6GB in MacBook (Pro); Yes it works. - 8GB... well...

[LedCop]

I have an Early 2008 Macbook pro 4.1 with 2.5 ghz.
I am trying to decide on upgrading my memory to either 4 GB with 2x2 gb sticks or to upgrade to 6 gb with 1x4 gb and 1x2 gb stick.
Question is: Would it be better to stick with the 4 gb so that I have the Dual channel ability or am I going to still see a significant performance boost without dual channel but 6 gb. Anotherwords... which will be faster?
I do quite a bit of VM stuff, but also just like having TONS of programs open at once between multiple monitors and lots of multi tasking.
Will also be upgrading to an SSD in the near future if that will play any role in the decision.

According to http://barefeats.com/quickarch.html (November 15th, 2006 (update)) and http://www.philmug.ph/forum/showthread.php?t=13672 :

I'd say go for the 6GB of RAM. Definitely 6GB if you find your Mac swapping to the hard disk for virtual memory. Even if it doesn't, the lack of dual channel won't take away a noticeable amount of performance, especially for a machine that has a discrete graphic card with dedicated video memory.

 

[ninjapenguinart]

Just wondering, for the people who got 8GB in their late 2008 MBP, where did you get your 8GB and how much is it costing you?

 

[ZennZero]

So am I the only one seeing instability at 6GB under SL? I was rock solid under Leopard.

Running an early '08 2.4GHz MBP, btw. Thinking of rolling back to 4GB, but it is frustrating since I haven't heard of others with issues... Am I the only one?

 

[santos79]

So am I the only one seeing instability at 6GB under SL? I was rock solid under Leopard.

Running an early '08 2.4GHz MBP, btw. Thinking of rolling back to 4GB, but it is frustrating since I haven't heard of others with issues... Am I the only one?

Have you tried booting up SL in 64-bit kernel mode?

 

[ZennZero]

Have you tried booting up SL in 64-bit kernel mode?

I haven't. Is that what everyone with an "unsupported" 6GB config is doing?

Edit:

In the 64-bit kernel now... No obvious problems except my ExpressCard SSD is no longer mounting.

I was under the impression that a 6GB config would run fine in the 32-bit kernel, but I will try this for a while and see what happens. Unfortunately, I have yet to find a way to consistently crash the machine, so I will have to observe it for several days to see if this clears up my issues...

 

[applecanada]

Where to buy?

Guys let me know where to buy 8 GB RAM PC2-5300 667Mhz for my macbook pro its the one right before unibody macs came out. bought it last year in september I believe..am dying to upgrade it besides western digital and seagate are coming out with 1 TB 2.5inch harddrive for laptops i guess you know where i am going with this. let me know will appreciate it thanks.

 

[DAMNiatx]

Guys let me know where to buy 8 GB RAM PC2-5300 667Mhz for my macbook pro its the one right before unibody macs came out. bought it last year in september I believe..am dying to upgrade it besides western digital and seagate are coming out with 1 TB 2.5inch harddrive for laptops i guess you know where i am going with this. let me know will appreciate it thanks.

try OWC.

 

[eagleice]

Unibody 13" MBP 2.26, how much RAM?

hello,

i purchased a MB990ZP/A three weeks ago.
Unibody 13" MBP 2.26.
It has Snow Leopard already installed.

I want to add some RAM. The information on the first page was not completely clear for me: I believe I can add 8gb of RAM, but my MBP 13" can only use 6gb. Or the full 8gb?


And I believe I need SO-DIMM DDR3-1066 204pin RAM. Right? And just these Specs, so no DDR2 or something below 1066?

Thank you.

 

[ssn637]

eagleice

Yes, your model supports up to 8 GB of RAM (204-pin 1066 DDR3 modules). This thread refers to the late '08 MacBook and MacBook Pro models, not the mid-2009 systems. Before ordering from OWC or a third party supplier, check with your local Apple Store. They've come down quite a bit in price recently but as far as I know only guarantee your upgrade for one year. OWC has outstanding service, just dropped their prices recently as well, and guarantee their sticks for life.

 

[ZennZero]

I haven't. Is that what everyone with an "unsupported" 6GB config is doing?

Edit:

In the 64-bit kernel now... No obvious problems except my ExpressCard SSD is no longer mounting.

I was under the impression that a 6GB config would run fine in the 32-bit kernel, but I will try this for a while and see what happens. Unfortunately, I have yet to find a way to consistently crash the machine, so I will have to observe it for several days to see if this clears up my issues...

