Silly question, but is there a difference between standard ram you'd throw in a PC and what Apple uses?

My brother has an older lampshade 700MHz G4 iMac that only has 256mb (PC133) in it. Unfortunately the stick that's in it is the easy one, there's a normal 168pin slot inside that's a small pain to get to. I'd rather not open it more than I have to, so it'd be best if I knew the memory was going to work before I installed it.

I can get a standard 512mb stick for ~$10 shipped off ebay... or a 'certified apple compatible' stick for ~35 shipped, ebay or newegg. Crucial told me I'm not capable of replacing that stick (but they charge $50 for a G4 PowerMac stick, which is the same thing).

I've seen ram listed as "not apple compatible" and newegg has a separate section for mac ram, which dents my idea that all ram is created equal.

11/27/2008 12:42:44 PM

As long as the speed is the same, if it's the same type, it'll work.

That era mac was notoriously sensitive to the CAS latency, so check on that too. But it'll still probably work.

[Edited on November 27, 2008 at 12:49 PM. Reason : ]

11/27/2008 12:48:43 PM