is there a memory limit on my macbook?

[JustOneQuickONe]

Just a quick question. I know when upgrading the RAM on my macbook, even if I put in 4BG it would only use 3.6 or something like that. Is there anything like this when upgrading the hard drive? Can I put in as many GB of hard drive memory as I want or has apple put limitations on that as well?
TIA

 

[brendu]

pretty sure any 2.5" SATA drive will work, just be aware that the real large 1TB+ drives have been known to have some issues so do research on the drive before you just get the biggest one you can find.

 

[ebika]

There are no 1TB+ 2.5" hard drives currently.

OP, as long as the drive is 2.5", SATA and no more than 9.5mm tall, you're fine. Also, I don't know why you would only get 3.6GB out of 4GB RAM... you should be able to use all 4GB of it.

 

[GfulDedFan]

There are no 1TB+ 2.5" hard drives currently.

We'll keep this your little secret. Check it out. It is correct that it has a 12.5mm height so it can't be used in the OP's MacBook.

Also, I don't know why you would only get 3.6GB out of 4GB RAM... you should be able to use all 4GB of it.

Not necessarily... depends on the OP's model. Some MaBooks have a 3GB (3.3GB in matched pair) limit even if 4GB is installed. These would be the pre-Santa Rosa Core 2 Duo MacBooks. The Core Duo won't even boot with 4GB installed for it has a 2GB install limit.

 

[Muhammad Amir]

Memory limit

hi,
i dont think there is any memory limit on macbook

 

[old-wiz]

hi,
i dont think there is any memory limit on macbook

There is a memory limit on each and every MacBook and MacBook pro ever sold by Apple. Depending on what year/chipset, the memory limit can anything up to 8GB. So far no MacBook/MacBook pro goes over 8GB due to only having 2 slots for memory and 4gb being largest chip you can use in it and probably also firmware considerations.

OSx is another matter; limitations are much higher. Most any modern OS can address way more memory than the system can support.

 

[NewMacbookPlz]

hi,
i dont think there is any memory limit on macbook

That's a shame that you think that...because there is a memory limit at every level/revision of the MacBook.


Older models have a hardware limitation of 2GB for the CoreDuo models, 3.3GB for the Santa Rosa chipset models, and the Unibodies only take 4-6GB depending on configuration.

 

[bloodycape]

Is Apple shipping OSX in 32bit flavor or 64bit standard? Because, even if the MB/MBP is max ram support is 4gb-8gb, if the OS is 32bit, the max it can see is 3gb. 64bit on the other hand can see and utilize more.

 

[NewMacbookPlz]

Is Apple shipping OSX in 32bit flavor or 64bit standard? Because, even if the MB/MBP is max ram support is 4gb-8gb, if the OS is 32bit, the max it can see is 3gb. 64bit on the other hand can see and utilize more.

Snow Leopard is 32-bit kernel only for the MacBooks. You can get around this with some "hacking" but the 6 4 boot keystroke won't work without the "hack." There are no "flavors" of OS X like with Windows. It's all there, but Apple limited it by hardware, with the reasoning of better 3rd party hardware support since 32-bit drivers are far more commonplace.

Even though the kernel is only 32-bit, all programs that can, will run in the 64-bit space and be able to use as much RAM as you have available (if greater than the 3.3GB cap of the 32-bit setup)

 

[bloodycape]

Thank you. Just want to be clear, there isn't a version of SL that is just 64bit?

 

[eXan]

Thank you. Just want to be clear, there isn't a version of SL that is just 64bit?

There's only 1 version of SL (aside from Server) and its capable of both 32- and 64-bit computing.

 

[NewMacbookPlz]

Thank you. Just want to be clear, there isn't a version of SL that is just 64bit?

If you have a computer capable of booting in to 64-bit mode (MBP, iMac and Mac Pros with 64-bit efi chips) you can hold down the 6 and 4 keys while booting and that'll force 64-bit mode. IIRC, you'll stay in that mode unless you hold 3 and 2 to go back to 32-bit mode at a later time.

All versions except for the Snow Leopard Server default to 32-bit kernel for better 3rd party support. Like I said, all apps/extensions/whatnot can and will run in 64-bit mode if they're 64-bit programs even with the 32-bit kernel, so for consumer use it's fine 99% of the time it would seem.