Will the upgrade to 8gb ram be worth it for a web designer/developer?

[stillboarding]

apple warranty

Does it void the warranty if you install 3rd party ram?

I was told by Apple that it DOES void the warranty if you install 3rd. party ram

 

[mschaef]

My advice: Buy the 4 and upgrade to 8 once you prove you need it. The one case where it'll really matter is if you start swapping due to memory pressure. Put simply, once you run out of RAM memory, your computer will try to start faking it with disk, which is literally thousands of times slower. There are a few scenarios where this works, but it generally turns modern computers unusably slow. Going from 4 to 8 gives you more headroom before this happens, but if you stay within the 4, you won't notice a difference at all. Assuming Apple ships 4GB as 2x2GB, you couldn't even measure a difference if you tried. (In contrast to the whole c2d vs i5 thing, where there's definitely a measurable difference even if you might not notice it.)

To get an idea of where you stand, fire up activity monitor and check out the 'Swap Used', 'Inactive' and 'Free' memory levels. On my 4GB MBP right now, I have around 1GB on the Inactive and Free lists and about 30MB in Swap. This is very lightly loaded, not swapping, and the machine is very responsive. This is despite the fact that I'm running a VMWare instance, XCode, Mail.app, gitk, Citrix remote desktop, iCal, and Emacs.App, among three or four other applications. 4GB is a lot of RAM... (until you absolutely need 5)

 

[Jazwire]

I do internet marketing and a fair amount web work, I found 8GB was a major improvement, as you know a lot of the programs/tools we use are windows only, which means I have Parallels open a great amount of the time.
The difference using Parallels with 4gb and 8 gb is complete night and day difference.

 

[SchneiderMan]

I was told by Apple that it DOES void the warranty if you install 3rd. party ram

I was told that the HD was not user replaceable so i would not even listen to them.. It does not void the warranty, Apple has instructions if you want to bump your memory and HD.. 2008/2009/2010 models.

 

[john3478]

http://www.frys.com/product/5890183?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

Upgrade from 4gb to 8GB for only 119.99 x 2 .

Do you think this will compatible with MacBook Pro Unibody?

# PC3-10600 (1333MHz) Data Rate
# 204-Pin Dual in-line memory module
# Non-ECC Unbuffered
# 2 Rank Double-sided module
# 7.8US Refresh Interval (8192 CYCLES/64MS)
# 1.5V Power Requirement
# Auto and self refresh capability
# PCB height: 1181(mil)
# Serial Presence-Detect (SPD)
# 100% Tested
# Lifetime Warranty
# RoHS Compliant

 

[SchneiderMan]

http://www.frys.com/product/5890183?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

Upgrade from 4gb to 8GB for only 119.99 x 2 .

Do you think this will compatible with MacBook Pro Unibody?

# PC3-10600 (1333MHz) Data Rate
# 204-Pin Dual in-line memory module
# Non-ECC Unbuffered
# 2 Rank Double-sided module
# 7.8US Refresh Interval (8192 CYCLES/64MS)
# 1.5V Power Requirement
# Auto and self refresh capability
# PCB height: 1181(mil)
# Serial Presence-Detect (SPD)
# 100% Tested
# Lifetime Warranty
# RoHS Compliant

Yes but you just wasted your money.. You can only instal 2 sticks not 4. So you have 4 sticks that each have only 2GB. You need 2x4GB sticks. Cost is about $400.

 

[alphaod]

Well I have 8GB of RAM, so when I run a VM to test IE… I have enough RAM to power my computer and the VM. I means IE sucks, but most of the world still uses it.

I was told by Apple that it DOES void the warranty if you install 3rd. party ram

Yes if you break your computer doing it.

 

[kasakka]

Well I have 8GB of RAM, so when I run a VM to test IE… I have enough RAM to power my computer and the VM. I means IE sucks, but most of the world still uses it.

It's not like you need all that RAM for a single VM. 4 GB runs Win7 in VMWare just fine on my 13" MBP, XP would run with even less.

I have a feeling lots of people don't even know how powerful their machines are.

 

[john3478]

Yes but you just wasted your money.. You can only instal 2 sticks not 4. So you have 4 sticks that each have only 2GB. You need 2x4GB sticks. Cost is about $400.

Good link thanks. So far here is my memory uses.

I think it is barely cross 4G. I have not experience too much slow down yet. If it is $200 buck, then it is ok to upgrade. But $400, hmmm.... I am not sure yet I want to upgrade to 8G except if I really experience a lot of slow down. Which I think I might, if I start to open xcode and interface builder. The current memory uses without xcode and interface builder. With that two, it will be a killing for sure. I think it will ended up with Page outs at least 1 GB.

 

[aaron118]

So it would actually be cheaper for me to get the 8gb ram upgrade from Apple because the ram from amazon is more expensive than apple and is even more expensive here in the UK. With my student discount I could get the ram upgrade for about £275