4GB RAM set-up

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Hey everyone,

I'm thinking of getting 4GB for my Macbook. What's your opinion on this? Thing is though, I normally only go past 2GB after running Parallels and I don't really think I could ever go past 3GB to be honest. Still, when I'm running Parallels, I want the freedom to be able to open as many programs as I want without the need to swap out memory. This leaves me with 1GB that would be essentially wasted.

Apart from using it as a ramdisk (can anyone work out any innovative and interesting things I can do with this?) and possibly trying to cache everything to main memory e.g. disable disk cache of Firefox and increase memory cache size, I can't really think how else I could better utilize the extra memory.

I also wonder if 4GB would take up more battery life than a 2GB set up or would that be the same? I rarely run Parallels without the charger plugged in, which also means that I will be <2GB RAM usage at that time. The other issue is, would the increase RAM size increase the amount of heat generated?
 
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Your Mac's Specs
24" iMac, 2.4GHz C2D, 4 GB RAM, 320 GB hard drive, OS X 10.5.1
Get the 4 gigs. It will only use more power if you are utilizing it. As for the 1 gig extra, Im sure future software will make use of it.
 
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iMac (Aluminum), MacBook (Core Duo), iPod (Classic), 16GB iPhone 3G
I've got 3GB in my iMac. I was thinking about the 4GB too, not sure if I need it though.
 
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Search people...this topic has been beaten to death at least a dozen times in the last month!!
 
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Search people...this topic has been beaten to death at least a dozen times in the last month!!

That's why I put the RAM guide in my sig. Pity HTML is disabled or I'd throw it in some <blink> tags :p
 
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Hey Geeky1,

How did you get a 160 gig 7200rpm hard drive in you MBP? Did you put it in? The stock 160 gig is 5400rpm.
 
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I ordered it with one; it's an optional ($150) upgrade.
 
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Did not know that. Its not listed.
 
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They replaced it with the 200G/7.2K when the update that included the cpu speed bump to 2.6 took place a few weeks ago.
 
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Are you glad you got it? My father-in-laws 15" with the 2.4GHz, 4 GB, and 200 7.2k should arrive Friday. He was on the fence about getting the hard drive upgrade.
 
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I am; I consider 5.4k drives to be near useless. The 7.2K drives are SIGNIFICANTLY faster, with no real-world effect on battery life or temperature to speak of, and little-to-no increase in noise, depending on how good your ears are and where you're using the machine. Outside of financial constraints or lack of availability from the manufacturer (combined with an inability to upgrade the drive yourself without voiding the warranty, such as in the MBP) I wouldn't recommend a 5400rpm or (god forbid) a 4200rpm drive in any new notebook purchase for any reason.
 

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