Installed RAM in New Macbook

[stateman]

Not sure if I am wording this right so please bare with me.

I recently purchased my first new mac. It is a new macbook. I ordered 4GB of RAM from macsales.com. I received the ram the same day I bought the computer so I really never played around with the laptop while it only had 1GB of ram in it. The machine is showing 4GB of ram and it passed the hardware tests that come on disk 1 with the macbook. I tried running rember, but it was just taking so long that I stopped the task. The computer is not slow by any means but it does take a little bit for some things to open. Longer than I would think for 4gb of ram. Is the ram more for just when you have a ton of things open at once and won't really help just running one or two things? Also is it normally for rember to take so long and should I just let it run overnight? Are there any other ways to tell if the ram is running that the performance that it should? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Bill

 

[Eidorian]

If the hardware reports the RAM properly to the software you've installed it properly.

It's as fast as it's going to get with that hard drive and processor.

 

[heatmiser]

Is the ram more for just when you have a ton of things open at once and won't really help just running one or two things?

Pretty much. If you're doing something that only taxes 1gb of RAM from your computer (booting up and playing iTunes, for example), you're not going to notice a difference with 2, 3, 4, or more gigs. RAM is somewhat like highway width. A 4 lane highway doesn't mean your car will go any faster than it does on a 2 lane; it just means more cars will be able to go at a given speed without slowing down.

 

[MST]

RAM is somewhat like highway width. A 4 lane highway doesn't mean your car will go any faster than it does on a 2 lane; it just means more cars will be able to go at a given speed without slowing down.

Your analogy is awesome

 

[anotherarunan]

loading times are also largely to do with the hard drive speed. try doing the same with a flash based drive, and it'll be loads faster!

 

[heatmiser]

Your analogy is awesome

Thank you :^)

 

[stateman]

Thanks!!!

Thank you for the explination. That is exactly what I wanted to hear. So the rest of the ram will be there when I need it and it wasn't a waste of money. Well $99 for 4GB is never a waste.

 

[AppleNinja]

Pretty much. If you're doing something that only taxes 1gb of RAM from your computer (booting up and playing iTunes, for example), you're not going to notice a difference with 2, 3, 4, or more gigs. RAM is somewhat like highway width. A 4 lane highway doesn't mean your car will go any faster than it does on a 2 lane; it just means more cars will be able to go at a given speed without slowing down.

haha the creative apple mind at work

 

[Bobioden]

If you were used to a desktop speeding along, it is because of their harddrive spinning at 7200 as apposed to 5400. Put all the Ram in it you want, and it will still feel sluggish. Bump your harddrive to a 7200 and you will notice the difference.