8GB RAM advice

[jahman]

Hi Folks,

As always, the more RAM the better, of course. However, not having done any development work on a Macbook Pro before(iPhone/Pod/Pad in Objective C), would the machine struggle with 4GB or is OS X efficient enough to give a good experience with just 4GB?

I'm trying to weigh up the pros and cons of just speccing a machine with 8GB and swallowing the fact that I could save a fair bit of cash by not doing so.

Looking at a 17", i7, 4GB, 128GB SSD with Applecare. That's a base price of £2, 500 here in the UK or $3865! Another 4GB of RAM is £320 taking the total to £2, 820 or $4360. Feeling faint just thinking about it!

Cheers,

jahman

 

[flopticalcube]

For app development running Xcode, 4GB is enough.

 

[Hellhammer]

Try with 4GB first and keep your eye on Activity Monitor. If you're using more than 75% of your RAM most of the time, it might be worth it to get some more

 

[techound1]

With the i7 and the SSD, you really should try out the 4gb first - it should be plenty for your needs with those other specs.

 

[Badger^2]

X code really requires nothing elaborate.

8 gigs of ram is $375US, thats pretty significant amount of money.

 

[jahman]

Cool. Thanks guys.

jahman