Timetec Hynix 16GB (the kit I bought) on Amazon: ▶︎ geni.us/sAiI Compatible with the following 27" iMacs: - iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Mid 2015) - iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2014) - iMac (27-inch, Late 2013) - iMac (27-inch, Late 2012) The important specs for these models are: PC3-12800, Unbuffered, Nonparity, 204-pin, 1600MHz, DDR3 SDRAM Other iMac RAM Kits on Amazon: ▶︎ geni.us/J41q As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
If your this smart on tech why still use apple products I'm actually confused 🤔 because from the specs and the price on there products and also he ui isn't that great, Apple's products is garbage compare to any phone or pc. Pls respond I'm actually curious
*Hello Geek Detout* *I'm your new subscriber* *I like your videos very nice* *I need to upgrade my iMac 5k* *2017 can you suggest me a less* *and the best price of Ram*
@@ryzen2514 Well I've had my iMac running for over 9 years and only changed out the hdd with a ssd and increased ram. Every windows machine I have ever had couldn't be upgraded to the next OS without replacing the machine. IE: Win 7 to 10 (No way I was playing with Win 8 and the "Metro" of hell) I have had friends with really nice Windows machines that had to replace them before 5 years. But the other Apple selling point is how their products work together. I couldn't do 1/2 of what I do with Graphics, Video, or Audio on a Windows Machine. But windows has better versions of Office why I run it in a Virtual Machine. Beyond Office and some proprietary apps that clients use I have no need for Windows.
Very helpful. One comment: I upgraded from two 8GB sticks by adding two 16GB sticks. I used your instructions on order. It worked. But, it took maybe 20 seconds for the Apple startup chime to sound. I wasn't used to this and thought it wasn't working. I took the old chips out and restarted with just the new chips. I noticed that it took longer to make the startup sound. Since Geek Detour said mixing does work (and the people who sold me the new sticks also said it would work) I then re-installed the old sticks (using the correct order, as described herein), and it did work. So, if you make the upgrade then be sure to give the machine enough time to do whatever it does when it restarts.
Yeah it does a memory initialisation thing whenever you replace the ram sticks and according to Apple it can take up to 30 seconds and it will sit on a blank screen
Hi everybody! I edited half of this video using 8GB of RAM (as I always did)... and later I tried 16GB and finally 24GB. Does it make a huge difference? From 8 to 16GB, A LOT! Moving from 16 to 24GB, hard to tell.
Hi. I have a Late 2013 iMac 27 with the I5 and NVDIA GT755 and 16GB of original factory RAM (two 8GB sticks). I have been a light user, but I left my corporate job to start a new business and I need to do start doing more video editing. I have already upgraded to an external SSD as my startup, which has been life-changing: I thought I would need to buy a new computer for my business, but I think I will keep this one now. Two questions: 1) Should I upgrade to 24GB (two 4GB sticks based on your explanation), 32GB, or am I good with 16GB? 2) My Mac seems to be running fine on Catalina, but I am wondering what you are thinking about yours as we reach the stage where Apple might stop supporting Catalina updates. I know you did this video 2-3 years ago, but the topic seems still relevant today. Thanks!
Thanks for your video. I pulled an old 2013 27" iMac out of the closet that had a bad HD. When I originally replaced it, I could barely click on an icon without it beach-balling on me for 3-4 minutes. Surprisingly, when I plugged it up, it worked pretty good for web browsing. I wasn't running Final Cut or PS at all. So I made a Time Machine backup (which took about 5 days, yikes!) When it was fully backed up, I replaced the old HD with a 1TB SSD HD and bought 2 8GB sticks of RAM to upgrade from the two original 8GB (16 total) in the iMac. This almost 10 Mac is REALLY fast with just the SSD. I look forward to added 16 more GB of RAM (32 total). Thanks for your help on this one. I'm not a computer wiz, but youtube videos like yours made this an easy process and I have an extra iMac to use downstairs that's blazing fast and about to be even faster.
Yeah! The change to an SSD shows how much the Hard Disks were a bottleneck in computers’ performance! CPU waits A LOT for things to come from disk, or to be saved to the disk - this is definitely one of the greatest revolutions of the new M1 and M2 Apple Silicon: they are working on eliminating bottleneck that the industry was not tackling.
@@GeekDetour Oh man, there's such a night and day difference between SSD and regular HD. I've had a Macbook Pro with SSD for years. Got it like 9-10 years ago when SSD was way more expensive, so it only has a 256 SSD HD but it still works and runs pretty quick. By the way, updated the ram on the old iMac. This thing is a beast now.
You are so right! I also use a 2011 MacBook Pro (i5) and with an 1TB SSD it is still very usable - for web browsing, programming, as a teleprompter generator, to write all my scripts. I just cannot edit videos on it. It is crazy to think is is an 11 years old computer, and I still use it. SSD and RAM upgrade - sick! 🤘
I did open 21.5" (2013) iMac for SSD (SATA) and memory upgrade (to 8gb x 2 = 16gb). Opening the slim line iMacs, with the right tools, is not that intimidating (actually, way easier than iPod classic). 21.5" iMac SSD upgrade (SATA) was a breeze, but memory -- took a lot of patience and time to complete. Fast forwards, my whole household only use 27" iMac (2013 x 2 and 2015 x 1). I bought all base models (i5, 8GB and HDD), but did the SSD (SATA) and memory upgrade on my own. Now, they all have 4gb x 2 and 8gb x 2 = 24 gb, like yours. I found SSD (even just SATA) would be the most single improvement from the upgrade. 27" iMac will need a hard drive bracket, into 3.5" for the SSD portion. I will highly suggest you to do an internal SSD replacement - I think you would be the right person to explore this task. Just get 1. the "pizza cutter" blade to cut the glue, 2. reseal strip and 3. hard drive bracket 4. the SSD of your choice When applying the reseal tapes on the aluminum case - do not bother to use the bottom strip AND do not peal the "second side of the double tape" until MUCH LATER. You first align the screen , connect the 2 cables to the screen. I usually use an electric tape to hold them together -- boot it up and restore, to make sure all is working first. I stressed test them for few days, before completing the seal process. I later removed the electric tape, then by holding the screen close to the case, you can gently pull the taps from the double-side take to seal it -- all three-sides. I found pure SSD experience is much better than Fusion drive. I mainly do music, sound editing. Good luck and Thank you for the opening iPod Classic tricks.
Sam, I ABSOLUTELY LOVED your comment! This type of exchange is so precious - thank you for giving your perspective and personal experience. I must confess I am very afraid of opening my iMac... it is my main computer - I really depend on it to work and pay the bills. The iPod Classic was a superfluous project... it was already unusable, so, I had nothing to lose. If I break my iMac, right now it would be a huge financial problem to me! This fear is leading me to try an external SSD - although I really feel the best thing would be an internal upgrade. Let’s see...
After several Google searches that did not result in answers to my RAM upgrade questions, you answered them all in one clear and entertaining video. Great job!
This is exactly what I needed, went from 8 to 24 on my mid 2015 iMac but didn't notice much difference. When I reordered them the change was amazing, Thanks.
I was always wanting to upgrade my RAM, I discovered this video, after watching this video I order 2X8GB RAM right away and installed in the order you recommended, thank you!!!
My tip is about speeding up your iMac. Never restore from TimeMachine. You just keep all the conflicts of software from days gone by. Use Time Machine by all means as your backup device but drag your documents and library files from Time Machine to the equivalent locations on your iMac after you have returned it to new through the Cmd+R command/erase Disk and Reinstall OS - or if you have bought a new iMac. You will need to show hidden files to get access to the Library using Cmd+Shift+. - Apple updates the OS every year and this eventually slows your system down. That is why a clean install is best. You will be amazed how much longer your iMac will last you if you follow this basic housekeeping tip that almost nobody recommends because Apple is supposed to take care of it for you. They don’t. They WANT you to upgrade your machine! Using this method you can regain the speed and efficiency you had when your iMac was new.
Bernhard Nizynski I imagine there could be some improvement but a clean install is what Apple recommends on a newly formatted hard drive. Think about how many upgrades there are over the years. Mine went back 2010 on my time machine. I wouldn’t ever do a partial clean out after the astonishing results I achieved. I won’t need to upgrade for at least 2 years now. My iMac will be a high performance machine much longer than any PC at a similar price. Plus you dump all those useless and unused installed software you never use anymore and everything sitting on your system related with them.
Thanks for the well explained video. I had 8GB of the original RAM sitting idle for 3-4 years that I had replaced with 16 GB RAM I bought after market. Your suggested configuration worked perfectly and I now have 24 gigs of usable RAM for my 27" iMac (late 2013). Thanks a ton!
Thanks for testing all those RAM combinations. I have 8GB of RAM and bought some new 16GB sticks. I loaded them in the optimal way just on a guess, but I appreciate your confirmation of my intuition.
I purchased a 32gb kit for my wife’s new iMac 27 2020 edition. Took it from 8gb to 40gb and it helps a lot when you have photoshop, word, and acrobat open. It only came with a 256gb ssd so I added a 2tb Samsung ssd with usb c native connectivity. Wow it’s fast. While I kept an admin account on the main ssd, I moved her home folder to the ssd to help with space. Works great.
Interesting! Moving the user folder to the external SSD seems nice! Your iMac already came with an internal SSD, that should be enough for the apps. On my iMac I am considering installing everything on an external SSD, it should be faster than the internal Fusion Drive (that only has 128GB of SSD). Happy 2021!!!
I am using an old iMac 27" i7 late 2009 model. I upgraded the memory from 4GB to 12GB(OWC) after I got the Mac. I didn't feel performance was improved too much. Recently, my internal HD had SMART failure even it worked fine after reformatted, but it could be dead in a period of time. Some say few hours, some say few days and some say FEW YEARS! Anyway, I then just bought an OWC ssd with an installation kit. After the installation, damn my old iMac is flying! I can feel the performance just boosting crazy! I no longer need to wait for the machine to turn on or for the background processes finish. I would recommend everyone to upgrade the internal storage to ssd.
Thanks a lot for this video, it's becoming very hard to find short but useful videos, like yours, on youtube nowadays. Sorry for the bad english, non native speaker here.
I have a silly question, where did you get all of this charisma ? I mean you’re the most interesting to watch geek blogger out there. And by the way what do you do out of youtube ?)
