Macbook 5,1 with snow leapord 4Gb, 6Gb, 8Gb?

[lugubrious]

I ordered two of these:

Cool thanks for the info!

Also, another question--has anyone recently tried using DDR3 PC3-10600 in their MacBook 5,1? I dug up a lot of circa 2009 threads that said PC3-10600 don't work in the MacBook 5,1, but I'm curious as to whether there was a EFI update that fixed that. The reason I wonder is that there are a lot of online deals recently that are PC3-10600, which theoretically should work with any computer that uses DDR3 (backwards compatible).

 

[lugubrious]

In case anyone is interested, there is an Amazon deal--$75 for Crucial 8GB (4GBx2) DDR3 PC-8500 RAM via J&R:

http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-CT2KIT51264BC1067-204-PIN-PC3-8500-SODIMM/dp/tech-data/B001MX5YWI

IMO Pretty good deal for 8GB. It might come down further in the future but probably won't go down much further than the current $75 (Maybe will hit $65 eventually?).

 

[msmezher]

8GB in Late 2008 MacBook5,1 Aluminum Unibody 2.0Ghz

I can verify that 8GB RAM will work in the MacBook5,1 (Late 2008) Aluminum Unibody Intel C2D 2.0Ghz. I just installed a 2x4GB Crucial 204-Pin SODIMM DDR3 PC3-8500 CL7 kit. About this Mac and Activity Monitor both show 8GB (Activity Monitor shows 7.75GB as 256MB is shared with the graphics card). No Kernel panics so far and everything works flawlessly. I also installed a 60GB SSD in place of my Optical Drive (well, as of now I switched my HDD and SDD so the SDD is where the HDD was originally). That took quite a bit of tinkering to get my preferences and caches to work properly, but now my system boots in under 30 seconds and applications launch instantly (MS Word in ~3 seconds.).
Let me know if you have any questions about my setup or anything.

 

[sedfray]

I can verify that 8GB RAM will work in the MacBook5,1 (Late 2008) Aluminum Unibody Intel C2D 2.0Ghz. I just installed a 2x4GB Crucial 204-Pin SODIMM DDR3 PC3-8500 CL7 kit. About this Mac and Activity Monitor both show 8GB (Activity Monitor shows 7.75GB as 256MB is shared with the graphics card). No Kernel panics so far and everything works flawlessly. I also installed a 60GB SSD in place of my Optical Drive (well, as of now I switched my HDD and SDD so the SDD is where the HDD was originally). That took quite a bit of tinkering to get my preferences and caches to work properly, but now my system boots in under 30 seconds and applications launch instantly (MS Word in ~3 seconds.).
Let me know if you have any questions about my setup or anything.

Hi I have a Macbook aluminum unibody late 2008 with 2Gb of RAM, and I want to upgrade to 8Gb. But I have read over the net that when you have 8Gb in you Macbook an your system is using over 6Gb RAM, the RAM can’t be freed out even if you close the greedy applications.
It’s this true? Can you test this for me?
Thank you

 

[snorkeller1]

I think you are getting mixed up between the MacBook Pro models from 2008 and the MacBook models from 2009.
The MacBook Pro 5,1 (otherwise known as the Late 2008 MacBook Pro) had a mixed bag of maximum RAM support. Officially all models could only take up to 4Gb. Unofficially, the 2.4GHz model could handle up to 6Gb, while the 2.53Ghz and 2.8Ghz models could handle up to 8Gb of RAM.

The 'Late 2008' refers to time of introduction of the MBP5,1 which was made until June 2009.
March '09 saw the 2.66/2.93GHz models, and the unofficial acceptance of 8GB RAM in 15-inchers. However, the same 2.66/2.93GHz Penryn T9550/T9800 Core2Duo processors first featured in the 17" MBP5,2 which came in Jan/Feb'09, and which also unofficially takes 8GB of RAM.

The T9400/T9600 2.53/2.8GHz Penryns unofficially support up to 6GB of RAM; anything over this limit would be unexpected bonus and technical breakthru.

Besides the Mactracker app, there's >
http://www.everymac.com/systems/by_capability/actual-maximum-ram-capacity-of-macs.html

 

[bozz2006]

Wow, I just ordered THIS from Newegg today to upgrade my 2.0 GHz aluminum macbook to 6GB, but if msmezher's results are typical, I might just go 8GB.

 

[lugubrious]

I would like to add to the string of success stories!

MacBook 5,1
CPU: 2.0 GHz
RAM used: 2x4GB Crucial 204-PIN DDR3 PC3-8500 CT51264BC1067

 

[bozz2006]

Have you utilized all 8GB? The way I understand it is the 2x4GB works until you need to access over 6GB, then the system panics. Have you gone over 6GB in use?

 

[speedfreak007]

Have you utilized all 8GB? The way I understand it is the 2x4GB works until you need to access over 6GB, then the system panics. Have you gone over 6GB in use?

