Should i upgrade my RAM??

Hello

I have a macbook pro 13" mid 2009 model
Currently i have a 2 gb ram ddr3 1067mhz (1+1) the basic one which came along with computer..

I use parallels sometimes and i have noticed that my computer becomes significantly slower

i open activity monitor and in system monitor is mainly only yellow and red when parallels runs..

I wanted to know if i should upgrade my ram to the max capacity 8 gb (4+4) or not?

in short, will upgrading ram help parallels and mac run side by side faster

Also i was made to understand that different companies offer RAM 'sticks' (dont exactly know whether its called sticks or slots or whatever)..

Which one would be best for my computer? apple charges a bomb i heard others are better and cheaper too

Pls help

Activity monitor is telling you that you do not have enough RAM. Look at the "Page Outs" line in activity monitor, the higher the count, the more memory you are swapping from RAM to DISK. That will cause slowdowns.

RAM is cheap right now. Other World Computing Performance Upgrades; FireWire USB SATA Storage; Memory, more at OWC or Crucial RAM Memory Upgrade: Dell, Mac, Apple, HP, Compaq. USB drives, SSD at Crucial.com are excellent resources and can help identify what RAM that you require.

I always MAX out the ram on every machine that I have.

Bill

if i upgrade my ram the apps loading time, performance etc will become faster right? thts what RAM does right? sorry if i sound too amateurish or idiotic but i just wanted some clarity in thought

The general purpose of RAM is to hold all the software that is currently being used.There is also a SWAP portion designated in the hard disk area that is utilized to handle any overflow. The physical act of pushing data to and from the swap area on hard disk is extremely slow compared to data operations performed only in RAM.

If you open Activity monitor and look under System Memory, you can get a feel for what programs or processes are running and can see what memory is being used.

As memory is full and disk swapping happens, programs slow down. This can cause programs to open slowly, long pauses, or the "spinning beachball". By increasing RAM, you minimize this risk.

For example, I have open on my machine running Lion (memory hog), iMail, iCal, iTunes playing music, iMessenger, LibreOffice with 2 open spreadsheets, Activity Monitor, Chrome (11 tabs open), and some very specific weather software. I still have 2.9GBytes of Free Ram available and ZERO Page Outs.

Prior to upgrading my Mac Mini, with stock 2 GBytes ram, I could have one program open at a time and even then, I was logging Page Outs with Activity Monitor. My performance was sluggish and barely usable. Now, it is operating exactly as I expected from a new Mac, crisp and responsive.

So, with all being said, I hope it gives you enough information to an informed choice as to your RAM needs. I would have to say though, if you are running Parallels, you need More RAM.

Bill

Thank you so much bill. Really helped me !