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frankthetank966 · Jun 19, 2006, 03:37 PM

Hello ya'll, I am new to these forums and I am about to become a switcher from using Windows PC's all my life to Mac OS. I am a student and am about to purchase a Macbook. I have a few questions such as should I purchase the 1.83 GHZ (White finish) or 2.0 GHZ (White finish.) I am planning on upgrading the RAM to 1 GB and the HD to 80 GB no matter which proccessor I get. Now my question is whether or not I need to upgrade proccessors if I get the 1 GB of RAM? I mainly use my computer for file sharing, browsing the internet, word documents, AIM, occasional photo editing (i.e. photoshop) and playing music. Since Apple has this whole podcast thing I am definetly intrested in possibly casting and maybe even doing my own website or working some iLife. I was also wondering what ya'll think about these RAM's im listing below. I would love to get RAM from Crucial but that is just to much for me. I am only willing to spend $90 (including S&H+TAX) top for 1 GB of ram. I will probably just upgrade the HD through Apple because $50 for 80 GB seems like a great deal to me.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820220078
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16820208037

I would greatly appreciate any replies thank you

Yakov · Jun 19, 2006, 03:50 PM

better deal in your situation is to upgrade the ram through apple (BTO on their web site). this is because if you buy 1 gig, you'll have to throw away 256 MB and then you won't have matched pairs.

rather than considering processor speed, i would think about whether you need a superdrive or not. this will make your processor decision moot.

frankthetank966 · Jun 19, 2006, 04:01 PM

Oh yea I def. need the superdrive b/c I burn dvd's. But it is so much money to upgrade the RAM through Apple. And I would sell the 512 on ebay or something.

TheoCryst · Jun 19, 2006, 04:09 PM

If you need the Superdrive, you have no option but to opt for one of the 2.0 GHz models (there is no BTO Superdrive option on the lower model). If you want a total of 1 Gig of RAM, your best bet is to either upgrade through Apple (pricey), or get a pair of 512 MB sticks and sell/toss the 2x256 sticks included with your MacBook. In short, the MacBook will run quite a bit faster with paired memory. For more information, see this thread: http://forums.macnn.com/69/mac-notebooks/297208/ram-uneven-ram-sticks-detrimental/

frankthetank966 · Jun 19, 2006, 04:12 PM

Why do I have to get two 512? Why cant I just get one 1 GB?

craigb6 · Jun 20, 2006, 04:49 AM

The link TheoCryst gave 'explains it', you get better performance with matched pairs of RAM.

Nivag · Jun 20, 2006, 05:30 AM

the problem with getting 2 x 512 to make up 1GB is that if you think you might need more in the future you'll have to discard them 512s to get 2GBs worth of ram.
just something to consider before spending the money.

Hi I'm Ben · Jun 20, 2006, 06:56 AM

I don't really see it as possible for people to be selling these 256 mem sticks for any kind of a real profit.

Any computer that can actually use them probably already has 256mb of ram in it. I'd expect the demand for them to be ultra low.

craigb6 · Jun 20, 2006, 09:31 AM

Originally Posted by Hi I'm Ben

I don't really see it as possible for people to be selling these 256 mem sticks for any kind of a real profit.

Any computer that can actually use them probably already has 256mb of ram in it. I'd expect the demand for them to be ultra low.

Yeah it would be quite low. I'm not sure if anyone else has done this, but I'm pretty sure that I read somewhere that OWC will 'buy' your old RAM when you buy new RAM from them. In fact, I've found it:

"In addition, OWC offers customers a trade-in rebate when original memory that is replaced with an OWC upgrade is sent back to OWC."

http://cgw.pennnet.com/Articles/Arti...&cat=NEWSP

frankthetank966 · Jun 20, 2006, 05:46 PM

How much do you they give you for the two 256?

Railroader · Jun 20, 2006, 07:43 PM

Originally Posted by Hi I'm Ben

I don't really see it as possible for people to be selling these 256 mem sticks for any kind of a real profit.

Any computer that can actually use them probably already has 256mb of ram in it. I'd expect the demand for them to be ultra low.

What about the people who are building their own computers? And a LOT of people do. They don't have any RAM.

SSharon · Jun 21, 2006, 01:48 PM

Originally Posted by Railroader

What about the people who are building their own computers? And a LOT of people do. They don't have any RAM.

They generally aren't building laptops though. Or imac style machines that use so-dimms.

There was someone selling a macbook in the marketplace here with 1.25gb ram (obviously not matched pair) so I am wondering how big the performance hit really is since the apps you are using wouldn't be using much video ram anyway.

Does anyone have any matchups of matched vs. unmatched ram in a macbook?