Appleboy45

Q: Summer 2000 iMac Memory Specs

I got an Summer 2000 Indigo iMac with 512MBs. I plan to upgrade the memory to 1GB which should be the maximum. According to Mactracker, it says I need 2 PC100 desktop SDRAM moduels. Is this correct? And does it matter if I use EEC memory or not?

iMac, Mac OS 9.1.x, G3 Processor and OS X 10.0

Posted on Jul 5, 2016 12:55 PM

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Q: Summer 2000 iMac Memory Specs

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  • by Jeff,

    Jeff Jeff Jul 5, 2016 9:42 PM in response to Appleboy45
    Level 6 (11,559 points)
    Jul 5, 2016 9:42 PM in response to Appleboy45

    You can use PC100 or PC133, but ECC or Registered SDRAM is not supported.  A DIMM with ECC capability is easy to identify and avoid — it has an odd number of chips on either side of the PCB.  You should buy a pair of 512 MB PC100 (8ns) or PC133 DIMMs (7.5ns or 7ns) CL2 (2-2-2) - although (3-2-2) would be OK.  Even though I'd prefer to not use PC133 with a CL3 rating (3-3-3), your 2000 iMac probably wouldn't be noticeably slower.

  • by Allan Jones,

    Allan Jones Allan Jones Jul 6, 2016 7:53 AM in response to Appleboy45
    Level 8 (35,027 points)
    iPad
    Jul 6, 2016 7:53 AM in response to Appleboy45

    I used this in our iMac of the same model without issue:

     

    https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/100SD512328/

     

    That vendor actually takes time to test RAM in Macs, not "guess at" what works. For all PowerMacs of that vintage, the CL2 (2-2-2) RAM always seemed the most compatible.

     

    Running OS9.2 and OS 10.3, ours did not show much improvement going from 512MB to 1GB. The big change was in OS 10.3 when I upgraded from 256MB to 512MB.