[Pianomankw]

i found this place that looks alright....4.0GB (2GB+2GB Kit) PC2-5300 DDR2 667MHz... (53IM2DDR4GBK) at OWC
you can buy 4gb of ram for a 2.2ghz macbook which i have, for $100. I can't remember exactly what i've heard about upgrading ram with applecare. Can i upgrade with third-party ram and still be covered by applecare. I didn't think it would void the warranty since apple makes the ram slots to easily accessible. Would it be worth it to upgrade to 4gb? right now i only have 1gb.....but it's $100, which makes me skepticle about buying it. What should i do??

[MacosNerd]

Ram and the hard drive of the MacBook are considered use replaceable components. You can upgrade them and as long as you don't break anything while upgrading the memory you'll be all set. I think 4gb is definitely worth the upgrade. I noticed a large boost in performance going to 4gb on my MBP.

[Simon]

IMHO going from 1GB to 4GB for just $100 is no-brainer.

Make sure you don't break anything when you replace the DIMMs. AppleCare will still cover your MB. The new DIMMs will not be covered by AC, but they come with their own warranty which is more than good enough.

[jlgrandam]

I just bought 4 gigs from frys.com for $70.

[SierraDragon]

Agreed, do it. And OWC is a great vendor. I would happily pay extra for OWC rather than Fry's.

[mduell]

OWC's prices are still about 30% too high while offering nothing for it. Newegg for $81 shipped.

[Dork.]

I have 4 GB in my MacBook. You will see a difference. My MacBook never swaps now, not even when playing Civ IV. RAM is so cheap now that an upgrade is one of the most cost-effective things you can do to make a computer faster. I bought my Ram at Newegg.

[DCJ001]

Newegg.com - G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 200-Pin DDR2 SO-DIMM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Dual Channel Kit Notebook Memory - Retail

Apple Warranty: Installing Memory, Expansion Cards, User Installable Parts Does Not Void Warranty

[tripletaker]

I upgraded my MacBook to 4GB of RAM as well. It is amazing.

[Pianomankw]

UPDATE!!!! I bought the G-skill ram from Newegg.....it came today....first of all, super fast shipping. I ordered it on Sunday night and it got here around noon today. Second of all.....THIS IS AMAZING.....I can run over 25 apps with no lagging whatsoever....this is awesome....thanks to everyone who had input in this decision, and to any of you'll wondering if you should upgrade or not.....DO IT......ram will only get more expensive if time passes so take advantage of it now and experience one of the fastest consumer computers on the market!!!!

[damiensmunki]

Ummm...most prices fall over time. As new RAM technologies are developed, the new types of RAM will be more expensive, but they too will fall over time. It's cyclical.

if time passes

I hope it passes. I've still got lots to do.

[Big Mac]

More RAM for the sake of having it alone doesn't necessarily make sense. You can look at your RAM usage to figure out whether or not you have enough. If you know about how OS X memory management works you can look at the Activity Monitor utility and determine if you're running low. If you're less technical you can still intuitively figure out if you need more RAM by noticing if there are slow downs associated with heavy hard drive activity while a number of applications are open.

[krillbee]

how much memory does osx see with these?

[Simon]

Originally Posted by krillbee 

how much memory does osx see with these?

OS X will always see the total amount of memory you install. The question is whether the OS can actually address all that memory. Check this thread to find out how much memory different MBs can address.

In the case of the OP's 2.2 GHz MB 4GB is a no-brainer because he can actually use all of that memory (Crestline chipset).

[mduell]

Originally Posted by Simon 

OS X will always see the total amount of memory you install. The question is whether the OS can actually address all that memory.

If the chipset can't address it, can the OS really see it? Or does it just believe it's there?

Sounds like a religion in the unoccupied woods question.

[Simon]

Nonsense.

The point you missed is that both "About This Mac" and System Profiler will show a user that 4 GB are actually there. This has caused many users to believe their (older) systems supported 4 GB when actually the system was merely reporting the DIMMs were physically prsesent. If these users were then told to go to Activity Monitor and add used and free RAM, they recognized that they only could address 2 or 3 GB. That caused a whole lot of confusion and quite obviously it still does.

[legacyb4]

If you have only 1GB, then any upgrade (2, 3, 4) will be worth the money and effort to get it upgraded.

Without question, probably the easiest upgrade to your Macbook that will yield bang for buck.

[edoras]

I already have 2 GB... Is it better to replace with one of the 1GB with a 2GB (to give a total of 3GB) since they said Black Macbook can only utilize 3GB max.

Or do I need to replace both with 2GB RAMs to get 4GB max...?

[Simon]

Originally Posted by edoras 

I already have 2 GB... Is it better to replace with one of the 1GB with a 2GB (to give a total of 3GB) since they said Black Macbook can only utilize 3GB max.

It depends which black MacBook you have. Check this thread for more info about which MB supports how much RAM. Basically 4 GB offers (slightly) better performance while 3 GB is cheaper.

[DCJ001]

Originally Posted by edoras 

I already have 2 GB... Is it better to replace with one of the 1GB with a 2GB (to give a total of 3GB) since they said Black Macbook can only utilize 3GB max.

Or do I need to replace both with 2GB RAMs to get 4GB max...?

I bought 4GB at NewEgg for $20 more than what 3GB would have cost. For the small amount more, if there's any performance boost gained by using paired RAM, I feel that it was worth it. Here's a good reference to use:

Performance testing of Apple MacBook Core Duo and Core 2 Duo Models with various Memory configurationsOtherWorldComputing.com

[edoras]

I've read both threads above..

MacBook with Core Duo (May 2006 - Nov 2006): 2GB **
MacBook with Core 2 Duo "early" (Nov 2006 - Nov 2007): 3GB / 4GB ***
MacBook with Core 2 Duo "late" (Nov 2007 - current): 4GB

And I have the Macbook with C2D early version (Bought in July 2007).

NOTE: A 4.0GB (2GB x 2 Pair) configuration was also tested by 'popular demand'. Although the Core 2 Duo Macs are limited to 3.0GB addressed, the 4GB Set (2GB x 2 Pair) does appear enable 128 Bit addressing. While there does seem to be a small performance benefit gained with the 4.0GB vs. 3.0GB config, we'd recommend sticking with 3.0GBs max (in Core 2 Duos) unless you absolutely are seeking every last trickle of performance boost possible

On the note above, I think I might just myself a 1GB replacement to 2GB (with a total of 3GB) since the performance is only small...

[Simon]

Yeah, if you have a non-Crestline MB and you're on a budget you should go for 3GB. The performance gain when going to 4GB is minimal and it is not global - only certain applications (mainly GPU-dependent tasks) will see a benefit.