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2GB Or 4?

J

jaded-mandarin

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 1, 2008
179
109
UK
seen a few similar threads regarding this. but didn't really get the right answers.

basically, i currently have a macbook with 1GB ram. over on overclockers uk you can buy a 2GB set right now for £24.99 (roughly $49), or i can go for the 4GB set which would set me back £74.99 (roughly $146).

i'm just wondering, if any of you lot have experience with 2/4GB RAM, how much would the 4GB benefit me over the 2GB? would i get the extra £50's worth of performance out of it? would i be at a severe disadvantage if i went for the 2GB? would i cry into my pillow every night from here on in filled with regret?

macbook is used for itunes/adobe creative sweet.

thanks.
 
Well, forn normla day activities, such as iTunes, you won't notice a difference going from 3GB to 4GB.

As for "adobe creative", you may find advantage if you have more RAM, but not sure how much. It depends on what you do.


I have 2GB in my MacBook and find that using Photoshop and Illustrator is quite good, but then, I am not an intensive user of Photoshop.
 
Put it this way. 2GB is sufficient but 4GB is more than sufficient meaning you never have to worry about RAM for a long while. I personally would go 4GB taking into account the Leopard & GMA 965 (which seems to thrive better with dual channelling mode from matched pairs) factors. You also mentioned photoshop which is a memory hog and iTunes is starting to become one with each update
 
jaded-mandarin said:
seen a few similar threads regarding this. but didn't really get the right answers.

basically, i currently have a macbook with 1GB ram. over on overclockers uk you can buy a 2GB set right now for £24.99 (roughly $49), or i can go for the 4GB set which would set me back £74.99 (roughly $146).

i'm just wondering, if any of you lot have experience with 2/4GB RAM, how much would the 4GB benefit me over the 2GB? would i get the extra £50's worth of performance out of it? would i be at a severe disadvantage if i went for the 2GB? would i cry into my pillow every night from here on in filled with regret?

macbook is used for itunes/adobe creative sweet.

thanks.
Click to expand...

4. And it's "suite".

Cheers.
 
Go for 4 if you can afford it. With my Mac Pro I have 3 gb and its just enough for what i do. I once in awhile run out. So i wouldn't want to drop to 2 gb. And if you go to 4 gb its a one time bill. You won't need to upgrade a year from now then. :)
 
Good choice, I just updated my macbook to 2gb, I love it, but I only did 2 because I dont have a SR macbook, If I did, I would installed 4gb a while ago
 
4gb Better

I Use 4gig In My Macbook

But Watch Out For Overclockers I Live Round The Corner From There And Returning Goods To There Is A Nightmare:):)
 
"You never hear anyone ever say "damn, I bought too much ram!" ;) Always get the most you can

play.com do 4GB for £56 - you heard right -- £56! £27.99 per 2GB stick KINGSTON ram with free delivery, saving you near £20 on your quoted price. Alternatively you can get 2x1GB for £29.98 (£14.99 each), but why bother when it's so cheap to go to 4?

http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/34970...M-Upgrade-For-Apple-iMac-MacBook/Product.html

Thank me later :)
 
jnc said:
"You never hear anyone ever say "damn, I bought too much ram!" ;) Always get the most you can

play.com do 4GB for £56 - you heard right -- £56! £27.99 per 2GB stick KINGSTON ram with free delivery, saving you near £20 on your quoted price. Alternatively you can get 2x1GB for £29.98 (£14.99 each), but why bother when it's so cheap to go to 4?

http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/34970...M-Upgrade-For-Apple-iMac-MacBook/Product.html

Thank me later :)
Click to expand...

This is where I got my kit from so I can vouch that it works. Play must be selling insane amounts of these
 
jnc said:
"You never hear anyone ever say "damn, I bought too much ram!" ;) Always get the most you can

play.com do 4GB for £56 - you heard right -- £56! £27.99 per 2GB stick KINGSTON ram with free delivery, saving you near £20 on your quoted price. Alternatively you can get 2x1GB for £29.98 (£14.99 each), but why bother when it's so cheap to go to 4?

http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/34970...M-Upgrade-For-Apple-iMac-MacBook/Product.html

Thank me later :)
Click to expand...

thankyou

i've used kingston pen drives before with no problems. will the RAM be decent? alot of people recommend crucial.
 
jaded-mandarin said:
thankyou

i've used kingston pen drives before with no problems. will the RAM be decent? alot of people recommend crucial.
Click to expand...

Kingston RAM is as good as Crucial and I believe comes with Lifetime warranty as well.

I find for the average user, RAM from any reputable name (Kingston, Crucial, Mushkin, OCZ, Kingmax) all work out about the same. These companies offer lifetime warranty with their modules as well so no worries about them dying and the companies leaving you in a lurch.

Go for the Kingston if its cheaper :)
 
I went from 2 to 4 and have never looked back...:)

Jokes aside, I do notice a difference in less swap and delay when switching between applications. If memory is cheep enough, get it but avoid Apples:)

--j
 
CS3 works fine in 2gb - it really depends on whether you're working on large files or, say, tend to have InDesign and Photoshop open with complex/large projects at the same time.

Whichever way you go, you'll notice a big improvement on 1gb, which is a little tight these days....
 
Just a note, depending on your MB's chipset you may only be able to utilize ~3.3GB of RAM and from what I've read trying to allocate anymore would cause your OS to freeze/crash.
 
Neoraven said:
Just a note, depending on your MB's chipset you may only be able to utilize ~3.3GB of RAM and from what I've read trying to allocate anymore would cause your OS to freeze/crash.
Click to expand...

I currently run 2GB in my macbook but was going to buy 4GB to use in my pre-SR macbook. Knowing it'll only use the 3.3gb but it's too cheap to pass up, and could use the extra 1.3 gb of ram.

But now that you are saying I might run into problems. Do you have any references I could read up on that. Is this true putting more ram than allowed with crash Leopard?
 
RAM is so cheap now (as long as you don't buy it from Apple). Get as much as you can. I have 4GB in my MBP and love it.

I have an original Macbook and it only supports 2GB of RAM. There was a huge difference when I moved up from 1GB to 2GB in that machine.
 
I have a 2.2ghz macbook with 2gigs of ram. Just out of curiosity I have been checking how much ram is being used while running several intensive programs at once... there has always been a large amount of ram free and things run smoothly. I would say 2gigs is good for now, but if you want it to be good for years to come, and you have extra cash, go for the extra ram.
 
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