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Small question about RAM

esadb

esadb

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Nov 29, 2008
1,184
0
Found a deal on 8gb PC3-10600 1333MHZ SO Kit (2x4gb) sticks.

Question is, I have a macbook 6.1 the gf has a 7.1.

Currently both our macs to my understanding have 2x1gb for a total of 2GB PC3-8500.


Compatibility these sticks should work in either machine? Just they will be slowed down to our speeds of 1066mhz?

Any cons if I take these two 4gb sticks, and I take one and give her one. Basically I would run 5gb total (1x4gb + 1x1gb sticks). Or would I be better off running just 4gb?
 
OK I can try...

My understanding is if the RAM card fits in the slots generally speaking it will work. Software has no bearing on what RAM will work (however there is a minimum RAM requirement for each OS but I'm sure you know that)
 
thanks for the info, i thought so too.

Any idea regarding the benefits of sticking to 4gb or is 5gb just fine? I know that preferably you want matching sticks.. but I don't see how performance could be better with just 1 stick of 4gb instead of a total of 5gb of ram?
 
esadb said:
thanks for the info, i thought so too.

Any idea regarding the benefits of sticking to 4gb or is 5gb just fine? I know that preferably you want matching sticks.. but I don't see how performance could be better with just 1 stick of 4gb instead of a total of 5gb of ram?
Click to expand...

Ram just increases the amount of memory available to running programs. 4gb is already pretty big. Unless for some reason you're running a very resource intensive program. Is this for gaming?
 
esadb said:
Found a deal on 8gb PC3-10600 1333MHZ SO Kit (2x4gb) sticks.

Question is, I have a macbook 6.1 the gf has a 7.1.

Currently both our macs to my understanding have 2x1gb for a total of 2GB PC3-8500.


Compatibility these sticks should work in either machine? Just they will be slowed down to our speeds of 1066mhz?

Any cons if I take these two 4gb sticks, and I take one and give her one. Basically I would run 5gb total (1x4gb + 1x1gb sticks). Or would I be better off running just 4gb?
Click to expand...

I think there are no replies because this question is very peculiar.

RAM isn't very expensive, and it seems to make more sense that you should purchase four 2gb sticks. I get that this would be passing on the "deal", but I can't really see a situation where this would be your best option.

Also pertaining to the 4 vs 5 gb question. It would be very unlikely that 4 would be too little, but that 5 would fix the problem. Assuming your machines are compatible to upgrade to 4 total (2x2), I would trash the 1 gb sticks and upgrade to 2x2 gb sticks for both machines. I didn't take the time to check the machines for compatibility, however.

Hope that helps.
 
dancks said:
Ram just increases the amount of memory available to running programs. 4gb is already pretty big. Unless for some reason you're running a very resource intensive program. Is this for gaming?
Click to expand...

No no gaming, just day to day use. Reason I was going to put that 1gb stick in is just to increase it to the max I can with using the current sticks I would have.

Rocky244 said:
I think there are no replies because this question is very peculiar.

RAM isn't very expensive, and it seems to make more sense that you should purchase four 2gb sticks. I get that this would be passing on the "deal", but I can't really see a situation where this would be your best option.

Also pertaining to the 4 vs 5 gb question. It would be very unlikely that 4 would be too little, but that 5 would fix the problem. Assuming your machines are compatible to upgrade to 4 total (2x2), I would trash the 1 gb sticks and upgrade to 2x2 gb sticks for both machines. I didn't take the time to check the machines for compatibility, however.

Hope that helps.
Click to expand...

Well the ram is PC3-10600, my mac takes PC3-8500. The ram should just run at slower speeds then?
 
esadb said:
Found a deal on 8gb PC3-10600 1333MHZ SO Kit (2x4gb) sticks.
Question is, I have a macbook 6.1 the gf has a 7.1.
Currently both our macs to my understanding have 2x1gb for a total of 2GB PC3-8500.
Compatibility these sticks should work in either machine? Just they will be slowed down to our speeds of 1066mhz?
Any cons if I take these two 4gb sticks, and I take one and give her one. Basically I would run 5gb total (1x4gb + 1x1gb sticks). Or would I be better off running just 4gb?
Click to expand...
There is a slight advantage to using matched pairs of RAM, but not enough to outweigh having more RAM. Both Macs can use up to 8GB of RAM.

You can find specs on all Apple products, including maximum RAM:
 
esadb said:
Found a deal on 8gb PC3-10600 1333MHZ SO Kit (2x4gb) sticks.

Question is, I have a macbook 6.1 the gf has a 7.1.

Currently both our macs to my understanding have 2x1gb for a total of 2GB PC3-8500.


Compatibility these sticks should work in either machine? Just they will be slowed down to our speeds of 1066mhz?

Any cons if I take these two 4gb sticks, and I take one and give her one. Basically I would run 5gb total (1x4gb + 1x1gb sticks). Or would I be better off running just 4gb?
Click to expand...

No reason not to have 4GB + 1GB. More is better. But chances are going from 2GB to 4GB is going to be a noticeable improvement, 4GB to 5GB maybe not so much.

But as far as 1333MHz vs 1066MHz, it should clock down but it doesn't always work that way. I'd get the 1066MHz chips just to be on the safe side. Worst case they don't work (or work in one laptop but not the other) and you have to send them back.
 
Well I picked up the ram, figured for the price I got it for if it didn't work I'd be able to resell it and break even.

Either way the ram works, I put in a 1gb + 4gb and it booted up fine with no issues, reports 5GB at 1066mhz.

The macbook is lighting fast now.. Probably helps that I just swapped in a Momentus XT HD also.

Thanks all!
 
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