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mac000

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 6, 2005
679
0
can anyone comment on a 1gb + 256mb ram performance?

i understand the macbook has integrated graphics and i've read something around these forums that having anything but matched pairs of ram sticks is quote /quote bad.

i just ordered a 1gb stick from kingston for $99 + a $10 mail in rebate and i thought i was making out.

it really isn't anything to worry about right?
 
mac000 said:
can anyone comment on a 1gb + 256mb ram performance?

i understand the macbook has integrated graphics and i've read something around these forums that having anything but matched pairs of ram sticks is quote /quote bad.

i just ordered a 1gb stick from kingston for $99 + a $10 mail in rebate and i thought i was making out.

it really isn't anything to worry about right?

no.. it works great.
 
i had that in my white MB before what i have now and it worked great. i wouldn't worry much about the matched pairs ideology.. more ram out-performs having less just for the sake of matched pairs.
 
xfiftyfour said:
i had that in my white MB before what i have now and it worked great. i wouldn't worry much about the matched pairs ideology.. more ram out-performs having less just for the sake of matched pairs.


thats sounds about right, thanks for the upper. why did you sell your whitebook?
 
mac000 said:
thats sounds about right, thanks for the upper. why did you sell your whitebook?
i just wasn't very happy with the look of it. i traded my PB for it, but after a few weeks really hated the "iBook" feel of it. it scratched easily, looked cheap.. and i've seen a few of my friend's white iBooks that they've had for a while and they are DIRTY. i was able to sell it on eBay and actually have it pay for a stock blackbook all on its own, so i made out really well.
 
Should be fine, IIRC apple had a little blurb about using matched pairs with the new Intels, but after today I can't seem to find it anywhere
 
Bibulous said:
Should be fine, IIRC apple had a little blurb about using matched pairs with the new Intels, but after today I can't seem to find it anywhere

how did it entail?
 
You CAN run 1 GB + 256MB, but the price of third party MacBook compatible DIMMS
has become quite reasonable, so I would buy a matched pair of 1GB DIMMS so your
system is operating at it's full potential.
 
mac000 said:
how did it entail?

I was looking at the Mini, thinking about just adding a 1GB stick to one of the existing 256MB, but in one of the 'more info' boxes it said 'to take advantage of something or another for max performance, matched pairs should be used'. After seeing the 3GB iMac today, I looked for this but could not find it anymore.

Edit - Yes irmongoose, that's it!
 
I borrowed a 1gb stick when I was waiting for my 2x 1gb sticks to arrive for my Macbook - so I'm speaking from experience.

512mb was the pits. As soon as rosetta kicked in the computer was literally unuseable. Adding the 1gb made all the difference in the world - instead of getting bogged down it was fluidic and a real pleasure to use.

After a week of this I got my 2gb and was excited by how much more performance I was going to squeeze out of the machine but once the sticks were in there was little noticeable change - of course it is probably doing more than I realise but the big change was 512 to 1.25gb.

So my conclusion was that for getting around your Macbook and using it like it should be used 1.25gb is great. 2gb only comes into effect when you really push the computer and you can see in your activity viewer that it is all taken up (I do this all the time with the creative suite in rosetta) - so save your money if you are only going to use native apps.
 
rugonnaeatthat said:
So my conclusion was that for getting around your Macbook and using it like it should be used 1.25gb is great. 2gb only comes into effect when you really push the computer and you can see in your activity viewer that it is all taken up (I do this all the time with the creative suite in rosetta) - so save your money if you are only going to use native apps.

That's good news, means I will keep the Apple Ram in the case it needs to go back.

Always helps to hear from someone who actually has used the setup. :)
 
how much ram can the regular macbook fit? 2gb max? or just 256 built in and 1 extra slot?

im thinkin about buyin a regular macbook...

so it has 2 slots? it comes with 2x 256 ram sticks?
 
Jdm_rsx said:
how much ram can the regular macbook fit? 2gb max? or just 256 built in and 1 extra slot?

im thinkin about buyin a regular macbook...

so it has 2 slots? it comes with 2x 256 ram sticks?

Correct!

If you're just adding 1 GB with a single 1 GB DIMM, you remove one of the 256MB DIMMS ending up with 1.25 GB.
 
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