Apple do MBA ram upgrades instore?

[UnseenLlama]

Further proof that retail employees don't know their apples from their lemons.

And who are you to say that they don't know what they are talking about? An employee could easily take out the main logic board and replace one with 4gb already installed. It would just take longer than the typical memory upgrade, but technically still possible.

 

[tungo529]

I highly doubt that this is possible, without damaging the logic board in some way.

I'm heavily considering selling my 6 month old 13" top of the line stock configuration air to upgrade to the 4GB ram model, simply because I think that 2GB isn't sufficient enough to run OSX Lion at an optimum rate.

 

[Veinticinco]

And who are you to say that they don't know what they are talking about? An employee could easily take out the main logic board and replace one with 4gb already installed. It would just take longer than the typical memory upgrade, but technically still possible.

As someone else has pointed out, it is neither appropriate or cost-effective to do this, nor would a customer pay for it as an upgrade. Any idea how much a new logic board with upgraded RAM comes in at? No, thought not. It's a ridiculous hair-splitting thing to claim.

It may be technically possible, but assuming for a minute a retail employee knows this hence the opinion offered (far more unlikely than likely) what does that say about their sales and advice technique? Either they don't know what they're talking about or they're trying to rip customers off. Neither are attributes you want in sales staff.

 

[ZipZap]

I think its totally possible for them to swap out the logic board. Whether they actually do it is unclear.

And whose to say you'd be getting a new part? You'll get a warranty part New/Old/Refurb....you'll never know for sure.

Looking at the tear-down, seems like a swap would be easy enough to do...just not in 10 minutes.

 

[ZipZap]

As someone else has pointed out, it is neither appropriate or cost-effective to do this, nor would a customer pay for it as an upgrade. Any idea how much a new logic board with upgraded RAM comes in at? No, thought not. It's a ridiculous hair-splitting thing to claim.

It may be technically possible, but assuming for a minute a retail employee knows this hence the opinion offered (far more unlikely than likely) what does that say about their sales and advice technique? Either they don't know what they're talking about or they're trying to rip customers off. Neither are attributes you want in sales staff.

Retail price or apple's production cost after making millions of them? I agree its not likely that they would swap this part, but I dont think cost has the impact you think it does...

 

[MRU]

And who are you to say that they don't know what they are talking about? An employee could easily take out the main logic board and replace one with 4gb already installed. It would just take longer than the typical memory upgrade, but technically still possible.

in the 5 minutes timeframe the genius quoted ? right..........

 

[The Catalyst]

With all this talk of if it is/isn't possible, I'd like to know if anyone's actually had their MBA ram upgraded in store yet?

 

[Skydivincoastie]

I am going to buy a 11'' today...I am going to ask for the upgraded RAM in store...lol Let's see if I get 4GB or not...

 

[sparkomatic]

I was in the Costa Mesa, CA store the other day and, for kicks, asked them about upgrading the RAM on my MBA. I told him I bought it a couple weeks ago and asked if it was possible to upgrade the RAM.

He said sure, not a problem. They'd buy back my RAM and then install the new RAM. Kinda made me think they would replace the mother board by that statement.

Then I told him that I'd heard the RAM was soldered in and couldn't be replaced. He said he had to double check. Walked into the back, came back and apologized and said I was right. He said he never did it on the MBA and that you can't replace the RAM.

I don't know if all the stores have the 'Ultimate' in stock but he did say they carry the fully loaded MBA.

So, I'm 18 days since purchase and stuck with 2GB. Oh well. I've adjusted and I'm peaking at about 60% or my RAM during the day so hopefully that'll hold me over till a MBA refresh comes out and maybe I'll replace my MBA.

I've actually noticed that if I just don't pay attention to my little istat RAM monitor, I see no difference in speed. It's still perfectly snappy for me.

 

[Skydivincoastie]

Park City Center, Lancaster PA Apple store said they do not do any RAM upgrades in store. I found the full boat refurb on Apple.com today for 1189...1.6ghz, 4gb and 128GB...I am thinking about pulling the trigger here in a sec.

 

[gglockner]

I think you'd get the real answer if you asked a Genius. They should know that a MacBook Air is not upgradeable. Period.

That said, there's a chance that an Apple Store might swap a MacBook Air for you with another model that has more RAM. I'd guess it's only a tiny chance but anything is possible.

IIRC, the Apple Store will upgrade RAM for virtually any other Mac you want. It's just the MacBook Air that is limited at the time of manufacture. Then again, if you're handy, you can upgrade the RAM on most Macs for far less by purchasing the RAM from a reliable 3rd party and installing it yourself.

 

[barebackbadger8]

i wonder why apple went down the "soldered onto the board" approach?

 

[gglockner]

i wonder why apple went down the "soldered onto the board" approach?

Space/weight savings. You can't fit standard notebook memory into the Air without adding significant space to the case.