Considering Upgrading More RAM, What Should I Look For?

[HappyDude20]

First of all, thanks for all those in the other thread providing insight as to upgrading to a bigger hard drive. Glad to report I'll be going from my measly 60GB's to 320 for under $100!

I'm now considering upgrading to some faster RAM. This Macbook came with 1GB of RAM and it definitely shows at times. I went to Fry's this morning during their Black Friday Sales and were not on sale at original prices at 2GB for $49.99 and 4GB for $59.99

Knowing The Internet would have better deals and forum-goes online are smarter about deals than Fry's teenager employee's, figured i'd ask here in regards to finding a better deal and some more info...like...

Should I upgrade to 2GB's or 4GB?

I mainly use the Mac to write essays for school, check mail, listen to music, surf the web (a lot of pages) and soon will be utilizing Garageband and iMovie quite a bit since I'm expecting to purchase a HD Camcorder...So 2GB or 4GB? Insight on this would be just dandy.

I'm also curious as to how to install it and if it's as easy as swapping hard drives? Never done anything like this so am not aware of the ease of process, or difficulty thereof.

Thankks everyone!

(Best deals online to purchase?)

 

[11800506]

Newegg has great deals on anything computer related. Plus their shipping is fast and they are quite reliable. As for 2 GB or 4 GB, I would think you would be fine just getting 2 since the task you are doing don't sound particularly intensive. My eMac and iMac both have 2 GB and I've gotten close to using all of it on my iMac, but I don't really think it's necessary. Then again, RAM prices are so cheap that you might as well get 4 GB depending on if you can afford it or not.

 

[skorpien]

http://guides.macrumors.com/RAM
http://guides.macrumors.com/Installing_RAM

Those should help you get started. Also, crucial has a handy utility that tells you what RAM you'll need depending on what computer you have. Remember, depending on how old it is, yours might not support 4GB.

 

[Ryffie]

What's the deal with the memory handling? I'm only running Safari and Transmission and yet the memory is slowly draining out. It feels like I'm running Windows!

I have the new MB 2GB and if I run more than 5 basic programs my RAM is gone. Is this normal for Mac OS? If it is then Windows XP got better memory handling.

 

[tubbymac]

What's the deal with the memory handling? I'm only running Safari and Transmission and yet the memory is slowly draining out. It feels like I'm running Windows!

I have the new MB 2GB and if I run more than 5 basic programs my RAM is gone. Is this normal for Mac OS? If it is then Windows XP got better memory handling.

That's definitely not normal. Right now I have all these running at the same time:

1) Safari
2) iCal
3) iTunes
4) iPhoto
5) Activity Monitor
6) Terminal
7) iMovie

According to Activity Monitor I still have 900 megs of ram free and 200 megs of ram marked inactive. That's with 2 gigs of ram total in the machine.

 

[HappyDude20]

Just used CRUCIAL to check out what my Mac is capable of and it states I can have 2GB's at most.

Would've gone with 4 if I could but guess 2GB will have to do.

So I now must ask, where's the best price for this online?

 

[skorpien]

Just used CRUCIAL to check out what my Mac is capable of and it states I can have 2GB's at most.

Would've gone with 4 if I could but guess 2GB will have to do.

So I now must ask, where's the best price for this online?

There's a whole list of online vendors in the Buying RAM Guide under the Where to Buy section. Try hunting around on your own. Crucial's site has it for $32... Just exactly how much of a deal are you looking to get? (That's a pretty good deal already if you ask me.)

 

[HappyDude20]

i'd love a deal with a low price and if they throw in a stripper but you know.
lol, honestly just the lowest price possible.

I'm a real bargain hunter when purchasing small items like this but when it comes to purchasing big stuff like a car or house i'm like w/e.

 

[superspud]

the price difference is going to be very little.... just get the 4 gigs, then you can say your computer is maxed out and feel cool

I just got 4 gigs of GSkill ram for my 2.16 macbook from new egg, came quick (actually shipped via normal mail and came in my mailbox) and installed in about 3 minutes. I was only expecting to only register 3.3 gigs of it, but its showing up with all 4 gigs


i only use my mabook heavily about once or twice a month when im converting video or audio to different formats but as mentioned above, its nice to know i maxed out my computer... now all i need to do is get me a 320 gig HD like you mentioned and i'll be set!