Hi Billydelp4,
I also have a late 2007 Macbook, the 2,6 Ghz model (200GB drive at 7200, 4GB ram, hi-res screen)
3,1 GB wired
577 MB active
294 MB inactive
51 MB free
Cheers, FD
The thing about the way RAM works in Mac's (and Vista computers) is that the OS automatically grabs a certain amount of ram right when you turn the computer on (referred to as "Wired" ram). The amount allocated is dependent on the amount of total ram you have.
After my computer is on and loaded (without turning any apps on) my "Wired Ram" stat in GeekTool says that 2.2Gb of my 4GB of ram is already being used. My girlfriends MBP with 2GB of ram says 1.4GB of ram is being used right after powering it on and without loading any apps as well. The amount of "Wired" ram is actually ram that is proactively allocated by the OS to be used for applications you open.
For example, I have 4gb of ram. My stats say that I currently have 2.2GB ram wired. I am only running Safari, Mail, and Adium. If I look under "Activity Monitor" I see that:
Adium - using 45MB of ram
Safari - using 50MB of ram
Mail - using 30MB of ram
All the random OS processes - 120MB ram
TOTAL =
245MB of
ACTUAL ram being used
But the operating system is allocating 2.2GB for more processes.
Now when I open more applications (iTunes, Calendar, iPhoto) I notice that my "Wired Ram" in stats still says 2.2GB.
With all that said, I know that Parallels takes a large amount of ram to run. I've read that the ideal amount of ram you need to run Parallels without slowing the new MBP's down is actually 8GB.
Though, I haven't seen a noticeable performance decrease while having Outlook running in Parallels on only 4GB of ram.
