8GB of RAM in unibody mbp that much better?

[jjahshik32]

Just wanted to ask the guys that have 8GB of RAM in their mbp if it was worth it? Running my 17" mbp with 4GB of RAM via 24" LED ACD in dual monitor mode running 6 spaces and especially running VMware fusion just to run light programs such as access 2007 and excel seems to tax my 17" in the memory department.

The 17" still runs pretty good but I do notice that under activity monitor the memory seems to have a huge amount of page outs and the color wheel shows up once in a while. Would upgrading to 8gb of RAM be the remedy? Will it make the whole os that much faster? I would think so but I'd like some opinions, thanks.

I would just use my Mac Pro thats on my sig but I have it connected to my hdtv most of the time and use it through there. I'd like to use dual monitor with my notebook for my courses. I hate transferring school work data from the 17" to the mac pro on a daily basis.

 

[walshlink]

Get an Intel X-25m SSD before going to 8GB of RAM... I use a 160GB X-25M G2 and the performance is astounding...

 

[p3ncil]

you don't need 8 gigs of ram when you have a SSD... unlike conventional hdds, information stored on the SSD can be retrieved quickly because of their speeds.

correct me if i am wrong though

 

[cluthz]

If you have lots of page outs, you should have improved performance with upgrading ram.

What OS are you running on in VMWare?
If you run XP you could give it 512mb ram and you'll have more for your mac.
I think default VMWare takes about half you memory or something.

If you only use Windows for one app, use a TinyXP installation and you could probably manage with 256MB on VMWare.

 

[santos79]

you don't need 8 gigs of ram when you have a SSD... unlike conventional hdds, information stored on the SSD can be retrieved quickly because of their speeds.

correct me if i am wrong though

Quicker than a with a conventional HDD, yes. But the NAND flash used for the SSDs is not at all comparable to DDR3 RAM in terms of speed. Were this the case, we wouldn't even need RAM anymore, would we?

The original poster seems to be loaded, so he should just get as much RAM as he can fit into his system. And four Intel X-25E SSDs in a RAID configuration. That would give him even more to brag about.

 

[rbmclaughlin]

I've got 8gb RAM and a Corsair P256 SSD in my 15inch 2.66 late 2008 UMBP, and I definitely noticed the most performance gains when putting in the SSD. Although I did notice faster video encoding after switching from 4gb to 8g RAM. I'd go with a SSD for starters.

 

[jjahshik32]

I am by no means "loaded" or "rich." I work hard for the $$ lol.

Anyway, I had the 80gb intel x25-m before and understand its sheer speed but I still believe that ssd drives are just not completely there yet and I'm just waiting for SLC SSDs to get to the price of current MLC variants.

I will still continue to wait for the 4gb dimms to drop (and it has been steadily dropping the last 6 months) and hopefully pick it up when it reaches the $250 mark next year. But I just wanted to get some feedback from early adopters on the 8gb deal. I'm totally fine with the conventional hdd atm though.