do i need more memory...?

[williaa68]

I am looking at buying a new 27 inch imac for our home office. I understand the benefits of more memory but the basic 8GB seems like a lot to me given all i will ever do is use it for fairly basic home office applications (word, excel, etc) and watch tv via apple TV. Id rather not spend the extra £160 to upgrade it if i dont need to but then equally there's an element of being hung for a sheep as a lamb. Would appreciate thoughts / advice?

[Freakuk]

I bought a 27" iMac end of last year with 16Gb and thought that was enough, great for browsing, office etc but when you start using stuff like iMovie, Final cut pro, Aperture I soon found it starting to slow down, que another 16Gb RAM.

[durbster]

8Gb is fine for standard useage. As above, you only need more if you're dealing with stuff like HD video or Photoshop.

[williaa68]

thanks both. No plans to use it for anything funky so will stick the the 8k. The sister in law has just reminded me she gets education discounts as she works at a university so that should save me a few quid.

[cornet]

£160 for an extra 8GB!!!

Crucial do 16GB for £113.99

http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/listparts.aspx?mod...

[BlueMR2]

I think before you could upgrade the larger imac with ram yourself but not the smaller one, so you may be able to upgrade in the future if you need to with cheaper ram as shown above.

[130R]

Seriously, I think 8GB should just about be ok for office apps and watching apple tv!

[durbster]

cornet said:

£160 for an extra 8GB!!!

Crucial do 16GB for £113.99

http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/listparts.aspx?mod...

Ah but it doesn't have an Apple logo on it. They're expensive

[Freakuk]

BlueMR2 said:

I think before you could upgrade the larger imac with ram yourself but not the smaller one, so you may be able to upgrade in the future if you need to with cheaper ram as shown above.

Correct you cannot upgrade the 21.5" version 27" you can, they'll be two free DIMM slots ready for expansion, two populated... there's a credit card sized cover on the rear just below where the stand mounts the screen.

[williaa68]

Thank you. If i upgrade the memory myself do i void my applecare warranty?

[Freakuk]

williaa68 said:

Thank you. If i upgrade the memory myself do i void my applecare warranty?

I doubt it, there's a how to document on the Apple site/knowledge base so I would say not, although they probably would want Apple memory installed, think mine was from crucial or kingston no issues 6 months down the line.

[supersport]

My Mac book has 16GB and it regularly seems to use around the 8 mark quite often. I understand Mavericks uses a lot more than previous versions.

[sjg]

Spend £160 on the fusion drive upgrade instead.

8GB is fine, and if it turns out that it's not then memory upgrades on the 27" are easy to DIY - anything storage-related is not.

[LordGrover]

sjg said:

Spend £160 on the fusion drive upgrade instead.

8GB is fine, and if it turns out that it's not then memory upgrades on the 27" are easy to DIY - anything storage-related is not.

IS that still the case - on my old 27" iMac there's a simple panel on the underside which as you say is trivial to install memory - not sure about current model though...

[sjg]

It's moved on the new-shape (thin-edged) 27" ones, it's behind the desk stand on the back.

http://www.cultofmac.com/204018/upgrading-ram-on-t...

The smaller 21.5" screen ones don't have an access panel - they need to be opened up, which is tricky.