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Macbook RAM upgrade?

Goodeye

Goodeye

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 30, 2009
832
389
So tomorrow I am getting my Macbook from the Apple Store. I have already talked to them and they told me that they could do the RAM upgrade in store before I buy

I'm buying the standard white unibody Macbook I plan on putting Win 7 pro 32bit on it and might have a couple games or two (nothing processor etc heavy)

I don't really want to add more ram if the Mac can run like a champ with the standard 2GB But is it way better for Snow Leopard with 4GB?
 
i'd put 4Gb on for the games, just to be safe, but dont buy it from apple, source it yourself from crucial or OWC and fit it your self, it's easy enough and a lot cheaper then having apple do it ;)
 
True But I get a student discount and adding that I'm getting the Macbook for the cost of what it would have cost me without it. But yeah I am not comfortable with adding it or anything anyways.

Is there any other reason I should shy away from Apple adding the ram?
 
And if you're going to bump it to 4GB, do yourself a favor and install the 64-bit Win7 to access the full 4 gigs.

As far as the upgrade, I'd say go for it, but I agree with Bennieboy and purchase it somewhere other than Apple and upgrade yourself. It's really not hard at all, and you can beat Apple's prices easily by going to Newegg or TigerDirect. If you're near a Fry's or MicroCenter, they're worth a look too. Best Buy is really pricey too, so try and stay away from there.
 
Well a couple of the games are on Steam not sure if they will all work with 64 bit.

Ya I may just hit up Fry's electornics on my way to the mac store and do the upgrade after I get the Macbook when I get home.
 
Also I'm finding reports online that 64 bit windows 7 isn't even compatible is that correct or incorrect?
 
How is 64 bit with Games from Steam? Or can Windows do the whole (run in 32 bit mode thing) like leopard does?

My tax return sure enough came today, So Today is the day I get my mac!
 
When I bought my 13" MBP a few months ago, I had the Apple store upgrade it to 4 GB. I really didn't want the hassle of upgrading it myself.

I had previously upgraded an iBook 1.33 to max ram (1.25 gb) with no problem, but when I tried to upgrade my 24" aluminum iMac it was a hideous mess. When I was working, I never had trouble upgrading ram in numerous systems (I was part time tech support for a while). The first set of RAM I bought did nothing but beep. Bought a second set, this time from Crucial, and they swore it was the right ram, and I checked the lettering on it and the specs, and still it didn't work. I took it out and replaced it several times, making sure it was seated properly. Every time it failed I would replace the original ram and it was fine. Finally Crucial sent me a replacement set, and that didn't work either, so I simply gave up. I think the newer systems are much more sensitive to quality ram. If you don't mind the hassle of dealing with long phone calls, waits on hold, and arguing with suppliers you can eventually get a set of ram that will work. I find that the original 2 GB of ram is fine, so I decided it wasn't worth the hassle to continue shipping ram back and arguing that it was defective. All suppliers have trouble with ram from time to time, and while it's understandable, you shouldn't have to wait around on hold and then have to argue with them to get it replaced.
 
old-wiz said:
When I bought my 13" MBP a few months ago, I had the Apple store upgrade it to 4 GB. I really didn't want the hassle of upgrading it myself.

I had previously upgraded an iBook 1.33 to max ram (1.25 gb) with no problem, but when I tried to upgrade my 24" aluminum iMac it was a hideous mess. When I was working, I never had trouble upgrading ram in numerous systems (I was part time tech support for a while). The first set of RAM I bought did nothing but beep. Bought a second set, this time from Crucial, and they swore it was the right ram, and I checked the lettering on it and the specs, and still it didn't work. I took it out and replaced it several times, making sure it was seated properly. Every time it failed I would replace the original ram and it was fine. Finally Crucial sent me a replacement set, and that didn't work either, so I simply gave up. I think the newer systems are much more sensitive to quality ram. If you don't mind the hassle of dealing with long phone calls, waits on hold, and arguing with suppliers you can eventually get a set of ram that will work. I find that the original 2 GB of ram is fine, so I decided it wasn't worth the hassle to continue shipping ram back and arguing that it was defective. All suppliers have trouble with ram from time to time, and while it's understandable, you shouldn't have to wait around on hold and then have to argue with them to get it replaced.
Click to expand...

This was not my experience with Crucial at all. When the RAM went bad in my G5 iMac (I had installed 2 GB of Crucial RAM), I downloaded a form from their website, put the original RAM from Apple back in the machine, sent the bad RAM back to Crucial, and had a replacement in less than a week, no hassle involved.

I'm not saying old wiz DIDN'T have problems with Crucial, just that it was not my experience...

As for the OP's question, I personally don't mind servicing my computers myself and have done my own RAM and HDD upgrades on my Macs, but if time is tight, or if you'd just rather not be bothered with dealing with it and you have the money, have the Apple store do it.
 
Yep Im typing on the macbook right now!

Just joined the dark side! Or is this the good side of the force? Haha So yeah I just had them do it. With my student discount it was just short of 1100 bucks Now I got a good Macbook with 4GB of RAM. I was/am a bit short of time and felt more comfortable with them doing it and didn't mind spending the extra few bucks it cost me.
 
upgrade to 4 simply for the future. whether you do it now or in a few months, you cant go wrong with the upgrade.
 
I did do the upgrade. Glad I did especially for Bootcamping Win 7 pro 64bit
 
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