How much memory can I install in a late 2008 2.4Ghz Macbook?

I'm currently running 4G of memory in my macbook and would like to go to 2 4gb sticks if possible. Will this work and how much speed improvement could I expect from the upgrade?

Unofficially, it can support up to 8 GB RAM. See link below for details:
http://www.everymac.com/systems/app...-2.4-aluminum-13-late-2008-unibody-specs.html

As for how much of an improvement it will make, that is dependent on what OS version you are running and what exactly you are doing on your MacBook. It'd also help to know how much drive space you have that is used and free.

@drumvudu: There are actually two setups that meet what you described. There's the:

- "Late 2008" 2.4ghz Unibody MacBook (made of metal/aluminum)
- "Late 2008" 2.4ghz white/black MacBook (made of polycarbonate/plastic)

As "lifeisabeach" mentioned...the "metal" version can be upgreaded to 8gig of ram. The "plastic" MacBook version can be upgraded to 6gig of ram (4gig + 2gig)

As far as speed. Adding ram doesn't not really speed up a computer (like having a faster cpu would). More ram allows a computer to operate more efficiently.

- Nick

I'm using a metal 13" late 2008 macbook. It's got a 250G SATA drive with 190G free and I'm running the latest stable version of Mavericks. I mostly use it for writing, web browsing, multimedia, etc. No gaming or heavy graphics design. I guess the main thing I'm looking for is for apps to load a little faster and just overall snappier window behavior i.e. open; close; minimize;maximize.

drumvudu said:

I guess the main thing I'm looking for is for apps to load a little faster and just overall snappier window behavior i.e. open; close; minimize;maximize.

Click to expand...

Apps loading faster has to do with two things:

- the speed of your storage (hard drive or SSD). The faster it is...the faster things can load.
- more ram can help...but...you really shouldn't have "50 gazillion" apps open at once. The more apps that are open simultaneously...the more ram that is used.

So when there is less ram available...operations will slow. So basically...if you are done with an app...close it. I generally don't like to have more than 4-5 apps open at the same time. But many times I have 2-3 (e-mail, browser, a game).

- Nick

p.s. Also...read the "beachballs" and "speedup" links in my signature. Basically...you should reboot your computer every so open (this can help a lot in some cases). I have a MacBook Pro with 4gig of ram...and I reboot at least once/week...sometimes more.

drumvudu said:

I'm using a metal 13" late 2008 macbook. It's got a 250G SATA drive with 190G free and I'm running the latest stable version of Mavericks. I mostly use it for writing, web browsing, multimedia, etc. No gaming or heavy graphics design. I guess the main thing I'm looking for is for apps to load a little faster and just overall snappier window behavior i.e. open; close; minimize;maximize.

Click to expand...

I would certainly consider swapping out the HDD for an SSD. That should have a more dramatic effect for the things you want to improve, as Nick indicated. More RAM won't hurt, but Mavericks is pretty efficient with using memory and 4 GB should be adequate for what you are doing.