Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

MacBook Owners - 4GB Necessary?

N

nl2134

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 15, 2006
89
0
I have a 2.4GHz BlackBook, 250GB HD, 2GB Ram. Thing runs smoother than I could possibly imagine.

Then I wonder if I should get 2GB more, and make it 4GB...is it necessary?

I know it's 'cheap', but $100 is still $100, no matter how you look at it...

Can any fellow MB owners tell the difference between 2GB and 4GB? Like, does it run hotter, or anything else that may have negative effects?

Peace
 
if it runs smooth and it is fast then i would not upgrade to 4gb until the next OS makes that a requirement spend the $100 on something better
 
I'm running 2GB and it's fine - I use about 5 or 6 programs concurrently and don't have any issues.

4GB is for later on when my machine starts to feel a bit clunky.
 
You probably won't notice it, I was in the same position where 4 GB is probably overkill but I went for it anyway. I may run Windows in the future though. What the hell, it'll help when I eventually sell it too.
 
nl2134 said:
I have a 2.4GHz BlackBook, 250GB HD, 2GB Ram. Thing runs smoother than I could possibly imagine.

Then I wonder if I should get 2GB more, and make it 4GB...is it necessary?

I know it's 'cheap', but $100 is still $100, no matter how you look at it...

Can any fellow MB owners tell the difference between 2GB and 4GB? Like, does it run hotter, or anything else that may have negative effects?

Peace
Click to expand...

I think I would save the cash for now... If you upgrade the RAM around 18-24 months from now it will feel like you got a new machine!
 
in the macbooks if you wanted to upgrade...wouldn't u need to get 2 sticks of 2gb to max it out. Because it only has 2 slots, correct? So you couldn't use the 2 1gb sticks already in there with the 2 gb stick you get. Then the most you could get was 3gb?
Sorry that was confusing.
 
well, but what is $100 really? For me, its either a tank of gas or 4GB of RAM in my brand new MB. Hell, I think I'll just start workin from home and get the extra 2GB!
 
After I bought my macbook with 1GB I just upgraded to 4GB and installed myself because I know I'll be running CS3 and tend to have many programs open. RAM is so cheap now I don't see why not. Use your macbook for a bit and if it's sluggish, spend the extra 80 bucks and done.
 
It's been just about two months since I bought my BlackBook and have been running with 2GB since. Not one problem where I have ran out of memory. In fact, I ran this machine without rebooting once for 30 days and it ran absolutely perfect!
 
If you, like I, run VMWare or other type software, then the extra RAM is nice to have. Its also nice to have the extra RAM with most of the Adobe CS3 programs.
 
The rule of thumb is: put as much RAM in your machine as you can afford, or that can fit. If I could fit 4G in my rev 1 MacBook, I would. The world is such a better place when you have a crap load of RAM.
 
I installed 4gb in my new 2.4 MB about two weeks after I got it.
Watching the istat widget before and after. It does often use more than
2 gigs just running firefox and another program.

I'd say it does run faster and anyone can use the 4 gb in everyday use.
Heat isn't a problem either. Fans pop up to 5-6000 for a couple minutes every
couple hours for a few minutes is about it. But I live in Tx and its often in the 80's in my house before I turn on the AC.

Prices on ram may be going up-take advantage of the sub $100 prices while they last imo. I got mine @ OWC.

PS-need 000 Phillips to take that bracket off in the battery compartment.
 
When there is more installed memory, OS X dynamically takes advantage of it to optimize system performance where it can cache in memory operations that would otherwise be called as needed from the hard drive. More memory isn't necessarily going to make everything faster - but there are applications where significant gains are easily noticed + in general it reduces the spinning beachballs and pauses between application or even window swaps within an application. More memory tends to make the system overall more responsive.

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/Memory_Benchmark/Apple_MacBook/

Going from 512MB to 1.0GB...1.0GB to 2.0GB are especially more noticeable... but the gains up to 4.0Gb are still significant too.

End of the day - it's whatever works for what you're doing and feel the need for. Having said that... Even for light use more memory may give you back 5-10 minutes a day that you might not have known you were missing with little pauses, etc - adds up quick.


skye12 said:
I installed 4gb in my new 2.4 MB about two weeks after I got it.
Watching the istat widget before and after. It does often use more than
2 gigs just running firefox and another program.

