Macbook- 2GB necessary?

[will0407]

Right, my Macbook (black) should FINALLY ship Wednesday at the latest (which will be 15 days after I ordered!). I've already got 2 GB RAM sitting on my shelf, waiting to be installed.

However, I've already spent quite a bit getting an icurve, mouse and keyboard, and want to buy one of the waterfield cases and a crumpler bag, so my spending is gonna go through the roof! (got Macbook with 120GB HD by the way).

More importantly, will I notice the difference between using 1.25GB and 2GB of RAM? I usually have quite a few apps open at once, and do some picture / video editing now and again, but I wanted to know if it would just be worth me selling 1 stick of my RAM and being able to 'get along' with 1.25GB. (the majority of the time it'll only be me using it, although when i'm home my bro / sis will probably want me to make them accounts so they can use it)

One final thing- I'm almost certainly going to install Windows XP on it before I go to Universtiy in September, so will the 2GB RAM help out in that department?

Any info would be great.
will

 

[gloss]

I would recommend trying it with 1.25, keeping track of your memory use, and going from there. If you're going to be running Parallels, more RAM is better. Boot Camp, I'm sure it's not as much of an issue.

 

[will0407]

Gloss, sorry if this sounds stupid, but what do you mean by parallels?

 

[mad jew]

Parallels is an app that lets you run Windows (and other x86-based operating systems) from within OSX on Intel Macs.

As for the memory, most people would find 2GB excessive but video editing can munch through it at a furious pace. If you've already bought it, then you may as well install it. However, I doubt there's much of a benefit over 1.25GB.

 

[AndrewNP]

you will see a good difference, both because it is more ram & because it is matching pairs (ddr2 works at its best with matching paired ram)

(i.e. 2x256 2x512 2x1024)

 

[will0407]

OK, I'll probably keep them, may as well i guess, then at least I know it's maxed out and can't blame the speed etc on it not being maxed out