Macbook 2010 - More RAM for the Win

[TallManNY]

I slipped 8gb into a friend's Macbook 2010. It was an upgrade from 4gb. It lead to significant performance increases running El Capitan. I read that I could have put in 16gb (not officially supported above 8gb, but in practice it works), but I didn't think that would be much performance improvements from 8gb and the cost of those larger RAM was going to be a lot to put into such an old machine.

Still quite a success. Probably helping friend get another year or maybe even three more out of that Macbook. If Apple offers upgrade to OS though, I've advised her not to upgrade from El Capitan. I think any more OS is going to swamp this machine, 8gb or no 8gb.

Of course an SSD upgrade would be the real baller upgrade to do on her machine.

 

[Floris]

The performance upgrade comes when the 4gb run out of memory and started using the slower hard drive.
Yes, SSD is certainly going to help both situations. If 16gb will, eh depends how much of that 8gb he's going to be using up.

 

[lambertjohn]

I slipped 8gb into a friend's Macbook 2010. It was an upgrade from 4gb. It lead to significant performance increases running El Capitan. I read that I could have put in 16gb (not officially supported above 8gb, but in practice it works), but I didn't think that would be much performance improvements from 8gb and the cost of those larger RAM was going to be a lot to put into such an old machine.

Still quite a success. Probably helping friend get another year or maybe even three more out of that Macbook. If Apple offers upgrade to OS though, I've advised her not to upgrade from El Capitan. I think any more OS is going to swamp this machine, 8gb or no 8gb.

Of course an SSD upgrade would be the real baller upgrade to do on her machine.

My mid-2010 15" Macbook Pro supports up to 8GB, but I had heard rumors the you could unofficially add up to 16GB. I did and it didn't work. Macbook wouldn't recognize the 16GB. So before you go plugging in extra ram, make sure you've got one of those MacBooks that "unofficially" handles 16GB of ram. On an other note, throwing in an SSD will make a world of difference in your speed. I'm not sure what you mean by "swamp this machine" but my Macbook is fully loaded with max ram and fast SSD and nothing swamps this computer. Running Photoshop, Office 2011, and a bunch of other programs with zero problems. Computer runs smooth as silk. Fast too!

 

[TallManNY]

The performance upgrade comes when the 4gb run out of memory and started using the slower hard drive.
Yes, SSD is certainly going to help both situations. If 16gb will, eh depends how much of that 8gb he's going to be using up.

I don't think she will get value going from 8 to 16. I think I made the right call here, especially since 8gb is a lot cheaper than 16gb.
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My mid-2010 15" Macbook Pro supports up to 8GB, but I had heard rumors the you could unofficially add up to 16GB. I did and it didn't work. Macbook wouldn't recognize the 16GB. So before you go plugging in extra ram, make sure you've got one of those MacBooks that "unofficially" handles 16GB of ram. On an other note, throwing in an SSD will make a world of difference in your speed. I'm not sure what you mean by "swamp this machine" but my Macbook is fully loaded with max ram and fast SSD and nothing swamps this computer. Running Photoshop, Office 2011, and a bunch of other programs with zero problems. Computer runs smooth as silk. Fast too!

I'm worried that the next OS upgrade might be too much for the core 2 duo in her MacBook. But with the added ram it is running a lot better. Maybe an SSD drive is coming in the future. But that would be some bucks and there is some chance of a problem during installation. Maybe best for me to quit while I'm ahead since it isn't my machine.

 

[Floris]

My father has the 2010 model, and Sierra wouldn't run smooth on it. He tried El capitan and didn't like the lag spikes. He's back on Yosemite for now, until I get him the SSD