Mac Pro Memory: 8GB, 16GB, or 32GB RAM?

forget Apple! I’m sick of hearing about it as well as VISTA. It sucks too! Stick with XP and wait for Windows 7 which will be King once it comes out.

32 GB seems a bit…excessive, but if it’s bragging rights that you want, then that’s definitely the way to go.

You’d be able to store almost half of a MacBook Air in there!

I’d check that, I was under the understanding that the pairs all had to be the same size, and when I bought 4gb for my Macpro about 12 months ago I tried leaving the initial 1gb in the machine (2×512mb) and it wouldn’t boot in any slot.

32GB would be bragging rights :P hell 8GB and 16GB is still bragging rights. You have to be a INTENSE multi-tasker to use 8GB of RAM…. how would you fill up 32GB… well… since you’re already spending money like it grows on trees go for 32GB. That way you Can run Windows 7 and OS 11 AND a Linux VM all at the same time.

Ha ha Have fun.

I have bought all my memory via 1-800-4-Memory (or 18004memory.com) for the last 8 years or so. Used them for PC memory before I switched to Mac and have used them exclusively for Mac as well. Never one issue. Cheap prices, fast shipping, etc. Highly recommended.

Do 16GB. From MacSales. Best value. Only around $800 but still a heck of a lot of RAM for the dollar.

8 x 2GB sticks.

Really, as long as the Activity Monitor says you are not paging out virtual memory, I’d start with less and add memory later when the prices drop again.

I figure I’ll add a pair of 2GB so that I’ll have 6 GB total for now. That should be gobs.

In a year or so, I’ll add more and the RAM price will be 1/2 again.

Not sure. How many watts will 24 extra gigs of ram burn?

Chris,
I too am eying a new Mac Pro to replace my aging PowerMac G4. I am also going to go the 10GB route as recommended above. You should be absolutely fine with this amount for quite some time. Add more later if you need it because prices will drop. I recommend you buy from either one of two places. http://www.transintl.com or http://www.macsales.com You can not go wrong with either. They will provide you 800mhz FD-DIMM memory that works perfect in the new Mac Pro and the memory will have the necessary larger fin heat sinks to keep things cool. These larger heat sinks are needed for optimal cooling of the memory in the Mac Pro so that it can keep fan speed and thus noise to a minimum. Buy the 8GB kit (4×2GB) and place these sticks in slot 1 & 2 on each of the Mac Pro’s riser cards, then add the original 2×1GB sticks to slot 3 & 4 on the TOP riser card, leaving slot 3 & 4 on the bottom riser card free. This will give you maximum quad channel memory performance and allow the Mac Pro to access all 10GB of memory.

I have 8 GB in mine, and it seems to be enough for me right now. I usually have Lightroom and Photoshop both open, eating well over 1 GB each, plus a week-old Safari, NetNewsWire, etc, etc, and I’ve never seen less than 2 GB of free RAM. 4-6 GB free is pretty typical when I’m not editing photos. So unless you’re running multiple VMs, I doubt that 16 GB will be better in any useful way than 8 GB. Personally, I’d avoid 32 GB right now; FB-DIMMs are a pain in the neck to keep cool, and filling the system with the biggest, highest-capacity DIMMs around sounds like a recipe for overheating. Or, at least a recipe for having your fans run all the time.

OWC seems to have decent prices on Mac Pro RAM, and as I recall they’ll even let you trade in your original Apple RAM, so if you’re plannng on filling up all of the slots with 2 GB DIMMs, then you might want to consider them.

Chris, I totally agree that 32GB would definitely be a good idea. Not just for your mentioned forwards comatibility, but because that wold be SICK!!! Do it!!

Oh god, I only have 1.5 gb on my iMac, probably going to upgrade it to 2-4 gigs of ram.. probably 2 since the most intensive thing I would probably be doing is either playing WoW or using Pixelmator.

for ram check this out:

http://www.archmemory.com/inde.....gory=45449

Now since the Mac Pro 8-core comes with

2GB memory (800MHz DDR2 fully-buffered DIMM ECC)

standard, and you want 10 + gigs of ram you can get the last pack which is

8GB (2×4GB) Mac Pro Apple Approved DDR2-667 Fully Buffered Memory Kit (p/n APPLE-8GB-MACPRO)

less then $800. I checked another site but it wasn’t worth it. I have not tested to see if this site is legit, It looks legit and it was on Google Ads.

Enjoy.

if you’re going to pull the trigger. you may as well go all out right? ;)

Go with 32GB , you can’t have a MAC Pro without 32GB RAM! Then come brag to us and make us really envious :-P

I highly recommend you go with 16 you can always upgrade to 32, that is the NUMBER ONE reason to get a mac pro, is the fact that it is HIGHLY expandable, and will run well with just bout any configuration you start out with, and just improve with time. If you go straight to 32megs I think you will not be very impressed, go with 16, as you upgrade other components then see how the memory is holding up, if its getting strained. THEN! Jump up to 32, but not tell you know how much you REALLY need.

You would be much farther ahead speedwise spending the money for a SSD than excessive RAM.

I can barely imagine over 4Gb. Talk about bottleneck!

I like the comment about you CANT have a MAC pro without 32GB of memory. What in the world would anyone need that much memory for!? Seriously. In a more serious opinion. Chris. How much RAM do you have in your Windows Rig? Ok put that much in the Mac Pro. If for example you have 4GB RAM and it does everything you want. Why would you need anymore in OS X? Maybe its just my opinion to only spend money on something that is needed. I also agree with another post I read saying add memory as it is needed. That is how I have lived in my computing world. For example when Windows 2000 was the latest and greatest people might have 1GB of RAM. In general you would not notice a difference with another GB, so why spend the money? 2-4GB should be plenty, save the extra money from not buying that RAM and get a accessory, or maybe a new external drive for extra space. You know what I mean? Maybe there is some cool software you have wanted, buy a game, use the money on household things. Don’t get RAM that you probably will not use, its wasteful.

Chris,

I suggest going with 16 unless your urging need for bragging rights wont let you. I am pretty sure you will go for 32. ha ha.

Al

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@joe

You are insane, brother.

here is an application that would benefit from 168 GB of ram (see table on pg. 10):
http://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0509066
I guess we’ll have to stick to 32 GB a bit longer though.

J.

I have a Mac Pro 4×3.2GHz and 16 GB or Ram. I find that it is difficult to use more than 8GB or RAM. I typically have 9GB or Ram free–or more. I am not running a VM yet. My feeling is go for the (4) 4GB boards like I did, and have room for expansion as prices come down and more software is written to take advantage of the extra memory. I figure my machine, bought in April, will be good for ten years.