I want to upgrade the RAM on my 2010 Macbook Air

Hey guys I know it is not possible to upgrade the RAM on my MBA (2010) without going to the Apple Store (unless anyone knows otherwise). But would anyone know how much it would cost me to upgrade from 2GB to 4GB on my 11' MBA?

therichad said:

Hey guys I know it is not possible to upgrade the RAM on my MBA (2010) without going to the Apple Store (unless anyone knows otherwise). But would anyone know how much it would cost me to upgrade from 2GB to 4GB on my 11' MBA?

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To the best of my knowledge...the ram on the newest MacBook Air's is not upgradeable. That includes going to the Apple Store. From what I understand the ram is soldered onto the logic board...so you got what you got.

I would assume that the ONLY way to upgrade the ram would be to install a whole new logic board with the higher amount of ram...and this realistically would be a very poor financial investment.

HTH,

- Nick

pigoo3 said:

To the best of my knowledge...the ram on the newest MacBook Air's is not upgradeable. That includes going to the Apple Store. From what I understand the ram is soldered onto the logic board...so you got what you got.

I would assume that the ONLY way to upgrade the ram would be to install a whole new logic board with the higher amount of ram...and this realistically would be a very poor financial investment.

HTH,

- Nick

Click to expand...

Nick,
I am glad I read this thread.
I plan to give my wife a MBA for Christmas this year--will definitely go for the 4MB version when I do.
Thanks,
Mike

Razormac said:

Nick,
I am glad I read this thread.
I plan to give my wife a MBA for Christmas this year--will definitely go for the 4MB version when I do.
Thanks,
Mike

Click to expand...

You're welcome!

Yeah...the newest MacBook Airs have their positives (very thin & very light)...but that comes at a price...and I believe one of those "prices" is expandability.

As we very well know...there isn't a whole lot you can upgrade on Apple laptops/notebooks (just hard drive & ram)...and with the newest MacBook Air's with SSD drives (and super thin design)...ram & storage upgrades after purchase are not possible.

One other VERY important thing to know (if someone intends on getting one of the newest MacBook Air's and intends on keeping it a long time)...is the battery (or the battery array) in the newest MacBook Air is also NOT designed to be replaced. I don't know 100% if this means:

- not replaceable by the end user
- only replaceable by an Apple professional
- or totally not replaceable at all (so when the battery goes bad...you're hosed)!

Here's a quote from an Engadget review:

"The batteries, hard drive, and RAM are all kept under lock and key -- nothing here is removable or user upgradable (at least not easily). In fact, the RAM is hardwired to the logic board and the flash storage is located on a custom Mini PCI Express board, meaning that tweaking the internals is not really on the table for most users."

Here's the full review:

MacBook Air review (late 2010) -- Engadget

HTH,

- Nick

pigoo3 said:

One other VERY important thing to know (if someone intends on getting one of the newest MacBook Air's and intends on keeping it a long time)...is the battery (or the battery array) in the newest MacBook Air is also NOT designed to be replaced. I don't know 100% if this means:

- not replaceable by the end user
- only replaceable by an Apple professional
- or totally not replaceable at all (so when the battery goes bad...you're hosed)!

Click to expand...

I admit that would make me have definite second thoughts on buying the MBA. So, I went to ifixit and looked at their tear down of the 11in MBA. If the 13in is the same it looks like upgrading the SSD and/or replacing the battery may not be that hard (providing you get the funky 5-lobed screwdriver bit).


MacBook Air 11" Model A1370 Teardown - iFixit

Razormac said:

I admit that would make me have definite second thoughts on buying the MBA. So, I went to ifixit and looked at their tear down of the 11in MBA. If the 13in is the same it looks like upgrading the SSD and/or replacing the battery may not be that hard (providing you get the funky 5-lobed screwdriver bit).

Click to expand...

Thanks for the link...I've been a little lazy & hadn't checked it out yet.

You see what I mean by a "battery array"...those 6 "rectangles of power". Yes...if the parts become available (and affordable)...the battery array & SSD may be upgradeable/replaceable. But the ram definitely sounds like you got the get everything up front at the time of purchase.

Amazing how small the logic board is!!!

- Nick

Guys....

The new MacBook Air machines are storage upgradeable. OWC now has a new kit to do the job. The flash storage drive in the Air is a plug in module which can be removed and replaced with a larger module.

Let's see if I can find the link. Here it is: LINK A bit pricey though.

chscag said:

The new MacBook Air machines are storage upgradeable. OWC now has a new kit to do the job. The flash storage drive in the Air is a plug in module which can be removed and replaced with a larger module.

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Thanks "chscag"...for confirming the MBA SSD upgrade & availability (although expensive). Yeah...I saw that the SSD in the ifixit link "Razormac" posted seemed upgradable.

This is my "learn something new everyday" thing for today!

- Nick

Ouccchh!!

$1200 for 360GB!

I hadn't really noticed until now how far behind the MBA is going to be compared with the MBPs after today's refresh. Not only the measly RAM (and 2GBs is not great now at all) but the C2D running at 1.6ghz or so.

It's not a bad machine at all, but the gap in performance between it and an entry level i5/i7 (2 cores, 4 threads) with 4GBs of RAM is huge. I don't think the Mac range has ever had such a large gap between entry level machines and mid-range machines.