Ah, Ivan... thank you! You just made my day! ☺️😆 I studied advertising - but I always worked with WebDevelopment (I began as a webdesigner, but in 2003 I moved more and more to programming). I also made 2 iOS Apps with a dear friend: iMimic (for iPhone and iPad) and MaxiCalc (for iPad only). I am trying to be a full time TH-camr, while (trying) being a good father 😁
Hi, I have experienced a lot of problems with my Late 2015 iMac, spontaneously freezing and rebooting itself since - as far as I can remember - Mojave. Currently running under Catalina, same issues. When I bought my iMac in 2015 I ordered it with 2x 8GB 1867 DDR3 original Apple memory and at the same time I ordered OWC memory elsewhere: 2x 16GB 1867 DDR3 memory of the same brand, exactly the same modules. I installed the as follows: from top (slot 1) to bottom (slot 4): channel A slot 1: 16GB module, channel A slot 2: original 8GB module / channel B slot 3: 16GB module, channel B slot 4: original 8GB module. Now that I’m experiencing so much troubles, I decided tot downgrade my 48GB RAM to 32GB RAM which should also be enough for me, and by which configuration I no longer have a mix of two capacities and probably more important: no mix of brands. Question1: What’s your opinion about this decision? Could it free me from the freezes and reboots? Question2: Now that I want to have only the two 16GB modules, should I place them in slot 1 and 2 (from the top of the memory housing, as Apple states them as Channel A slot 1 and 2. Or should I place one 16GB module in Channel A slot 1 and the other in Channel B slot 3? Question 3: when I bought the iMac, factory installed were my two 8GB’s original Apple memory as follows: one in Channel A slot 2 and one in Channel B slot 4. So the question rises: would I alternatively install my two 16GB’s in those same slots 2 and 4? Would that be better than slot 1 and 3? Thanks so much for your support!
I just purchased a used 2013 27in iMac that came with 16gb of ram and after watching your video I was able to put 2 4 gb memory sticks that I had laying around to good use, Thank you for the excellent video.
@@GeekDetour I am not sure if you have done a video on this but I am trying to get photos off my non working 2009 mabook pro using the iMac. I understand you can do this using a thunderbolt cable or a usb c cable but I am not entirely sure of the process. if you have done this already can I get a link to it, if not thanks again for this one on the Ram upgrade,
Gerald, I never did a video about it - I am sure there is at least one on TH-cam already that can help you. But it will depend a lot on what you mean by “non working macbook”. Does it technically work fine, just not in use? Or is it broken somehow? In the worst case you would need to remove its hard disk and put it on an external hard disk case to plug it via USB. Anyway, if you do not pay for iCloud, after you move your photos I highly recommend you the service. If my iMac suddenly burns up in flames, I will not lose a single photo! This is an important peace of mind: knowing your important things are also in the cloud.
@@GeekDetour I have seen a couple similar videos to my problem but none with the detail and clarity your videos offer. I had been using Flicckr until they stoped being free. I was looking into setting up my own home cloud when the laptop fell of the table. I can get into disk recovery and have used it to look for problems on the hard drive and it found none but every time I try and boot it up it gets stuck rebooting over and over. I will in the end do something along the lines you suggest.
@@GeekDetourhello I have a different question I’ve been trying to reinstall my iTunes playlist on my new iMac and I can’t seem to figure it out I was able to install all my music but I wanna also recover the playlists that I had also in categories of for example one of them was rock music and the other country music etc .. I seen a video on you tube that shows that if I delete the iTunes library and then install the one I want and then import playlist ttl but it don’t work so can u help make a video doing that please tnx
I agree with you about 24GB of Ram. I went from 32 to 24 GB of RAM in my Mac Pro. Much better performance as I initiated triple channel memory and that made a huge difference. Thank you. Now as my needs grow maybe I will upgrade the Mac Pro further. ;)
This video wins the Internet today for me. I watched so much garbage before I found this. Not sure why it was so hard because my search is "27 inch imac18 3 RAM upgrade", which is what I have running 24 gigs now and moving up.
I'm new to all this and am moving with caution, but your style and quiet yet bubbly confidence are a great encouragement to me tackling this RAM capacity improvement myself. (Currently I have four x 4 GB RAM cards in my increasingly elderly Late-2013 27"and thought that was the maximum it could handle running macOS Catalina 10.15.7) Recently been wasting so much time frustratedly waiting, during editing of still photographs, and being halted by repeated messages of 'You are running out of RAM". Thank you, Mr Geek Detour. Will let you know how it goes. :)
Hi Michael! I am still using this same iMac 27” from 2013 - still with 24GB. If I would do the upgrade today, I would completely remove the 4GB sticks and install 4 x 8GB sticks, for 32GB which is the maximum Apple says this machine supports. Something that also made a big change was installing Mac OS on an SSD (I used an external USB SSD, 2TB). I wish you good luck with your machine! It is sad Apple stopped supporting it, it still feels like a very capable machine to me.
@@GeekDetour Hello Buddy, Thank you so much for your amazing video and the way you explained every thing is super good - I have 2020 Imac 27"inch 5K Retina which supports upto 128 GB RAM. I have 4 RAM Sticks of 8GB Each Crucial Brand and 2 RAM Sticks of 4GB Each Apple Stock. Can you please help me what stick should I use to get maximum of MHz and Dual Channel Use . You reply would help a lot Thank you
I just followed your steps and it is now 40gb of Ram in my 2019 iMac 27 " instead 8gb. I got the Tecmiyo brand and it's working... Awesome video, thanks dude!!!
Thank you. I've been up all night trying to find the answer to updating my late 2012 27" Imac... I couldn't find the right answer to which of the card banks were best for my new 8gb sticks (x2)... This video answered every question almost as if you'd heard my struggle!! Many thanks. I have subscribed. And now I can sleep :)
Finally, an answer to the order of installation. One additional note when installing RAM. After you press the sticks down, press the individual sticks down again as they may move out of their slots (enough to mess the install up) when the pack is pushed back down in order to put the cover on. If this happens, you will probably get 3 beeping sounds, which indicates an installation problem - no other explanation is given. This drove me nuts until I thought to do the extra press.
You have literally just answered all my question in this one video, legend ! I’m wanting to upgrade my wifes 2013 27inch iMac and was wondering if I buy and mix the ram haha I’m so happy thank you!!
In the world of PC, "Dual Channel", "Single Channel", "Quad Channel" are hot topics with lots of discussion. But in the Mac world, it is hard to find good information about it. For sure macs also have these technologies - but if you don't set up your memories properly, the system simply don't warn you! THAT WAS UNEXPECTED :(
Hi there! I watch LinusTechTips - awesome channel! But I found NO VIDEOs discussing Dual Channel VS Single Channel on Macs. A bunch of great videos discussing dual-channel on PCs. That was exactly what I commented :)
@@GeekDetour okay you probably will find little information about Mac's at Linus but you did learn a lot about memory and its configs... so if you do not know already check Louis Rossmann channel and you can also try to contact him. He will probably be THE ONE to help you about Mac computers...
Doesn't warn you when upgrading PCs either. With macs I imagine it works exactly the same because the RAM and CPU are designed to work that way. Since technology has gotten faster I think the difference is pretty negligible with single vs dual. I tend to find stuff of the past are so ingrained with people they remember a lot of tech myths or things no longer true.
Absolutely, Blue Tiger! Already working on the next one 😁 It takes time because... of me! I am complicated, ha ha ha. But I love making videos - slowly, but I love it! 💕
Lol wow, the exact specifics of this video are what I was looking for and you answered them all for me. Got a late 2013 27” iMac with 8gb of ram, bought an extra 16 with different chips than what originally had come with the computer. All because I wanted fcpx, LR, and PS to run better! Thank you sir!
@@FunkSoulBrotherUK it absolutely did! I can have LR, PS, FCPX, and Watching a YT video while rendering things any of those programs with barely if any lag! worth it 100%
Hey 👋 Thank YOU for watching! Ha ha, I don’t know exactly why... but here in the channel many people ask me if I am Russian! I find it very funny and somewhat flattering 😁
Watched Video - Thanks for the HELP Recently Upgraded -- from 2009 27" iMac with 16gb -- to 2013 27" iMac with 8gb...... noticed I was seeing quite a few of the 'Rainbow Pinwheels" and tasks were taking much longer than I was used to. upon looking at memory usage in Activity Monitor - we see 6 - 6.5 gb of memory usage constantly - with leaves very little for extra load, cache and memory page swapping....so upgrade time. Went with 16gb more (2x8gb) (from OWC).... price increase from (2x4gb = $50) to (2x8gb = $84) ...(2x16gb = $170 as of June 2020)... existing memory in slots 1 & 3.....new memory installed in slots 2 & 4 -- took about 3 minutes to install - very easy and everything works great ---- keep up the good work with these videos
I am so happy the video helped you. Yeah, when we are pushing the computer to handle more data than there is physical RAM to accommodate, everything goes slow - and sometimes unstable. Then you put enough RAM and everything simply works fine! But let me tell you: the biggest difference will be if you move from HDD to an SSD. The hard disk is some serious bottleneck!
Thanks for such a helpful video, it was just what I needed. My 2x8 ram upgrade just arrived, and I needed to know the correct order for installation. The 2x8 upgrade is currently selling around $ 70 USD and 24 MB is more than enough for most of us, making it a real bargain. Thanks again!
Parabéns cara mesmo assistindo os vídeos legendados,gosto muito do jeito que você explica e etc,passa uma experiência de uma pessoa comum sabe?,como se fosse no dia a dia,gosto muito dos vídeos e espero que continue crescendo
Yuri, gostei demais dos elogios 😁 Quando escrevo os roteiros dos vídeos, fico sempre na luta entre passar um monte de informação, ou deixar a coisa mais casual... Tento abraçar as duas coisas e fico parecendo aquele amigo esquisitão que quer te mostrar um monte de coisas em 5 minutos 🤣 Obrigado por assistir!
Its very funny, I have an iMac 27” 2019 40GB ram and the time to rendering compare when I put out the 32GB and keep the 16GB ITS THE SAME!!! Just 2 seconds difference! Saaad!
Thinking of the same...dont want too buy another 32gb so instead of apples 8 I was thinking of going 16 8 16 8...?? Or should I just take out apples..8 and just run the 32 I got?
RAM has virtually no impact on rendering speeds. It will only load more information at one time to work on before the computer has to resort to writing data to the hard drive (which is usually much slower than the RAM.) For faster rendering times, you'll need a faster CPU or graphics card or both. Like he said in the video, if you're on a limited budget, getting a faster hard drive will make the biggest impact of the two.
Video RAM helps you more with video editing than system RAM. System RAM helps more with photo editors. Max Tech did some tests with moving the RAM around on a 2020 iMac. If you put more RAM in the empty slots from the factory it will slow the RAM down to 2100MHZ instead of 2666. If you put the factory RAM in the top 2 slots and the new RAM in the bottom 2 slots it will run at the top speed but be in single channel mode and it run programs slower. It is best to have all 4 sticks the same size. I just upgraded to a 2020 27" iMac and I maxed my RAM out to 128GB. I am selling the same late 2013 27" iMac you have on Ebay. I wasn't thinking about saving money on RAM upgrades when I ordered it from Apple a little over 6 years ago so I maxed it out at 32GB from the factory with a 4GB video card. The mechanical part of the factory fusion drive crashed a couple of years ago and I had a 2TB solid state Samsung drive installed. That computer still runs great but I got a new one because I know this will be the last of the Intel based Macs and the new ones likely won't have user upgradable RAM. Also Apple stops supporting these computers after about 6 years, so the 2013 iMacs are obsolete now and only 3rd party shops will work on them if they break and no more Mac OS updates. The 2013 iMacs will still be good for a few more years as long as they are fast enough for your needs. I can tell the new one is a little faster and the retina display is a little sharper but in reality, my old 2013 iMac was fast enough to do what I need. I don't do video but I do still images from a 45 MP digital camera in Adobe Lightroom.
