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Memory recommendation

tenderidol

tenderidol

macrumors regular
Original poster
Hi everyone,

I am planning to upgrade the RAM in my wife's 13" MBP (mid-2009). Currently it has 2GB. When I upgraded the HDD to 500GB, I didn't pay attention, but I vaguely remember seeing only one 2GB stick in there. Is that the case? If so, is it advised to buy a "matching" 2 GB stick or 2x2GB new ones?

Secondly, I have some Officemax gift cards to use before the end of this month, and I realized that they carry Crucial memory. Crucial website states the compatible memory for the mid-2009 13" MBP as "DDR3 PC3-8500 • CL=7 • Unbuffered • NON-ECC • DDR3-1066 • 204-pin SODIMM".

Would this work in the 13" MBP?
CT25664BC1067 at OM
CT25664BC1067 official site

Thanks very much in advance!
 
Sneakz said:
Your assumming the MacBook Pro has 1x2GB SO DIMMs. It doesn't. It has 2x1GB. So you need 2x2GB to achieve 4GB of RAM.

This is one of the best you will find anywhere right now. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231213
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. In that case, I'll replace the 2x1GB sticks with 2X2GB.

As I mentioned, I have "free" gift cards from OfficeMax, and if the Crucial model that I posted works with the mid-2009 13" MBP, it will cost me $0 😀
 
Crucial Memory Recommend

Im not sure if the memory would work with your mac but I just wanted to say that I bought memory off their website in January for my MBP. I upgraded to 4 gigs. I paid around 130 for the set with 2 day shipping. It was the best upgrade that i ever did to. The beach ball stopped showing up constantly and the mac seemed to flow better than ever. I may have paid a little extra for the memory but I was well worth the investment. Lloyd
 
The Officemax RAM will work as long as it looks like the picture on the official site, not the picture on the OM site (that's desktop RAM), assuming you pick it up in-store. The specs are correct, though, so it's probably just an incorrect stock picture.

It looks like it's not that much more expensive to get 2 sticks at OM if you have the gift cards, even if you pay full price for the second stick.
 
m85476585 said:
The Officemax RAM will work as long as it looks like the picture on the official site, not the picture on the OM site (that's desktop RAM), assuming you pick it up in-store. The specs are correct, though, so it's probably just an incorrect stock picture.

It looks like it's not that much more expensive to get 2 sticks at OM if you have the gift cards, even if you pay full price for the second stick.
Click to expand...

Thanks Matt.

I am sure the picture on the OM site is wrong, because the manufacturer# matches.

The gift card will cover both sticks and I have a $30 coupon, which will make each stick $45 😉
 
OK... I received the memory from Officemax today (well, they said that it was shipped directly from the manufacturer). I was expecting a Crucial brand memory, but the sticks I received are "Future Memory Solutions" brand 😡

Anybody heard of them? Apparently they are supplying memory modules for Samsung, MSI, etc, but I never heard of these guys 😕

Just in case, here is the part# FMD3256X641066SOX8

Spec wise, it matches the Crucial...
 
That's really strange. You could probably return them to OfficeMax since you paid for "Crucial preminim[sic] quanlity[sic] memory" that is "Gauranteed[sic] compatible" (Straight from the OfficeMax website). What you got will probably work, though, so it's up to you.

Who makes the actual chips on the memory modules you got? Crucial is a part of Micron, which is a large DRAM chip manufacturer, though Crucial sometimes uses other brands of DRAM chips (I think). There are only a few companies out there that actually produce memory chips. Micron and Samsung are the only ones I can name offhand.

If you run CPU-Z on Windows it will tell you the memory manufacturer according to the memory module (under the SPD tab). It won't tell you the chip manufacturer, but you can read that off the memory. It won't work on VMWare, so you would have to run it on Bootcamp or a PC laptop.
 
well, if it works then i say keep it...but check the warranty for it.
or you can just return it 😀 (possibly a better choice).
 
Thanks for the reply guys. I'll probably return them; they said that I'll receive a check if I return them, since I paid with gift cards. That way, I can use that money anywhere to buy the RAM I want instead of being restricted to Officemax catalog.
 
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