here? if I have one gig internally, can I put a 2 gig stick in the outside slot, or am I limited to a one gig until I upgrade the internal memory?

Does anyone have any recommendations for cheap memory? Also, is it really just plug -n- play, or do I have to somehow tell the mac that I'm doing this?

Thanks guys!


Reid
 

chscag

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its not money, its effort. Both of my cars are old and constantly need work, my motorcycle is constantly broken, and I maintain all of them myself. I'm sick of taking crap apart to work on it, I paid a pretty decent sum of money for this thing, and honestly I'd like to own something that just WORKS from the getgo, and needs no "tinkering". That, and its too expensive for me to start taking apart right away. My only real question is, can I put a 2 gig stick in the outside slot, with a one gig stick inside the computer?

hahaha, ya just get tired of taking stuff apart after a certain point...
 
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yes you can, I have a 24inch imac with 3gb of ram in it, it takes 5 minutes max to unscrew the two screws holding on the panel for the ram and then a minute to pop out the old sticks/add the new sticks (just make note of which way the notch on the stick goes in the machine. Theres also a video on youtube describing the process.
 
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There is almost no work involved in changing the Ram in an iMac. All of the Ram can be accessed by removing two screws on the bottom of your iMac. Here is directions on how to change your Ram directly from apple http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1432
 
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oh...I thought that some of the ram was inside the computer...that was dumb of me, I should have ordered 4 gigs of ram...

oh well, 3 gigs should do me just fine...it is 3 times what I have now :D
 
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I have an IMac 24" (late 2006) model and I'm wanting to upgrade the RAM also. I know that it supports 3GB but can anyone give me an idea as to where to get a 2GB and a 1GB RAM card for cheap? Maybe this is a stupid question but is there a chance that it'll run better with just 2x1GB instead of 2GB + 1GB?
 
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I upgraded my iMac 20" a few minutes ago. It came with 2GB = 2 x 1GB. I ordered from Crucial by following the link on the top of this website. I removed the cover panel (a little fiddly and it doesn't seem to have gone back in flush with the base, but I suppose it is not likely to fall off). I removed the 2 memory boards and fitted 2 x 2GB instead. It took no more than 5 minutes and it seems fine.

Now to test it. :)
 
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This is my first mac, one of the first things i did was to upgrade my ram. It was quick(took only minutes), easy and completely painless. Now I'm in the process of learning OS X. I was raised on windows, and also use Slackware Linux. I thought i knew a lot. I was a little wrong on that. I like the challenge of learning mac, and am completely surprised at the ease of things.
My biggest hurdle is basically unlearning windows, as I seem to expect everything to be somewhat complex. I'm not finding complex in mac or OS X. So far i'm nothing less than impressed with this iMac. It's great!
 
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Hi,
Just being tight with cash at the moment but if I replace one of my 1gb mem modules with a 2gb module (to make 3gb in all), does it matter which 1gb module I should replace?
This is a 2.8 24" iMac.

Thanks

N
 
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Hi,
Just being tight with cash at the moment but if I replace one of my 1gb mem modules with a 2gb module (to make 3gb in all), does it matter which 1gb module I should replace?
This is a 2.8 24" iMac.

Thanks

N

Correct me if I'm wrong, but no, shouldn't matter at all.
 
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If the 24"imac only supports 3Gb why does Apple sell them with the option of 4Gb? Perhaps it's a question for Apple?
 
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If the 24"imac only supports 3Gb why does Apple sell them with the option of 4Gb? Perhaps it's a question for Apple?

I have a 24" iMac 2.4 that came with original 1Gb, I bought a Kingston Kit to upgrade to 4MG but I can't seem to get my Mac to boot with 2+2. Both new memory cards work with the original 1 Gb installed, but they won't work together leaving me maxed out at 3 Gb. I read that someone had a similar problem but you are the first to say that it only supports 3 Gb, but that has been my experience. Where can I read more?

If anyone has stumbled their way through a better solution I would appreciate any pointers.

C
 
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This issue has to do with the actual machine processor I believe. Both the White and Aluminum versions will take 2x2gb sticks but only the Aluminum versions can see the RAM past the 3gb. I have one of each and that is the way it is. 3gb is still lots IMO.
 
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Mine's an Aluminium 24" but the Apple web site makes it clear that this will only see 3Gb!!!
 
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I figured it out... with a bit of help. I bought the 800Mhz chips for the 2008 iMac when I needed the 667Mhz for the 2007. It was able to play the new chip slower, but not both at the same time. CanadaRAM.com has offered to swap the chips for me even though it was obviously my mistake. They were very helpful and I would highly recommend them.

C
 

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