Anyone taken a 4GB MBA apart yet to see if the extra 2GB really is added on somewhere. I've heard from several sources it will be upgradable in the apple store and even the guy at best buy (apple employee) today said it was upgradable and best buy's website agrees.
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4GB MBA - anyone taken it apart yet?
- Thread starter jfulcher
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There is no slot to switch out RAM, at least that's what it would seem. I think all these people are confusing "ordering a box that has a MBA with 4GB" with "opening up a 2GB MBA and switching out the RAM", because the latter won't work and will most definitely void your warranty.
All these guys have no clue. I challenged one of the employees about this at a store and after checking he came back and said it doesn't look like it's upgradeable.
Agreed, I haven't seen anyone with a 4GB yet. (mines still in the friggin factory)
AppleGoddess says she has one.
Really? Thats surprising, I didn't think anyone had received any BTO models yet (anywhere).
RAM is soldered. If you thinking on buying the 2GB and having 4GB in the future you can't.
The SSD is not soldered, is in a card form and its placed over the RAM.
However, you can't change it with aftermarket cards.
According to a friend who is a BDM for Apple Australia the RAM is soldered to the board, so no upgrades...
I assumed that last week, and just ordered a BTO w/4g and 256 SSD. Takes forever to ship though...
The RAM is soldered which is what everyone asks about. And even though the flash isn't, it not like you could get a replacement drive, it's not a complete SSD. Nobody sells anything like it yet.
How does their website agree? I don't see anything implying it's possible to get anything but the stock 2GB model, much less upgrade it by hand. I don't even see 4GB models offered, so even if the "upgrade" is in fact a different computer, Best Buy isn't prepared to offer it.
Enlighten me as to why a soldered-on RAM item can't be de-soldered and re-soldered with a different RAM? Also, if a 4GB RAM fits...shouldn't there be an 8GB model of that same type of RAM that fits as well? Couldn't someone with a lot of time on their hands essentially do the soldering jobs themselves and test it out? Worst-case scenario would be that it doesn't work and the original RAM would have to be reinstalled?
I'm not concerned with the difficulties of this task or the effects (voiding of warranty), just the validity of the concepts. Thanks.
Dude, have you seen how small the air is and it's components! You would have to be a droid to do that! And why? 100 bucks gets the machine you want.
It's like saying that you can upgrade your hard drive by taking it apart and using the platters from a better one, or desoldering RAM modules on a RAM stick and placing higher-capacity RAM modules on the stick. The cost of the tools to do this (the modules cannot be soldered by hand) and the time it would take are far greater than simply ordering the 4GB version and waiting for it to arrive.
In your concepts, you can de-solder and re-solder everything in macbook air to make it what ever you want it to be.
Also, it's possible that whatever chipset Apple is using can not utilize more than 4GB of RAM. It's far easier to just order the 4GB machine to begin with.
Okay, thanks guys. I wasn't ever considering the 2GB model. I was asking because I'm curious why 4GB is considered the max. I would only order the BTO 4GB model, but I was curious about upgrading it down the road with or without Apple's approval to a bigger RAM. There should be companies somewhere that can do this, or at least I'd hope there would be.
Unless there are services for upgrading a past generation MacBook Air's RAM to 4GB, I don't see it happening for this iteration, either. Sorry, 4GB is the limit for now...