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4gb Memory Upgrade MBP

W

Whits

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 22, 2007
40
0
I see there's a mac buying ram guide, but it doesn't answer all of my questions.

Looking to upgrade my 2.4ghz MBP to 4 gigs of memory.

I'm looking at OWC right now and see they sell a normal 4gb upgrade and then a "4gb CAS 4 Low-Latency" ram upgrade for $15 more. What's the difference there? I see in the guide that it mentions buying ram with a CAS faster than my machine won't change anything... how do I know what my machine supports?

I'm just looking to get the best memory available... Any advice?

Thanks
 
Frankly, I don't know the answer to your question, but I strongly suspect that RAM for an extra $15 is a way to get you to spend an extra $15. I don't believe that you will benefit from it in any *perceivable* way.
 
jroller said:
Frankly, I don't know the answer to your question, but I strongly suspect that RAM for an extra $15 is a way to get you to spend an extra $15. I don't believe that you will benefit from it in any *perceivable* way.
Click to expand...

I second that, for an extra 15$, if the RAM is at the same frequency and the same amount of memory I dont think it will make that big of a difference. Sometimes it's just the materials which the transistors(or is it capacitors I never remember :p) is made out of which makes a difference. Dont waste the extra 15$ go for the normal OWC 4GB upgrade ;)
 
OWC is the way to go.

Personally I far prefer it to crucial.

Get the OWC brand ram for good quality reliable ram that is very competitively priced.

I've currently got OWC ram running in my 5 year old ibook, my 3 year old power mac g5, and my new macbook.

In all cases I have never had any trouble with it.
 
There is no difference at all in performance with rams that you can get at newegg for way cheaper
 
"The lower the CAS latency (given the same clock speed), the less time it takes to fetch data from it."
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAS_Latency

If the cheaper RAM is CAS 5 and the $15 more RAM is CAS 4, the CAS 4 RAM will be faster. Noticeably? Maybe. It would depend on your definition of Noticeable.
 
Is RAM in the MBP easy to replace? My MB was but I've heard the MBP is trickier.
 
just making sure you are aware...

4gb of memory is ALOT and unless you work at NASA or do something of equivalence, you dont need that much. Games/video/music work fine with 2GB.
 
sarah3585 said:
Is RAM in the MBP easy to replace? My MB was but I've heard the MBP is trickier.
Click to expand...

It's the same (ish) as replacing the RAM in a MB so if you found that difficult then you will a MBP

iOrlando said:
just making sure you are aware...

4gb of memory is ALOT and unless you work at NASA or do something of equivalence, you dont need that much. Games/video/music work fine with 2GB.
Click to expand...

Blimy i don't work for NASA and could do with more RAM that's why i'm upgrading to a MacPro when Nehalem gets released
 
KingYaba said:
All you do is take out the battery and unscrew a few screws. How hard is that? :confused:
Click to expand...

Sorry I missed out the word 'easy' my MB was easy but had heard the MBP was tricker. If it's the same then it will be fine.

Thanks.
 
iOrlando said:
just making sure you are aware...

4gb of memory is ALOT and unless you work at NASA or do something of equivalence, you dont need that much. Games/video/music work fine with 2GB.
Click to expand...

Yes, 2GB is fine, BUT, 4GB is sooooo much nicer to work with. Why not do 4GB if it's available and cheap?

You will NEVER regret a RAM upgrade.
 
iOrlando said:
just making sure you are aware...

4gb of memory is ALOT and unless you work at NASA or do something of equivalence, you dont need that much. Games/video/music work fine with 2GB.
Click to expand...

If you are using VMware Fusion or Parallels and want to run a Vista virtual machine you will want to commit at least 1 GB for Windows, and probably more like 1.5 GB. Leopards minimum memory requirement is 512 MB, meaning that you actually need closer to 1GB. :D Now a 2 GB machine doesn't sound so good.

My home machine has 2 GB and runs Leopard, so I run Windows XP with 512 MB just fine, leaving 1.5 GB for everything else (I wouldn't even think about trying Vista on that machine). My work machine has 4 GB and runs Tiger, but I have enough memory to run XP with 1 GB. If and when both Leopard and Vista get the OK, I will try Vista with 1 GB, but expect it will run slow unless I allocate more memory to VMware.
 
where can i get this OCW brand that you guys are talking about? :confused: A search on google and Newegg didn't pull it up
 
I have the owc 4gb kit in my mbp. no issues with it and recommend it. The lower latency as stated is slightly faster (as in so slight you won't notice as it is in Milli-seconds).
4Gb is nice to have. I run my parallels machine with 2Gb (as I run autocad, and revit via parallels) I also find it is nice for those large photoshop/illustrator files (24"x36" @ 600dpi) or for rendering (I use form-z).
I will admidt that the most I have ever seen being used (as per istat) is 2.7gb at a time, but it is nice that the computer doesn't lag due to ram

4gb is cheap so why not get it.:D:D:D feel the power......
 
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