How much RAM can I put in my Mac?

That’s the question I just asked over on twitter, prompted by the fact that my 2006 iMac is starting to feel a little sluggish. It already has 3GB RAM installed, which according to Apple is the maximum supported. But sometimes you can install and use more than what is officially supported.

Thanks to a reply from @drhappymac I now know my iMac won’t support any more RAM, but he also pointed me in the direction of a fantastic free app called Mactracker.

You can use Mactracker to find information about what appears to be every single Mac produced, from the Classic Mac released in 1984 right up to the 2010 MacBook Pro lineup. Besides telling you how much RAM each Mac can handle, you can also find out which versions of the OS will work on it, release date, original price, specifications and short history. You can even listen to the startup and death chimes for each model!

A couple of other nice features include the ability to compare the specs of up to 4 different Macs side-by-side, and the integration of performance scores from Geekbench.

The app isn’t just limited to Macs either, iPhones, iPods, iPads and the Apple TV are all covered along with Mac hardware like displays, mice and keyboards – if Apple made it you will probably find it listed in this app.

Along with the Mac version you can also get Mactracker for the iPhone and there’s even a Windows version too.

Visit the developers site for more info.