When I ordered my iMac late last October, I opted for the standard 1GB RAM as Apple’s prices for extra RAM are nothing short of ridiculous. A few people online recommended that I purchase more memory from a 3rd party vendor. Because I’d previously been using a Mac Mini with 512MB RAM then I wasn’t too concerned that the iMac’s 1GB was going to be insufficient.
Then I was offered a 1GB stick of RAM from Graham, that he no longer needed. The plan for me was not to install immediately as I’d been whizzing along quite happily without thinking about upgrading. But, as it sat in it’s box on my desk, it was getting harder to resist the thought of having an even zippier machine than I’ve got. I’d read the instructions for replacing RAM in my iMac manual and it seemed very straightforward. Only one screw on the whole iMac - on the RAM access door. Unscrew that, unflip the plastic tab from the empty slot and simply place it in, waiting to hear or feel the click with my thumbs.
Being that I’m quite an untechnical girl when it comes to a computers innards, then I felt watching a video or three may make me feel more confident about doing it myself. I can recommend both of these videos. After that I thought “C’mon, just get on with it” so this evening I unplugged my iMac and lay it face down on a bath towel. I grounded myself, first by taking off my purple Crocs. I wear them around the house and they are known for creating static. I touched the metal taps in the bathroom to ground myself and then slotted the RAM in. Closed it back up, plugged everything back in and headed straight to the Apple icon in the top left of the screen > About This Mac and was greeted by this…
I’ve noticed a few apps starting up much quicker. Who knows, now that I’ve done this without wrecking an £800 computer I might feel like maxing it out to 4GB later in the year 
25 Feb 08
8:27 pm
A very good move Sam - you can NEVER have enough RAM! I would have thought you would notice a pretty decent boost in performance, and I would get the extra 2 Gb from Crucial.
I’ve got 2Gb in the MBP but the MacPro is a tad underpowered, only 9Gb
25 Feb 08
10:07 pm
I quit all my apps, then hit them all quickly in the dock, one after another - the start-up was instant. They weren’t bouncing for long. Impressive.
Jon, how on earth do you get the MacPro to startup, with just *9GB*. Sheesh….
25 Feb 08
11:29 pm
2 GB is nice to have. I have that in my MacBook. I usually have about 1 Gb free unless I fire up Photoshop Elements. Then I have about 200 MB free.
26 Feb 08
9:57 am
Glad to have been of service. You probably won’t notice as much of a performance increase as you did going from 2Gb to 4Gb (about 1Gb per processor core is the usual recommendation). But since RAM is so bloody cheap, there’s no reason not to really.
26 Feb 08
11:16 am
I bought a MacBook recently and upgraded it pretty much instantly to 4GB of Ram, ordered from play.com. It was so easy to install as well - knowing Apple I was expecting it to be hard to modify the Macbook.
As Graham above was saying, RAM really is cheap nowadays - go for the 4GB!
26 Feb 08
6:40 pm
The 4GB RAM is very tempting. But, gotta say I’m a happy bunny with the 2GB at the moment…especially considering I wasn’t having too many issues travelling along with the 1GB. But yesterday I opened up the Activity Monitor to view what was going on with my RAM before the upgrade. The pie-chart was mostly yellow, signalling the active RAM. When I opened a couple of non-intensive apps, including Firefox then my free space dropped to well-well under 100MB…more like 20!
Is Crucial the cheapest place for RAM? I think I saw a 2GB stick for £36 with VAT. And to think almost 3 years ago I paid Apple £30 to upgrade from the standard 256MB RAM in my Mac Mini to take it to just 512MB!
26 Feb 08
7:04 pm
Play.com is pretty good.
A 2GB module for iMac is £29.99 inc delivery.
Play.com
26 Feb 08
7:16 pm
Ooh, that’s a good deal. Thanks Andrew
01 Mar 08
9:08 pm
I always get my ram from crucial. It’s never gone wrong. And with their system checker thingie you always know you’re getting the right ram for your system. They might not be the cheapest, but they’re certainly the best.
01 Mar 08
9:32 pm
Yeah, I like the system checker thing on the Crucial website - and I hear they have speedy delivery too. Trying not to feel too tempted to buy 2×2GB sticks at the moment, but I know it’s just a matter of time.