I am still on my early pre-Unibody 2008 MBP. It actually runs Yosemite very smoothly (even in Photoshop), but is starting to slow down a bit. Would upgrading from 2GB to 4GB RAM be worth it? I'm hoping to get another 6 months or so out of it.
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Early 2008 MBP RAM Upgrade
- Thread starter BostonIT
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Absolutely worth it going from 2GB to 4GB. And, you could upgrade to 6GB, if you like... But, if you are OK with what you have, and are going to replace anyway in a few months - maybe there's not much point to that upgrade. You MIGHT get more value added to sell it with more RAM installed...
Yes, 4 GB will give you a noticeable improvement. Although you can go to 6 GB, the DDR2 4 GB SODIMMs are quite expensive for a machine that will be replaced in 6 Months.
If you are in Boston, I recommend your neighbors in Salem NH, Data Memory Systems www.datamem.com
Early 2008 MBP 4 + 2 RAM Upgrade?
New to Forum. Early 2008 MBP 4,1 with 1 GB in each slot. Running Mavericks. Incredibly slow, spinning beachbell, freezes way too often, have to FQ freq. Genius bar says I have to be matched, suggests 2 GB in each slot. Comments here and elsewhere indicate 2 GB plus 4 GB would work, but... (I don't quite get the possible issue with not being matched). I would pay $138 for the "6.0GB OWC Memory Upgrade Kit: 2.0GB + 4.0GB PC5300 DDR2 667MHz 200 Pin", or I could play it safe and pay $57 for the "4.0GB OWC Memory Upgrade Kit
2 x 2.0GB PC5300 DDR2 667MHz 200 Pin. (I also will need a new battery soon, but the genius bar guy sayd apart from the above my mac is in really great shape.) Suggestions? Thanks!
New to Forum. Early 2008 MBP 4,1 with 1 GB in each slot. Running Mavericks. Incredibly slow, spinning beachbell, freezes way too often, have to FQ freq. Genius bar says I have to be matched, suggests 2 GB in each slot. Comments here and elsewhere indicate 2 GB plus 4 GB would work, but... (I don't quite get the possible issue with not being matched). I would pay $138 for the "6.0GB OWC Memory Upgrade Kit: 2.0GB + 4.0GB PC5300 DDR2 667MHz 200 Pin", or I could play it safe and pay $57 for the "4.0GB OWC Memory Upgrade Kit
2 x 2.0GB PC5300 DDR2 667MHz 200 Pin. (I also will need a new battery soon, but the genius bar guy sayd apart from the above my mac is in really great shape.) Suggestions? Thanks!
2 x 2GB would be double what you have now, and could help a lot.
2GB + 4GB would be more, and would likely show an increase in performance, too. But, you can't have a matched memory set with 6GB, and no improvement that might be from having that matched set. However, depending on how you work, the slight disadvantage may not be noticeable. Probably more important is the expense. Is going to 6GB worth that much more than the more usual 2x2GB? That one 4GB chip is quite a bit more expensive.
BTW I have 6Gb (4Gb in 2Gb) in my 2008 Macbook Pro, works fine and I certainly didn't notice any slow down in speed, just more memory!
Thanks! I'm not entirely sure what the pros and cons are of a matched 4 GB total set vs a not matched 6 GB total and I know I'm trying to compare apples to oranges. But from people's posts it appears 6 would be faster and work well (not freeze up, no spinning beach ball) and I just need to decide if it's worth the extra money?
4GB of ram is perfect for 10.10 and unless you run quite a few apps at once or use more then one monitor at a time it should suffice. And don't expect a huge bump in performance, it pretty much just gives you more headroom to multi-task.
I've wondered myself. Should I buy a 2x4GB kit and share between my iMac and MacBookPro so they both have 6GB, or should I buy a 2x2GB kit so they both have 4? I've made a thread about this but it has been inactive... I should revive it...