Thank you for sharing your experiences and knowledge with lots of details! 😃 Absolutely: the easiest path for the best performance is using 4 identical Ram Sticks. AND Ram prices are falling all the time: today I looked and the same 16GB pair I bought 2 years ago now cost less than half of what I paid - I most probably will take off my 2x4 (8GB) and buy the other pair 2x8 (16GB), so it gets maxed at 32GB, all identical. This week I am finally back at editing videos - and this is the first time I am using almost everything 4K (even though it will be exported at 1080p) - OH BOY am I suffering... The external Thunderbolt magnetic hard disk I use to edit videos doesn’t cut it - is is past time to edit on an SSD. Anyways, this 2013 iMac is still a great machine - disk speed is clearly the bottleneck for editing videos.
I watched many videos on this subject and they left me asking more questions. Your video answered all my questions clearly. Really well done video. Thank you for your help on adding RAM to my iMac.
I read an article about having the biggest contiguous memory area first - I can’t find it anymore. The difference probably isn’t that significant, but that’s the reason behind my argument.
When I went to replace the ram I disconnected the power cord and pressed the start button on my 2017 iMac to drain the capacitors. After I fitted the two 8gb Crucial brand ram (very cheap) in the same placement as you had shown and started it, it asked for a screen password which I didn't know so had to do the restart and hold down command R to change the password. Once it started up it was asking for my password for iCloud which it wouldn't accept until I tried it several times. Eventually I have it up and running and it certainly more responsive with 24 Gig of ram. There must be memory that I upset by draining the system. Now trying to find a driver for an older Fuji Xerox printer is a bit like needle in a haystack stuff. Mac is certainly more difficult than my win 10 computer when it comes to finding drivers ect.
I can't thank you enough for this video! You answered damn near every question I had on this topic after coming up short everywhere else on the web (including Apple's own memory installation guides!).
Same for me! I just wondered if it‘ll work with my new iMac from 2019 which will arrive next week...but I think at this point, I just might be paranoid because I don’t want to mess anything up!😂
Brilliant video mate. Very useful. Just upgraded my iMAC based on your recommendations. 8+4+8+4. It was fun watching your videos, so engaging. Keep going, all the best - stay safe and healthy
Thanks for the video. Does this still apply to the 2019 iMac 27"? Apple site had confusing instructions support.apple.com/en-us/HT201191#install1, "If your DIMMs are mixed in capacity, minimize the capacity difference between Channel A (slots 1 and 2) and Channel B (slots 3 and 4) when possible." The numbered the slots 1,2,3,4 in the diagram. I alternated them as described in this video starting with an 8 on the bottom. System reports I have 4GB and seems to be running fine. Hard to know for sure. How can. verify?
@@GeekDetour late 2013, i5 with a hd, I'm pimping the RAM tomorrow and will probably get a specialist to instal the ssd. I gather from what you were saying that the boost in ssd and ram really work in tandem off each other, so im looking forward to a practically new machine in theory!
The SSD has a HUGE impact on performance - you won’t believe it. I changed the SSD on a MacBook white 2009, a MacBook Pro 2011, a Samsung Windows PC and they are still very usable machines despite being so old - watch: th-cam.com/video/y-qVu0ZhW9c/w-d-xo.html
Here is my story! Hopefully it helps someone in the comments! I have a base model late-2013 iMac (27” inch). It worked fine until the internal HDD started giving out. It still works but it was soooo slow. I got a Samsung 850 EVO SSD and an external ssd case because I didn’t want to risk breaking the glass display of my iMac. I cloned the internal HDD to my new 500 SSD. Now I boot-up from the external SSD and I did the exact RAM upgrade (2x8gb & 2x4gb). Wow! It is running so fast and smooth!
That’s great! Thank you for sharing. Yeah, I still didn’t make the move to the external SSD: I need to buy 2TB (there is A LOT of stuff on this iMac... just in photos I have +700GB) and the money is a bit short now 😆 But it is a solid move everyone should consider!
This was great, it answered the exact questions I needed. Hold on to your glasses but I am upgrading a late 2012 Imac. I could certainly buy a new machine but I don't want to pay the monthly subscription for the Adobe products. SO anyhoo one thing I could was upgrade the RAM which makes a big difference. I did a lot of research and bought Crucial RAM from New Egg. I bought the right RAM and I followed your instructions and it was great. My machine is running much faster and I have had no issues thus far. Good job! 👍😊
Hi there! Wow, it makes me super happy! Enjoy your super fast 11 years old Mac 🤣🎉 I am also still using the iMac you saw in the video, from 2013… 10 years old machine 🤷♂️
thank you for having a watchable personality especially with this subject matter ..my brother bought me this new imac 27in and he gives me little homework assignments so i understand what i am using.. You are an excellent teacher and fun to watch.
Geek Detour i am gonna receive it next week and i am planning to buy additional ram. Do you think 16gb vs 24gb is the same if i use it for simple family video editing and some light room?
Oh, you just bought your iMac, right? If you bought it with 8 GB, you better buy additional 16GB and you will have 24GB total. If the iMac comes with 16GB, you can buy another 16GB, for 32GB. Of course 16GB on the iMac is enough to edit videos - as I said in the video, I edited everything on my channel using only 8GB!
Thank you! Keep in mind my tests and the right order I found is for that very model of iMac, 27” from 2013 (which, incredibly enough, is the machine I still use today 🤯) Last year I checked the prices of RAM again, even cheaper, and I ditched the 2 sticks of 4GB. I bough a second pair of 8GB and now the machine is maxed at 32GB.
Yes I swapped out my 2010 iMac Core I-7 2.93 quad core equipped with a SATA 1TB 7200 Speed HDD for a 512MB SSD. Then added a 2nd one about a year later (because my motherboard had an unused SATA Port!) The only problem I ran into is needing to buy a molex splitter to power the 2nd SSD. Upgraded memory as well to 24GB. But after almost 9 1/2 years I just ordered a replacement iMac (a 6 core I-5 @ 3.0 with 8GB of DDR4 2666 ram) I've already ordered the memory upgrade from Hynix (They make the original mac memory) to add 32GB to my Mac. It's useful for me because I run a few Virtual Machines and the memory can be dedicated to each one and I don't get hanging with memory swapping when I toggle back and forth.
Hey man, thanks for the wonderful video guide. I have a late 2013 27inch iMac with only 4gig of PC3L RAM and now I want to upgrade it with another 8GB slot. How do I do that? Do I need 8GB PC3L or should I go for non L model as apple website says. And what order should be used for RAM slots? Importantly we don't have those unbuffered and nonparity mentioned on old used RAMs. And we also don't have Them new. Thanks again.
Hi there! Your iMac runs with PC3 RAM (1.5V) - but most PC3L (“L” is for Low voltage, 1.35V) will run perfectly because they very often are double-voltage (can run at 1.35V as well on 1.5V). So, it shouldn’t matter if you get PC3L or PC3 sticks. Just remember that, for the best performance, RAM sticks should be installed in pairs. EX: 2GB + 2GB… or 4GB + 4GB… You can mix 2 different pairs (as I’ve shown in the video), like: 2 + 4 + 2 + 4…. or 4 + 8 + 4 + 8GB. Good luck! By the way, where on Earth are you that you cannot have new Ram Sticks?
@@GeekDetour 😀😄 thank for the wonderful reply. I live in Pakistan and they say it's 2022 no more old tech in new boxs though most would try to sell you used items in new boxs, but what to do. So, here I am running my iMac with a 4GB PC3L on bank 1/Dimm1 and 8GB PC3L on bank 1/Dimm0. How is that? I'm really new to Macs and learning things out at the age of 41.
@@GeekDetour actually I bought my iMac used, which came with a 4GB PC3 12800 and a 4GB PC3L 12800s. And surprisingly, the PC3 one got faulty after a couple of hours Mac running. I don't know if it was my fault or the RAM was faulty because I swap them once or twice I don't remember. And I also didn't know the fact that those 4 RAM slots act completely differently. I would send you a picture of my screen but I don't have such connection yet.
@@GeekDetour Yeh of course it is. Big city markets are dumped with old products but costly and non professionals are making those more scrape kinda things. Believe it I bought my 27inch iMac 14,2 with 1TB fusion drive and 8GB ram at around 200$, the main fault is it's cracked screen glass, which has almost two complete lines in the middle of screen, otherwise it's good 👍.
Just upgraded my imac 2017 to 24gb last week. Set them up in exactly the same way in the slots. I couldn't find any advice when I was looking two weeks ago - this would have been perfect.
I have a 2015 5k imac and am upgrading from 16k to 48k. This video was very helpful and I will check out the SSD external vid as that was something I was considering as well.
Thank you 😁 I still need to make my external SSD move 🤔 About your iMac, the official documentation from Apple say the Maximum RAM for your computer is 32GB (check it out: support.apple.com/en-us/HT201191#1a ) Anyway, it is possible that you can find a kit larger than 32GB that would work on your machine... but if you try to mix it with the original ram you might be stretching your luck 😆 It could work or not, just saying. Good luck! 👍🍀
Hi there! My iMac 27" i7 2013 still runs with the exact configuration I showed in this video. It works 24 hours a day, non-stop 👍 Of course, that has been MY experience with the sticks I bought.
Hi there! Which year is your iMac 21 inches? All new 21" iMacs don't have the door you are mentioning at the very bottom - the bezel got 5mm thin, no door there. So, if someone is buying a new iMac considering to easily upgrade RAM later, the only chance is the 27"
Thanks for this video. I am thinking of upgrading my 2013” 27” iMac to the new 2020 model, as I have noticed a fair amount of slow down since moving to Catalina. I was shocked at how much a Apple charge for upgrading the ram, compared to its actual cost,. My current iMac was part of my college work and it was all done for me. 👍😁👍 So your video will be a great help moving forward. Thanks again.👍
Nope. Each pair must be exactly the same. This is why memories are most often sold in pairs. 8+8 and 4+4 will perform better because all of them will operate in dual channel mode.
Many thanks for the video, I have an iMac late 2013 27 inch, I order 16GB (8GB x2) and did the upgrade today. On the 1st try I made an error and place the 4GB-8GB-4GB-8GB, its started beeping and will not boot, I try again with the suggested order 8GB-4GB-8GB-4GB and now enjoying 24GB in dual channel. Thanks again.
