2008? aluminum Macbook

[penguy]

Apologies in advance if I should be able to find the answer to this question...

I am considering purchasing a friends 2008? Macbook 5,1...Aluminum...looks brand new...it's 2.0 ghz C2D with a 160gb drive and 2 gb ram. If I do, I want to increase the ram to the max...OWC, who I have used before, says 8gb will work, while Crucial says 4gb. Who is correct?

From what OWC states on their site, even my 2009 Mac Mini with the 2.0 C2D can accept 8 gb (currently at 4 gb)...even though I distinctly remember that it could not when I bought the ram back then!

seems like a worthwhile upgrade...particularly from 2 gb

any feedback would be great. thanks!

 

[Scarrus]

Apply all updates after you get it and then upgrade the Ram and it should work perfectly.

 

[mrsir2009]

Apple only supports 4GB of RAM in that computer, but in reality 8GB does work.

 

[iMacC2D]

Removed.

 

[penguy]

Thank you all. Does anyone have benchmarks indicating whether there is any performance improvements after 4 gb? Does 6 help? If yes is 8 even better?

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Thank you all. Does anyone have benchmarks indicating whether there is any performance improvements after 4 gb? Does 6 help? If yes is 8 even better?

That depends on what kind of applications you will run.

I saw a definite increase of going from 4GB to 6GB to 8GB RAM, but I use RAM hungry applications like After Effects and similar ones. Running Windows as virtual machine will also profit from more RAM.

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[penguy]

That depends on what kind of applications you will run.

I saw a definite increase of going from 4GB to 6GB to 8GB RAM, but I use RAM hungry applications like After Effects and similar ones. Running Windows as virtual machine will also profit from more RAM.

Thanks...at todays RAM prices...it's worth it.

I borrowed the macbook last night...it hadn't been updated in over a year, so I did that...it's still running Leopard...so I plan to install Snow Leopard and maybe Lion. Does anyone know if the latest OS will address what seems to be a tendency to drop wi-fi from time to time?

 

[rgarjr]

Thanks...at todays RAM prices...it's worth it.

I borrowed the macbook last night...it hadn't been updated in over a year, so I did that...it's still running Leopard...so I plan to install Snow Leopard and maybe Lion. Does anyone know if the latest OS will address what seems to be a tendency to drop wi-fi from time to time?

Might as well install Lion on it. I have the alu macbook with 8GB RAM, great machine. I have never seen WiFi dropping.

 

[biohead]

I even opted for cheap generic RAM, and it's doing just as good a job.

£27 for 8GB a year or so ago.

It makes running a virtual machine that much better.

 

[eyerot]

I just upgraded to 8 gigs and put in a 750MB 7200 rpm drive with 3 gigabit connection. Highly recommended for any late 2008 Macbook.

Total parts cost was about $175.