Upgrade to 8GB Crucial RAM?

[AdMac]

I just took delivery of my brand new 2012 13inch i5 MacBook Pro with 4gb of RAM, it is my first Mac as i have been a lifelong user of windows. I was advised by a friend that an upgrade to 8gb of RAM purchased from Crucial and fitted myself would be something I should definitely look at doing. Would you advise this at this early stage?

Thanks

 

[AlexBass]

If it is a Retina Macbook Pro, it isn't possible, period.

If it is the ordinary Macbook Pro, I definitely recommend doing it. It's the easiest and cheapest thing you can do to enhance your mac experience. It's the correct decision to do it yourself because you save about $200. Apple charges far too much to do it.

EDIT: Just realized it is 13", so of course it is the ordinary MBP, my apologies.

 

[BigZ9]

I just took delivery of my brand new 2012 13inch i5 MacBook Pro with 4gb of RAM, it is my first Mac as i have been a lifelong user of windows. I was advised by a friend that an upgrade to 8gb of RAM purchased from Crucial and fitted myself would be something I should definitely look at doing. Would you advise this at this early stage?

Thanks

Depends what kind of applications you're running though I'd do it if I were you.

 

[AdMac]

I am using my MBP for University work mainly, Word Processing and Spreadsheets, but will also use it for video editing and for photoshop although not to a huge extent. I will probably do the upgrade, I was just wondering if it would be worth it on a brand new MBP.

 

[mickryebee]

I, too, am a first time Mac(book Pro) user and purchased the same model as you a few weeks ago. I upgraded to the same 8gb of Crucial RAM (first time doing this) and it was really pretty simple. Just pop off the bottom panel, replace with RAM sticks, and screw panel back on.

If you are using Photoshop and editing video it could definitely pay off while you are doing those. You will have a more snappy experience while opening/using other apps along with those programs running. Also, just running multiple programs (Office, Safari, Mail, etc, etc) will be quicker. I also read somewhere that w/ 8gb and 16gb of ram, some of the RAM dedicates itself to graphics processing. Note that this does not mean that you will have dedicated video RAM, but I guess it helps process that stuff (sorry, I don't know too much about it).

Make sure you have a decent 00 or 01 philips head screwdriver. I used a crappy one and it pretty much stripped two of the screws used to hold the bottom panel on. Not a big deal, but the two screws aren't totally flush with my bottom panel now. Will probably get new screws to replace them when I have a chance.

Good luck! It's a fun & easy upgrade and doesn't cost too much, either, for some extra power.

 

[MyRomeo]

AdMac,

Upgrade to 8gb or 16gb absolutely but it doesn't have to be crucial. You can pick up cheaper brands on Amazon that work just fine in the MBP. I personally just installed 16gb of Komputerbay 1600MHz ram in my 2011 MBP and it works great. They do an 8gb kit for £29 shipped IIRC. The 16gb kit is about £65 for 1333MHz and £84 for 1600MHz.

8gb :
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Komputerbay...K3OI/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1342020205&sr=8-2

16gb :
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Komputerbay...WP50/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1342020205&sr=8-1

Real easy to install, all you need is 10 minutes and a small cross head screw driver. Only you can decide between 8 and 16.

I mostly use Photoshop CS6 and Lightroom 4.1 and I seem to use around 6.5gb up editing single images (total, not just for cs6! usually has itunes, app store, mail, safari running with CS6 and LR4.1). I imagine bulk RAW to JPEG conversions would use a lot more.