Thanks! Wow, this is interesting 🤔 I suspect that previously you could have something not well positioned - once my iMac also beeped and I had misaligned one of the sticks. Anyway, the position you have them now is the best 😁
Hi there! When you are at the Apple website and you hit “buy” you are presented with a few choices: amount of RAM, CPU options, sometimes different video cards, SSD capacity, etc... You can totally play with those options and see how it affects the final price - all before actually purchasing.
Thanks for showing this video, I've learnt a lot! I've also just upgraded my old iMac (mid 2011) to 32GB. Although Apple website said that the max was 16GB, my 32GB worked perfect. FYI :)
Hello Desmond! (Wow, I wonder how LOST was funny to you 🤔) Thank you man! Absolutely, it happens very often: Apple releases the initial specification stating a maximum RAM capacity and some time later some third party vendor offers a larger Ram Kit that works perfectly 😄
Very informative, it gave me confidence to buy an extra 32GB (2 16GB sticks) for my new 2020 iMac 27” and I know what order to do them in now too. Thank you
Your iMac performs a memory initialization procedure when you first turn it on after upgrading memory or rearranging DIMMs. This process can take 30 seconds or more, and the display of your iMac remains dark until it's finished. Make sure to let the memory initialization complete.
Nice information Riz 😁 But I got curious, you are pointing this up as an extra advice or did you notice something wrong on my video? 🤔 I need to know 😊
@@GeekDetour Absolutely nothing wrong with your content buddy, however, some do experience this delay in the initial iMac reboot once ram is upgraded. Its relevant info which will help those who might panic when their iMac doesn't reboot immediately. Avoid people panicking and assuming the worst. It could take up to 10 mins.
excellent video and answered the main question i had. I have this exact IMAC (but I5 vs I7 core). its been sitting idle in my office while i worked from home during covid using my PC. now that i'm back in the office i've returned to using my IMAC and i was curious if i could get a boost in perfomance. RAM for this machine is crazy cheap these days and i was trying to decide if i needed to buy four sticks or just two. i opted for two and will use the older ram and put in the order you described and see how things go! Thanks for the video!
Speaks of you upgrading to a 2tb ssd. I got one for my ps4 pro. Sure it’s not anywhere near as effective as using it for a pc, but I don’t really care and I could always use the SSD for something else....Anyways, even on the PlayStation I noticed a huge difference in the day to day stuff, loading from sleep, menu scrolling, install times etc
Hi 👋 Oh yeah, I totally believe you! I have a very old MacBook White (2009!) that I use to write my scripts (I go to beautiful public places here in Madrid) and the only reason it is still a productive computer is because I replaced its hdd for a Samsung 500GB SSD. My wife also has an old windows laptop that went much faster because of an SSD. My doubt about using an external SSD on the iMac is because it already has a Fusion Drive - so, the most frequently accessed files are already kept on an internal SSD that is faster than an external USB SSD would be... But, the SSD part of the fusion drive is only 128GB. My bet is that if everything is on an SSD - even being a slower external ssd - on average it will beat the fusion drive... let’s see! 😁
hi, are you still reading the comments. ?? i am running a mac its a 27 inch with a 2019. and this is interesting for me the right way to upgrade the ram.
It is basically the same - the difference is that Apple says your iMac 2019 can have up to 64GB of RAM, so, 4 sticks of 16GB. If you have 4 identical sticks it doesn’t matter the order. Check this page and look for the 2019 model: support.apple.com/en-us/HT201191
Hey muito obrigado! Don't be fooled... my Portuguese is terrible. That was a Portuguese accent right? Just wanted to say thanks. I stumbled upon this video while researching "mixing ram iMac". Turns out that I have the exact same computer (Late 2013 i7 3.5ghz 8gigs 780m) as you and wanted to upgrade to 24 gigs. I think I'll order some now. Cheers from Canada.
Ha ha ha, thanks Kiekhaefer6! Perfect accent 😊 It could be Spanish as well (I live in Madrid now for almost 10 years) Yeah, 24GB totally works - but RAM prices are dropping every month... check how much it would cost you now to fill 32GB (the maximum of our iMacs, as said in the official documentation). I am still using the 24GB as it is shown in the video. Happy holidays! 🎄
Excellent video - informative, interesting and entertaining as well! I have a 27" 2017 iMac and have just started to do some video editing with iMovie. iMovie crashed a couple of times and I thought extra RAM might help, so I bought 2x8GB RAM sticks to add to my existing 2x4GB ones. I watched a different video about installing the extra RAM where the guy just added the 8GB sticks in the two remaining slots. This seems to have worked fine and iMovie seems to work better just as you described with Final Cut Pro. I also have Parallels VM installed to run Windows applications so I decided to increase the VM allocation from 3GB to 6GB which has also improved things working in Windows. My question is a bit technical. In your video you say that Geekbench test shows that the optimum configuration is (from the bottom up) 8,4,8,4, but my current configuration is 4,8,4,8 i.e.achieved by leaving the 4GB sticks in their original positions, as recommended in the first installation video I watched. What I am now wondering is if it is worth re-arranging my sticks to your optimum configuration. Do you remember, or can look up the speed benefit that you got over my current configuration?
I'm answering my own question here because I just scrolled through people's questions and the answers below and found that you answered QuestRunner Channel's exact same question a year ago. Answer -"no noticeable difference in real life situations".
Hi there. Great video! I am not a techie in any way but I want to add some more memory to my 2016 iMac. I am looking at cards and there is something that is confusing me and I want to know which to buy. I see MHz numbers and I don't know which or why to buy them. Can you kindly tell me what is the difference? I am not a big video person, except for watching TV and playing slot games on my computer. I plan to get Photoshop and using it in the future and wonder if that is something I should worry about. HELP!
Hi there! Maybe you should get a proper look into which model is your iMac - I don’t think there is a “2016 iMac” (it is not when you bought it). You should click on the Apple logo (top left on the screen) and “About this Mac”, then you must see the exact model your iMac is - write down that information. Here is a list of the Macs and which memory they use: support.apple.com/en-us/HT201191 On sites like MacSales you can chose the model of your Mac and they list the Ram kits that will work perfectly: eshop.macsales.com/shop/apple/memory/iMac
@@GeekDetour thank you! You are right it is a late 2013. Is there a specific brand of memory that you recommend? I have 8MB 1600 MHz DDR3. Would a set of 2 - 4MB be ok or should I get the set of two at 8MB each?
Timetec Hynix 16GB (the kit I bought) on Amazon:
▶︎ geni.us/sAiI
Compatible with the following 27" iMacs:
- iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Mid 2015)
- iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2014)
- iMac (27-inch, Late 2013)
- iMac (27-inch, Late 2012)
The important specs for these models are:
PC3-12800, Unbuffered, Nonparity, 204-pin, 1600MHz, DDR3 SDRAM
Other iMac RAM Kits on Amazon:
▶︎ geni.us/J41q
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
If your this smart on tech why still use apple products I'm actually confused 🤔 because from the specs and the price on there products and also he ui isn't that great, Apple's products is garbage compare to any phone or pc. Pls respond I'm actually curious
*Hello Geek Detout*
*I'm your new subscriber*
*I like your videos very nice*
*I need to upgrade my iMac 5k* *2017 can you suggest me a less* *and the best price of Ram*
This is such a good video I had to subscribe to your channel. I was wondering about mixing ram etc and which slot to put them in, great job!
@@ryzen2514 Well I've had my iMac running for over 9 years and only changed out the hdd with a ssd and increased ram. Every windows machine I have ever had couldn't be upgraded to the next OS without replacing the machine. IE: Win 7 to 10 (No way I was playing with Win 8 and the "Metro" of hell) I have had friends with really nice Windows machines that had to replace them before 5 years. But the other Apple selling point is how their products work together. I couldn't do 1/2 of what I do with Graphics, Video, or Audio on a Windows Machine. But windows has better versions of Office why I run it in a Virtual Machine. Beyond Office and some proprietary apps that clients use I have no need for Windows.
@SLAN _FFA If the memory specs meet the requirements of the 27" iMac you are wanting to put the memory in.
literally the best video i’ve found that answered all of my questions in one video.
Thank you! 😄
+1
I agree well done video, great yet simple explaination
Very helpful. One comment: I upgraded from two 8GB sticks by adding two 16GB sticks. I used your instructions on order. It worked. But, it took maybe 20 seconds for the Apple startup chime to sound. I wasn't used to this and thought it wasn't working. I took the old chips out and restarted with just the new chips. I noticed that it took longer to make the startup sound. Since Geek Detour said mixing does work (and the people who sold me the new sticks also said it would work) I then re-installed the old sticks (using the correct order, as described herein), and it did work. So, if you make the upgrade then be sure to give the machine enough time to do whatever it does when it restarts.
Yeah it does a memory initialisation thing whenever you replace the ram sticks and according to Apple it can take up to 30 seconds and it will sit on a blank screen
Hi everybody! I edited half of this video using 8GB of RAM (as I always did)... and later I tried 16GB and finally 24GB. Does it make a huge difference? From 8 to 16GB, A LOT! Moving from 16 to 24GB, hard to tell.
I upgraded from 16 to 32. Hard to tell too. Waste of my money.
@@jomontanee I was getting "out of memory errors" in the software I run, other then that error going away, I see little difference as well.
Hi. I have a Late 2013 iMac 27 with the I5 and NVDIA GT755 and 16GB of original factory RAM (two 8GB sticks). I have been a light user, but I left my corporate job to start a new business and I need to do start doing more video editing. I have already upgraded to an external SSD as my startup, which has been life-changing: I thought I would need to buy a new computer for my business, but I think I will keep this one now. Two questions: 1) Should I upgrade to 24GB (two 4GB sticks based on your explanation), 32GB, or am I good with 16GB? 2) My Mac seems to be running fine on Catalina, but I am wondering what you are thinking about yours as we reach the stage where Apple might stop supporting Catalina updates. I know you did this video 2-3 years ago, but the topic seems still relevant today. Thanks!
Thanks for your video. I pulled an old 2013 27" iMac out of the closet that had a bad HD. When I originally replaced it, I could barely click on an icon without it beach-balling on me for 3-4 minutes. Surprisingly, when I plugged it up, it worked pretty good for web browsing. I wasn't running Final Cut or PS at all. So I made a Time Machine backup (which took about 5 days, yikes!) When it was fully backed up, I replaced the old HD with a 1TB SSD HD and bought 2 8GB sticks of RAM to upgrade from the two original 8GB (16 total) in the iMac. This almost 10 Mac is REALLY fast with just the SSD. I look forward to added 16 more GB of RAM (32 total). Thanks for your help on this one. I'm not a computer wiz, but youtube videos like yours made this an easy process and I have an extra iMac to use downstairs that's blazing fast and about to be even faster.
Yeah! The change to an SSD shows how much the Hard Disks were a bottleneck in computers’ performance! CPU waits A LOT for things to come from disk, or to be saved to the disk - this is definitely one of the greatest revolutions of the new M1 and M2 Apple Silicon: they are working on eliminating bottleneck that the industry was not tackling.
