iMac G4 Upgrade Possibilities

M

mdeltito

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Hey,
I have the iMac G4, it has a 1.25 gz, 256 internal and 512 external memory.
My question is, what is the best upgrades i can do to this? I know i can get a 1gb stick and put it in, but then what would my total memory be? i know the max is 1gb, so what would that do, keep it at 1 or 1.25? Also, are there any processor upgrades?
 
PumpkinLand

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All you do is add the memory numbers up. Currently you have 768mb, and the specific iMac you have which I believe is the iMac USB 2.0 17" w/ Superdrive release only supports up to 1gb.(Am I wrong?)

You can deck out your system by adding a 256 stick making 1024mb. Isn't math fun!? :)

Yeah, you'll need DDR PC2700 ram. I believe on the older iMacs that have that base sort of thing you just get under there, un -screw the screws and theres your memory slots.
 
Aptmunich

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Yeah, it must be the USB 2.0 17 or 20" iMac G4.

You have 2 RAM slots, one internal with 256MB factory-preinstalled (PC 2700 - 184pin SD-RAM) that isn't easily user-accessible and one with 512MB (PC 2700 - 200pin SO-DIMM) that IS user accessible.

Apple says a maximum of 1GB is supported, but you can actually put up to 2GB in there. Your best bet is to get a 1GB stick for the user accessible RAM slot, for a grand total of 1,25GB of RAM. That should be enough.

What I find slightly bizarre is that the one internal slot takes a different size of RAM than the other slot... (according to Mactracker). Oh well..
 
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Aptmunich said:
Yeah, it must be the USB 2.0 17 or 20" iMac G4.

You have 2 RAM slots, one internal with 256MB factory-preinstalled (PC 2700 - 184pin SD-RAM) that isn't easily user-accessible and one with 512MB (PC 2700 - 200pin SO-DIMM) that IS user accessible.

Apple says a maximum of 1GB is supported, but you can actually put up to 2GB in there. Your best bet is to get a 1GB stick for the user accessible RAM slot, for a grand total of 1,25GB of RAM. That should be enough.

What I find slightly bizarre is that the one internal slot takes a different size of RAM than the other slot... (according to Mactracker). Oh well..
Click to expand...

Apt, ofcorse you could probably out 2gb in there but wouldn't it start to overheat and randomly shut down?
 
Aptmunich

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No, why should it?

The logic board supports it, but apple never offered more than 1GB as there presumably weren't any cheap 1GB RAM modules on the market when that iMac G4 was introduced. Hence apple set the max. RAM ceiling at 1GB. (2x 512MB).

It's the same in the older iBook models: Apple says they only support 640MB, but they can easily support the new 1GB modules as well.

The only time too much RAM becomes an issue, is when the logicboard can't address it (see the 4GB barrier on 32bit processors).
 
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Aptmunich said:
No, why should it?

The logic board supports it, but apple never offered more than 1GB as there presumably weren't any cheap 1GB RAM modules on the market when that iMac G4 was introduced. Hence apple set the max. RAM ceiling at 1GB. (2x 512MB).

It's the same in the older iBook models: Apple says they only support 640MB, but they can easily support the new 1GB modules as well.

The only time too much RAM becomes an issue, is when the logicboard can't address it (see the 4GB barrier on 32bit processors).
Click to expand...

Oh, see I haven't seen and specs for logic boards for iMac, Macbooks etc. So I kind of figured since its happend to me when I acceded the quota for ram. So I tend to stay with Macs specs.

It's something I'll give a try.
 
Aptmunich

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As I said, as long as the motherboard supports it, you should be good.

I'd recommend downloading mactracker (www.mactracker.ca) and checking out the system you want to add ram to there. They give 'real' and 'apple' ram limits, which is helpful.
 
Avalon

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PumpkinLand said:
Apt, ofcorse you could probably out 2gb in there but wouldn't it start to overheat and randomly shut down?
Click to expand...

Putting more RAM in a computer won't produce more heat, actually on the contrary, because more physical RAM means less virtual memory, so less hard disk access, meaning the HD get's lass warm.
 
OP
M

mdeltito

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thanks

also, someone i work with said he had the same computer i had, but put a dual processor setup in there. is that possible? He works in a detail shop, so it could be the fumes :)

and is there a 2 gb sodimm yet?
 
Aptmunich

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I think he's either talking about the Powermac G4, or he's been sniffing the paint again :)
 
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Well its possible to get modified dual processor G4 Cubes so maybe it's possible, I don't know?

EDIT : From Wikipedia in realtion to the Cube at the very least.

Modifications and upgrades

Since the Cube's demise, a number of Cube enthusiasts have made modifications to their machines. Some of the more popular upgrades are high performance video cards (complete with ductwork to allow the GPU fan to work correctly in the small Cube case) and third-party CPU upgrade cards (up to 1.8 GHz per Aug. 2005); a few people have even modified their Cubes to take a dual-processor upgrade. A popular upgrade is the Geforce 2 MX, which exists in a version especially created for the Cube. Other popular changes include case modifications such as lighting and extra cooling.
Click to expand...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Mac_G4_Cube
 
Aptmunich

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Yeah, but the cube IS a power mac, so it was designed to be more accessible and lots of people upgrade theirs. I've never heard of an iMac G4 dual proc though.

If he does have one, tell him to post it here so we can drive some digg.com traffic over :)
 
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mdeltito

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Ahh, so another question...

To avoid a pain I my, would anyone be interested in helping me find 1gb of COMPATIBLE memory to put in the user accessable slot on the bottom of my iMac? Something inexpensive but COMPATIBLE! :)

thanks in advance again!
 
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mdeltito

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So here is what i bought (sorry for the google cache, its sold out now)

http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:48k25cZGWtUJ:www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp%3FItem%3DN82E16820155111+KINGMAX+1GB+200-Pin+DDR+SO-DIMM+DDR+333+(PC+2700)+Notebook+Memory+Model+MSAD42F-KI+-+OEM&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1



hopefully this will work! total of 1.5 gigs in there after that
 

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