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Ram upgrade for 2011 iMac

I own a 2011 21.5" iMac, with a 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5 processor, 4 GB 1333 MHz DDR3 of memory, and a 500 GB hard disk, running under Mac OS X 10.9.5 Mavericks. I would like to upgrade the memory. I learnt that Apple does not provide RAM upgrade for this model. What options do I have?

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Jun 2, 2015 6:52 PM

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Posted on Jun 2, 2015 6:56 PM

Buy RAM from a source such as OWC or Crucial.


(128237)

13 replies

Aug 2, 2016 11:45 AM in response to Javier Antroxu

The trick to memory upgrades is not to paint yourself into a corner.


In other words, fill slots with the biggest ram you can afford, instead of four 4 gig chips, get two 8 gig chips...


I would buy two 8 gig chips, giving you 20 gigs...


I have been using Data Memory Systems for a decade or more...


http://www.datamemorysystems.com/apple-imac-intel-core-i5-quad-core-2-5ghz-21-5- mc309ll/a-mid-2011-memory-upgrades/


I also pulled that 500 gig hard drive, and put in a 7200 rpm, SATA 6gb/sec, Western Digital Black, 2 gigs..

Aug 4, 2016 3:56 PM in response to Niel

This is right on. I've been upgrading my Macs for some time, OWC is a great place to start for the basic upgrades that do not exceed what Apple supports for user level upgrades.


My current desktop is a Mid 2011 27" iMac 3.1 GHz i5. I upgraded to 32GB of ram from OWC. The only issue I had was one of the ram modules was bad- OWC next day aired me a new one. The iMac runs no issues with it.


----------------Non-Apple Recommended Part-----------------

While it does void your warranty, and is not recommended by Apple, I actually swapped my HDD for 2 SSD's through OWC as well. Their videos made the process very simple, and they sell a nice specialty tool kit for the job. Before the upgrade, I did clone my current HDD to another HDD in case bad things happened. Two SSD's easily fit into the slot left by the HDD, using OWC's adapter. The swap to SSD from HDD significantly improved start up time and performance.

Ram upgrade for 2011 iMac

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