powermac memory advice

i'm about to buy a new powermac, mostly to run final cut pro. i don't want to shell out for 2gb of memory on the apple website, but i heard that it's easy to install memory on macs yourself--would it be easy/viable for me to just get the standard 512 and buy an additional gig, and put it in myself for a total of 1.5? am i going to ruin my new computer? thanks!

justin1083 said:

i'm about to buy a new powermac, mostly to run final cut pro. i don't want to shell out for 2gb of memory on the apple website, but i heard that it's easy to install memory on macs yourself--would it be easy/viable for me to just get the standard 512 and buy an additional gig, and put it in myself for a total of 1.5? am i going to ruin my new computer? thanks!

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Installing memory in a powermac is really easy, and I'd recommend it, especially if you're going to be running Final Cut Pro. Just read the Apple website carefully so you understand what you need to buy. The new powermacs use PC3200, 400 Mhz, DDR unbuffered, 184 pin SDRAM DIMMs.

http://www.crucial.com/store/listmodule.asp?family=DDR&tabid=DDR+PC3200

Remember, they install in PAIRS, so buy 2 of whatever size you think you need. A pair of 512s would boost your ram to 1.5 GB for a pretty fair price. Your user's manual will well you all you need to know about installing them.

ah, so you can't have a pbook with 1.5 gb memory cause the sticks would be mismatched? thanks.

justin1083 said:

ah, so you can't have a pbook with 1.5 gb memory cause the sticks would be mismatched? thanks.

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He was giving you info for a PowerMac G5, which is what you asked about, not a PowerBook.

James said:

He was giving you info for a PowerMac G5, which is what you asked about, not a PowerBook.

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And for the POWERMAC, you CAN have 1.5 GB. They roll out of the factory with 512 MB of memory (0.5 GB) in 2 X 256 MB RAM chips. If you buy two additional 512 MB chips, then you have 2 X 256 plus 2 X 512 which equals 1.5 GB. They also make 128 MB RAM chips, so you can have just about any amount of memory you want to within 0.25 GB or so.

And just so we're clear, you DO have a big shiny G5 tower, not a small shiny G4 laptop? Cos otherwise everything I just told you doesn't apply.

Actually on a "PowerMac G5", depending on just which model you buy, you can have up to 8 gigs of ram.

Also; nobody mentioned yet that the Powermac wants Cas Level 3 RAM, unlike PCs which use Cas Level {whatever you like}. This could be an important point...

Go to crucial's website, their ram picker will tell you exactly what you want for the machine, and you can then check that your chosen supplier is offering exactly the same specs (or, in my case, decide that crucial are cheapest and buy from them)