Macbook with 1GB - Do I order two RAMS?

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Last week I bought myself a black Macbook 13.3 inch with 1 GB Ram. I want to upgrade to 2 GB.

I thought I could buy one more GB RAM and I would be set. I went to Crucial.com and found that they sell a 2 GB package. Do I need to buy two 1 GB rams. Can I just buy 1 GB and will it work with already installed 1 GB chip on the macbook?

Thanks,
MC
 
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Welcome to the forums, Mocha Coach!! :) Your username makes me giggle. I believe it is best to have a matched pair of ram. That's probably why they sell the 2GB (2x1GB) package. Someone will pop in soon to give additional info...
 
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Ordering the 2x1GB RAM might be overkill, but it will have some benefit (not too huge) of matching the RAM. Ordering a 1x1GB stick of RAM is better than doing nothing.

If you're in a tight budget, get the 1GB. If you have cash to spare and need that bit of performance extra provided by the 2x2GB, then go for the double-pack. IMHO, it's not needed to get the 2x2GB, unless you're doing some pretty hardcore things.
 
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MacBook,2Ghz CD,1.5GBRAM,100GBHD,SL.PowerbookG4 12"1Ghz,768MbRAM,40GBHD,Leopard.imac G3 400Mhz,10.4
Last week I bought myself a black Macbook 13.3 inch with 1 GB Ram. I want to upgrade to 2 GB.

I thought I could buy one more GB RAM and I would be set. I went to Crucial.com and found that they sell a 2 GB package. Do I need to buy two 1 GB rams. Can I just buy 1 GB and will it work with already installed 1 GB chip on the macbook?

Thanks,
MC
Do you have a single 1gb stick installed? Usally they come with 2x512mb sticks of Ram. If you do have 2x512mb then you will need the 2 GB package(2x1GB). If you have a single 1GB stick installed then you can buy another 1GB stick of RAM and be fine.
 

Mit


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If you buy one single 1GB and use it with one 512 MB, then you have 1.5 GB. In doing so you're losing the "speed boost". I'm not sure what that is, but that's what the service guy told me. If you use 2x1GB or 2x512MB (two sticks with the same amount of RAM) you won't lose that speed boost.
Try Other World Computing; it sells single module so you can buy one or two depending on your budget. I bought two 1GB last week, received and installed them today. Best price I've found on internet :)
 
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My 1Gb MacBook has 2x512 as dadsgravy said, so you might need to get 2x1Gb to upgrade it to 2Gb.
 
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Okay, to make a long story short. Yes, Macbooks work faster with matching pairs. The problem is the “speed Boost” that Mit is referring to only adds about a 7% increase. What that translates to in the real world, not much. The only time you should see a difference is when you run heavy 3d games. The Macbook does not handle these very well to begin with. The advantage to having pairs is based on the video memory. The built in video card on the Macbook does not have its own memory so it must borrow from the system memory. The paging system works better with pairs because of the way the video access the memory. That being said, I run a my Macbook with 1x512mb and 1x1gb stick for a total of 1.5gb. It runs just fine. I’ve not had a problem with it. I used to run it with 2x1 GB and can barley see a difference (only when applying large filters on Photoshop or Illustrator). It all boils down to what you run. If you want to run large video intensive programs like Adobe, Aperture or so on, 2x1gb is the way to go. You can always buy one and then run 1.5gb and see how you like it. If you want it to be faster then purchase another 1gb stick.


Good Luck,
 

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