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Christopera · Jul 3, 2007, 08:19 PM

I am fairly good at doing this stuff myself, however, I am making the switch from PC to Mac and am a bit weary of opening a brand new mac book myself.

So should i pay the extra 150 or so to get the 2GB direct from Mac or save myself some dough and do it myself?

Wiskedjak · Jul 3, 2007, 08:51 PM

Not.

Spend half the price Apple wants and get better RAM third party. Installation is easy.

mduell · Jul 3, 2007, 09:07 PM

No way!

2GB kit (1GBx2), 200-pin SODIMM, DDR2 PC2-5300 upgrades for Apple MacBook 2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (13-inch White) Laptop/Notebook, CT685397 from Crucial.com

Christopera · Jul 3, 2007, 10:03 PM

Also, Mac offered a 3GB upgrade for like something insane. 350 or so. Why don't they anymore and would it be worth doing that myself? I think it must have been one 2GB stick and a 1GB stick.

mduell · Jul 3, 2007, 10:33 PM

The MacBook unofficially supports 3GB (2GB+1GB), but it will hurt graphics performance. The price these days is closer to $150 for the pair of sticks.

JustinHorne · 02:05 PM

Nevermind...

Christopera · Jul 5, 2007, 11:03 AM

Graphics performance as in like gaming? Or would it also hurt photo and video editing?

shifuimam · Jul 5, 2007, 02:02 PM

Originally Posted by mduell

The MacBook unofficially supports 3GB (2GB+1GB), but it will hurt graphics performance. The price these days is closer to $150 for the pair of sticks.

Curious - why would adding more RAM hurt integrated graphics that share memory?

Also, in answer to your sig: The MacBook Pros use the same 802.11n card that Dell sells under their TrueMobile name. Both use a Broadcom chipset. FWIW, all of Apple's wireless cards have used Broadcom since the first Airport was released back in 1999 or whenever it was. The same is true of Dell's TrueMobile cards, and they are more or less interchangeable.

mduell · Jul 5, 2007, 04:41 PM

Originally Posted by Christopera

Graphics performance as in like gaming? Or would it also hurt photo and video editing?

Yes, gaming as well as other applications that use the graphics card. Photo/video editing performance depends on the applications used.

Originally Posted by shifuimam

Curious - why would adding more RAM hurt integrated graphics that share memory?

Also, in answer to your sig: The MacBook Pros use the same 802.11n card that Dell sells under their TrueMobile name. Both use a Broadcom chipset. FWIW, all of Apple's wireless cards have used Broadcom since the first Airport was released back in 1999 or whenever it was. The same is true of Dell's TrueMobile cards, and they are more or less interchangeable.

2x1GB supports dual channel (increased bandwith), 1GB+2GB does not, and gaming performance depends more on memory bandwidth than memory capacity.

Interesting... now if only I could get people to stop calling it Santa Rosa (since it doesn't have Intel wifi) and call it Crestline instead.

Christopera · Jul 5, 2007, 10:29 PM

Am i correct to say that OSX only can use 3gb and that leopard will be good to go on 4gb?

Or is this dependent on hardware?

C.A.T.S. CEO · Jul 6, 2007, 04:36 AM

Originally Posted by Christopera

Am i correct to say that OSX only can use 3gb and that leopard will be good to go on 4gb?

Or is this dependent on hardware?

OS X can handle 1 EB of RAM, but a MacBook can (unofficially) support 3 GB. If you put more than that in it won't help

Peter · Jul 6, 2007, 08:03 AM

Originally Posted by C.A.T.S. CEO

OS X can handle 1 EB of RAM, but a MacBook can (unofficially) support 3 GB. If you put more than that in it won't help

where did you read that?

mduell · Jul 6, 2007, 05:19 PM

The Core Duo Macs support up to 2GB RAM (early 945 chipsets only supported 4GB at 533Mhz, so Apple capped it at 2GB). The Core 2 Duo Macs support up to 3GB RAM (3 or 4GB physically, but you can only access ~3.1GB of it due to addressing issues). The Core 2 Duo Macs based on Crestline (only the MBP so far) support 4GB RAM.