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512 Mb Or 1gb??

D

ddk121

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 23, 2006
335
0
Wales, UK
Hey!
I am buying a macbook soon. I am not sure wether to upgrade the pc to 1gb of ram instead of the usual 512mb. I will use the macbook mainly for e-mail, web browsing, amsn, and possibly word and excel. Should I upgrade?
Also, If I wanted to upgrade after I've recieved it, how easy is it?
 
All the new macs are fairly easy to upgrade the ram on. As for your needs i would say you could barely pass using 512mb. If you want to use your macbook at a good speed i would suggest 1gb minimum, as your going to be sharing that memory with the video.
 
Definitely upgrade to 1GB. You will really have a much faster and more capable machine. 512MB isn't cutting it anymore. If you want to save money by installing RAM yourself, it's very simple.

Click me!
 
Upgrade. Especially since it looks like you'll be using non-native MS Office apps.
The extra RAM will boost Rosetta for that kind of stuff. Trust me, you'll be glad you did.
 
Get the upgrade to 1G. If you plan on even watching a video or 2 over the net, it's a must. I would argue it's the best money you can spend on a new machine-even trumps processor speed in some cases, I believe.
 
I think for your usage you'd be just fine with 512. It was what I used to work with and it ran great if you have AIM/Safari/iTunes out all together. Sometimes you may want more though for when you're being creative or hate closing windows so I too agree......upgrade to 1 gig
 
Upgrade as much as you can afford I reckon. You won't regret having the extra, but you will definitely want more if you don't get it.

Don't bother with Apple RAM since it's so expensive, but there is lots of good cheap 3rd party RAM out there.

I have had 1.5GB total in my iMac for the past half year, and it wasn't bad, but I just boosted that to 2.5GB tonight, and I can easily see the difference when I use things like iPhoto etc.

It feels good to be maxed out and having things running so smoothly.:)
 
I'm pretty sure the MacBook only has two slots and if you get 512MB, Apple gives you two 256MB sticks. If you go to upgrade later, you'll have to buy two 512MB sticks or one 1GB stick, making it more expensive than just upgrading when you buy the computer. Whether you need 1GB or not is another story...

my $0.02
 
BAspecialCake said:
Whatever you can afford. Anything is better than 512mb.
Click to expand...

1GB is a great compromise between cost and performance. Just don't get ram from Apple, its a pretty steep markup. My opinion, get a 1 GB stick for around $100 (pretty sure thats the going rate these days), sell your two 256 sticks on ebay and get back some of your costs.
 
MNSUGrad07 said:
sell your two 256 sticks on ebay and get back some of your costs.
Click to expand...

nobody wants them. Trust me.

Definitely get a GB. 512 is not enough esp. if you're using a lot of office (rosetta).
 
Definitely upgrade. You will notice a HUGE gain in performance. I upgraded my MB to 1.25GB RAM, and even though the RAM is not in matched pairs, I can see a big difference in speed.
 
mAx Da RaM :D

sell the smaller ones here or another forum or ebay. There are ALWAYS people out there with older machines who want to upgrade for low $$. Might not be worth that much, but gettin back somethin is better than nothin :p
 
People telling you to get 2GB are probably assuming you have no budget. ;)

I'd say 1 GB is the minimum, and is very good for what you do. Your system would rarely be short of RAM, but it might occasionally. Again, this would be rare.

If you bought a 1GB stick and kept one of the 256 MB sticks of RAM in there, you'd have 1.25 GB of RAM installed. To me, this is more than you'd need, and getting 2 GB total wouldn't help you. If the system is never starving for RAM, you may never notice the difference between 1GB or 2GB. I say get a 1 GB stick of RAM from Newegg.com or OWC.
 
MNSUGrad07 said:
sell your two 256 sticks on ebay and get back some of your costs.
Click to expand...

1. no one wants them, like QCassidy352 said.
2. keep them - from what I've heard, if you send your MB in to Apple for any service, you'll want to put your original ram back in.

as for upgrading? for your use, 512 will work just fine. i think it's kind of funny that everyone here has told you otherwise.. the absolute *only* reason I might consider it is for your Office usage, since office isn't universal yet - but even so, it's word processing.

don't get me wrong, of course 1 gig will be faster, and if you can afford it no problem go for it, but don't let everyone here tell you that you'll *need* it. for email, messaging, and word processing? please.
 
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