upgrading RAM

After more than a decade of pc **** I am now a Mac newbie. I just bought the new white macbook and wish to upgrade to 4 gigs of ram. I never dreamed that it would be so complicated to buy compatible ram.

Everytime a store clerk assures me that he knows what brand of ram I need, I research on google and see many people saying that they have tried it and it causes their mac to crash. I know that I can buy 4 gigs from the Apple store for $200, but I am hoping that I don't have to spend that much.

I will be grateful if some of you veteran Mac users would tell me specifically what model number/ brand of ram that I can buy that will definately compatible.
No need spending money to make things worse.

thank you for your help.

I too just purchased a MacBook and am interested in adding memory.

I bought 4GBs of ram ( 2x2gb ) on newegg for $60 a while ago for my macbook when I had one.

which macbook do you have?

johnnyFIVE said:

I bought 4GBs of ram ( 2x2gb ) on newegg for $60 a while ago for my macbook when I had one.

which macbook do you have?

Click to expand...

I have the late 2009 model, plastic unibody(???). The guy at Best Buy told me that only the $200 Apple memory would work. Any truth to that?

That is patently false.

For the inexperienced and decent prices on RAM, the first two places to check out are:

OWC - an online Mac specialty shop with pretty decent customer service

and

Crucial - to make it easy, they have a system scanner that will show you the available kits they have for your model Mac.

Both offer Lifetime warranty.

For the experienced - you should already know what brands to stick with and stay away from - newegg is the place to head. Of course, you already knew that also.

I have to agree. That is not true and has not been for some time. The important thing is that the memory meet the right specs. Some of the "cut throat' memory will not work (usually because it is out of spec). Most of the reputable vendors will have an acceptable return policy. I've bought memory for various Macs from all of the vendors mentioned except Best Buy and had it work fine.

ranjr said:

I have the late 2009 model, plastic unibody(???). The guy at Best Buy told me that only the $200 Apple memory would work. Any truth to that?

Click to expand...

Wow would I love to have that idiot fired for that blatant lie. Best Buy really stinks. I heard a similar story here in Budapest from some @S$ at a place called iStyle, which is located in one of the malls here. I asked about where he thought might be a good place to purchase RAM for my Unibody MBP, since I wasn't from here and didn't even know any websites to check out.

The guy tried to tell me that there was absolutely NO place on the internet which sold the RAM I needed ! LULZ ? I of course pressed the guy and said to not treat me like an idiot. He works in an authorized Apple store and so he must be a gadget/tech head to some degree.. so please let me in on the big secret.

Of course, he only directed me to the iStyle website where I could purchase said RAM for .. you guessed it.. $200 !! I hate salesmen. With a passion.

I just upgraded from 1gb to 4gb using OWC as bob has given the link too. They too will have a Mac spec page where they will only show you the upgrade products for your particular machine. Good company to go thru ....

bobtomay said:

That is patently false.

For the inexperienced and decent prices on RAM, the first two places to check out are:

OWC - an online Mac specialty shop with pretty decent customer service

and

Crucial - to make it easy, they have a system scanner that will show you the available kits they have for your model Mac.

Both offer Lifetime warranty.

For the experienced - you should already know what brands to stick with and stay away from - newegg is the place to head. Of course, you already knew that also.

Click to expand...

Thank you. I've bookmarked the link to OWC as I have a feeling I'll be purchasing from them in the near future.

I thought it was interesting that my MacBook is capable of running 8GB of ram. I thought 4 was max.

they probably just expect people who can afford a mac to feel fine wasting money for "mac compatible" memory (which is really the same thing in a shinier package).

bobtomay said:

That is patently false.

For the inexperienced and decent prices on RAM, the first two places to check out are:

OWC - an online Mac specialty shop with pretty decent customer service

and

Crucial - to make it easy, they have a system scanner that will show you the available kits they have for your model Mac.

Both offer Lifetime warranty.

For the experienced - you should already know what brands to stick with and stay away from - newegg is the place to head. Of course, you already knew that also.

Click to expand...

OWC says my Late 2009 Uni White MB is compatible with 8GB upgrade of Ram....do you know if this is correct...because when i was reading under the spec info on the apple website it said upgradable to 4GB Ram...but do you think thats only b/c apple only makes 4GB Ram for this MB??