iMac 20" 2.0GHz 2007 with DDR2 800MHz upgrade

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Level 1

55 points

iMac 20" 2.0GHz 2007 with DDR2 800MHz upgrade

Hi everyone

I've got iMac with El Capitan which "officially" supports 667MHz DDR2 - but I've got 2GB 800MHz DDR2 and it does not work (not sure if iMac not accepting it or RAM is damaged).

I thought it will be working as it is still DDR2 just a bit higher frequency

I've done in past upgrade Mac Mini 2011 which "officially" supports DDR3 1333 - but I've put DDR3 1600MHz and Mac Mini worked fine and EVEN El Capitan detect that 1600MHz!

Thank You for help

Mac mini, OS X El Capitan (10.11.4), Server for new owner

Posted on May 4, 2016 12:34 PM

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Answer 1

Allan Jones

Level 9

78,242 points

May 4, 2016 12:46 PM in response to the_bart123

Did the computer work before you upgraded the OS? If so the RAM is proably not defective.

Assuming it is the Mid 2007 (silver and black) it will officially support up to 4GB RAM (two 2GB modules). With a special module available form only one reliable vendor you can theorectcaally reach 6GB (one 2GB plus 1 4GB module). There are people here running 6GB in that model successfully but teh cost per GB of the special 4GB module is quite high.

My son runs engineering apps on his Mac with El Capitan 10.11 and he has only 4GB RAM. For average use 4GB will suffice.

Only buy RAM from Other World Computing:

https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/apple/memory/iMac/Intel_Core_2_Duo

or Crucial.com. Many brands of RAM sold on the cheap will not work properly in Macs (Kingston's ValueRAM; some PNY; most Corsair)

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