RAM question

Joined
Jun 16, 2012
Messages
6
Reaction score
0
Points
1
My mom has a 3 year old iMac running the most recent version of Snow Leopard. It has started running slowly lately and I was wondering how much of the problem might be that it only has 1GB of RAM.

Thanks in advance.
 
Joined
May 23, 2012
Messages
264
Reaction score
8
Points
18
Location
Colorado
Your Mac's Specs
15-inch 2014 Retina MacBook Pro, 2012 Mac Mini, 160GB iPod Classic, iPhone 5
Yeah, 1GB RAM is not nearly enough. The computer is running slow because it is using the hard drive as virtual memory. Go to Other World Computing Upgrade Apple iMac Memory and find the model of your mother's iMac. Order the 8GB RAM kit. OWC has installation videos so you can do this yourself. She'll think you bought her a new computer.
 
Joined
Oct 1, 2007
Messages
7,163
Reaction score
275
Points
83
Location
UK
Your Mac's Specs
Mac Mini i5 (2014 High Sierra), iPhone X, Apple Watch, iPad Pro 12.9, AppleTV (4)
I agree, to a point. 8gb is probably overkill, 4gb is more than sufficient for everyday use. But If the slow down has been getting worse over time there are likely other factors that simply throwing RAM and money at won't solve.

I'd make sure you have at least 20gb disk space remaining. Get rid of any files in downloads and documents that you don't need any longer.

It's also worth opening Disk Utility and running repair permissions & Verify Disk

The go and get Onyx for Snow Leopard - it's free. Run the automated monthly scripts then restart your Mac.

NB: As with any kind of system change I'd highly recommend backing up any pictures/documents etc before changing anything
 
Joined
May 23, 2012
Messages
264
Reaction score
8
Points
18
Location
Colorado
Your Mac's Specs
15-inch 2014 Retina MacBook Pro, 2012 Mac Mini, 160GB iPod Classic, iPhone 5
Good advice mrplow. I overlooked the hard drive aspect. Might be time to upgrade to a larger, faster drive too. Any 7200 RPM drive will help. When I installed a Seagate 500 XT hybrid drive in my MackBook Pro it made everything significantly faster. This isn't easy in an iMac, but but maybe getting an external FireWire 800 drive would help.
 
Joined
May 5, 2012
Messages
10
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Your Mac's Specs
iMac 27" 2.7 GHz Intel Core i5 4GB RAM, MacBook 13" 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo 8GB RAM
Along with what all the others said you can also remove languages that you don't use to free up disk space. You can use a free program called Monolingual.
 
Joined
Jan 13, 2007
Messages
4,773
Reaction score
166
Points
63
Location
Central New York
Your Mac's Specs
15in i7 MacBook Pro, 8GB RAM, 120GB SSD, 500GB HD
Good advice mrplow. I overlooked the hard drive aspect. Might be time to upgrade to a larger, faster drive too. Any 7200 RPM drive will help. When I installed a Seagate 500 XT hybrid drive in my MackBook Pro it made everything significantly faster. This isn't easy in an iMac, but but maybe getting an external FireWire 800 drive would help.

FYI, the iMacs come standard with a 7200RPM drive.
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top