I'm going to be getting a MB soon. How much RAM do you think I'll need for college use? (running movies, email, word processing, keynote presentations)
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How much RAM is needed for MB?
- Thread starter dominordelingua
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Buy a macbook with the least amount of ram you can get from apple. Then go to newegg and spend 80 bucks and get 4 gigs...best purchase you'll ever make...period. I run vista in parallels while doing a lot of stuff in os x and the thing still flies.
I've been doing all that stuff in the OP + some more for the whole day and I still have 1.08 GB free on my MacBook with 2 GBs.
and how is he going to put that in a mb?
MacBooks (starting from rev. D) support 4GB...
I'd say a minimum of 4. It is best to have 1 gig of ram per core minimum, to have the computer run at it's best.
i have a feeling you don't know how RAM works.
The computer is only going to access as much RAM as is needed. If the tasks you are throwing at the computer need 1GB to function, it is going to address 1GB of memory. The other 3GB will be sitting there doing nothing.
If the OP is going to be doing the tasks mentioned, I would suggest 1.5GB (0.5GB + 1GB) if s/he is buying the baseline (2.1GHz) model, or keeping the RAM stock if buying either of the other two models (2.4GHz white or black).
yes, but as applications are increasing in size, due to technological developments, they will use more and more ram. It is also good, if you have some problems with the spinning beachball, plus it is good, if you don't shut down your computer, or not very often.
Plus, if he needs a windows application in the future, he can run it on parallels or vm ware fusion, and then 4 gigs of ram is almost a must.
look, you can go the whole scientific mumbo jumbo route (which admittedly has some truth to it), but I am going by personal experience. I have experienced my 2.2 SR MB with its standard 1 gig, upgraded to 2 gigs...then 4.
the greatest jump in performance came when i went from 2 to 4. I multitask like crazy with some heavy apps - vlc, photoshop, vmware, firefox, safari, itunes, adium, limewire, word are always open- and OS X runs smooth as butter (expose is highly responsive, which it wasnt with 2 gigs).
i know the op is performing basic tasks, but i would still recommend upgrading to 4 gigs, given how cheap RAM is nowadays.
This is very silly argument. Why would someone buy something he would never use? Even if it is "cheap" as you say it still costs additional money.
Why is it a silly argument? For the minimal cost that may benefit him (especially if he works on photo/video and other apps simultaneously) periodically saving him time throughout the life of his computer? Time = $ for some ppl (we all have different values), so no need to shootdown/flame the post, it's just another person's feedback.
But he doesn't work in photo/video apps simultaneously that require 4 GB to run smoothly! Reread his needs in the OP.
It has become a trend to recommend everyone 4 GB, even if all OP does is browse web and watch movies
VMWare (or Parallels) is probably the killer. If you run Windows XP with 1 GB of RAM in VMWare, that one GB of RAM is completely gone. If you had 2 GB in your Mac, the Mac will behave as if it has 1 GB only. If you had 4 GB in your Mac, the Mac will behave as if it had 3 GB, which is much better. All the other applications are capable of sharing RAM, but VMWare isn't. (In Activity Monitor, display "System Memory" and have a look at the amount of "Wired" memory. "Wired" memory is not only in use, it is permanently reserved and cannot be paged out or paged in. VMWare uses "Wired" memory for the memory that you give to Windows).
You do not need 4GB RAM to "run movies, email, word processing, keynote presentations". 1GB would be enough, but if you want to be on the safe side, get 2GB. As someone else in the thread has said, if you're getting the base MacBook which has 1GB RAM, that will come in two sticks of 512MB. Remove one of the 512MB sticks and replace it with a 1GB stick, giving you 1.5GB. This will be more than enough for what you want to do.
There are some completely crazy people on here.
Poster: "I want to write emails, what laptop should I get?"
Crazy people here: "MacBook Pro! You never know when you might need a GPU!"
There are some completely crazy people on here.
Poster: "I want to write emails, what laptop should I get?"
Crazy people here: "MacBook Pro! You never know when you might need a GPU!"
The fact that you can get 4GB of memory for less than $100 makes this a no brainer for me.
More memory = More gooder
Same here. Bought a white 2.2 with 1GB. For $75 it seemed pretty obvious to go for 4GB. Runs like the wind ba-bee!!!!
The fact that you can get 4GB of memory for less than $100 makes this a no brainer for me.
More memory = More gooder
There's a better way to look at this. Using Crucial's prices as an example:
1GB = $23.99 = $23.99/GB
2GB = $47.99 = $23.99/GB
4GB = $103.99 = $25.99/GB
So going by that, getting 4GB is actually more expensive. Whether it's $100 or not is irrelevant. The OP does not need 4GB and will see no benefit to having it and will also be paying more per unit for their upgrade.
Then don't go to crucial. I went to Buy.com. It's Kingston sticks, and I paid way less than $103. If you do go for 2GB, then get the single 2GB stick, not two 1GB sticks. At least if you need to go to higher, you won't trash your initial investment.