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3GB Ram vs 4GB Ram on 2.33GHZ Macbook pro....help!!

D

Dextor143

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 28, 2008
425
35
USA
I have been searching a lot and doing some reading to find out what to do to get better system performance. I bought my MacBook pro mid 2007 the configuration are 2.33GHZ, 2GB Ram. My system can only go up to 3GB Ram and has two slots to fill the ram. Currently, I have 1GB in each of them. Now the questions is

1. Should I put 1GB in one and 2GB in the other to make it 3GB total?
2. Should I put 2GB in each to make it 4GB total?

I found out that matching pairs are good and if I put 4GB it will only use 3.2GB and the rest will be just unusable. If I put 3GB then it will not match but still gives you performance.

I have read goods and bads for both and now highly confused what to do? I want to request my Mac users to please give me some suggestions, hints and better reasons to apply.

I bought my system for $2700.00 when it first came out. Now do not think it is smart to sell it for $1200.00 (If I am lucky) and spend extra $600.00 to get 2.8GHz.

I can afford both rams as they are really cheap now. I use my mac for surfing, movies both online and offline, some time PS and Aperture, I do tends to have about 10 different apps open at the same time, for example ( Skype, Safari, PS, MSN, Yahoo, Ichat, ITunes, etc). I am also thinking about playing some games on my Mac such as Call of Duty, Fall out 3 and stuff.


thanks for reading and now waiting for your response.
 
If you find a really good deal on 2 x 2GB sticks then I would go for that. Otherwise just swapping in 1 2GB stick will be 95% just as good since you are capped at 3GB (or 3.2 or whatever it is.)

The matched pair thing helps a little, but from everything I've read it's not a big difference.

Either way is much better than the 2GB you have now, especially if you run a lot of apps. The Activity Monitor app is good tool for seeing how much RAM is being used at any given time.

I once bought 2 x 2GB sticks for around $20 after rebate at Fry's, I think it was a Black Friday 1-day sale. Otherwise I see 2 x 2GB routinely for around $40 on sale IIRC. So at that price who cares if not all 4GB is being used?
 
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