Upgrading a Mac Pro

[hunter315]

We have a Mac Pro where i work at school, its two generations old, dual quad core Xeon E5462 i believe, its main issue is that it still only has the same 2GB of ram that it got shipped with a few years ago, considering its main purpose in life is to run multiple adobe apps simultaneously this gets to be a problem some days. Now i understand that the Mac Pro has some special ram due to using a server board and being in a case with some rather interesting airflow so there are bigger heatsinks on the memory. What im not really sure of is the quality of the company called "iRAM", they have a 2x2GB kit of the same speed that is in it currently for $110, the other option would be a 2x4GB kit from Mushkin for $250, its a bit more than grabbing 2 of the iRAM kits but its Mushkin vs a company i have never heard of before. Does anyone have any experience with iRAM?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820349019
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146783

Also, i havent worked inside a mac pro before, i know the memory is on riser cards, anyone know if i will need to pull the card out to put the memory in or if there is enough space to install it without having to figure out how to pull the card out? I found a nice reference picture on wikipedia but im not sure if there is enough space to get my hands in
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/Side_Power_Mac_G5_-_Mac_Pro_.jpeg


Also, i know apple enjoys making life difficult sometimes, am i going to need any special tools to upgrade it?

 

[joelmartinez]

I would buy the iRAM, it hasn't got many bad reviews, doesn't mean it doesn't suck but this isn't performance overclocking and although I have also never heard of them generic ought to do for your tasks.

sorry, don't know answer to other questions

 

[hunter315]

Thanks for trying, i know there arent a lot of mac people here but i figured i would give it a shot. The system isnt going to be OC'ed at all, it just needs a few upgrades to keep it chugging along, the processors are more than enough for it, it just gets a bit memory starved at times.

Ill probably end up going for the iRam then, i cant find much about them, or anything bad in particular.

 

[ScrewySqrl]

at worst, they'll have a year or so of warranty

 

[kaitsun6]

We have a Mac Pro where i work at school, its two generations old, dual quad core Xeon E5462 i believe, its main issue is that it still only has the same 2GB of ram that it got shipped with a few years ago, considering its main purpose in life is to run multiple adobe apps simultaneously this gets to be a problem some days. Now i understand that the Mac Pro has some special ram due to using a server board and being in a case with some rather interesting airflow so there are bigger heatsinks on the memory. What im not really sure of is the quality of the company called "iRAM", they have a 2x2GB kit of the same speed that is in it currently for $110, the other option would be a 2x4GB kit from Mushkin for $250, its a bit more than grabbing 2 of the iRAM kits but its Mushkin vs a company i have never heard of before. Does anyone have any experience with iRAM?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820349019
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146783

Also, i havent worked inside a mac pro before, i know the memory is on riser cards, anyone know if i will need to pull the card out to put the memory in or if there is enough space to install it without having to figure out how to pull the card out? I found a nice reference picture on wikipedia but im not sure if there is enough space to get my hands in
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/Side_Power_Mac_G5_-_Mac_Pro_.jpeg


Also, i know apple enjoys making life difficult sometimes, am i going to need any special tools to upgrade it?

No special tools needed. Check out the Apple Memory Rplacement Instructions:
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/MacPro_Early2008_MemoryDIMM_DIY.pdf