I did a lot of research before I bought the 2 gig and 4 gig chips to upgrade my MBP 17 inch. The recommendation of the folks at OWC, from whom I bought the RAM, was that, on my 2.4Ghz MBP, a 2 gig module plus a 4 gig module was a better bet that two 4 gig modules. Other RAM sellers said the same thing. On my late 2007 Santa Rosa MBP, 8 gig often introduces instability that 6 gig does not. I have used the new RAM for about a week and have been satisfied. I run Windows 7 in a VMware Fusion virtual machine and have dedicated 3 gig of the memory to it. Now I am able to keep several Windows apps and several Mac apps open on my desktop simultaneously and still have acceptable speed with no instability. For the first time, it's as easy to run Windows apps is it is to run OS X apps.
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8GB of RAM (2x4GB) is $349.99 now??
- Thread starter jjahshik32
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You sure you got BOTH for that price? Right now that's how much the 4GB module alone cost and as this thread is about, that is the cheapest it's been.
I've been keeping my eye on prices too. Currently I have 2x 2Gb modules in my new 17" MBP. I run heavy graphics and video on my Mac. After Effects in particular seems to be a hog. But I'm wondering if I really need more RAM. I thought these tasks were processor heavy. But you always hear, "adding more RAM speed up your system"..
Is this true in all regards? i.e.-- Will adding more RAM help speed up processor heavy tasks? What exactly is it speeding up?
I just upgraded my MBP with 8 GB from OWC ordered it at 7:30 PM and it showed up by noon the next day. Talk about fast delivery.
Not to mention I am more than pleasantly surprised how much faster my machine is with 8GB, if you use Parallels much at all its a dream come true.
Not to mention I am more than pleasantly surprised how much faster my machine is with 8GB, if you use Parallels much at all its a dream come true.
rawdawg -- First $187.99 was, and still is, OWC's price for 6 gig of RAM of the sort I bought. I suspect the reason the price looks low to you is that my 17 inch MBP is a 2007 model Santa Rosa that uses DDR2 RAM modules. Your new 17 inch MBP takes the faster but more expensive DDR3 modules.
The reason I upgraded my RAM was in hopes of improving Windows performance under Fusion. It was abysmal when I had only 2 gig of RAM. The upgrade to 6 gig improved the performance of Windows 7 and Fusion 3 dramatically. I now run Fusion in Unity mode, which allows me to keep Quicken 2010 for Windows open in my dock all the time. This has been very important to me as I use Quicken several times a day. I have assigned 3 gig of RAM and 1 core of the processor to Fusion, which leaves the other 3 gig for OS X apps, which has been more than enough.