@@GeekDetour Oh man, there's such a night and day difference between SSD and regular HD. I've had a Macbook Pro with SSD for years. Got it like 9-10 years ago when SSD was way more expensive, so it only has a 256 SSD HD but it still works and runs pretty quick. By the way, updated the ram on the old iMac. This thing is a beast now.
You are so right! I also use a 2011 MacBook Pro (i5) and with an 1TB SSD it is still very usable - for web browsing, programming, as a teleprompter generator, to write all my scripts. I just cannot edit videos on it. It is crazy to think is is an 11 years old computer, and I still use it. SSD and RAM upgrade - sick! 🤘
I love how you use the classic stopwatch instead of a phone or something.
Ha ha ha! I love using it! The touch feedback of real buttons is like nothing else - you won’t miss the mark 😁
This guy is absolutely the best. He understands all the right iMac questions and how to answer them
I did open 21.5" (2013) iMac for SSD (SATA) and memory upgrade (to 8gb x 2 = 16gb). Opening the slim line iMacs, with the right tools, is not that intimidating (actually, way easier than iPod classic). 21.5" iMac SSD upgrade (SATA) was a breeze, but memory -- took a lot of patience and time to complete.
Fast forwards, my whole household only use 27" iMac (2013 x 2 and 2015 x 1). I bought all base models (i5, 8GB and HDD), but did the SSD (SATA) and memory upgrade on my own. Now, they all have 4gb x 2 and 8gb x 2 = 24 gb, like yours. I found SSD (even just SATA) would be the most single improvement from the upgrade. 27" iMac will need a hard drive bracket, into 3.5" for the SSD portion. I will highly suggest you to do an internal SSD replacement - I think you would be the right person to explore this task. Just get 1. the "pizza cutter" blade to cut the glue, 2. reseal strip and 3. hard drive bracket 4. the SSD of your choice
When applying the reseal tapes on the aluminum case - do not bother to use the bottom strip AND do not peal the "second side of the double tape" until MUCH LATER.
You first align the screen , connect the 2 cables to the screen. I usually use an electric tape to hold them together -- boot it up and restore, to make sure all is working first. I stressed test them for few days, before completing the seal process.
I later removed the electric tape, then by holding the screen close to the case, you can gently pull the taps from the double-side take to seal it -- all three-sides.
I found pure SSD experience is much better than Fusion drive. I mainly do music, sound editing.
Good luck and Thank you for the opening iPod Classic tricks.
Sam, I ABSOLUTELY LOVED your comment! This type of exchange is so precious - thank you for giving your perspective and personal experience.
I must confess I am very afraid of opening my iMac... it is my main computer - I really depend on it to work and pay the bills. The iPod Classic was a superfluous project... it was already unusable, so, I had nothing to lose. If I break my iMac, right now it would be a huge financial problem to me! This fear is leading me to try an external SSD - although I really feel the best thing would be an internal upgrade. Let’s see...
After several Google searches that did not result in answers to my RAM upgrade questions, you answered them all in one clear and entertaining video. Great job!
Thank you GuyNoir 😁 Really happy you enjoyed it!
This is exactly what I needed, went from 8 to 24 on my mid 2015 iMac but didn't notice much difference. When I reordered them the change was amazing, Thanks.
Hi David 👋 I am really happy for you, man! Thanks for sharing your experience!
I was always wanting to upgrade my RAM, I discovered this video, after watching this video I order 2X8GB RAM right away and installed in the order you recommended, thank you!!!
Man, you made the exact video that I needed. My situation is the same as yours. Thank you very much! Greetings from Brazil.
Glad it helped! É nóis 🤣🇧🇷
My tip is about speeding up your iMac. Never restore from TimeMachine. You just keep all the conflicts of software from days gone by. Use Time Machine by all means as your backup device but drag your documents and library files from Time Machine to the equivalent locations on your iMac after you have returned it to new through the Cmd+R command/erase Disk and Reinstall OS - or if you have bought a new iMac. You will need to show hidden files to get access to the Library using Cmd+Shift+. - Apple updates the OS every year and this eventually slows your system down. That is why a clean install is best. You will be amazed how much longer your iMac will last you if you follow this basic housekeeping tip that almost nobody recommends because Apple is supposed to take care of it for you. They don’t. They WANT you to upgrade your machine!
Using this method you can regain the speed and efficiency you had when your iMac was new.
Would the same increase is speed be achieved by removing all the previous/older software updates?
Bernhard Nizynski I imagine there could be some improvement but a clean install is what Apple recommends on a newly formatted hard drive. Think about how many upgrades there are over the years. Mine went back 2010 on my time machine. I wouldn’t ever do a partial clean out after the astonishing results I achieved. I won’t need to upgrade for at least 2 years now. My iMac will be a high performance machine much longer than any PC at a similar price. Plus you dump all those useless and unused installed software you never use anymore and everything sitting on your system related with them.
Thanks for the well explained video. I had 8GB of the original RAM sitting idle for 3-4 years that I had replaced with 16 GB RAM I bought after market. Your suggested configuration worked perfectly and I now have 24 gigs of usable RAM for my 27" iMac (late 2013). Thanks a ton!
Hey, that’s great!
Thanks for testing all those RAM combinations. I have 8GB of RAM and bought some new 16GB sticks. I loaded them in the optimal way just on a guess, but I appreciate your confirmation of my intuition.
I purchased a 32gb kit for my wife’s new iMac 27 2020 edition. Took it from 8gb to 40gb and it helps a lot when you have photoshop, word, and acrobat open.
It only came with a 256gb ssd so I added a 2tb Samsung ssd with usb c native connectivity. Wow it’s fast. While I kept an admin account on the main ssd, I moved her home folder to the ssd to help with space. Works great.
Interesting! Moving the user folder to the external SSD seems nice! Your iMac already came with an internal SSD, that should be enough for the apps. On my iMac I am considering installing everything on an external SSD, it should be faster than the internal Fusion Drive (that only has 128GB of SSD). Happy 2021!!!
I am using an old iMac 27" i7 late 2009 model. I upgraded the memory from 4GB to 12GB(OWC) after I got the Mac. I didn't feel performance was improved too much. Recently, my internal HD had SMART failure even it worked fine after reformatted, but it could be dead in a period of time. Some say few hours, some say few days and some say FEW YEARS! Anyway, I then just bought an OWC ssd with an installation kit. After the installation, damn my old iMac is flying! I can feel the performance just boosting crazy! I no longer need to wait for the machine to turn on or for the background processes finish. I would recommend everyone to upgrade the internal storage to ssd.
How did you open it up and do the upgrade? I want to replace my late 2013 27 inches drive. It has gotten rather slow.
@@gonorsilvet2581 - I have the same idea, but am considering an external drive, as I don't want to have to open up the machine?
@@bernhardnizynski4403 external drives are nice but they will be hogging up my ports.
Thanks a lot for this video, it's becoming very hard to find short but useful videos, like yours, on youtube nowadays. Sorry for the bad english, non native speaker here.
Thank YOU for your kind words 😊 Your English is totally cool - and it is not my native language either! I am from Brazil, but I live in Spain 🤣
I have a silly question, where did you get all of this charisma ? I mean you’re the most interesting to watch geek blogger out there.
And by the way what do you do out of youtube ?)
Ah, Ivan... thank you! You just made my day! ☺️😆 I studied advertising - but I always worked with WebDevelopment (I began as a webdesigner, but in 2003 I moved more and more to programming). I also made 2 iOS Apps with a dear friend: iMimic (for iPhone and iPad) and MaxiCalc (for iPad only). I am trying to be a full time TH-camr, while (trying) being a good father 😁
@@GeekDetour all that and a little bit of Brazilian ginga mixed in? :) Or am I wrong about that accent?
yes he is!
also i feel the same!!
Hi, I have experienced a lot of problems with my Late 2015 iMac, spontaneously freezing and rebooting itself since - as far as I can remember - Mojave. Currently running under Catalina, same issues.
When I bought my iMac in 2015 I ordered it with 2x 8GB 1867 DDR3 original Apple memory and at the same time I ordered OWC memory elsewhere: 2x 16GB 1867 DDR3 memory of the same brand, exactly the same modules. I installed the as follows: from top (slot 1) to bottom (slot 4): channel A slot 1: 16GB module, channel A slot 2: original 8GB module / channel B slot 3: 16GB module, channel B slot 4: original 8GB module.
Now that I’m experiencing so much troubles, I decided tot downgrade my 48GB RAM to 32GB RAM which should also be enough for me, and by which configuration I no longer have a mix of two capacities and probably more important: no mix of brands.
Question1: What’s your opinion about this decision? Could it free me from the freezes and reboots?
Question2: Now that I want to have only the two 16GB modules, should I place them in slot 1 and 2 (from the top of the memory housing, as Apple states them as Channel A slot 1 and 2. Or should I place one 16GB module in Channel A slot 1 and the other in Channel B slot 3?
Question 3: when I bought the iMac, factory installed were my two 8GB’s original Apple memory as follows: one in Channel A slot 2 and one in Channel B slot 4. So the question rises: would I alternatively install my two 16GB’s in those same slots 2 and 4? Would that be better than slot 1 and 3?
Thanks so much for your support!
I just purchased a used 2013 27in iMac that came with 16gb of ram and after watching your video I was able to put 2 4 gb memory sticks that I had laying around to good use, Thank you for the excellent video.
Hi Gerald 👋 I am really happy it helped you 😁
@@GeekDetour I am not sure if you have done a video on this but I am trying to get photos off my non working 2009 mabook pro using the iMac. I understand you can do this using a thunderbolt cable or a usb c cable but I am not entirely sure of the process. if you have done this already can I get a link to it, if not thanks again for this one on the Ram upgrade,
Gerald, I never did a video about it - I am sure there is at least one on TH-cam already that can help you. But it will depend a lot on what you mean by “non working macbook”. Does it technically work fine, just not in use? Or is it broken somehow? In the worst case you would need to remove its hard disk and put it on an external hard disk case to plug it via USB. Anyway, if you do not pay for iCloud, after you move your photos I highly recommend you the service. If my iMac suddenly burns up in flames, I will not lose a single photo! This is an important peace of mind: knowing your important things are also in the cloud.
@@GeekDetour I have seen a couple similar videos to my problem but none with the detail and clarity your videos offer. I had been using Flicckr until they stoped being free. I was looking into setting up my own home cloud when the laptop fell of the table. I can get into disk recovery and have used it to look for problems on the hard drive and it found none but every time I try and boot it up it gets stuck rebooting over and over. I will in the end do something along the lines you suggest.
