3 GB's RAM in 2.16GHz MB?

[Prof.]

Is it possible to put three GB's of RAM in a 2.16GHz MacBook? If it is, can you please tell me where I can buy (reliable) RAM?

Thanks for your help.

Prof.

 

[r.j.s]

I believe it is possible, however I've heard the performance boost you will get isn't worth the trouble. It's better to go with a matched pair of 1GB sticks.

 

[r.j.s]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233051

Corsair is pretty good.

 

[royalgfx1]

I got the same

2.16ghz MacBook with 1gb ram pre installed....

The MacBook has 4gb of ram storage...if I bought an extra 3gb of ram so that I had 4gm of ram....

Would my macbook really go that much faster?

 

[r.j.s]

I got the same

2.16ghz MacBook with 1gb ram pre installed....

The MacBook has 4gb of ram storage...if I bought an extra 3gb of ram so that I had 4gm of ram....

Would my macbook really go that much faster?

With 4GB, yes. But according to Apple tech specs, the 2.16 only supports 2GB. I've heard of people putting 3GB in them, but they didn't see much day to day improvement in the extra 1GB.

Edit:
Also, the 1GB already installed is going to be 512MBx2, not a 1GB chip.

 

[yippy]

The 2.16Ghz MacBook can take 3Gb of ram but no more.

The advantage of dual channel mode is very minimal and if applications are using more than two gigs of ram going to 3 will be far far more beneficial.

 

[royalgfx1]

So...ok...if it can only handle 2gb according to apple, why put in 3gb?

Also, does 2gb really make a difference?

 

[CanadaRAM]

See the tab near the top of the window says "Guides"?

MR Guide to Understanding Intel Mac RAM
MR Guide to Buying RAM

 

[sinistersai4d]

^🙄

Anyway... Even though these machines can only "recognize a potential 3.3gb of ram" wouldn't it make sense to put in 2X 2gb sticks (a total of 4gigs for those of use not keeping score) to support dual channel memory access.


That way you would have the max amount of supported memory AND still be supporting dual channel mem access... best of both worlds... right?

OR does it not count as paired memory if only 70% of one of the sticks is being recognized?

I'm basically trying to decide if i should upgrade to 3gb's or 3.3gb's... i just wanna know if at 3.3 the dual channel mem access is still valid.

 

[nschum]

Anyway... Even though these machines can only "recognize a potential 3.3gb of ram" wouldn't it make sense to put in 2X 2gb sticks (a total of 4gigs for those of use not keeping score) to support dual channel memory access.

I don't think its 3.3 GB, even the last Macbook Pro can't handle more than 3GB. It's a chipset limitation.

And yes, putting 2x 2GB would definitely give you Dual Channel, while 1GB + 2GB might not. I say "might", because there are some chipsets out there that can do Dual Channel with mixed memory, but I don't know if this one does.

However, the advantage is barely measurable and hardly noticeable anyway, so I'd save the extra cash and go for 1GB + 2GB.

 

[sinistersai4d]

^thanks.. if the difference is that minimal than i'll stick with upping to 3gb. I'm just a spec whore and want to make sure my machine is operating at it's highest potential. I'm kinda of upset i got my macbook (aka Black Thunder) 10 weeks before the MBSR's came out a couple weeks ago.. but when buying computers the shelf life for "top of the line" is a couple months max no matter when you buy... 😎

fyi i double checked a few sites.. (including this one) and it is 3.3gb..

"Earlier Core 2 Duo machines (non SR) can recognize a potential 3.3 GB (with 2 x 2 GB installed... the top 700 MB is wasted, so the practical maximum is 3 Gb with 1 x 1 Gb and 1 x 2 Gb). This is a hardware limitation."