Are these iMac upgrades worth the money?

[RiDE]

additional ram only helps speed up your computer if your computer is running out of memory with its current setup....it really annoys me when people say that ram speeds up your computer....no it doesnt most of the time....you dont need any more than 768MB to rum word, mail.app, itunes, and safari at the same time
-chris

This is true... but if you're like me (which everyone should be right??) you leave a lot of programs open at the same time... widgets running, maybe a video playing, etc... I have 2GB of RAM on my iMac... on average I have only 300mb of RAM available... If I only had the standard 1GB, I wouldn't be running as free and as fast as I am now.

Obviously if you only have 3 or 4 non-intensive apps running at once as you mentioned then 1GB would be just fine.... But having 2 gives folks the peace-of-mind that they can run/leave running pretty much whatever they like.

just my $0.02

 

[coach_z]

This is true... but if you're like me (which everyone should be right??) you leave a lot of programs open at the same time... widgets running, maybe a video playing, etc... I have 2GB of RAM on my iMac... on average I have only 300mb of RAM available... If I only had the standard 1GB, I wouldn't be running as free and as fast as I am now.

Obviously if you only have 3 or 4 non-intensive apps running at once as you mentioned then 1GB would be just fine.... But having 2 gives folks the peace-of-mind that they can run/leave running pretty much whatever they like.

just my $0.02

i think i disagree with you....the reason you only have 300mb free is because your computer knows that you have 2gigs of memory and is holding information in its inactive space, and once it is needed it will purge inactive memory to clear up room for whatever needs it.

'free' memory isnt what you really need to bother yourself with, wired, active and inactive memory is what you need to concern yourself with.

yea right now im running itunes, safari, istat, dashboard, and adiumx and i have 257mb of 2.5 gigs of ram 'free' while 1.61G is inactive am i using 2.25 gigs of ram? no. it is just holding information in case i need it again.

just my .02 as well, and i am in no way trying to attack you or anything

note: i just opened itunes, still ahve 257mb of ram free...because i have had it opened many times in the last 4 days 22hours 25 minutes and 40 seconds i have had my computer on
-chris