Mac Surgery

I decided to finally upgrade my 5th Gen iMac desktop from its 1GB of memory to 3GB. Partly due to the purchase of my MacBook Pro which has 4GB of memory and is soooo fast comparatively. So I received my 2GB chip in the mail from Crucial on Friday and finally decided to crack open the Mac today.

Here's my desk, all cleaned off and ready for the operation!

(What you can't see is the coffee table full of stuff I pulled off my desk...)

The patient prepped for surgery.

The process was a lot easier and faster than I imagined. First I downloaded instructions off the Apple support site.

Next, I had to follow said instructions...

I undid the two screws on the middle door, exposing two memory slots, both occupied by memory cards. This was already different from the instructions. Where was my brand new 2GB card to go? I gingerly (read: forcefully) opened the plastic hinges on either side of the cards to see that once open, the cards slide partially out. I pulled the cards out to find that each card was half of a GB. Now I am perplexed.

The underside of Big Mac, showing one chip in and one removed.

So I returned the bottom half a GB chip to its original spot and inserted the 2GB into the top slot. Fingers crossed, I replaced the panel, and turned Big Mac back on. It worked!

Proof!

So the whole process, including having a pregnant moment and putting both old chips back in once, and then having to open the whole thing up again, took about 20 minutes. What I am perplexed about is that the Mac Tech support says my Mac can take up to 3GB total memory. I mistakenly thought I would have one 1GB card in there with a vacant spot for my 2GB. But this was not the case. Now I actually wonder if I can sneak another 2GB card in there and see if it will take.

There are "unconfirmed" reports of iMacs like mine with 4GB of memory... So I have decided to wait and enjoy my addition 1.5GB of memory. And it makes a huge difference already! I can't wait to open Flash, Dreamweaver and Inkscape all at once and then see how fast iPhoto opens...

Maybe I will max it out later. At $49 for 2GB of memory, it's not a huge investment, and it pays off fast in saved time and lack of frustration.

Now on to secure empty the 80,000+ items in my trash...

PS: SO glad I chose to upgrade my Mac and not my PC.
Check out the PC instructions!!