Should I Upgrade To 2 GB RAM?

[Matthew M.]

I am in the market for a laptop and the one that I have settled on is the Macbook, mostly based on price. As I head off to USC next month, I will be using it for papers and the like, but I am also a musician and would likely use Logic Studio on the Macbook. Based on this, would the 1 GB of RAM that the Macbook comes with suffice or would it be prudent to upgrade that to 2 GB? Also, if so, would I be able to upgrade it at the Apple Store or would I have to buy it online?

Your help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Eric559]

I am in the market for a laptop and the one that I have settled on is the Macbook, mostly based on price. As I head off to USC next month, I will be using it for papers and the like, but I am also a musician and would likely use Logic Studio on the Macbook. Based on this, would the 1 GB of RAM that the Macbook comes with suffice or would it be prudent to upgrade that to 2 GB? Also, if so, would I be able to upgrade it at the Apple Store or would I have to buy it online?

Your help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

An upgrade in RAM is always good. If you have the extra money to do the upgrade I would go for it even if Logic Studio runs well with 1GB.

You will not be able to upgrade it at the Apple Retail Store. Any upgrades will have to be done online.

With that said, many members here suggest you just purchase the default configuration and upgrade the memory yourself with third-party memory. It's a lot cheaper that way money wise.

 

[skaheadpunk]

It'll be cheaper to buy and install yourself - which is really easy to do, there are even instructions printed under the battery.

 

[disco_jim]

Jim's Guide to Upgrading RAM

1. Buy Macbook with 1 Gb of RAM [If you have one you prepared earlier move on to step 2)

2. Buy two strips of matching 1Gb ram from any PC store/website, making sure they are compatible first (667Mz DDR2 SDRAM I believe). it will set you back about $50 for 2 GB at any place that does not have the word 'Apple' on their store front.

+

3. Walk into your nearest apple store and tell the nearest competent tech that you are nervous about replacing your RAM, you don't want to accidentally break anything. He/She will do it for free.

=

4. Upgraded macbook with 2gb of RAM

 

[tplyons]

Crucial.com sells the RAM you need for $60 shipped to upgrade to 2GB. The installation is simple. There's no reason NOT to do it... better performance is wonderful!

 

[riggsyb]

Logic REALLY benefits from increased RAM...

I was running my MacBookPro with the original 1Gig of RAM for a while, and the performance was ok, but sometimes slow. Upgraded to 2Gig and problems solved. I have since upgraded to 3Gig (max my 2nd gen MBP can take) and well... I know the RAM isn't the limiting factor on the computer (it's probably the user that's the problem in fairness!)...

 

[reast]

Anyone had any experience going beyond 2gb on MacBook? I have the BlackBook with 2GB already in it. I was just curious if 4 is much of an improvement or if it is worth it?

 

[Khris]

I've got 4 in my Black MacBook, however I upgraded it the day I got it so I really can't say what kind of difference it makes between 2 and 4gb.

If you can afford to put 4gb in, you're machine will make use of it.

 

[JMC]

Hi -

I've installed 3GB into my Nov '06 white Macbook (earliest core 2 duo). (Reports on the net suggest you don't lose much performance by installing unequal chips, and although 3.3GB-ish is supposed to be usable on my model, the reported test results didn't suggest an extra 0.3GB would give any extra performance.)

However, the installation instructions from Crucial (cheap, fast delivery, and they seem to work!) say put the biggest chip in bank 0 and the smallest in bank 1. I couldn't tell which bank was which so I put the 2GB into the left-hand side, when the laptop is upside-down and the battery compartment is nearest to you - the normal way you'd have it when inserting the chips.

Good news - the computer says it recognises 3GB but it also says I've got the 2Gb in bank 1 .

Does anyone know if this really matters? I feel lucky to have got it working at all and don't want to risk problems by further unnecessary fiddling!