Just got my 2.2 SR macbook with the standard 1Gb RAM installed. Don't really need 4Gb RAM at the moment but at only £115 it seems stupid not to upgrade (I'll be adding Parallels soon) . Are there any downsides in having more RAM - eg . does sleeping use power proportional to the size of the RAM?
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Can you have too much RAM?
- Thread starter redfriar
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ive heard that the more ram you have..the longer the macbook takes to go into standby..dont know how much longer (or even if this is true 
) just thought id mention it!
) just thought id mention it!
When you feel your system is slow, upgrade then. Just enjoy it for now. Upgrade when cheaper too. Imagine how amazing it will be in a year to pop 3GB more RAM in for half that price (ish)? It'll seem like a new computer.
The only way you can have "too much" is if you have more than it can support (check your MacBook's maximum at crucial.com) or if you've spent lots of money and gained very little from it (not "too much" technically speaking, just "pointless").
OS X loves RAM. General rule of thumb, the more you give it, the faster it goes with a few apps open.
OS X loves RAM. General rule of thumb, the more you give it, the faster it goes with a few apps open.
Crucial have got 4Gb for £115.14.
It's the sleep power usage that's concerning me. Haven't measured it yet (too new) but say it uses 5% battery life to sleep overnight with 1Gb - would it use 15-20% with 4Gb? The trade off for the occasional blast of extra RAM whilst using Parallels for 10 minutes would not be worth it for me.
It's the sleep power usage that's concerning me. Haven't measured it yet (too new) but say it uses 5% battery life to sleep overnight with 1Gb - would it use 15-20% with 4Gb? The trade off for the occasional blast of extra RAM whilst using Parallels for 10 minutes would not be worth it for me.
In Tiger, you can Disable Safe Sleep. Not sure if it works in Leopard though. Can't hurt to try. (You can always boot to single user mode and fix it if needed)
I'm quite happy with the safe sleep function. It's a question of conserving battery life when it's sleeping and still having the instant on capability. Problem is I will occasionally forget to plug the Macbook in overnight and then not use it for a couple of days. When I do want to use it I want to instantly turn it on and have enought charge left for an hour or two's surfing lying on the sofa. I have a wife who dislikes the charger cable running in the living room and a one year old child who's favourite thing is to pull the charger out when you're using it.
I've got other computers, in the office, that I use for work that need their performance - the macbook I just want to fit in with my life away from work (but still have the grunt if I need to edit photos or run Parallels on it.)
It's my natural geek instinct to max the RAM out but if it means an increase in the number of times I need to plug it into the mains then it probably isn't worth it.
I've got other computers, in the office, that I use for work that need their performance - the macbook I just want to fit in with my life away from work (but still have the grunt if I need to edit photos or run Parallels on it.)
It's my natural geek instinct to max the RAM out but if it means an increase in the number of times I need to plug it into the mains then it probably isn't worth it.
I bought 4 gigs or ram for my SR 2.2ghz macbook. It flies...and i don't do that much high ram apps but i want to be able to when i need to such as photoshop or imovie or something. anyway i don't know how it is with 2 gigs so i wouldn't be a good source for a comparison, but between 1gig and 4 gigs, the difference is huge.
If you are planning on running parallels with windows, then the ram will be put to good use. XP or Vista take enough of their own ram.
I'm not sure what additional drain the extra ram will have when the macbook sleeps.
I'm not sure what additional drain the extra ram will have when the macbook sleeps.
If money is not an issue, than buy 4GB RAM. If you rather save, than I would look at what you would be using your Mac for. I have 2GB in mine and I use it for script programming, email, web browsing and Parallels. I haven't yet got to a point where I needed more memory. Occasionally I check the system RAM and see I usually have 600 - 800 MB free. Performance, I can not give you any information on when comparing higher and lower RAM models. Mine runs fast but have no clue how it would compare to a 4GB or 1GB model.