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gmans46

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 24, 2011
202
0
Im deciding whether or not to upgrade i want to keep the laptop under warranty so I will be getting it through apple.
 

FYDave

macrumors member
Feb 24, 2011
85
0
If I'm not mistaken, replacing the hard drive or RAM doesn't void your warranty. These were made to be end user serviceable.
 

wingsabr

macrumors 6502
Dec 13, 2008
457
16
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

Adding aftermarket ram doesn't void your warranty; however paying 2x the market price voids your common sense. ;)

All kidding aside, it's really easy to do and you can save some loot for other things like an ssd.
 
Nov 28, 2010
22,670
31
located
Adding RAM to a MacBook or MacBook Pro does not void the warranty, it is even described in the user guide on how to do it.
If you run plenty of applications at the same time and use a lot of memory intensive documents, then the more RAM the snappier the experience.
 

gmans46

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 24, 2011
202
0
alright so ill upgrade the ram myself. What about SSD i was planning on getting the 128gb then using my external 2TB H.D for extra space when I went online, the ssd prices werent that much better and I feel like its a better idea to have apple install it what are your thoughts on that.
 

AlBDamned

macrumors 68030
Mar 14, 2005
2,641
15
If I'm not mistaken, replacing the hard drive or RAM doesn't void your warranty. These were made to be end user serviceable.

100% correct - how to guides are in the manual.

To the OP, 8GB ram is nice, although in my 13" Pro I rarely use it. Currently I have 5GB free, this is with Mail, Chrome, iTunes, Skype, Twitter, Word and Text edit open and in use.
 

FYDave

macrumors member
Feb 24, 2011
85
0
100% correct - how to guides are in the manual.

To the OP, 8GB ram is nice, although in my 13" Pro I rarely use it. Currently I have 5GB free, this is with Mail, Chrome, iTunes, Skype, Twitter, Word and Text edit open and in use.

Lol. You're using seven applications simultaneously? How is that even possible? Just kiddin'. Sort of. I really do want to know. :p
 

cotak

macrumors regular
Feb 24, 2011
224
0
If you use it for web, email, IM, videos etc. Basically anything your mom would use a computer for 4 GB is very much enough. I once was using a C2D iMac with 256 megs of ram as as secondary computer at work and it worked fine with outlook and safari running. It did occasionally thrashed it's harddisk but in this day and age and running SL it's pretty amazing that 256 megs was usable. Various people in my department still use those machines as well and you never hear any complains.

My point is 4 GB is enough for most people as long as they aren't using aperture or photoshop. At home my i5 27 inch imac uses up all 12 gigs I put it when i use aperture. While my real work machine a MacPro 4,1 was a dog when it was on the default configuration but once it got it's ram doubled my tasks completed in 10 minutes vs the 3 hours it was taking before. So, depending on you task load ram can either be idle or very important.
 
Last edited:
Nov 28, 2010
22,670
31
located
Lol. You're using seven applications simultaneously? How is that even possible? Just kiddin'. Sort of. I really do want to know. :p

I normally have 15 applications open at the same time, I can even go up to 25 some times.
I have 4GB RAM and an SSD, but 8GB would be nice to have too.
I even tested how many applications I could open at once (by opening every application inside the Applications and Utilities folders) and I came around 60 I vaguely remember.
 

cuestakid

macrumors 68000
Jun 14, 2006
1,775
44
San Fran
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

Adding aftermarket ram doesn't void your warranty; however paying 2x the market price voids your common sense. ;)

All kidding aside, it's really easy to do and you can save some loot for other things like an ssd.

Post of the day
 

AlBDamned

macrumors 68030
Mar 14, 2005
2,641
15
Lol. You're using seven applications simultaneously? How is that even possible? Just kiddin'. Sort of. I really do want to know. :p

Sure: Skype and Twitter in the background, Itunes playing music. Text edit as a scrapboard for the words I'm writing in Word. Mail on, Chrome on with about 20 tabs open. Bokay? :rolleyes: ;)
 

dagamer34

macrumors 65816
May 1, 2007
1,359
101
Houston, TX
Reasons to need 8gb RAM: Photoshop, heavy image editing, video editing, desktop virtualization, CAD design work, any other "professional" level tasks.

Anything else will do fine with 4gb, as the SSD will be a more worthy upgrade to most people.
 

SuprUsrStan

macrumors 6502a
Apr 15, 2010
715
1,015
Im deciding whether or not to upgrade i want to keep the laptop under warranty so I will be getting it through apple.

Yes it really does make a difference if you really use your computer. I max out my 4 gigs all the time and would really like to keep the HDD from acting as swap (psudo ram).
 

Crosbie

macrumors 6502a
May 26, 2010
613
12
Brighton, UK
On my soon-to-be-replaced White MacBook I occasionally felt the pinch with 2Gb (which, let's face it, is all your mum will ever need); user-upgraded to 4Gb and very rarely get anywhere near that. Image editing pushes it.

MacBook is in for service at an Apple store right now - no worries about having user-replaced RAM.
 

snottlebocket

macrumors newbie
Feb 25, 2011
5
0
Does anyone know if ram is still easy to replace on the new mbp's? I'm guessing it is but I still wouldn't be surprised at Apple bolting the whole thing shut.

I'd like 8gigs, I wouldn't like 8 apple gigs.
 

Lann

macrumors member
Feb 8, 2011
31
1
alright so ill upgrade the ram myself. What about SSD i was planning on getting the 128gb then using my external 2TB H.D for extra space when I went online, the ssd prices werent that much better and I feel like its a better idea to have apple install it what are your thoughts on that.

I would like this answered as well.
 

hyteckit

Guest
Jul 29, 2007
889
1
On my iMac, I have 12GB. I use about 8GB to 12GB of RAM. Then again, I have 2 web browsers running with about 30 windows and some other 10 apps running.

I use to have a MacBook with 4GB. Tired of it hanging and waiting for disk swap. Does 8GB RAM make a big difference? Hell yeah!
 

dagamer34

macrumors 65816
May 1, 2007
1,359
101
Houston, TX
Adding an SSD would increase visible performance more than 8GB RAM in every day tasks. Not saying that the jump from 4 to 8GB isn't useful, but an SSD helps everywhere!
 

OneMike

macrumors 603
Oct 19, 2005
5,814
1,795
Lol. You're using seven applications simultaneously? How is that even possible? Just kiddin'. Sort of. I really do want to know. :p

Depends on what you do. I often have: Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Terminal, FTP, Safari, Firefox, Mail and possibility VMWare and Stickies open as well. Simultaneously working in all no, but to the extent where it wouldn't make sense to quit them yes.

If I get the MBP I'll definitely be upgrading to 8GB ram. SSD not sure yet. If SSD I'd do myself though. For one 128GB is $250 from apple. Outside you can get better prices, but in addition you also keep the 320GB HD that comes with it that you can always sell or just get a $5 enclosure for an use as extra external travel/home storage.
 
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