G5 memory

D

DVX100Shooter

Veteran
Has something changed in the way of buying memory for G5's? When I got my first generation PowerMac in 2003, I was told that I would have to buy 2 memory sticks at a time to equal 1 gig. Today I went online looking to upgrade to more memory and the same company that makes the memory I have in here now has 1 gig DDR SDRAM - PC3200 all in one chip. If this is the case then I would need to just buy one chip per gig. I want to go from my 1.5 gigs to 4 gigs of ram.
 
Yes, you can buy larger chips now. Slap some of em in and you're good to go.
 
I have 4 1 GB chips in my G5. The only downside is that 1 GB sticks are more than 2X as expensive as 2 512.
 
DVX100Shooter said:
I was told that I would have to buy 2 memory sticks at a time to equal 1 gig. Today I went online looking to upgrade to more memory and the same company that makes the memory I have in here now has 1 gig DDR SDRAM - PC3200 all in one chip.
Click to expand...

They probably told you that because the RAM has to be installed in identical pairs on the G5.

You can't just put one 1gig chip in there, you have to use either two 512mb chips, or two 1gb chips.
 
Right so if I wanted to jump up to 4 gigs, I would need 4 of those chips, 2 for the first 2 slots and 2 for the next two slots to give me 4 gigs correct? Now do I have to take the chips that are already in pairs in my system out or can I just add to those?
 
DVX100Shooter said:
Right so if I wanted to jump up to 4 gigs, I would need 4 of those chips, 2 for the first 2 slots and 2 for the next two slots to give me 4 gigs correct? Now do I have to take the chips that are already in pairs in my system out or can I just add to those?
Click to expand...

I read an extensive RAM test (for PC mind you) where they found major performance loss by mixing RAM type and size. Their conclusion was - Don't mix you RAM.

I did not perform the tests myself BTW. As the extra cost is not huge, I would start fresh and sell the old RAM on ebay to be safe.
 
DVX100Shooter said:
Right so if I wanted to jump up to 4 gigs, I would need 4 of those chips, 2 for the first 2 slots and 2 for the next two slots to give me 4 gigs correct? Now do I have to take the chips that are already in pairs in my system out or can I just add to those?
Click to expand...

Doesn't your G5 have room for 8GB of Ram? (8 slots total)

You've got 1.5gb - so you probably have two 256chips and two 512, is that right?

My advice would be to get rid of the two 256chips and buy six 512chips (price it out first, but the 512's should be cheaper than the 1gb sticks).

EDITED TO ADD:

Actually, I take that back. The 1gb sticks of ram are cheaper than the 512sticks.
http://www.macgurus.com/productpages/ram/mgram.php

Check it out.
 
Well I went to the local Compusa tonight and bought 2 1gig sticks for $159.99 each. I am going to remove the 2 256 sticks in there now and replace with the 1 gig sticks. Actually at Compusa the 512mb sticks were $79.99 each and that was the PNY technologies Optima Performance brand.
 
I have a business account with Compusa and I get discounts on business purchases but I will keep that website in mind for the future...thanks
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top