Following up - no crashes running the 64-bit kernel. Strange that the 32-bit kernel was unstable but the unsupported (outside X-serves) 64-bit kernel is rock solid on my system. A gold star to whomever can explain that one...

Now if VMware would get around to implementing support for SL's 64-bit kernel I would be satisfied.

 

[rbarthle17]

Following up - no crashes running the 64-bit kernel. Strange that the 32-bit kernel was unstable but the unsupported (outside X-serves) 64-bit kernel is rock solid on my system. A gold star to whomever can explain that one...

Now if VMware would get around to implementing support for SL's 64-bit kernel I would be satisfied.

I have been looking at upgrading to 6GB on my early-2008 penryn 2.5 Ghz Macbook Pro. I have SL installed.

For my work, I use VMWare all day long, many times needing two separate VM's running (WinXP and Ubuntu) in addition to about 5-7 OS X programs. I have to juggle the VM memory allocation to make it all work, but my XP instance could use a boost badly as it's only at 512MB.

If I buy a 4GB stick to go with my 2GB stick, how will this or won't this help me? I seem to read a lot of mixed reviews on this, and I cannot seem to find a consistent answer to make me feel like the upgrade would fix my needs.

 

[ZennZero]

I have been looking at upgrading to 6GB on my early-2008 penryn 2.5 Ghz Macbook Pro. I have SL installed.

For my work, I use VMWare all day long, many times needing two separate VM's running (WinXP and Ubuntu) in addition to about 5-7 OS X programs. I have to juggle the VM memory allocation to make it all work, but my XP instance could use a boost badly as it's only at 512MB.

If I buy a 4GB stick to go with my 2GB stick, how will this or won't this help me? I seem to read a lot of mixed reviews on this, and I cannot seem to find a consistent answer to make me feel like the upgrade would fix my needs.

The bottom line is that you lose a very tiny bit of performance (1-2%) due to lack of dual-channel memory access, but if you engage in memory hungry tasks (photo/video editing, virtualization) the tradeoff is worth it. For VMs specifically, you would be able afford to allocate more memory to each image. As you mention, your XP image should see a significant performance improvement if you (for example) allocate 1GB+ to it.

Caveat: I seem to be the only person posting with this issue, but if you have to run 64bit kernel for stability's sake, VMware will refuse to run. Based on some of the posts on their forum and blog I infer 64-bit kernel support is coming, but it is a significant undertaking so it may be a while. Having said all that - most people seem to be able to run the 32-bit kernel without issue, so don't let my experience color your decision.

 

[rbarthle17]

The bottom line is that you lose a very tiny bit of performance (1-2%) due to lack of dual-channel memory access, but if you engage in memory hungry tasks (photo/video editing, virtualization) the tradeoff is worth it. For VMs specifically, you would be able afford to allocate more memory to each image. As you mention, your XP image should see a significant performance improvement if you (for example) allocate 1GB+ to it.

Caveat: I seem to be the only person posting with this issue, but if you have to run 64bit kernel for stability's sake, VMware will refuse to run. Based on some of the posts on their forum and blog I infer 64-bit kernel support is coming, but it is a significant undertaking so it may be a while. Having said all that - most people seem to be able to run the 32-bit kernel without issue, so don't let me experience color your decision.

Sweet thanks. Now, one last question and I hope I don't get flamed for this...

OWC = ?

 

[ZennZero]

Sweet thanks. Now, one last question and I hope I don't get flamed for this...

OWC = ?

Other World Computing: http://www.macsales.com/

A bunch of people here bought their 4GB modules from them. I did not (Dell 4GB + Patriot 2GB), so perhaps that is the root of my weirdness.

 

[rbarthle17]

Other World Computing: http://www.macsales.com/

A bunch of people here bought their 4GB modules from them. I did not (Dell 4GB + Patriot 2GB), so perhaps that is the root of my weirdness.

So there is compatability issues. Hmm... I bought my MBP with the base 2GB and bought another 2GB from Crucial. I suppose I better go through Crucial again for the 4GB to make sure I stay with the same brand? Thanks for the heads up on that.

 

[Apple Genius]

Were to find cheaper than $129.00

 

[chrix]

Following up - no crashes running the 64-bit kernel. Strange that the 32-bit kernel was unstable but the unsupported (outside X-serves) 64-bit kernel is rock solid on my system. A gold star to whomever can explain that one...

Now if VMware would get around to implementing support for SL's 64-bit kernel I would be satisfied.

So 6GB is confirmed under 64bit kernel mode while 8GB is not yet sure.
I have the same machine that you have, Late 2008 2.4G model.

