Important Questions

[AzRocks]

I have a couple of questions:

1. Can someone explain to me the problem of having two different size RAMs (ex. having 1x1Gb and 1x2GB)?

2. Is there any problem with having 1x1GB RAM from APple and having 1x1GB RAM from a 3rd Party? (By problem I mean, will I run into the same problem i discuss in question #1)

3. I know this a mac forum, but does anyone no any cheap places to buy Vista Home Basic or XP Home?

Thanks for your help!

 

[rdowns]

From the man...

1. Please read the MR Guide to Understanding Intel RAM
   
2. Welcome to MR. We've covered this numerous times before, please try a Search or have a read through the MR Guides
   
3. I recommend buying from a reputable seller who tests and guarantees compatibility, offers a lifetime warranty, and a no-charge (no restocking, no shipping charge) return for replacement or refund if it doesn't work.
   
4. The advantage of having 3 Gb RAM (1 Gb + 2 Gb ) in a Core2Duo machine usually outweighs the 6% - 8% loss of Dual Channel Access (2 Gb RAM, 1 Gb + 1 Gb, matched) , especially if you are running Photoshop, digital Audio or digital video programs. You can put in 4 Gb for Dual channel access, but machines earlier than the SantaRosa cannot use more than 3.3 Gb of that total.
   
5. This is a hardware limitation of the chipset, it will not be fixed by Leopard or a Firmware upgrade.

 

[Vidd]

Argh, spent too long formatting.
The only advantage of dual-channel RAM is that apparently it helps the GPU in the mini and Macbook. I've seen a few people say that.

 

[killerrobot]

1. As far as I know there are no problems with that - i.e. on the Merom MBP you can only have a max of 3gb - 1X1 and 1X2 is the only way to max it out.
2. You have to make sure that you aren´t mixing ECC modules and non-ECC modules, and that you don´t have to install matching pairs on your computer.
3. Do a google search or get on ebay.

 

[MacinDoc]

I have a couple of questions:

1. Can someone explain to me the problem of having two different size RAMs (ex. having 1x1Gb and 1x2GB)?

2. Is there any problem with having 1x1GB RAM from APple and having 1x1GB RAM from a 3rd Party? (By problem I mean, will I run into the same problem i discuss in question #1)

3. I know this a mac forum, but does anyone no any cheap places to buy Vista Home Basic or XP Home?

Thanks for your help!

No dual channel memory with different size RAM modules, and sometimes not with same size/different vendors. For the MacBook and Mac Mini, this amounts to about a 6% degradation in graphics performance. And the Mac Pro will not recognize RAM that is not in pairs.

All other tasks will see an improvement with upgraded RAM. And Macs with dedicated graphics cards should have no problem with the configuration you are suggesting.

For a comparison with MacBooks, check out macsales.com. They also have an iMac comparison.