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Can't upgrade RAM on MBP Retina!?

M

Master-D

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 16, 2008
87
3
London, UK
I got the 2.6ghz MacBook Pro retina with the standard 8gb RAM, figuring I could upgrade the RAM at a later point if and when required. Every MacBook Pro I ever had which is quite a few had a little panel underneath to upgrade the RAM. By chance I ordered the RAM upgrade online because I saw it was only £60 for the 2x chips and figured that's a bargain for 16gb.

It arrived this morning and only then did I flip the mac over to open it up. Maybe that was stupid of me, but I have always had the option of a RAM upgrade so I never thought to check. I didn't see a front page MacRumors report on this major design flaw an I check most days; I wonder how many other people like me are going to want to do the same upgrade in a year or so and be hit the same problem. The RAM is soldered in, so even if you take the base cover off you can't swap the chips!? That is bonkers! If I had known at point of purchase I would have definitely got the 16gb option. I just worry because of lack of exposure others will be caught out this way later.

I was lucky, mine is only 3 weeks old so I will take it back to the retail store and get a refund. If I had been out of that time period I would have been massively annoyed. Just in case anyone else catches this who isn't aware. Be warned :)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I'm pretty sure this was all over the place when the rMBP was released.

8 GB should be fine for most people though.
 
*ring ring*

*ring ring*

*ring ring*

"Hello? Oh okay yeah hang on..."

simsaladimbamba it's everybody calling from back in June, they were wondering how you were coping with their common knowledge?
 
joewillmott said:
*ring ring*

*ring ring*

*ring ring*

"Hello? Oh okay yeah hang on..."

simsaladimbamba it's everybody calling from back in June, they were wondering how you were coping with their common knowledge?
Click to expand...

Made me laugh! :)

But yes this is common knowledge OP, especially if you would have read pretty much every review out there (I assume some research was done with a laptop of this value, not to mention the fact you seem to understand about upgrading RAM anyway...):rolleyes:
 
That's why you future proof it with 16GB from the jump, unless you know that you'll never have a use for more than 8GB.
 
Master-D said:
I got the 2.6ghz MacBook Pro retina with the standard 8gb RAM, figuring I could upgrade the RAM at a later point if and when required. Every MacBook Pro I ever had which is quite a few had a little panel underneath to upgrade the RAM. By chance I ordered the RAM upgrade online because I saw it was only £60 for the 2x chips and figured that's a bargain for 16gb.

It arrived this morning and only then did I flip the mac over to open it up. Maybe that was stupid of me, but I have always had the option of a RAM upgrade so I never thought to check. I didn't see a front page MacRumors report on this major design flaw an I check most days; I wonder how many other people like me are going to want to do the same upgrade in a year or so and be hit the same problem. The RAM is soldered in, so even if you take the base cover off you can't swap the chips!? That is bonkers! If I had known at point of purchase I would have definitely got the 16gb option. I just worry because of lack of exposure others will be caught out this way later.

I was lucky, mine is only 3 weeks old so I will take it back to the retail store and get a refund. If I had been out of that time period I would have been massively annoyed. Just in case anyone else catches this who isn't aware. Be warned :)
Click to expand...

I cant believe you didnt know this. Almost every review i have read has stated that the rMBP is really UN-upgradable.
 
That is one of the main reasons why I believe, in my $$$$ situation, it is not a good purchase unless you can afford to replace it afterwards with a newer model.
 
Master-D said:
I got the 2.6ghz MacBook Pro retina with the standard 8gb RAM, figuring I could upgrade the RAM at a later point if and when required. Every MacBook Pro I ever had which is quite a few had a little panel underneath to upgrade the RAM. By chance I ordered the RAM upgrade online because I saw it was only £60 for the 2x chips and figured that's a bargain for 16gb.

It arrived this morning and only then did I flip the mac over to open it up. Maybe that was stupid of me, but I have always had the option of a RAM upgrade so I never thought to check. I didn't see a front page MacRumors report on this major design flaw an I check most days; I wonder how many other people like me are going to want to do the same upgrade in a year or so and be hit the same problem. The RAM is soldered in, so even if you take the base cover off you can't swap the chips!? That is bonkers! If I had known at point of purchase I would have definitely got the 16gb option. I just worry because of lack of exposure others will be caught out this way later.

