Memory Upgrade for January 2008 Mac Pro

I upgraded my memory to 6GB in my January 2008 model Mac Pro and noticed the Apple manual for the system leaves out an important detail on the simple install instructions. You MUST install the larger matched pair in riser card 1 (or A).

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[DirectorFilms]

Thankyou, it worked a treat, i was putting one 2gig stick under the original 1 gig stick on the top tray, and same for the bottom.that didnt work. i did it your way and it works fine, thank you a million times.

[cphadley]

Happy to help :) That issue drove me crazy when it happened to so I posted this. Glad to see it has been helping others.

[mendezWTF]

I added 8 gigs to my standard 2 gigs. I tried what the video said and it didn't work :(

[cphadley]

Bummer! I hope you worked it out. I just upgraded to 10GB in my system so both cards are now full. It gets so tricky the order you have to use to make the freakin' thing happy sometimes. The new 2009 Mac Pro actually tells you when it boots that the memory is installed in the optimal config. Pretty handy.

[cphadley]

Thanks for all the great feedback everyone :-)  I just built a Core i7 system and have been thinking about posting the video of that build soon. If you are interested in that stay tuned. Thanks again all!

[scottfree6]

well, i dont know what month my early 2008 mac pro is but when i got it i had 6gigs just like you have now and the smaller matched pair was on top and the larger on the bottom and it read 6gigs of ram, i just added 2 more 4 gig sticks up top and it registered 14 gigs no problem. so i have 2 4gig sticks, and 2 1gig sticks up top, and 2 2gig sticks on the bottom. as i said i read 14 gigs of ram, however my cinebench mark remained the same. did yours increase? maybe not optimal?

[Nidokid]

hey man. can i install ddr3 ram for this model???

[zeppo20]

Hi, I got my MacPro 3.1 with 4 gigs its got 1gig stick in riser B DIMM 1, 1gig stick in riser B DIMM 2,1gig stick in riser A DIMM 1, and 1gig stick in riser A DIMM 2, so I want to buy 8 gigs (2X4 gigs), how I´m going to install it. What brand of memory do you recomend? Thanks.

[YODAKNOWSALL]

You are Correct...I know this from doing an upgraded to the Mac pro :-)

[GjonetoOfficialPage]

YOU ARE A LIFESAVER - thank you!

[eldoradoNei]

Thanks alot!! I would have went through the same problem. I have the EXACT ram you had, and the 2 sticks you were installing. Thank god for you and youtube! I checked here first

[sarahbau]

I know this is two years after the video, but when I got my Early 2008 Mac Pro in June '08, I believe I had the opposite problem. I think I put the two 2GB DIMMs in the top card at first, and they weren't recognized, and then put them in the bottom after reading the manual to see if I'd done something wrong. In any case, my two 2GB DIMMs are in Riser B, and two 1GB are in Riser A, as they have been for two years. Maybe yours had an older firmware when you got it, and it was fixed quickly?

[jonkmailer]

thanks man! I just installed 8 more gigs on my Mac Pro! worked perfect!

[Fear3001]

I'm a bit of a noob to computing and I know what ram is but when people talk about memory are they talking about ram and storage just storing files and programs!