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$700 for the jump from 2GB to 4GB

M

mrgrieves

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 19, 2007
28
0
Does anyone here have experience with the performance of stock Apple RAM?

I'm looking at the middle of the road 15" MBP.

$700 for 2 gigs is insane. I believe it's also only DDR2 667, yes? Within a few seconds of searching on Newegg I can find Mac laptop ram priced at 3 gigs for $160, under the same RAM standard.

I am not very knowledgeable about hardware, but I imagine even between two equally rated RAM modules, there may be performance differences.

Does anyone know what these differences are like? Would I be better off with just 2 gigs of default ram in a MBP or 4 gigs of stuff for possibly ~$200?

I realize that OSX can only currently see 3 gigs, but that issue should be resolved with Leopard so I'm not too interested in buying an odd amount of memory, unless Macs actually have trouble working with 4 gigs.

EDIT: Two of these seem to be a great deal http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820208200
 
killmoms

killmoms

macrumors 68040
Jun 23, 2003
3,752
55
Durham, NC
Apple massively overcharges for RAM. Don't buy extra from them.

Also, OS X can address 4GB just fine at the moment. It was a question of the chipset used in the previous rev.
 
Vidd

Vidd

macrumors 65816
Mar 7, 2006
1,001
108
mrgrieves said:
I realize that OSX can only currently see 3 gigs, but that issue should be resolved with Leopard so I'm not too interested in buying an odd amount of memory, unless Macs actually have trouble working with 4 gigs.
Click to expand...


You've obviously missed the discussions where people were wondering if the Mac Pro could "only" work with 16GB of RAM.
 
ivi7

ivi7

macrumors 6502a
Sep 17, 2007
796
0
I upgraded the RAM for my MBP and the mini. Paying Apple the extra money is insane. I got the RAM from newegg too. They have pretty comeptitive prices.
 
S

stainlessliquid

macrumors 68000
Sep 22, 2006
1,622
0
Apple uses generic ram. They used to use generic Samsung ram, I dont know if they still do, theyll pretty much grab whatever is cheapest at the moment and charge 10x the cost.

And you dont need name brand ram. Its a mac, not a PC. You want to get namebrand expensive ram when you overclock, they are designed to be able to handle higher clock rates and voltages without crashing, thats where all the extra money goes. For the most part ram is ram, the price doesnt matter since all ddr800 ram performs at ddr800. Just look at the ratings on Newegg to see if the ram is reliable, thats all you need for a mac, reliability instead of overclockability.

You also dont need ram specifically made for mac, dont pay extra for a tagline.
 
J

jmpmntwnty3

macrumors 6502
Sep 15, 2007
332
38
South Carolina
Oh that's awesome! My first computer (a PC) only had 256 MB of RAM, but when I started doing websites, I had to get an upgrade to 512 MB, which was the limit. Now my new computer (Dell PC purchased last October) has 2 GB of RAM but can go up to 4 GB I believe. And now I'm purchasing a macbook pro and I intend to have it immeditely upgraded to 4 GB. It's a shame that my laptop will be much faster than my desktop! Haha.
 
OdduWon

OdduWon

macrumors 6502a
Jul 4, 2006
591
0
CaliVerse
MBP ram install

so how does one go about putting the new ram modules in to the MBP?
what does it cost to have it done, or can i do it myself :confused:
will 4gigs run hotter??
Do people buy "apple" ram after i swap it out?
 
CalBoy

CalBoy

macrumors 604
May 21, 2007
7,849
37
OdduWon said:
so how does one go about putting the new ram modules in to the MBP?
what does it cost to have it done, or can i do it myself :confused:
will 4gigs run hotter??
Do people buy "apple" ram after i swap it out?
Click to expand...

You can do it yourself; you don't need to have someone do it. I advise keeping the RAM so you can swap it incase you have an issue with your mbp. Apple might just say it's the RAM (since it's 3rd party) that's causing the problem. If you keep the sticks, you can always put them back in.
 
RaMaz

RaMaz

macrumors regular
Apr 6, 2007
126
0
ok, i have 4 Gbs of RAM in My SR MBP,

YES, It Gets Hot!
ITs Sweet Cause i can have Logic, Photoshop, iMovie all of that open, and it runs fast and smooth.
 
C

cervaro

macrumors regular
Nov 8, 2005
124
0
Kent, UK
I have to say what was the point of upping the FSB to 800MHz with Santa Rosa only to equip the MBP with 667MHz ram modules?
 
D

davidwarren

macrumors 6502a
Aug 28, 2007
782
2
jmpmntwnty3 said:
Oh that's awesome! My first computer (a PC) only had 256 MB of RAM, but when I started doing websites, I had to get an upgrade to 512 MB, which was the limit. Now my new computer (Dell PC purchased last October) has 2 GB of RAM but can go up to 4 GB I believe. And now I'm purchasing a macbook pro and I intend to have it immeditely upgraded to 4 GB. It's a shame that my laptop will be much faster than my desktop! Haha.
Click to expand...
I don't even think my first computer had a 200MB hard drive.
 
alfonsog

alfonsog

Contributor
Jul 17, 2002
537
530
Cape Coral, FL
davidwarren said:
I don't even think my first computer had a 200MB hard drive.
Click to expand...

My first computer had 64kB of ram and no hard drive...used it for word processing high school papers...
I remember when my friend got a 10 MB hard drive (for about $1,000) and everyone said he would never fill it up.
And I'm only 33!

Now I'm running 6 GB ram and over a TB in hard drive space.

I bought the extra ram from crucial. Apple does overcharge and no problems here.
 
W

weckart

macrumors 603
Nov 7, 2004
5,836
3,515
cervaro said:
I have to say what was the point of upping the FSB to 800MHz with Santa Rosa only to equip the MBP with 667MHz ram modules?
Click to expand...

FSB has nothing to do with memory bandwidth. Speak to Intel, they provide the 965PM chipsets. Santa Rosa will only run memory up to 667MHz, even if you put 800MHz modules in.

Santa Rosa

Frontside Bus = 800MHz
Memory Bus = 667MHz
Max memory = 4GB
 
C

cardsdoc

macrumors 6502
Jun 9, 2007
359
58
Shaker Hts, OH
alfonsog said:
My first computer had 64kB of ram and no hard drive...used it for word processing high school papers...
I remember when my friend got a 10 MB hard drive (for about $1,000) and everyone said he would never fill it up.
And I'm only 33!

Now I'm running 6 GB ram and over a TB in hard drive space.

I bought the extra ram from crucial. Apple does overcharge and no problems here.
Click to expand...

Mine had 128K with a memory expansion card and also no HDD (dual 5 1/4 floppies). In college I upgraded my 4MB PC to 8MB for $160! Now I have 4GB of ram for almost the same price. Things sure have changed.
 
bmcgrath

bmcgrath

macrumors 65816
Oct 5, 2006
1,077
40
London, United Kingdom
cardsdoc said:
Mine had 128K with a memory expansion card and also no HDD (dual 5 1/4 floppies). In college I upgraded my 4MB PC to 8MB for $160! Now I have 4GB of ram for almost the same price. Things sure have changed.
Click to expand...

Mine had a turbo button to go from 8mhz to 16mhz. Loooong time ago. But I know some of the rest of ye had computers before I did. :eek:
 
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