Did you try virtualbox instead of VMWare? it's a freeware made by SUN, I used it under mac at home and under XP at work, it is awesome, update frequently, and supports SL well.

 

[ZennZero]

So 6GB is confirmed under 64bit kernel mode while 8GB is not yet sure.
I have the same machine that you have, Late 2008 2.4G model.

Did you try virtualbox instead of VMWare? it's a freeware made by SUN, I used it under mac at home and under XP at work, it is awesome, update frequently, and supports SL well.

I actually have the *EARLY* 08 MBP. AFAIK, 8GB has been confirmed not to work on my model (and your model) even under the 64-bit kernel, but I could be mistaken.

Regarding VirtualBox, no - I have't tried it. Might give it a go this weekend.

 

[mac2x]

So are the late 2008 MBP's that can (apparently) handle 8 GB under SL's 64 bit kernel the 2.53 GHz models? If so I knew I'd probably kick myself someday for not getting the 2.53 GHz.

 

[jamesryanbell]

So are the late 2008 MBP's that can (apparently) handle 8 GB under SL's 64 bit kernel the 2.53 GHz models? If so I knew I'd probably kick myself someday for not getting the 2.53 GHz.

Everything I've ever read says that 2.53Ghz late 2008 unibodies can unofficially hold 6GB of RAM.

I've never heard differently, or seen anything more than that.

 

[santos79]

Everything I've ever read says that 2.53Ghz late 2008 unibodies can unofficially hold 6GB of RAM.

I've never heard differently, or seen anything more than that.

Have you read page 23 of this thread? Apparently 8GB does work in 64-bit kernel mode.

 

[fm2503]

Everything I've ever read says that 2.53Ghz late 2008 unibodies can unofficially hold 6GB of RAM.

I've never heard differently, or seen anything more than that.

Well I've got a 2.4Ghz late 2008 15" unibody, and upgraded to the 4+2 configuration today (got a Crucial SODIMM). SL 10.6.1, 32 bit kernel. Seems rock solid. Using VirtualBox 3.0.4 as the hypervisor I managed to have a 2K8DC (1GB), 2K8 PKI (512MB), E2K03 (512MB), linux router (24MB), Win7 client (1GB) all running, and OSX was still responsive with minimal to no swapping/paging.

Previously with 4GB the thing would have ground to a complete halt under this setup (the Virtual HDD are on an external FW800 disk).

So this is certainly a good working configuration, must also logically work on the 2.53GHz as well.

Hope that's useful information.

 

[chrix]

Well I've got a 2.4Ghz late 2008 15" unibody, and upgraded to the 4+2 configuration today (got a Crucial SODIMM). SL 10.6.1, 32 bit kernel. Seems rock solid. Using VirtualBox 3.0.4 as the hypervisor I managed to have a 2K8DC (1GB), 2K8 PKI (512MB), E2K03 (512MB), linux router (24MB), Win7 client (1GB) all running, and OSX was still responsive with minimal to no swapping/paging.

Previously with 4GB the thing would have ground to a complete halt under this setup (the Virtual HDD are on an external FW800 disk).

So this is certainly a good working configuration, must also logically work on the 2.53GHz as well.

Hope that's useful information.

Wow, this is really a good news! Thank you so much for sharing this !!!
One more thing, the VirtualBox RAM configuration you are using is 1GB+0.5GB+0.5GB+24MB+1GB, which is less than 4GB, can you configure one of them to 3GB and have a try? This would make sense.

 

[chrix]

Well I've got a 2.4Ghz late 2008 15" unibody, and upgraded to the 4+2 configuration today (got a Crucial SODIMM). SL 10.6.1, 32 bit kernel. Seems rock solid. Using VirtualBox 3.0.4 as the hypervisor I managed to have a 2K8DC (1GB), 2K8 PKI (512MB), E2K03 (512MB), linux router (24MB), Win7 client (1GB) all running, and OSX was still responsive with minimal to no swapping/paging.

Previously with 4GB the thing would have ground to a complete halt under this setup (the Virtual HDD are on an external FW800 disk).

So this is certainly a good working configuration, must also logically work on the 2.53GHz as well.

Hope that's useful information.

BTW, virtualbox 3.0.6 is released, just for your infomation.

 

[Pentad]

For those who have done the 8 GB upgrade, what does Windows/Bootcamp think? I run Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit (from my work) on Bootcamp and I was curious if those who have upgraded to 8 GB also run a 64bit version of Windows and could post their experiences with 8 GB?

Thanks!