I was lucky, mine is only 3 weeks old so I will take it back to the retail store and get a refund. If I had been out of that time period I would have been massively annoyed. Just in case anyone else catches this who isn't aware. Be warned :)
Click to expand...

you've got to be kidding me....
 
I will go ahead and say that you should have done your research before spending almost 3K on a computer. Even if it wasn't on the front page of MR this has been a well discussed topic within the forums and Apple forums. Nothing can be upgraded by the user at this point. Everything is either soldered or glued to the logic board. How did you miss this lol! If you found out about this immediately after receiving it then you should still be within the 14 day return window.
 
Back to sleep everyone, it's just a troll. Anyone who needed 16Gb knew and upgraded at the start, anyone who didn't know doesn't need to...
 
There is no such thing as impossible..

Officially you are correct, the RAM is soldered in so officially you are screwed.

However, depending on your pain in future years, there are more solutions out there then you (and Apple) may think. Check out this guy, he is doing BGA since Apple screwed us up with the MBP 2008 and its crapy Nvidia 8600 card.
The charge is 189 Euros for the work. A Ram chip is so much more easy to apply and change, it would be a pice of cake to do it.

Shoot him an email, and you got your 16 Gig of Ram including loss of Apples 1 year guarantee. Unfortunately its in german language, but you get the idea.
If not, just look up BGA in YouTube.

http://www.ebay.de/itm/Mainboard-Ap...gen&hash=item25658dd2ab&_uhb=1#ht_3494wt_1156

I thought its worth to mention this.
 
i always check up on stuff like that before paying 4.000$ for a product.

Guess you've learned your lesson.
 
It was a front page article, probably even several and it made its round. There are also numerous threads about this.

In the end, the RAM in the MacBook Pro with Retina Display is NOT upgradeable.
 
AlexMaximus said:
Officially you are correct, the RAM is soldered in so officially you are screwed.

However, depending on your pain in future years, there are more solutions out there then you (and Apple) may think. Check out this guy, he is doing BGA since Apple screwed us up with the MBP 2008 and its crapy Nvidia 8600 card.
The charge is 189 Euros for the work. A Ram chip is so much more easy to apply and change, it would be a pice of cake to do it.

Shoot him an email, and you got your 16 Gig of Ram including loss of Apples 1 year guarantee. Unfortunately its in german language, but you get the idea.
If not, just look up BGA in YouTube.

http://www.ebay.de/itm/Mainboard-Ap...gen&hash=item25658dd2ab&_uhb=1#ht_3494wt_1156

I thought its worth to mention this.
Click to expand...

Hmm, I wonder if he can upgrade the video memory to 2GB
 
tillsbury said:
Back to sleep everyone, it's just a troll. Anyone who needed 16Gb knew and upgraded at the start, anyone who didn't know doesn't need to...
Click to expand...

Not quite. It's cheaper to get the basic RAM option and upgrade it yourself than to get the upgraded capacity from Apple. That is, when you CAN upgrade the RAM yourself.
 
Haha, ok guess I missed this at launch, and looking back it's obviously very well documented. I was wrapped up in a big project throughout June/July so must have missed the fury on here. Glad I caught it flush in the face now :D

I wanted the retina display because I need the resolution for the photography work I do. I just wanted the screen, assuming the memory would be as normal. To be honest the fact it's light and slim is fine, but to me it's a workhorse, so I would be happy with the retina display in the old body if it meant a performance kick, but that's not an option.

Thanks for letting me know I won't need the 16gb ram anyway, that's reassuring :rolleyes: As I said, I can take it back as I caught it early on, so I might just go and change it anyway...

It's a move for the worse, and I bet lots of people will fall foul of this in a year or two when they try to do what they had always done before.

On the plus side, everything else about this computer is perfect. It loads up Microsoft office really fast; my spreadsheets look great :cool:
 
I don't understand how you could order the extra RAM without first checking the memory specs required by your machine. I would have checked 3 times rather than 1. Guess I'm just not relaxed enough. :D
 
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