[the macimum]

Hi,

Everyone wants the most RAM that they can get, especially in the iMac area, but I have been using a G4 for my DV and Photoshop photo editing, as well as Office and Safari, watching DVD's etc. and their didn't seem to be very much locking up, but just some slow-ness while loading previous projects. I expect it to already be easier with a G5, but for eveything I will be doing, how mutch RAM do I actually need?

Thank you, Jesse

[nredman]

i used to run my ibook with 256 before i upgraded to 640 - i'd say 512 is good.

[mduell]

Since you do DV editing, I'd say 1GB minimum, and 1.5GB isn't that much more money; 2.5GB would be overkill.

Of course, buy 512MB from Apple and add the rest yourself (I like Crucial, others like Kingston and Corsair).

[brokenjago]

The new iMac only has one slot for memory, and 512 soldered onto the board.

Buy the iMac with the 512 standard, then buy a stick of 1 GB from Crucial.com or something.

[Pierre B.]

Originally Posted by brokenjago

The new iMac only has one slot for memory, and 512 soldered onto the board.

Buy the iMac with the 512 standard, then buy a stick of 1 GB from Crucial.com or something.

This is a good suggestion. And waiting for price drops of the 2 GB modules would not hurt either, but this depends mostly on needs. Personally I would buy an extra 2 GB of memory, since I tend to have many programs open and/or running and at least 3 users connected at the same time (the iMac is a home computer after all).

[Commodus]

1.5 GB of RAM seems to be the sweet spot for the new iMac. It gives you 50% more headroom than just getting a 512 MB stick, but it's a lot more affordable than getting a 2 GB stick. Quite frankly, anyone who'd want to max out their iMac at 2.5 GB would probably be better-off getting a Power Mac!

[far200]

Your post reads

"iMac G5 it's nice to have the most RAM, but how much is actually needed?"

apple sells this machine with 512........ thats whats actually needed.... everything else is bonus.

But if you can try to put in at least a gig in it will help with all the apps you will run.

[the macimum]

Heh, good point.

[joshs]

Hi,

Actually, I just got the new Imac (the on with iSight) and I found it to be really slow with the built in 512 mb's of RAM. It was definatly slowing down when I tried to open up even 2 applications and often slowed down with only 1.

I would reccomend getting the Imac with the stock 512 of RAM and see how it works. If your not satisifed (which if your expirience is anything like mine, I don't think you will be) you can always add more later.

I have heard said in these forums that Tiger really needs 512 to run well, though I can't vouch for it, I'm not any expert.

I added 1GB of RAM from crucial.com and it is great. If you are doing really heavy work you might want more but I have a feeling for most things, the total 1.5 Gb's of RAM is pretty good.


Hope this helps, good luck!

[volcano]

I survived with my 512mb stock RAM from June until October. I can't say my computer was a speed demon during those months, and I could tell I was straining the RAM usage when I had Photoshop, iTunes, and Flash open.. but I survived.

Like others have stated, go with the stock 512mb at first, and see how you like it. If it doesn't meet your needs, upgrade.

I ended up maxing my RAM out to 2GB on my Rev. B iMac, and I'm happy as a clam.

[mindwaves]

512MB works fine for me here on my iMac 17'' 1.9GHz. No slowdown whatsoever. I even run VPC 7.0 on it quite acceptably.

[joshs]

Hmm....maybe something is wrong with my Imac, it went REALLY slow with only 512 of RAM, to the point where, like I said before, even using one application was difficult. Sounds worse then what Volcano and Mindwaves had.

Oh well, seems ok now with 1.5 Gb's of RAM