Just curious if someone can help me out a bit. I'm looking at upgrading from a pc to a Mac and I'm looking at the 21.5 inch 2.5GHz. Is it worth upgrading to the 8gb ram. My main uses will be for photo and video editing and I'll probably be using aperture. I just want to know whether the 4gb will be sufficient to run aperture fairly smoothly?

Hi, aperture is a memory hungrer, is money is not an issue. Then upgrade to 8gb
I'm not sure u can do self upgrade or not. If can then do self upgrade will be cheaper.

they have made it easy for user to upgrade ram in imac since last model. the problem is some ram module will not work with apple product. but it still cheaper to uprade ram urself.

iMac 21.5" my first apple computer since Apple IIc back in 1987.

Should be able to self upgrade, but very troublesome because need to open the screen

Nonsense, don't simply make statement if you are not sure. Upgrading iMac memory will only need to loosen up 1 philip screw and remove the memory cage cover. Pull the plastic tab, remove old RAMs, put in new RAMs, close the RAM cage cover.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4621



This post has been edited by wei: May 8 2011, 11:08 AM

yes, there is a detailed instruction within the manual on how to upgrade the ram. im still on 4GB, seeing how it goes, if i need will upgrade to 8GB by the end of the month. OSX is still new to me, donno how much i'll be needing yet.

forgive bry7..mebi he's refering to the old imac..which won't allow easiness in upgrading ram as of now.

btw..does anybody remember what gfx is the last imac 27" entry on? machines is selling at 4299. planning to upgrade to imac 27" from my unibody alu macbook.

Here's the fact:
iMac G3, flip over, 1 screw, open RAM cover.
iMac G4, 4 screws, remove bottom cover.
iMac G5, flip over, 3 screws, open back cover.
iMac G5 iSight, 2 screws, open RAM cover.
iMac CoreDuo-Core2Duo white, 2 screws, open RAM cover.
iMac Core2Duo-Core i alu, 1 screw open RAM cover.

They are not hard to upgrade RAM.

Here's the official spec page for 2010 iMac: http://support.apple.com/kb/SP588

How about HDD upgrade on the new 21.5" iMac ? Is it easy?

Like I said on the other thread, no, it is difficult.
http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iMac-Intel-...Teardown/5485/1

You will only get in to the HDD on steps 4, where you removed the glass panel, LCD panel.
There are risk breaking the glass, if not introduce dust and stain on both the glass and LCD. Which is not easy to clean. If you are not careful, you might damage other component or shocked by the PSU since they are next to each other.

This post has been edited by wei: May 9 2011, 09:12 AM

Its very2 easy to change RAM in iMac, i've done twice

It looks kinda difficult though. If i decided to do it, will it void warranty? Any idea warranty stickers are stick on the new iMac?

@turion64 don't bother. its very difficult and its far too easy to mess up the iMac. if you want, just get wei to do it.

no, there's no warranty stickers. look at ifixit.com for more photos.

External drives is cheap, if you want to expand your storage, point them external, in fact we do not suggest user to park everything inside the internal HDD. It's too risky. If you send your Mac to service, you going to expose all your datas to whoever doing your Mac. And there's no easy way to take the drive out unlike the 'Books.

This post has been edited by wei: May 9 2011, 05:08 PM

I just switched to a Mac too, and I do fairly heavy photo editing on Lightroom. I got the 27" 2.7GHz with 4GB RAM, and the thing just processes my photos effortlessly. I switch a lot between Lightroom & Photoshop and I have never experienced any slowdowns/hang. Why don't you try using 4GB RAM first and if it is insufficient (especially as you mentioned using it for video editing) you can upgrade later.

i suggest HDD upgrade to be done when you place order.
if not it will be very troublesome, as pointed out by wei

Like I mentioned before Apple pulled those options from the entry level 21.5" iMac, you can only add more RAM, no option for HDD.

Got my iMac 21.5" yesterday... my first Mac...

First impression is that system is very fast and easy to use.

Something I don't like is the Magic Mouse. Too slow for my liking.

planning to order the new iMac online. it says shipping within 24 hours. and when i click add additional items , it went to 3 days.

anyone got their item within 24 hours or 3 days care to share?