Hi all, I am new to MacRumors, this is my second post...
I copied my first post below from another thread, related to 2011 MBPs. I have a late 2008-early 2009 MBP. Bottom line: If you have a late 2008-early 2009 15" MBP, you can install up to 8 GB of 1333 MHz DDR3 SDRAM (that is the max both for RAM size and FSB speed).
The other thread: http://att.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1133642
My post from the other thread:
Hi all, I am new to the MacRumors community. I'm not sure if this is a little off topic, as you guys are discussing the newer 2011 MBPs, but I didn't see any related threads, this was the closest one.
I wanted to share that, by trial and error, I found that my late 2008-early 2009 15" MBP will accept up to 8 GB of 1333 MHz DDR3 SDRAM. After reading through the earlier parts of this thread, I found that some people had discovered that the MBP's would often support a higher FSB speed than Apple officially documents. Originally, my MBP would only support 4 GB of 1066 MHz DDR SDRAM. As someone pointed out earlier in the thread, Apple did some EFI firmware updates, in some cases to fix a seemingly unrelated issue, and upped the RAM capabilities without really talking about it. Going even further, even though some commented that the firmware update apparently upped things to 8 GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 SDRAM, I found that my machine also accepted 1333 MHz RAM, and System Profiler recognized it. Again, this is for a first-generation Unibody 15" MBP, late 2008-early 2009 (pre June 2009).
However, unlike the experience of others, I tried 8 GB of 1600 MHz DDR3 SDRAM, and it did not downclock the RAM to run at 1333 MHz (as some said it did for them). Instead, after installing the 1600 MHz RAM, when trying to start up my MBP, I got a beeping sound (I think two beeps intermittently, if I recall correctly). A google search revealed that this may be a code for incompatible RAM. I tried reinstalling it again, careful to make sure I didn't make any mistakes, and it still gave me the beeping sounds upon trying to start the computer. After reinstalling the 1066 MHz RAM, everything booted up again as it did before.
So, if anybody has an older MBP and is browsing these forums as I have been, I wanted to share that the late 2008-early 2009 (before June 2009) 15" MBPs, the first-generation unibody releases for the MBP, will go up to a max of 8 GB of 1333 MHz DDR3 SDRAM.
I do find it interesting that I got the beeping sounds instead of the computer simply downclocking the FSB speed on the higher-than-supported FSB speeds on the RAM, as others experienced. Not sure why that is the case.
I copied my first post below from another thread, related to 2011 MBPs. I have a late 2008-early 2009 MBP. Bottom line: If you have a late 2008-early 2009 15" MBP, you can install up to 8 GB of 1333 MHz DDR3 SDRAM (that is the max both for RAM size and FSB speed).
The other thread: http://att.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1133642
My post from the other thread:
Hi all, I am new to the MacRumors community. I'm not sure if this is a little off topic, as you guys are discussing the newer 2011 MBPs, but I didn't see any related threads, this was the closest one.
I wanted to share that, by trial and error, I found that my late 2008-early 2009 15" MBP will accept up to 8 GB of 1333 MHz DDR3 SDRAM. After reading through the earlier parts of this thread, I found that some people had discovered that the MBP's would often support a higher FSB speed than Apple officially documents. Originally, my MBP would only support 4 GB of 1066 MHz DDR SDRAM. As someone pointed out earlier in the thread, Apple did some EFI firmware updates, in some cases to fix a seemingly unrelated issue, and upped the RAM capabilities without really talking about it. Going even further, even though some commented that the firmware update apparently upped things to 8 GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 SDRAM, I found that my machine also accepted 1333 MHz RAM, and System Profiler recognized it. Again, this is for a first-generation Unibody 15" MBP, late 2008-early 2009 (pre June 2009).
However, unlike the experience of others, I tried 8 GB of 1600 MHz DDR3 SDRAM, and it did not downclock the RAM to run at 1333 MHz (as some said it did for them). Instead, after installing the 1600 MHz RAM, when trying to start up my MBP, I got a beeping sound (I think two beeps intermittently, if I recall correctly). A google search revealed that this may be a code for incompatible RAM. I tried reinstalling it again, careful to make sure I didn't make any mistakes, and it still gave me the beeping sounds upon trying to start the computer. After reinstalling the 1066 MHz RAM, everything booted up again as it did before.
So, if anybody has an older MBP and is browsing these forums as I have been, I wanted to share that the late 2008-early 2009 (before June 2009) 15" MBPs, the first-generation unibody releases for the MBP, will go up to a max of 8 GB of 1333 MHz DDR3 SDRAM.
I do find it interesting that I got the beeping sounds instead of the computer simply downclocking the FSB speed on the higher-than-supported FSB speeds on the RAM, as others experienced. Not sure why that is the case.