@@GeekDetourhello I have a different question I’ve been trying to reinstall my iTunes playlist on my new iMac and I can’t seem to figure it out I was able to install all my music but I wanna also recover the playlists that I had also in categories of for example one of them was rock music and the other country music etc .. I seen a video on you tube that shows that if I delete the iTunes library and then install the one I want and then import playlist ttl but it don’t work so can u help make a video doing that please tnx
I agree with you about 24GB of Ram. I went from 32 to 24 GB of RAM in my Mac Pro. Much better performance as I initiated triple channel memory and that made a huge difference. Thank you.
Now as my needs grow maybe I will upgrade the Mac Pro further. ;)
This video wins the Internet today for me. I watched so much garbage before I found this. Not sure why it was so hard because my search is "27 inch imac18 3 RAM upgrade", which is what I have running 24 gigs now and moving up.
I'm new to all this and am moving with caution, but your style and quiet yet bubbly confidence are a great encouragement to me tackling this RAM capacity improvement myself.
(Currently I have four x 4 GB RAM cards in my increasingly elderly Late-2013 27"and thought that was the maximum it could handle running macOS Catalina 10.15.7)
Recently been wasting so much time frustratedly waiting, during editing of still photographs, and being halted by repeated messages of 'You are running out of RAM".
Thank you, Mr Geek Detour.
Will let you know how it goes. :)
Hi Michael! I am still using this same iMac 27” from 2013 - still with 24GB. If I would do the upgrade today, I would completely remove the 4GB sticks and install 4 x 8GB sticks, for 32GB which is the maximum Apple says this machine supports.
Something that also made a big change was installing Mac OS on an SSD (I used an external USB SSD, 2TB).
I wish you good luck with your machine! It is sad Apple stopped supporting it, it still feels like a very capable machine to me.
@@GeekDetour Hello Buddy, Thank you so much for your amazing video and the way you explained every thing is super good - I have 2020 Imac 27"inch 5K Retina which supports upto 128 GB RAM. I have 4 RAM Sticks of 8GB Each Crucial Brand and 2 RAM Sticks of 4GB Each Apple Stock. Can you please help me what stick should I use to get maximum of MHz and Dual Channel Use . You reply would help a lot Thank you
Thank you for the advice and perfect instructions! Upgraded my iMac to 24GB at a terrific price and it took less than 5 minutes!
That’s great, Tom! I am glad it helped you 🤗❤️
I just followed your steps and it is now 40gb of Ram in my 2019 iMac 27 " instead 8gb. I got the Tecmiyo brand and it's working... Awesome video, thanks dude!!!
Thank you. I've been up all night trying to find the answer to updating my late 2012 27" Imac...
I couldn't find the right answer to which of the card banks were best for my new 8gb sticks (x2)...
This video answered every question almost as if you'd heard my struggle!!
Many thanks. I have subscribed. And now I can sleep :)
Wow! I am so glad you found exactly what you needed 😁 Let’s keep our old iMacs running awesome!
Finally, an answer to the order of installation. One additional note when installing RAM. After you press the sticks down, press the individual sticks down again as they may move out of their slots (enough to mess the install up) when the pack is pushed back down in order to put the cover on. If this happens, you will probably get 3 beeping sounds, which indicates an installation problem - no other explanation is given. This drove me nuts until I thought to do the extra press.
Hi David! I am happy the video was useful for you 😁
You're a really good youtuber because you anwser almost every comment. :)
Ha ha... I wasn’t really in the mood to answer comments today - but I want to continue being a good TH-camr 🤣 Thank you!
One of the best videos for upgrading RAM Great Jog
Thank you Pat!
You have literally just answered all my question in this one video, legend ! I’m wanting to upgrade my wifes 2013 27inch iMac and was wondering if I buy and mix the ram haha I’m so happy thank you!!
Hey 👋 My pleasure! Thank you for letting me know! 😃
This was probably the best informed description on how to install and whether you can mix RAM. Thanks!
Thank you! I am happy you enjoyed it 😊
In the world of PC, "Dual Channel", "Single Channel", "Quad Channel" are hot topics with lots of discussion. But in the Mac world, it is hard to find good information about it. For sure macs also have these technologies - but if you don't set up your memories properly, the system simply don't warn you! THAT WAS UNEXPECTED :(
Go to LinusTechTips channel and got your answer there...
Hi there! I watch LinusTechTips - awesome channel! But I found NO VIDEOs discussing Dual Channel VS Single Channel on Macs. A bunch of great videos discussing dual-channel on PCs. That was exactly what I commented :)
@@GeekDetour okay you probably will find little information about Mac's at Linus but you did learn a lot about memory and its configs... so if you do not know already check Louis Rossmann channel and you can also try to contact him. He will probably be THE ONE to help you about Mac computers...
Doesn't warn you when upgrading PCs either. With macs I imagine it works exactly the same because the RAM and CPU are designed to work that way. Since technology has gotten faster I think the difference is pretty negligible with single vs dual. I tend to find stuff of the past are so ingrained with people they remember a lot of tech myths or things no longer true.
Less than a minute in and already best video on this subject. Bravo!!
Wow man! Thank you very much 🥰
I like your vids I hope you will make more in the future
Absolutely, Blue Tiger! Already working on the next one 😁 It takes time because... of me! I am complicated, ha ha ha. But I love making videos - slowly, but I love it! 💕
I don't own a imac but still i watch all ur videos because they are entertaining
Thank you Ravi! It means a lot to me! 😊
Hi, It's a great video. You explained in absolute detail. Thanks a lot.
Thank you Ashar, I am glad you liked it 😁
Lol wow, the exact specifics of this video are what I was looking for and you answered them all for me. Got a late 2013 27” iMac with 8gb of ram, bought an extra 16 with different chips than what originally had come with the computer. All because I wanted fcpx, LR, and PS to run better! Thank you sir!
Did it improve the performance in LR and PS? I also have a late 2013 with 8 gb :)
@@FunkSoulBrotherUK it absolutely did! I can have LR, PS, FCPX, and Watching a YT video while rendering things any of those programs with barely if any lag! worth it 100%
@@timmygregsonn Awesome :) I will look into to this soon. Thanks @Geek Detour!
Coming up on Geek Detour!
Ha ha ha - you have no idea how happy I get when I finally change a video to "Public" and hit "Save" :)
Literally the best video ever never I have seen before. Most presentable way and excellent language and presentation. Wonderful. Keep it up
Thank you Kalyan!
Thanks for your videos. Its very interesting. From mother Russia with respect))))
Hey 👋 Thank YOU for watching! Ha ha, I don’t know exactly why... but here in the channel many people ask me if I am Russian! I find it very funny and somewhat flattering 😁
Watched Video - Thanks for the HELP
Recently Upgraded -- from 2009 27" iMac with 16gb -- to 2013 27" iMac with 8gb...... noticed I was seeing quite a few of the 'Rainbow Pinwheels" and tasks were taking much longer than I was used to. upon looking at memory usage in Activity Monitor - we see 6 - 6.5 gb of memory usage constantly - with leaves very little for extra load, cache and memory page swapping....so upgrade time.
Went with 16gb more (2x8gb) (from OWC).... price increase from (2x4gb = $50) to (2x8gb = $84) ...(2x16gb = $170 as of June 2020)... existing memory in slots 1 & 3.....new memory installed in slots 2 & 4 -- took about 3 minutes to install - very easy and everything works great ---- keep up the good work with these videos
I am so happy the video helped you. Yeah, when we are pushing the computer to handle more data than there is physical RAM to accommodate, everything goes slow - and sometimes unstable. Then you put enough RAM and everything simply works fine! But let me tell you: the biggest difference will be if you move from HDD to an SSD. The hard disk is some serious bottleneck!
Computer when ram is installed : ohh yeah i feel it (8 gb)
Ahan feels good (16 gb)
Tastes like coconut and metal ( 24 gb)
Tony love you 3000
Thanks for such a helpful video, it was just what I needed. My 2x8 ram upgrade just arrived, and I needed to know the correct order for installation. The 2x8 upgrade is currently selling around $ 70 USD and 24 MB is more than enough for most of us, making it a real bargain. Thanks again!
Hi 👋 my pleasure! I am glad it helped you 😊 I agree: 24GB is A LOT of memory 😄
@@GeekDetour Just home from work, took me five minutes, thanks again!
Parabéns cara mesmo assistindo os vídeos legendados,gosto muito do jeito que você explica e etc,passa uma experiência de uma pessoa comum sabe?,como se fosse no dia a dia,gosto muito dos vídeos e espero que continue crescendo
Yuri, gostei demais dos elogios 😁 Quando escrevo os roteiros dos vídeos, fico sempre na luta entre passar um monte de informação, ou deixar a coisa mais casual... Tento abraçar as duas coisas e fico parecendo aquele amigo esquisitão que quer te mostrar um monte de coisas em 5 minutos 🤣 Obrigado por assistir!
Upgraded my Mac tonight as per your video mixing original 2x4gb with new 2x8gb , and it works great. Thanks 👍
I am glad it worked fine for you too! I am still using the same iMac with 24GB of RAM.
Geek Detour thanks for the reply: my next upgrade will be booting up with an external ssd drive. Cheers 👍
Its very funny, I have an iMac 27” 2019 40GB ram and the time to rendering compare when I put out the 32GB and keep the 16GB ITS THE SAME!!! Just 2 seconds difference! Saaad!
Thinking of the same...dont want too buy another 32gb so instead of apples 8 I was thinking of going 16 8 16 8...?? Or should I just take out apples..8 and just run the 32 I got?
RAM has virtually no impact on rendering speeds. It will only load more information at one time to work on before the computer has to resort to writing data to the hard drive (which is usually much slower than the RAM.) For faster rendering times, you'll need a faster CPU or graphics card or both. Like he said in the video, if you're on a limited budget, getting a faster hard drive will make the biggest impact of the two.
Video RAM helps you more with video editing than system RAM. System RAM helps more with photo editors. Max Tech did some tests with moving the RAM around on a 2020 iMac. If you put more RAM in the empty slots from the factory it will slow the RAM down to 2100MHZ instead of 2666. If you put the factory RAM in the top 2 slots and the new RAM in the bottom 2 slots it will run at the top speed but be in single channel mode and it run programs slower. It is best to have all 4 sticks the same size. I just upgraded to a 2020 27" iMac and I maxed my RAM out to 128GB. I am selling the same late 2013 27" iMac you have on Ebay. I wasn't thinking about saving money on RAM upgrades when I ordered it from Apple a little over 6 years ago so I maxed it out at 32GB from the factory with a 4GB video card. The mechanical part of the factory fusion drive crashed a couple of years ago and I had a 2TB solid state Samsung drive installed. That computer still runs great but I got a new one because I know this will be the last of the Intel based Macs and the new ones likely won't have user upgradable RAM. Also Apple stops supporting these computers after about 6 years, so the 2013 iMacs are obsolete now and only 3rd party shops will work on them if they break and no more Mac OS updates. The 2013 iMacs will still be good for a few more years as long as they are fast enough for your needs. I can tell the new one is a little faster and the retina display is a little sharper but in reality, my old 2013 iMac was fast enough to do what I need. I don't do video but I do still images from a 45 MP digital camera in Adobe Lightroom.
