Installing RAM in new Mac Pro

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I will be purchasing a Mac Pro tomorrow. I ordered 4GB of RAM from a highly accredited third party that several other people I know have used with no issues, anyway. My question is should I put this RAM in before I start up the machine for the first time, or let it run the initial startup sequence then power down and install the RAM and restart, or does it matter?
 
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It doesn't really matter. I would go ahead and put it in personally. This way after you set everything up and turn it on you are done.
 
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I upgraded my RAM by 4GB and installed 2 400 GIG HDs in my Mac Pro before I plugged it in. The only issue I've ever had with my Mac Pro is it suddenly stopped recognizing my firewire drives -- which was easily fixed by an PRAM reset and leaving it powered-off for 10 minutes. Haven't had an issue since.
 
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I powered up the machine and made sure everthing was fine. Then added the RAM. If there is a problem it is good to go in steps or you will not know where the problem resides. It is so easy to add the ram it is no big deal.
 
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Mac pro Quad Xeon; 15" Retina Macbook Pro; macbooks (family); Macbook pro 17"; intel & G4 iMacs.
I will be purchasing a Mac Pro tomorrow. I ordered 4GB of RAM from a highly accredited third party that several other people I know have used with no issues, anyway. My question is should I put this RAM in before I start up the machine for the first time, or let it run the initial startup sequence then power down and install the RAM and restart, or does it matter?

I would test it without upgrading it first. Then shut it down and install the ram it only takes a few minutes. I would buy another 2 512Mb and install them in slots a&b of board 2 with your 4x1Gb in slots c&d of boards 1&2. This is what I did. You will get a noticeable increase in speed due to having 2 banks of 4 identical fb dimms. The cost of 2x512Mb is very little for the increase you will get. There are plenty of articles in relation to this on the internet. If you do not want to buy the extra 2x512Mb to begin with try the 4x1Gb in slots a&b of board 1&2 and remove the 2x512Mb completely.

The mac runs quickest with FULL sets of 4 fb dimms in slots a&b of both boards. There is a slight latency hit if you have 2 sets of 4 ie all 8 slots used but this hit is only 3-5% and will be USUALLY made up for with the extra memory. The performance hit of having incomplete sets of 4 has been shown to be 15-20% in certain tests.

If 4Gb is enough for you try if without the 2x512 to begin with. I, like you, bought the 2x512Mb and bought 4x1Gb from kingston but having read the reports also got the 2x512. I had the 512s in board 1 and the 1Gbs in board 2. Just setting it up correctly with them spread across the 2 boards like I explained earlier gave me a noticeable improvement.

Hope this helps. The questions over Mac pro ram come up every week maybe I should just do an indepth article and post a link!
 
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Installing Ram in Mac Pro

Is there a difference in the performance of the memory if the configuration is 2 512 chips and 2 2gb chips instead of 4 512 and 4 1 gb?
 
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Is there a difference in the performance of the memory if the configuration is 2 512 chips and 2 2gb chips instead of 4 512 and 4 1 gb?

Yes the configuration with 8 dimms WILL be quicker. All the specs etc are on intel's site but basically you want to stick to sets of 4 dimms. Oh and the Mac pro can take 4Gb dimms too! Even though Apple's site does not say this.
 
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MacPro Memory

Ok, so if I wanted to upgrade my memory by 4GB total, are you saying it's better to buy 2 2GB modules or 4 1GB modules? I'm currently working with the paltry 1GB module that the unit came with. Thanks for your help!
 
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Ok, so if I wanted to upgrade my memory by 4GB total, are you saying it's better to buy 2 2GB modules or 4 1GB modules? I'm currently working with the paltry 1GB module that the unit came with. Thanks for your help!

The full speed is based on 4 identical dimms so neither would give you full speed! What you need to do is either buy four 1 Gb dimms and sell your original 1Gb OR buy four 1 Gb dimms and two 0.5 Gb dimms and end up with the same spec I have ie 6Gb of Ram based on four 1Gb and four 0.5Gb.

As the two 0.5 Gb only cost about £60 the total of 6Gb is the best bet....
 

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