I would like to know this too, because i have a 2.0 2008 unibody macbook and i'm doubting between 4 or 8 gb ram.

Will i even feel the effect of 8 gb ram? I edit some movies occasionally and I'm starting to use ableton

 

[bozz2006]

How much RAM do you have now? You can see if you really need more by opening Activity Monitor and checking your page ins and page outs. The actual number isn't that important, as the longer your computer has been on, the more there will be. But in relation to your page ins, the page outs should be relatively low. If your page outs are high, you need more RAM.

 

[speedfreak007]

I have 2 gb right now. (macbook 5,1 2.0 ghz). I know i need more, but i don't know how much more. My page outs are always 2 times higher (or more for safari) than page ins. Can i know how much i need based on those numbers?

I want a very stable system, so as long as nobody confirms that 8 works stable (when you use the full 8 gb) I'm buying 4 gb. 6 Gb seems a bit strange (2 gb not in dual channel mode, doesn't that give some time delays or something like that? I've read that the latencies of 6 gb weren't as good as 4 gb).

I'm also upgrading my standard 5400 rpm to momentus xt hard drive, so i should see a big performance improvement i guess

 

[speedfreak007]

oops, i mistranslated page-ins and page-outs, so i gave the send and received messages ratio.

my page-in vs page-out ratio is about 3.5/1
Is that bad or very bad?

 

[bozz2006]

It means you could definitely use more RAM, but that's not that bad.

 

[DandsM]

Hi guys, I am also going to upgrade my MacBook5,1 (2.4Ghz C2D) with 8Gb Patriot RAM.

Will let you know as soon as I get it!

 

[daustin21]

Been running 6B on a 5,1 Alum for 2 months now with no issues whatsoever.

 

[adge666]

No Problems with 5.1 and 8GB

Just to confirm the 8GB on the 5,1 MacBook. I bought from Crucial memory and evrything works fine. I made a video with a link to Crucial and put it up on YouTube today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzx2Kax1V6c

 

[bozz2006]

I'm currently running with 8GB RAM. On Wednesday I upgraded from 2x2GB to 1x2GB and 1x4GB for 6GB total. Had that going for two full days with no issues. Today I received my second 4GB module.

Upon the initial install, OSX would not start up. I'd get the grey screen as normal, then a gray screen telling me to hold down power until the computer shuts down and try to restart again.

I opened the case and re-seated the RAM. After this OSX started right up. I'm assuming the problem was that the RAM modules were just not seated properly. I've been running the 2x4GB for an hour and a half and have had no issues yet. I'll update with any problems if they arise.

 

[Djhyper66]

after reading this thread I update to 8GB

I own a macbook 2008 Unibody 2.4 laptop, saw the friday ad and I went to frys today and bought 8 gb of ram for 89 dollars and 28 dollars for SL. I spent 2 hours updating laptop to SL, then 5 minutes to install the ram!!! Been testing laptop, everything running good.

I use my laptop to make money with so this week im conduct a week long stress test, using this laptop for djing and video DJ-ing for 4-8 hours each day.

 

[caseytx]

Works great even when using over 6GB

Have you utilized all 8GB? The way I understand it is the 2x4GB works until you need to access over 6GB, then the system panics. Have you gone over 6GB in use?

I just installed 8GB of Crucial memory and it is working great. I am usually pretty conservative when upgrading but I really wanted to put 8GB in my macbook so I decided to gamble based on this thread. I have attached my configuration as well as the memory usage up to over 6GB and then after closing most applications.

 

[smithrh]

I've been over 6Gb RAM usage many times.

No panics, no issues, no hiccups, nothing but excellent performance.

It works, people.

 

[Jesseeee]

Lucky!

I haven't had the same luck with my Macbook 5,2 white. Windows 7 sees and addresses fully the whole 8GB RAM, but Snow Leopard 32-bit kernel panics whenever I go over 4GB.

I also tried 1x4GB/1x1GB for a total of 5GB RAM, and Snow Leopard still kernel panicked when addressing more than 4GB. I also tried just 1x4GB, and it worked fine under Snow Leopard.

I'm about to try it under Leopard, then 64-bit Snow Leopard.

Edit: Leopard worked with 8GB RAM.

 

[matamua]

Confirmed 8gb working in the 2.4ghz 5,1

I just finished running memtest with no errors. Smooth sailing so far. Will report back.

 

[matamua]

First kernel panic just happened. Not sure how to determine whether or not it was a ram-based problem. Any pointers on determining that? Memtest came back clean on my first run.

 

[sedfray]

First kernel panic just happened. Not sure how to determine whether or not it was a ram-based problem. Any pointers on determining that? Memtest came back clean on my first run.

Did you tried PRAM reset?
I heard that helps after a RAM upgrade.

 

[kjs862]

Got 8GB up and running here on Macbook 5,1 2.4GHZ