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Advice on adding memory to MP with 2x512MBx2

A

akadmon

Suspended
Original poster
Aug 30, 2006
2,006
2
New England
I bought my MP configured with two pairs of 512MB modules for a total of 2GB. I'm thinking about adding more memory, mainly for Parallels (2GB is plenty for everything else I use my MP for -- I'm no "pro" user :eek: ). Since my budget is a bit tight at this moment, the only options I'm considering are:

A. Add 1GB as 512MBx2 ($152 from Crucial, $160 from OWC)
B. Add 2GB as 2x512MBx2 ($304 from Crucial, $320 from OWC)
C. Add 2GB as 1GBx2 ($270 from Crucial, $240 from OWC)

I'm tempted to just add 1GB, but then again going with the 1GBx2 option seems to make more sense (only $88 more), except that this will result with a configuration consisting of a mix of 512MB and 1GB modules which I hear is not optimal. So if I was to upgrade to 4GB, I would be better off buying 2x512MBx2, wouldn't I? However, that is $80 more than going with 1GBx2 and would leave me with no free slots! And so I'm back to thinking it's best I just add 1GB now...

What to do, what to do...:confused:
 
SilentPanda

SilentPanda

Moderator emeritus
Oct 8, 2002
9,992
31
The Bamboo Forest
What do you do in Windows? I run Win XP SP 2 in Parallels just fine on my Mac Pro 2.0ghz with 2GB of RAM and it runs great with just 768 MB of RAM allocated to Windows.
 
A

akadmon

Suspended
Original poster
Aug 30, 2006
2,006
2
New England
SilentPanda said:
What do you do in Windows? I run Win XP SP 2 in Parallels just fine on my Mac Pro 2.0ghz with 2GB of RAM and it runs great with just 768 MB of RAM allocated to Windows.
Click to expand...

Mainly MS Office and Quicken. I use a W2K VM (XP is just too sluggish - maybe because I'm running it off a BC partition). I find myself doing what I have to do in Parallels and then quitting it -- the thought of having less than 0.5GB free memory left at any one time makes me feel uneasy. With more RAM I'll just leave Parallels running all the time in Coherence mode.
 
O

osx-linux

macrumors member
Apr 4, 2007
45
0
I'd pick option A or option C, depending upon budget.

You will not see a major performance difference between A and C unless you use over that 2G of ram however.

The issue of performance comes mainly when you only have 2 sticks, or the 4 sticks you have are highly mis-matched. 2x512 and 2x2g for example.

I would not however go for option B, more chips -> more heat --> :( [or just crank the fans :cool:] but you'd still be using up valuable expansion slots.

more details here: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/294333/
 
A

akadmon

Suspended
Original poster
Aug 30, 2006
2,006
2
New England
osx-linux said:
I'd pick option A or option C, depending upon budget.

You will not see a major performance difference between A and C unless you use over that 2G of ram however.

The issue of performance comes mainly when you only have 2 sticks, or the 4 sticks you have are highly mis-matched. 2x512 and 2x2g for example.

I would not however go for option B, more chips -> more heat --> :( [or just crank the fans :cool:] but you'd still be using up valuable expansion slots.

more details here: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/294333/
Click to expand...

Alright, you've helped me eliminate Option B :)

Seeing that adding 1GB sticks will result in a bit of a mismatch, will I get enough of a boost from the extra 1GB (4GB total) over going with another set of 512MB sticks, or should I just save my money for later (when 8GB sticks will be selling for under $100 :) ?
 
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