Thank you for sharing your experiences and knowledge with lots of details! 😃 Absolutely: the easiest path for the best performance is using 4 identical Ram Sticks. AND Ram prices are falling all the time: today I looked and the same 16GB pair I bought 2 years ago now cost less than half of what I paid - I most probably will take off my 2x4 (8GB) and buy the other pair 2x8 (16GB), so it gets maxed at 32GB, all identical. This week I am finally back at editing videos - and this is the first time I am using almost everything 4K (even though it will be exported at 1080p) - OH BOY am I suffering... The external Thunderbolt magnetic hard disk I use to edit videos doesn’t cut it - is is past time to edit on an SSD. Anyways, this 2013 iMac is still a great machine - disk speed is clearly the bottleneck for editing videos.
I watched many videos on this subject and they left me asking more questions. Your video answered all my questions clearly. Really well done video. Thank you for your help on adding RAM to my iMac.
Thank you! I wish you all the luck in your upgrade!
4:10 You recommended 8g/4g/8g/4g (bottom to top), I wonder how is it different from 4g/8g/4g/8g (bottom to top).
I read an article about having the biggest contiguous memory area first - I can’t find it anymore. The difference probably isn’t that significant, but that’s the reason behind my argument.
I used 32g on My 2009 27 inch iMac... 24g on My twin 2011 21.5 inch iMac's. Much smoother...big audio/video programs load faster. Very impressed.
When I went to replace the ram I disconnected the power cord and pressed the start button on my 2017 iMac to drain the capacitors. After I fitted the two 8gb Crucial brand ram (very cheap) in the same placement as you had shown and started it, it asked for a screen password which I didn't know so had to do the restart and hold down command R to change the password. Once it started up it was asking for my password for iCloud which it wouldn't accept until I tried it several times. Eventually I have it up and running and it certainly more responsive with 24 Gig of ram. There must be memory that I upset by draining the system.
Now trying to find a driver for an older Fuji Xerox printer is a bit like needle in a haystack stuff. Mac is certainly more difficult than my win 10 computer when it comes to finding drivers ect.
I use my Mac for music, late 2019 is the order the same from bottom 8gb 4gb 8gb 4gb
I cannot say it… modern Macs can be quite different!
I can't thank you enough for this video! You answered damn near every question I had on this topic after coming up short everywhere else on the web (including Apple's own memory installation guides!).
Wow Ty, I really appreciate your kind words! Thank you!
Same for me! I just wondered if it‘ll work with my new iMac from 2019 which will arrive next week...but I think at this point, I just might be paranoid because I don’t want to mess anything up!😂
Very helpful! Thanks!! I just ordered more RAM and I wasn't sure if 24 would be enough. I'm very glad to see that it was enough for you.
This helped. Thanks a ton. Genuine YT channel
Thanks! ❤️
I don't own a Mac but it's nice to see you back :)
Muchas gracias 1Welshdylan
Brilliant video mate. Very useful. Just upgraded my iMAC based on your recommendations. 8+4+8+4. It was fun watching your videos, so engaging. Keep going, all the best - stay safe and healthy
Thank you! Happy to help 😄
Thanks for the video. Does this still apply to the 2019 iMac 27"? Apple site had confusing instructions support.apple.com/en-us/HT201191#install1, "If your DIMMs are mixed in capacity, minimize the capacity difference between Channel A (slots 1 and 2) and Channel B (slots 3 and 4) when possible." The numbered the slots 1,2,3,4 in the diagram. I alternated them as described in this video starting with an 8 on the bottom. System reports I have 4GB and seems to be running fine. Hard to know for sure. How can. verify?
Excellent - the most informative vid on iMac ram i've seen
Wow, much appreciated! 😄
been on hold to apple for 18 minutes, googled this, and you have answered ALL my questions. thank you so much!
Hey! Awesome 👏 Which iMac model is yours?
@@GeekDetour late 2013, i5 with a hd, I'm pimping the RAM tomorrow and will probably get a specialist to instal the ssd. I gather from what you were saying that the boost in ssd and ram really work in tandem off each other, so im looking forward to a practically new machine in theory!
The SSD has a HUGE impact on performance - you won’t believe it. I changed the SSD on a MacBook white 2009, a MacBook Pro 2011, a Samsung Windows PC and they are still very usable machines despite being so old - watch: th-cam.com/video/y-qVu0ZhW9c/w-d-xo.html
Thanks so much. Upgraded my Late 2014 27" iMac from 16GB (2x8Gb) to 32Gb (2x8Gb) with the recommended RAM. Easy to do and works perfectly!
I am glad you could do it perfectly! 😁
Here is my story! Hopefully it helps someone in the comments! I have a base model late-2013 iMac (27” inch). It worked fine until the internal HDD started giving out. It still works but it was soooo slow. I got a Samsung 850 EVO SSD and an external ssd case because I didn’t want to risk breaking the glass display of my iMac. I cloned the internal HDD to my new 500 SSD. Now I boot-up from the external SSD and I did the exact RAM upgrade (2x8gb & 2x4gb). Wow! It is running so fast and smooth!
That’s great! Thank you for sharing. Yeah, I still didn’t make the move to the external SSD: I need to buy 2TB (there is A LOT of stuff on this iMac... just in photos I have +700GB) and the money is a bit short now 😆 But it is a solid move everyone should consider!
This was great, it answered the exact questions I needed. Hold on to your glasses but I am upgrading a late 2012 Imac. I could certainly buy a new machine but I don't want to pay the monthly subscription for the Adobe products. SO anyhoo one thing I could was upgrade the RAM which makes a big difference. I did a lot of research and bought Crucial RAM from New Egg. I bought the right RAM and I followed your instructions and it was great. My machine is running much faster and I have had no issues thus far. Good job! 👍😊
Hi there! Wow, it makes me super happy! Enjoy your super fast 11 years old Mac 🤣🎉 I am also still using the iMac you saw in the video, from 2013… 10 years old machine 🤷♂️
Thanks for the help! Clear advice with the data to back up your claims, that's priceless these days.
Thank YOU! I appreciate the kind words 😁
thank you for having a watchable personality especially with this subject matter ..my brother bought me this new imac 27in and he gives me little homework assignments so i understand what i am using.. You are an excellent teacher and fun to watch.
Oh, thank you! I really appreciate!
really nice man! this video helped me a lot plus you are super nice and pleasant to hear!!!!
Thank you Giuseppe! I am glad the video helped you! What did you do with your iMac? 🖥
Geek Detour i am gonna receive it next week and i am planning to buy additional ram. Do you think 16gb vs 24gb is the same if i use it for simple family video editing and some light room?
Oh, you just bought your iMac, right? If you bought it with 8 GB, you better buy additional 16GB and you will have 24GB total. If the iMac comes with 16GB, you can buy another 16GB, for 32GB. Of course 16GB on the iMac is enough to edit videos - as I said in the video, I edited everything on my channel using only 8GB!
Great video. Lively and very informative.
Thank you! Keep in mind my tests and the right order I found is for that very model of iMac, 27” from 2013 (which, incredibly enough, is the machine I still use today 🤯) Last year I checked the prices of RAM again, even cheaper, and I ditched the 2 sticks of 4GB. I bough a second pair of 8GB and now the machine is maxed at 32GB.
Yes I swapped out my 2010 iMac Core I-7 2.93 quad core equipped with a SATA 1TB 7200 Speed HDD for a 512MB SSD. Then added a 2nd one about a year later (because my motherboard had an unused SATA Port!) The only problem I ran into is needing to buy a molex splitter to power the 2nd SSD. Upgraded memory as well to 24GB. But after almost 9 1/2 years I just ordered a replacement iMac (a 6 core I-5 @ 3.0 with 8GB of DDR4 2666 ram) I've already ordered the memory upgrade from Hynix (They make the original mac memory) to add 32GB to my Mac. It's useful for me because I run a few Virtual Machines and the memory can be dedicated to each one and I don't get hanging with memory swapping when I toggle back and forth.
absolutely fantastic guy.to the point and very very watchable with a brilliant personality.good work my friend
Thank you Mark!
Thank you for the video. I'm buying an additional 16 GB this weekend and wondered which way I should install the RAM. This video helped a lot.
Hey man, thanks for the wonderful video guide. I have a late 2013 27inch iMac with only 4gig of PC3L RAM and now I want to upgrade it with another 8GB slot.
How do I do that?
Do I need 8GB PC3L or should I go for non L model as apple website says. And what order should be used for RAM slots?
Importantly we don't have those unbuffered and nonparity mentioned on old used RAMs. And we also don't have Them new.
Thanks again.
Hi there! Your iMac runs with PC3 RAM (1.5V) - but most PC3L (“L” is for Low voltage, 1.35V) will run perfectly because they very often are double-voltage (can run at 1.35V as well on 1.5V). So, it shouldn’t matter if you get PC3L or PC3 sticks. Just remember that, for the best performance, RAM sticks should be installed in pairs. EX: 2GB + 2GB… or 4GB + 4GB… You can mix 2 different pairs (as I’ve shown in the video), like: 2 + 4 + 2 + 4…. or 4 + 8 + 4 + 8GB.
Good luck! By the way, where on Earth are you that you cannot have new Ram Sticks?
@@GeekDetour 😀😄 thank for the wonderful reply. I live in Pakistan and they say it's 2022 no more old tech in new boxs though most would try to sell you used items in new boxs, but what to do.
So, here I am running my iMac with a 4GB PC3L on bank 1/Dimm1 and 8GB PC3L on bank 1/Dimm0. How is that?
I'm really new to Macs and learning things out at the age of 41.
@@GeekDetour actually I bought my iMac used, which came with a 4GB PC3 12800 and a 4GB PC3L 12800s. And surprisingly, the PC3 one got faulty after a couple of hours Mac running. I don't know if it was my fault or the RAM was faulty because I swap them once or twice I don't remember. And I also didn't know the fact that those 4 RAM slots act completely differently. I would send you a picture of my screen but I don't have such connection yet.
Oh man… yeah… an iMac in Pakistan seems challenging to find parts or tech support 😬
@@GeekDetour Yeh of course it is. Big city markets are dumped with old products but costly and non professionals are making those more scrape kinda things. Believe it I bought my 27inch iMac 14,2 with 1TB fusion drive and 8GB ram at around 200$, the main fault is it's cracked screen glass, which has almost two complete lines in the middle of screen, otherwise it's good 👍.
Just upgraded my imac 2017 to 24gb last week. Set them up in exactly the same way in the slots. I couldn't find any advice when I was looking two weeks ago - this would have been perfect.
Hi Rick! Well, you are all set already! You purchased the same speed as the ones you had, right?
