RAM: 2 sticks vs 1

[estee065]

I have 1Gig in my macbook right now. I can get one stick of 2Gig RAM right now cheaper than two 1Gig sticks. Is there any reason that having one stick of 2G's vs two sticks of 1G would be any worse or better? If I do get one stick of 2 gig, could I keep the 512 stick that is in the other slot?
Thanks for any replies

 

[Rumbach]

I've read that "matching" RAM sticks improves performance, versus unmatched sticks. I am not sure if this is still the consensus.

 

[letswastetime]

there is only a slight performance increase with having matched ram vs unmatched, and its almost unnoticeable. i personally just bought a 2gb ram stick and put it in my macbook with the 512gb so now i have 2.5gb. by doing this, i can also upgrade to 4gb in the future if i wish too. i definitely would suggest going that route instead of buying two 1gb sticks.

 

[estee065]

i thought the macbook was limited to 2gig. Are the newer ones capable of more? Mine is, I think, second gen. It has the gma950 card, 80gig hard drive, with the superdrive.

 

[jsw]

I agree with letswastetime that one 2GB stick is the way to go, at least assuming your MB is capable of 3GB access - the Rev A's are limited to 2GB, but the current ones aren't, and I forget when they altered that - last summer, maybe? If you get the 2GB stick and add your other 0.5GB stick, you'll be better off in all but a very few cases where two matched 1GB sticks would be marginally faster.