I'd say it does run faster and anyone can use the 4 gb in everyday use.
Heat isn't a problem either. Fans pop up to 5-6000 for a couple minutes every
couple hours for a few minutes is about it. But I live in Tx and its often in the 80's in my house before I turn on the AC.

Prices on ram may be going up-take advantage of the sub $100 prices while they last imo. I got mine @ OWC.

PS-need 000 Phillips to take that bracket off in the battery compartment.
Click to expand...
 
OWC Larry said:
When there is more installed memory, OS X dynamically takes advantage of it to optimize system performance where it can cache in memory operations that would otherwise be called as needed from the hard drive. More memory isn't necessarily going to make everything faster - but there are applications where significant gains are easily noticed + in general it reduces the spinning beachballs and pauses between application or even window swaps within an application. More memory tends to make the system overall more responsive.

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/Memory_Benchmark/Apple_MacBook/

Going from 512MB to 1.0GB...1.0GB to 2.0GB are especially more noticeable... but the gains up to 4.0Gb are still significant too.

End of the day - it's whatever works for what you're doing and feel the need for. Having said that... Even for light use more memory may give you back 5-10 minutes a day that you might not have known you were missing with little pauses, etc - adds up quick.
Click to expand...

Its the same way in Vista too, if the memory is there it uses it, which is really nice.
 
I did and its great. I do a lot of Photoshop and it helped. Overall everything is much softer. I would (did) do it.
 
skye12 said:
I installed 4gb in my new 2.4 MB about two weeks after I got it.
Watching the istat widget before and after. It does often use more than
2 gigs just running firefox and another program.

I'd say it does run faster and anyone can use the 4 gb in everyday use.
Heat isn't a problem either. Fans pop up to 5-6000 for a couple minutes every
couple hours for a few minutes is about it. But I live in Tx and its often in the 80's in my house before I turn on the AC.

Prices on ram may be going up-take advantage of the sub $100 prices while they last imo. I got mine @ OWC.

PS-need 000 Phillips to take that bracket off in the battery compartment.
Click to expand...

Me too, except mine is a 2.2 refurb, after I ordered the MB, I ordered 4GB of Kingston Ram,$86 and was Happy. My best friend was so impressed, he bought one too, and ordered 4GB Crucial Ram, $116. His MB was noticeably faster booting and performing than mine.
My Wife is smitten with the MB as well and when the new ones are released, she'll have one too, but her's will have 4Gb Crucial Ram . It is sitting on the table awaiting the MB purchase as we speak. Ours came with 2 GB Ram, and we both can say the 4GB makes a noticeable difference, and Crucial vs Kingston performs best.
Just an FYI;):apple:
 
Nice thread. I've been wondering the same thing myself. I have an early November 2.2 and upgraded to 2GB soon after I bought it. It seemed to make a big difference. However, i've notice that when running parallels with XP and a number of other office programs simultaneously that things get a bit sluggish. Nice to hear first hand that 4GB would speed thing up a bit.
 
I have a 2.2 blackbook with 2 GB of RAM and see no reason to upgrade. The only time I have any pageouts at all is when I'm using handbrake and doing other things at the same time. If you're not paging, more RAM won't help you.
 
I have a 2.2 blackbook with 4GB RAM because I do rip my DVDs for my :apple:TV and I like to do other things while I'm waiting for it to finish. If all you are doing is itunes and email and surfing that 2GB is plenty.

Loading XP and not Vista will help if you just have 2GB and need to use Windows.
 
I know 2GB would of been easily enough for me, but I still upgraded to 4GB (Kingston RAM) from the original 1GB pre-installed, because I knew I would need 4GB eventually, and the price difference wasn't that much, so maxing it out made sense for me.
 
thank all of you 2.16 and highers who so generously gave us 2.0's some cheap 2gb upgrades ;)

i guess the new rule of thumb should be.... stick with what you got and once a faster MB comes out capable of more RAM, just buy their old RAM, got my 2gb off of eBay from a MB-Pro who upgraded to 4gb, my price... $15 shipped :eek:
 
Cheffy Dave said:
...and Crucial vs Kingston performs best.
Just an FYI;):apple:...
Click to expand...

I think this should be Crucial vs Kingston Value RAM performs best. Obviously your friend bought non-value ram from crucial whilst you bought value ram (cheaply made) hence the lower price. Kingston non-value RAM would perform equally as any other brand i would imagine.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back