I have a 2015 5k imac and am upgrading from 16k to 48k. This video was very helpful and I will check out the SSD external vid as that was something I was considering as well.
Thank you 😁 I still need to make my external SSD move 🤔 About your iMac, the official documentation from Apple say the Maximum RAM for your computer is 32GB (check it out: support.apple.com/en-us/HT201191#1a ) Anyway, it is possible that you can find a kit larger than 32GB that would work on your machine... but if you try to mix it with the original ram you might be stretching your luck 😆 It could work or not, just saying. Good luck! 👍🍀
Are they still working now with no problems, or do they make the the computer crash?
Hi there! My iMac 27" i7 2013 still runs with the exact configuration I showed in this video. It works 24 hours a day, non-stop 👍 Of course, that has been MY experience with the sticks I bought.
You are wrong about de upgrade the ram on 21.5 inch. The access is easy to, the slots on this are just under the Apple logo with two screws to remove.
Hi there! Which year is your iMac 21 inches? All new 21" iMacs don't have the door you are mentioning at the very bottom - the bezel got 5mm thin, no door there. So, if someone is buying a new iMac considering to easily upgrade RAM later, the only chance is the 27"
Hi Geek, I couldn't find the video when you try a 2TB external SSD. Share the link please. Thanks
Thanks for this video.
I am thinking of upgrading my 2013” 27” iMac to the new 2020 model, as I have noticed a fair amount of slow down since moving to Catalina.
I was shocked at how much a Apple charge for upgrading the ram, compared to its actual cost,. My current iMac was part of my college work and it was all done for me. 👍😁👍
So your video will be a great help moving forward.
Thanks again.👍
What about this combo? 8, 8, 8, and a 4??
Nope. Each pair must be exactly the same. This is why memories are most often sold in pairs. 8+8 and 4+4 will perform better because all of them will operate in dual channel mode.
Exactly what i needed to know! thank you for all these great informations!😊
Glad it was helpful!
The exact video i was looking for. I was trying to mix the base 8GB RAM on my 2020 iMac with a new 32GB stick.
Hi Daniel! Important: you could use a single 32GB stick but you shouldn’t. The maximum performance is obtained when you use RAM sticks in pairs.
Many thanks for the video, I have an iMac late 2013 27 inch, I order 16GB (8GB x2) and did the upgrade today.
On the 1st try I made an error and place the 4GB-8GB-4GB-8GB, its started beeping and will not boot, I try again with the suggested order 8GB-4GB-8GB-4GB and now enjoying 24GB in dual channel.
Thanks again.
Thanks! Wow, this is interesting 🤔 I suspect that previously you could have something not well positioned - once my iMac also beeped and I had misaligned one of the sticks. Anyway, the position you have them now is the best 😁
Can I do the same ram arrangement for 2017 iMac 5k?
I have no idea, each machine can have significant changes
That's great! Finally as clear as it should be! Thanks a lot for this video!
just watched the video - loved it - just brought 2 x 4gb to add to my 2012 iMac - thanks great videos
Hi Michael, thanks! I am happy it helped and you liked my videos 😁
Where did you pay extra for the quad core i7? how much is that? Im planning to buy one imak 5k soon..
Hi there! When you are at the Apple website and you hit “buy” you are presented with a few choices: amount of RAM, CPU options, sometimes different video cards, SSD capacity, etc... You can totally play with those options and see how it affects the final price - all before actually purchasing.
Hi Geek, thank you for your great channel, just a follow up, have you been able to find an external Thunderbolt 2 case for MSata SSDs ?
No! Every now and then I search for it - but I am starting to believe I won’t find something like it.
Geek Detour same here :( thank you for your response
Geek Detour you do read everything :)
Thanks for showing this video, I've learnt a lot! I've also just upgraded my old iMac (mid 2011) to 32GB. Although Apple website said that the max was 16GB, my 32GB worked perfect. FYI :)
Hello Desmond! (Wow, I wonder how LOST was funny to you 🤔) Thank you man! Absolutely, it happens very often: Apple releases the initial specification stating a maximum RAM capacity and some time later some third party vendor offers a larger Ram Kit that works perfectly 😄
After some time of using that 32Gb RAM upgrade, did you run into any problems and is it the 21" iMac.
I second HaPro Creatives Media’s question 😊
Very informative, it gave me confidence to buy an extra 32GB (2 16GB sticks) for my new 2020 iMac 27” and I know what order to do them in now too. Thank you
Thank you Alex!
Your iMac performs a memory initialization procedure when you first turn it on after upgrading memory or rearranging DIMMs. This process can take 30 seconds or more, and the display of your iMac remains dark until it's finished. Make sure to let the memory initialization complete.
Nice information Riz 😁 But I got curious, you are pointing this up as an extra advice or did you notice something wrong on my video? 🤔 I need to know 😊
@@GeekDetour Absolutely nothing wrong with your content buddy, however, some do experience this delay in the initial iMac reboot once ram is upgraded. Its relevant info which will help those who might panic when their iMac doesn't reboot immediately. Avoid people panicking and assuming the worst.
It could take up to 10 mins.
Thank you very much Riz! Good information 😁 Details, details, it is infinite! I really appreciate!
@@GeekDetour no thank you for your great video filled with positive energy.
Does it ever take longer than 10 minutes..? My Mac won’t turn on it’s been like 30 minutes
excellent video and answered the main question i had. I have this exact IMAC (but I5 vs I7 core). its been sitting idle in my office while i worked from home during covid using my PC. now that i'm back in the office i've returned to using my IMAC and i was curious if i could get a boost in perfomance. RAM for this machine is crazy cheap these days and i was trying to decide if i needed to buy four sticks or just two. i opted for two and will use the older ram and put in the order you described and see how things go! Thanks for the video!
Speaks of you upgrading to a 2tb ssd. I got one for my ps4 pro. Sure it’s not anywhere near as effective as using it for a pc, but I don’t really care and I could always use the SSD for something else....Anyways, even on the PlayStation I noticed a huge difference in the day to day stuff, loading from sleep, menu scrolling, install times etc
Hi 👋 Oh yeah, I totally believe you! I have a very old MacBook White (2009!) that I use to write my scripts (I go to beautiful public places here in Madrid) and the only reason it is still a productive computer is because I replaced its hdd for a Samsung 500GB SSD. My wife also has an old windows laptop that went much faster because of an SSD. My doubt about using an external SSD on the iMac is because it already has a Fusion Drive - so, the most frequently accessed files are already kept on an internal SSD that is faster than an external USB SSD would be... But, the SSD part of the fusion drive is only 128GB. My bet is that if everything is on an SSD - even being a slower external ssd - on average it will beat the fusion drive... let’s see! 😁
Thank you this helped me very much and put them in the right order!
That’s great!
Great video. You covered all the information I was looking for and gave me the exact steps I needed in order to upgrade my Ram. Thank you.
Hey! My pleasure! Merry Christmas 🎄🎁
Excellent explanation. Short and very useful video. THANKS A LOT. I just subscribed to your channel.
hi, are you still reading the comments. ?? i am running a mac its a 27 inch with a 2019. and this is interesting for me the right way to upgrade the ram.
It is basically the same - the difference is that Apple says your iMac 2019 can have up to 64GB of RAM, so, 4 sticks of 16GB. If you have 4 identical sticks it doesn’t matter the order.
Check this page and look for the 2019 model:
support.apple.com/en-us/HT201191
Hey muito obrigado! Don't be fooled... my Portuguese is terrible. That was a Portuguese accent right? Just wanted to say thanks. I stumbled upon this video while researching "mixing ram iMac". Turns out that I have the exact same computer (Late 2013 i7 3.5ghz 8gigs 780m) as you and wanted to upgrade to 24 gigs. I think I'll order some now. Cheers from Canada.
Ha ha ha, thanks Kiekhaefer6! Perfect accent 😊 It could be Spanish as well (I live in Madrid now for almost 10 years) Yeah, 24GB totally works - but RAM prices are dropping every month... check how much it would cost you now to fill 32GB (the maximum of our iMacs, as said in the official documentation). I am still using the 24GB as it is shown in the video. Happy holidays! 🎄
Hi, I cannot find the video of using an external HD on an old iMac. Thanks
Hi Ken! 👋 Sorry, it still didn’t happen: need the money to buy it and try it out.
@@GeekDetour Thanks, will be looking for it! Great videos!
Thank you!!!
Man, you made the exact video that I needed. My situation is the same as yours. Thank you very much! Greetings from Norway! :).
Glad it helped! Thank you and I wish you an excellent 2021!!!
Excellent video - informative, interesting and entertaining as well! I have a 27" 2017 iMac and have just started to do some video editing with iMovie. iMovie crashed a couple of times and I thought extra RAM might help, so I bought 2x8GB RAM sticks to add to my existing 2x4GB ones. I watched a different video about installing the extra RAM where the guy just added the 8GB sticks in the two remaining slots. This seems to have worked fine and iMovie seems to work better just as you described with Final Cut Pro. I also have Parallels VM installed to run Windows applications so I decided to increase the VM allocation from 3GB to 6GB which has also improved things working in Windows.
My question is a bit technical. In your video you say that Geekbench test shows that the optimum configuration is (from the bottom up) 8,4,8,4, but my current configuration is 4,8,4,8 i.e.achieved by leaving the 4GB sticks in their original positions, as recommended in the first installation video I watched. What I am now wondering is if it is worth re-arranging my sticks to your optimum configuration. Do you remember, or can look up the speed benefit that you got over my current configuration?
I'm answering my own question here because I just scrolled through people's questions and the answers below and found that you answered QuestRunner Channel's exact same question a year ago. Answer -"no noticeable difference in real life situations".
Man....this is helpful, thank you. nice hat man
Thanks for letting me know! Happy to help! 😃
Brilliant... Thank you! I keep getting the round ball of death on my 2019 27" iMac. I am hoping more memory will give more stability.
Hi there. Great video! I am not a techie in any way but I want to add some more memory to my 2016 iMac. I am looking at cards and there is something that is confusing me and I want to know which to buy. I see MHz numbers and I don't know which or why to buy them. Can you kindly tell me what is the difference? I am not a big video person, except for watching TV and playing slot games on my computer. I plan to get Photoshop and using it in the future and wonder if that is something I should worry about. HELP!
Hi there! Maybe you should get a proper look into which model is your iMac - I don’t think there is a “2016 iMac” (it is not when you bought it). You should click on the Apple logo (top left on the screen) and “About this Mac”, then you must see the exact model your iMac is - write down that information. Here is a list of the Macs and which memory they use: support.apple.com/en-us/HT201191 On sites like MacSales you can chose the model of your Mac and they list the Ram kits that will work perfectly: eshop.macsales.com/shop/apple/memory/iMac
@@GeekDetour thank you! You are right it is a late 2013. Is there a specific brand of memory that you recommend? I have 8MB 1600 MHz DDR3. Would a set of 2 - 4MB be ok or should I get the set of two at 8MB each?