RAM upgrade... necessary?

[diesel828]

What is the biggest difference between 512MB of ram compared to 1GB? Is it necessary for a guy like me who browses the internet, uses iChat, GarageBand, iTunes, and some light work on MS Office? I do some word processing and spread sheets and rarely ever run more than 3 programs at once.

Can I benefit from more RAM and is it worth paying for the upgrade?

Thanks.

 

[eddiddiums]

Most of my computing is on the light side as well, and using iStat Nano, I can see that OS X uses almost all of my 1gig of ram at all times, so I can assume that choking it down to 512 would hurt my speed a lot..

 

[Aptmunich]

Try opening activity monitor and set it to show your current RAM usage as the dock icon (View->dock icon-> show memory usage).

If you don't have much 'green' left, you might benefit from some RAM.

 

[iPodJon120]

Most of my computing is on the light side as well, and using iStat Nano, I can see that OS X uses almost all of my 1gig of ram at all times, so I can assume that choking it down to 512 would hurt my speed a lot..

Mines the same way. I'm looking to upgrade to 2 gig now.

 

[kaidomac]

I've used G.Skill in two Intel-based Macs so far with excellent results. At $80.99 per gig, it's hard to beat:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820231069

Make sure you get two because the MacBook likes matched pairs of ram (better system performance and much better video performance).

 

[diesel828]

Try opening activity monitor and set it to show your current RAM usage as the dock icon (View->dock icon-> show memory usage).

If you don't have much 'green' left, you might benefit from some RAM.

I never thought to do that. Thanks.

And thanks to everyone else for the advice. I'll look into upgrading my RAM if I feel it's necessary.

 

[diesel828]

Jeez! I'm running only Safari and have 8.56MB free??? What on earth is going on?

 

[eddiddiums]

OS X, much like XP, really likes at least a gigabyte of RAM. Most expert reviews I have read seriously question Apple's decision to go with 512 as the standard for all MacBooks.

 

[diesel828]

I always felt like 512 was sufficient. Now I feel like if it becomes a problem, I'll have to shell out more money to upgrade to a gig.

 

[i-VTEC]

I use Office, iPhoto, iTunes, Movies, LimeWire and Safari

I've learned you can never have too much RAM...made that mstake when I bought my Mac Mini (PPC)...I ended up upgrading a few months later...didn't really save that much and I ended up scratching (minor) my Mac Mini from DIY

I got Apple Store to upgrade the 20" Intel Core Duo iMac to 1.5GB RAM when I picked it up...when I pick up my 1.83GHz 13" MacBook...it will be upgraded at the store...!!!

 

[Aptmunich]

I'd still upgrade the macs by yourself... the apple store charges quite a premium for their RAM.

The mini is really hard to upgrade, but the others can be done with no cosmetic damage at all!

 

[diesel828]

The procedure for the MacBook looks fairly simple. I'll upgrade it when I can afford to. Right now I need it for tuition and textbooks.

 

[i-VTEC]

It's $108 CAN for 1GB Upgrade/Installed at the Apple Store

I bought the Kingston RAM 1GB for my Mac Mini for $120 CAN

 

[DeathToPCs]

I bought the basic 1.83ghz 512mb Macbook and added 2 1gb 533mhz sticks from circuit city and man... it is so much faster then before!

 

[diesel828]

I bought the basic 1.83ghz 512mb Macbook and added 2 1gb 533mhz sticks from circuit city and man... it is so much faster then before!

Is everything running smoothly so far? I may do the same myself. I was running a few programs today and found that there was hardly any RAM left... the MacBook is so demanding and really bogs down the system.

At any rate, I'm also annoyed that the only programs I've installed onto my MB are Mac:Office, AppleWorks 6, and Macaroni and I somehow have only 39GB of hard drive space left. How is this possible from a 60GB drive? I am so annoyed. Had I known all this, I would've opted for the 80GB or even 100GB HDs.

Well, I suppose it's sufficient for now. I don't plan on downloading any music or uploading any movies onto my computer. Maybe I'll have tons of pictures on here but definitely no more than 3-5 gigs worth.

 

[DeathToPCs]

Everything is running very smoothly with the 2gb ram I added. OSX takes up about 15gb of space on your hdd. I noticed that and that is why I got the 100gb hdd on mine.

 

[diesel828]

What brand of RAM did you add? Thanks.

 

[dohidied]

i put patriot ram from newegg into my imac and it works flawlessly. iirc it was only about $85 for a gb.

 

[mplock]

I would recomending upgrading before you buy the machine. I tested out both the 1.83 Ghz and the 2.0 Ghz macbooks and they both seemed to run a little slow with the 512 ram, so I'm just going to order my macbook with the gig of ram.

It is not a necessity to upgrade but if you want the computer to run fast for a few years I would say at least get a gig.

 

[diesel828]

I would recomending upgrading before you buy the machine. I tested out both the 1.83 Ghz and the 2.0 Ghz macbooks and they both seemed to run a little slow with the 512 ram, so I'm just going to order my macbook with the gig of ram.

It is not a necessity to upgrade but if you want the computer to run fast for a few years I would say at least get a gig.

I already bought the MB... a little over two weeks ago. At any rate, I always felt that 512MB was sufficient. It was good enough for my PC. I didn't know the MB was so demanding on memory. I'm going to upgrade soon.