Planning to upgrade in the future

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white MacBook - 2.16GHz, 2GB RAM, 500GB HD iPhone Specs: white 3GS - 32GB
I've recently purchased a refurb'd MacBook a couple weeks ago. It has 1GB of RAM and a 120GB HD. At the moment this is more than enough for me as a seventeen year-old so I don't do anything on my Mac that requires more than a gig of RAM. However in the future when I enter university that may not be the case, and for that I have noobish questions, sorry.

First one: I know that MacBooks' RAM can be upgraded to 4GB, but I have the 2.16GHz model, which as most of us know here is not the most recent model. So does that one have a worse RAM limitation, i.e. I believe I read somewhere it is 2GB?

Second: If I plan on upgrading the hard drive, can I take the 250GB HD from the black MacBook and slap it into mine? Or, in that case, any other 2.5" HD I find at the local store?
In addition to the hard drive question, I'd transfer all of my data from my Macintosh HD partition (i.e. I won't transfer my Windows partion*) to the new one. Is it possible to copy all of my data from my current drive to the new one, then insert the new drive and then it will boot up? Or would I have to reinstall Leopard and then migrate all the data?

*I'd make a fresh, larger partition for Windows once the new HD is installed
 
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I think I'm right in saying that the 2.16ghz Macbook has a physical 4gb limit but will only use a max of 3gb - happy to be corrected

Any 2.5" 9mm high SATA HDD drive will fit.

If you have a 2.5" SATA enclosure or a USB to SATA adaptor you can use something like Carbon Copy Cloner to clone your existing disc. Swap the drives over and the Mac will boot. You can even boot from the external drive first to be sure the clone has worked OK.

I have a 2.16 MB that I've upgraded to 2gb RAM and a 250GB HDD
 

CrimsonRequiem


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Go to crucial and download the scanner. It will tell you how much RAM your model can handle.
 
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Okay, I just did a check on the results of what putting mismatched pairs or 2x2gig modules into a second generation Macbook that is only "supposed to" address 2 gig, but if you put in 2x2 gig modules in it'll address three gig, and you're better off by having that much more RAM. This is relevant to my interests because I just bought a 4 gig RAM kit for my Macbook intending to do just that.

However, it would appear that I would be best served by taking the two 1 gig modules I upgraded my Macbook with to 2 gig by way of 2x1 gig modules, and putting in a 2 gig module in one bank, and one of my 1 gig modules in the other, rendering 3 gig for my Macbook. I can then take my wife's Macbook which still has the 1 gig it came with (by way of 2x512MB modules in their respective banks) and replacing them with the same configuration, i.e. I'll have another 2 gig module from my 4 gig kit, and a spare 1 gig module from my previously upgraded Macbook; both Macbooks are the same 'vintage' of being second generation Core2duo 2.0GHz Macbooks (albeit one white, one black.) It would appear that installing "mismatched" RAM in a Macbook does not result in as much of a performance hit as some might think and the benefits outweigh any possible detriment by virtue of the sheer amount of RAM which benefits Mac OS X quite nicely.

So I'll end up with two Macbooks with 3 gig of RAM in each. Sounds like a pretty 'win' situation (that's 'win' as in "this thread is full of 'win'" as opposed to "this thread is full of 'fail' ;)"considering that both will address 3 gig of RAM, there will be no wasted memory, and the best I can do with the hardware I have. I'll find out once I get home (I'm on the road right now posting from a hotel wifi) and install the modules. Should be interesting. Here's hoping for no kernel panics!
 
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Okay, I'm home with two 2 gig RAM modules waiting for me from Newegg. "Patriot" memory. I now am the proud owner of a second generation Macbook Core2duo that has three gig of RAM, and my wife is the proud owner of a second generation Macbook of the same vintage (if black instead of white) with three gig of RAM. Popped them right in biggest problem being finding a screwdriver small enough to handle those danged tiny screws in the battery compartment.

All is well, and we'll see if there are any significant performance gains with Photoshop, UT2004, etc. I suppose all that's left is a bigger internal HDD. I think I can get along with the 160gig internal I upgraded, the 80gig that came with it in a USB enclosure, and the 250gig external in the firewire enclosure. :Evil:
 
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Okay, I'm home with two 2 gig RAM modules waiting for me from Newegg. "Patriot" memory. I now am the proud owner of a second generation Macbook Core2duo that has three gig of RAM, and my wife is the proud owner of a second generation Macbook of the same vintage (if black instead of white) with three gig of RAM. Popped them right in biggest problem being finding a screwdriver small enough to handle those danged tiny screws in the battery compartment.

All is well, and we'll see if there are any significant performance gains with Photoshop, UT2004, etc. I suppose all that's left is a bigger internal HDD. I think I can get along with the 160gig internal I upgraded, the 80gig that came with it in a USB enclosure, and the 250gig external in the firewire enclosure. :Evil:

you need to put two of the same modules in you should not put one two gig and a one gig as this is unstable according to apple and crucial.
 
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you need to put two of the same modules in you should not put one two gig and a one gig as this is unstable according to apple and crucial.

Wrong. It just means I can't use the "dual channel" performance feature that twin modules provides. Otherwise, the extra RAM provides far more performance boost than anything dual channel would provide. For a machine that can only address 3.3 gig even if I put in matched pairs of 2 gig modules, this is the best I can do, and so far it has been quite stable and speedy.

Tests are out there that indicate that not only is it stable, but far superior to only having 2 gig of RAM over the three.

Apple and Crucial can say all they want about what memory configurations serve their needs based on both sales and support; doesn't mean that they are true statements. Meanwhile I'm enjoying my 3 gig of RAM. No kernel panics yet, and I've been firing up Photoshop CS3, Bridge, Parallels VM, the whole works and no problems.

macbook3gig.jpg
 

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