A couple questions regarding late-2006 MBP 3GB RAM limit.

[cksubs]

I currently have the stock 2GB (2x1GB) in my 2.33GHz MBP. I want to upgrade to 3GB(plus?). I also want to spend the least possible money to get the best performance.

So I have a couple options:

Buy one 2GB stick. Result: Unmatched, 3GB.

Buy one 2GB, one 1GB. Result: Matched, 3GB.

Buy two 2GB. Result: Matched, 4GB. Only 3GB (3.25GB?) usable.​

So, is having matched RAM a big deal? Is it worth buying the new 1GB stick?

This model MBP can only go up to "3GB" because of memory overlap or whatever. But everywhere online says that's really around 3.25GB. Will OS X (or Windows dual boot) recognize the extra quarter-gig as better than using only a hard 3GB of memory?

Thanks much!

 

[srexy]

I went with the matched 2+1 from OWC but others may have better experience w/2+2...

 

[MacMini2009]

Get two 2GB RAM sticks because of dual-channel memory architecture.

With a dual-channel memory interface, both banks of SDRAM can be addressed at the same time. <--- From Apple.