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Can You survive on 2gb of Ram?

V

van2010rulz

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 13, 2010
152
2
I am in the market for a new computer and am thinking of making the switch between a Pc to a Mac. To save as much cash as possible(because this is some serious $$$$$) I am probably going to go with a brand new Macbook because i don't need the sd and firewire port. Yes the keyboard with the backlight would be nice. Yes having the unibody casing would be nice. Yes having 4gb of ram again would be nice, but well i don't need half that stuff. In order to do the following tasks as followed: Skype, Msn, Internet Browsing, Word, Powerpoint, Mild photo and video editing in iLife set, will 2gb of ram be enough? I am on a Pc right now with 2gb of ram and am Crawling. If the Macs OSX is all it's crackede up to be will 2gb be enough.

Thanks
 
Yes it'll be fine until the Christmas sale on SO-DIMMs allows you to upgrade for $25 or less.
 
if you're not afraid to take apart your Macbook and install the RAM yourself, then definitely go with the 2GB base option - Apple's fee for the upgrade is ridiculous (an extra $100?!)
 
I'm running a Macbook 13" with 2gb of ram, and I think it works fine. Would I prefer 4gb? Yes. However, I have yet to run into an issue where I get frustrated by how long things take or any thing of the sort.
 
2GB should be fine. One day, just to try it, I opened every program on my dock...ever single one. I could switch in between them and work just fine with 2GB. It's just the way OSX does things, it just works. 4GB would be nice, but really, for those tasks, you won't NEED it.
 
2 GB is fine for running a several apps at once. The slowdowns that will be noticeable will be opening and closing apps. But when the apps are open, they seem to run fast.
 
van2010rulz said:
I am in the market for a new computer and am thinking of making the switch between a Pc to a Mac. To save as much cash as possible(because this is some serious $$$$$) I am probably going to go with a brand new Macbook because i don't need the sd and firewire port. Yes the keyboard with the backlight would be nice. Yes having the unibody casing would be nice. Yes having 4gb of ram again would be nice, but well i don't need half that stuff. In order to do the following tasks as followed: Skype, Msn, Internet Browsing, Word, Powerpoint, Mild photo and video editing in iLife set, will 2gb of ram be enough? I am on a Pc right now with 2gb of ram and am Crawling. If the Macs OSX is all it's crackede up to be will 2gb be enough.

Thanks
Click to expand...

IMO, buy a refurb 13" MBP from Apple. The cost is only about $50.00 more then a new Macbook:

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals/mac/macbook_pro
 
From my own experience, 2GB of RAM is not an issue at all, running on that since I got my Macbook (sig) and never really suffered it. Here Adium, Chrome, Twittie and Mail are always open, the rest (iLife, Photoshop, Lightroom, iTunes, Word...) just comes and goes once the work is done.

4GB of RAM is an upgrade I have been thinking about and delaying time after time because I don't see the need for my personal use. 160GB HDD is starting to be much more annoying TBH ;)
 
if you try to bootcamp with 2gb forget it. i only have 2gb and for normal tasks under os x its ok, just don't open too many things. if you can 4gb is way better, i'm waiting for the prices to fall to buy more ram
 
If you've got a Micro Center nearby they've got the current base model MacBook Pro MC374LL/A on sale through today July 4, 2010 for $999.99 and it has all the "nice" features you mentioned.
 
At the moment I'm using 1.24GB of RAM having Firefox open on 3 tabs and having tons of little apps like Caffiene and SMC Fan Control running in the backround :rolleyes:
 
blackburn said:
if you try to bootcamp with 2gb forget it. i only have 2gb and for normal tasks under os x its ok, just don't open too many things. if you can 4gb is way better, i'm waiting for the prices to fall to buy more ram
Click to expand...


I bootcamp Windows xp Pro and it runs amazingly fast even with itunes playing and several web pages on Chrome running,and all of them are using flash.
 
chuckflip53 said:
if you're not afraid to take apart your Macbook and install the RAM yourself, then definitely go with the 2GB base option - Apple's fee for the upgrade is ridiculous (an extra $100?!)
Click to expand...

4GB of DDR3 memory is $85+. Given the installation/labor fee, $100 isn't that off.

To OP, I would get 4GB because it's one of the cheapest upgrades yet yields the greatest performance boost. If you want to do it yourself, you save about <$15 versus the BTO upgrade to 4GB memory. Also, I would heed a previous poster's suggestion to go refurbished. You can get a aluminum MacBook Pro 13" for $1019 w/ SD card slot and FireWire, as well as 4GB of memory.
 
i would use the student discount (even if you aren't a student they will give it to you online or instore) and that will cover the RAM upgrade
 
Since there are too many replies already, I'm just gonna say:

My 2010 MacBook with 4GB lag sometimes as hell,
only because I run 9000 applications in the background and it runs two virtual machines at the same time.


So it really depends on how you use your Laptop, if you use it as a desktop, I strongly recommend 4GB~8GB.

If you're not using multiple serious applications (uses uses ram more than 768mb), 2GB is enough, otherwise it lags.
 
SnowLeopard2008 said:
4GB of DDR3 memory is $85+. Given the installation/labor fee, $100 isn't that off.

To OP, I would get 4GB because it's one of the cheapest upgrades yet yields the greatest performance boost. If you want to do it yourself, you save about <$15 versus the BTO upgrade to 4GB memory. Also, I would heed a previous poster's suggestion to go refurbished. You can get a aluminum MacBook Pro 13" for $1019 w/ SD card slot and FireWire, as well as 4GB of memory.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but 2GB ram is about $50 bucks (right?) so Apple should only charge the difference. It's not like they are installing 4GB ram and giving you the 2GB in the box. With Apple, you are paying more money for the same 4GB and you are also paying for the 2GB stock, except you won't be getting the 2GB.
 
I used to have a Mac Pro that came with 2GB and a MBP that came with 2GB. The only time I had problems was with the MBP. Too many windows open in Safari would make it begin to lag. Sometimes that MBP would just hang and then I would end up hitting the power button. I sold that MBP and got a 15" with 4GB and haven't had it lag on me in three months so far.

The Mac Pro was always fine with 2GB. I used it for all the same things I did with the MBP that had 2GB. I used them both mostly just for internet and watching my iTunes videos.
 
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