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Blackbook: 2 GB or 4 GB?
- Thread starter blairh
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Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows CE; IEMobile 6.12) Sprint
PC6800)
the price difference is nominal, and the speed increase is significant. the 2.2 can address all 4 gigs (as opposed to preSR @ 3.3) so why not?
PC6800)the price difference is nominal, and the speed increase is significant. the 2.2 can address all 4 gigs (as opposed to preSR @ 3.3) so why not?
Or use your macbook and watch RAM usage. If you never ever use more than 2GB, keep the money in your pocket.
Until recently I used to think like that but with RAM prices now $80 or less for 4GB, its just not worth the effort or worry about RAM usage.
I just got the refurb black 2.2GHZ MacBook last week- the week before that 4 GB of ram was waiting here patiently for it..For the cost it really is a no brainer if you can afford it.. While you may not need 4GB for the tasks you mention, OSX could certainly make use of 2GB with that.. For a couple bucks more you can keep the OS running right along..
I have 2.5GB in my iMac G5 and just today I noticed I had 20 Page outs.. The machine was running Excel, iTunes, video chatting, mail, and safari.. Nothing too intensive, but enough that the OS found ways to utilize all that Ram and could have possibly found use for even a little more it appears.. Sure, it would have been fine with 1GB probably, but if you give it more it will make use of it and that's a good thing..
I have 2.5GB in my iMac G5 and just today I noticed I had 20 Page outs.. The machine was running Excel, iTunes, video chatting, mail, and safari.. Nothing too intensive, but enough that the OS found ways to utilize all that Ram and could have possibly found use for even a little more it appears.. Sure, it would have been fine with 1GB probably, but if you give it more it will make use of it and that's a good thing..
I put 4gig in myself and so far the only thing I notice is that OS X uses more memory... MenuMeters used to report 500-600 uses and 1100 free now it reports 850 used and 3200 free. And then the used gobbles memory up to the 1400+ range and I reboot. I guess I can now have more programs open and that is cool... Firefox eats memory like there is no tomorrow. Which for some reason it only does on my MB. I do not see this happening on my iMac. I use firefox exclusively on the iMac and Safari on the MB. Go figure. I guess that makes me a Mac nut.
Really depends on what type of work you are doing on the computer.
Hardcore video/photo editing -> 4gb
Casual surfing, bit of photo/vid editing, ms office ->2gb
Hardcore video/photo editing -> 4gb
Casual surfing, bit of photo/vid editing, ms office ->2gb
go for 4, the only reason i got two is because bestbuy had a sale during boxing day and i paid 23 bucks a gig so it seemed quite good at the time, so i am staying with that untill i find some extra money
I'd recommend going to 4 GB. Recently, I purchased a new black MacBook (2.4 GHz) and I tried it out with the 2 GB RAM, but that lasted a whole 30 minutes. LOL
OWC has SAMSUNG 2 GB modules that are matched - I got these for $149.00. SAMSUNG RAM is always more expensive than other companies' RAM.
The more RAM you have in a notebook, the less your hard drive is being read constantly. Also, because of this your battery life should be better.
OWC has SAMSUNG 2 GB modules that are matched - I got these for $149.00. SAMSUNG RAM is always more expensive than other companies' RAM.
The more RAM you have in a notebook, the less your hard drive is being read constantly. Also, because of this your battery life should be better.
a word of advice - Wait to see what your refurb comes with. I just bought a 2.2 blackbook, and had planned to max it out at 4 GB. But I had heard that sometimes refurbs came with "extras," and sure enough, my macbook arrived with 2 GB. I'm sticking with that because even though the price difference between going from 1 GB to either 2 or 4 is not that much, since I got to 2 for free, the price difference between 2 and 4 is now much greater.
Another vote for 4GB. I'm using VMWare and do minor video editing and converting and I've seen available memory reach down to almost zero from time to time.
If you get 2GB, you'll always wonder if 4GB will solve some issues, but if you get 4GB, there'll be no look-back.
If you get 2GB, you'll always wonder if 4GB will solve some issues, but if you get 4GB, there'll be no look-back.
Definitely the way to go... was $75 for a 2x2Gig kit when I got mine a few weeks ago, now over this past weekend, they're even cheaper...
http://shop3.outpost.com/{xzKXX+PW+...-Vn9bOmiA**.node3?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG
Plus, I saw some in the sale paper that 2 Gigs were $34 each...
What do you plan on doing with the machine? If you're just surfing the net, word processing, playing music, you probably won't notice the difference.