After upgrading to Mountain Lion, which I sincerely regret, my trusty 27” iMac started resembling my old sluggish PC. Login took forever and everything just wasn’t the same anymore.
It became clear to me that I needed to do something, after installing Final Cut Pro. I expected video editing to be a ressource hugger, but even starting the program on this iMac took almost a minute before all windows were active.
First instinct was to just buy a new iMac, but then again – there is really nothing wrong with this system and it is not that old, so I started looking for memory options.
When I purchased this one in 2010, the default option was 4GB – and I have now learned that this is just not enough for Mountain Lion to deliver an acceptable user experience.
I found a 8GB memory kit on Amazon, ordered it a couple of days ago and after installing it today, I can tell, I will never regret making that move.
Next time Apple makes an OS upgrade that renders my system sluggish, I will try with more memory again. Obviously it would be nice with new graphics and a slightly faster CPU, but memory is a lot cheaper these days and everybody will be able to install it.
Just remember one thing: After inserting the memory, when powering on the system, press “Alt/Option”+”R”+”P” until you see a rotating icon on the white screen. This will reset Parameter RAM (PRAM) and non-volatile RAM (NVRAM)
A happy DIY camper :-)
