MacBook: 3 GBs of memory?

[WobblyCheese]

Hello everyone. I got my Black C2D MacBook around Christmas time. I have been LOVING it ever since. It is quite the upgrade from my old iBook G4.

At any rate who. I won't lie. Sometimes when I'm doing work it does tend to slow down. (I bought it to do design work with primarily, however it gets used for everything.) It tends to beachball alot when I'm going alot of tasks at once. Most commonly, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, CSSEdit, iTunes, along with maybe Preview open, Safari, and Firefox; all at once.

Now, I have 1 GB in it right now. I was wondering if another GB would help this issue at all? I can get 2 GBs for about $170.00.

Lastly, I read that mix/matching the MacBook would get up to 3 GBs of recognized memory. Now, Apple doesn't say this because they don't support mix/matching. However, will I see even more of an improvement with 3 GB over 2??

Thanks for any help. And hopefully I can kick these thoughts of maybe I should upgrade to the Pro! I like my BlackBook.

Oh ya, here is what I'm talking about.
http://eshop.macsales.com/Reviews/Framework.cfm?page=/Tips/macbookcore23gb/macbookcore23gb.html

 

[XP Defector]

MacBook 2GB only.

 

[WobblyCheese]

Did you read my post? Or the link?

 

[Lancetx]

Yes, you can install up to 3GB of memory in a MacBook, it's just not officially supported by Apple, but it does indeed work. Not to mention that 2GB modules are quite expensive. You would have to read the test results for yourself to decide if it's worth the expense for you or not. BTW, your link in your original post was broken.

 

[WobblyCheese]

Hmm interesting results there.

I think I may end up sticking to just the 2 GB matched.

 

[Fuzzy Orange]

I was thinking of buying a MacBook and installing 3 GB of RAM myself, but it doesn't look like it increases performance.

 

[princealfie]

So the original MacBook CD doesn't accept 3 GB of RAM?

 

[phidauex]

It will help your performance under certain circumstances. Remember that your computer doesn't get "Faster" or "Slower", it becomes limited by one of a number of resources.

If you regularly max your ram, and find yourself needing to run Excel, Word, Photoshop, Illustrator and a Parallels VM all at the same time, then 3GB of ram would be a big help. If you don't do that, then a matched 2GB pair would probably be just as fast.

More ram doesn't make your computer faster unless you are currently running out, due to your heavy usage.

peace,
sam

 

[MaaseyRacer]

Hello everyone. I got my Black C2D (I bought it to do design work with primarily, however it gets used for everything.)

You bought the wrong computer. My previous MacBook was beyond lame in any design programs. 2GB of RAM helped, but it still was lacking. I finally just gave up and sold it to get the MacBook Pro. Try getting another gig of ram and see if that helps out, but the intel chipset in the MacBook I do not think will recognize 3GB of RAM.

 

[princealfie]

You bought the wrong computer. My previous MacBook was beyond lame in any design programs. 2GB of RAM helped, but it still was lacking. I finally just gave up and sold it to get the MacBook Pro. Try getting another gig of ram and see if that helps out, but the intel chipset in the MacBook I do not think will recognize 3GB of RAM.

But the problem is that we want our black casing that we spent on for the MacBook rather than the brushed metal of the MBP.

 

[phidauex]

You bought the wrong computer. My previous MacBook was beyond lame in any design programs. 2GB of RAM helped, but it still was lacking. I finally just gave up and sold it to get the MacBook Pro. Try getting another gig of ram and see if that helps out, but the intel chipset in the MacBook I do not think will recognize 3GB of RAM.

We've been over this already, the Macbook DOES address 3gb of memory. A 2gb stick in one slot and a 1gb stick in the other works. You can install 4gb of memory with two 2gb sticks, but it will still only utilize 3gb of it.

And by "beyond lame" what do you mean? Remember that people used to design everything on 400mhz G4s, and it worked fine. Sure, a MBP would be nicer, but I've not had trouble running any design software fast enough to be effective.

peace,
sam

 

[MaaseyRacer]

We've been over this already, the Macbook DOES address 3gb of memory. A 2gb stick in one slot and a 1gb stick in the other works. You can install 4gb of memory with two 2gb sticks, but it will still only utilize 3gb of it.

And by "beyond lame" what do you mean? Remember that people used to design everything on 400mhz G4s, and it worked fine. Sure, a MBP would be nicer, but I've not had trouble running any design software fast enough to be effective.

peace,
sam

I had a first gen MacBook and was unsucessful getting 3GB of RAM to be seen by Mac OS.
As far as my choice of words. In Design ran like crap on the MacBook, any ID document that had a dozen images or more slowed down beyond the point of useability. The biggest issue I had was that I could not run more than two Creative Suite apps, with out some kind of major slow down until I shut down at least one or two CS apps. The MacBook Pro was not that much better, that is until the C2D came out and 10.4.8. After that it became much easier for me to function in Rosetta applications on an Intel Mac.
It is not to say that I was unable to get my work done, I just wasted a lot of time watching that cursor spin around.

 

[Abstract]

You bought the wrong computer. My previous MacBook was beyond lame in any design programs. 2GB of RAM helped, but it still was lacking. I finally just gave up and sold it to get the MacBook Pro.

As far as my choice of words. In Design ran like crap on the MacBook....

The biggest issue I had was that I could not run more than two Creative Suite apps, with out some kind of major slow down until I shut down at least one or two CS apps. The MacBook Pro was not that much better, that is until the C2D came out and 10.4.8. After that it became much easier for me to function in Rosetta applications on an Intel Mac.

So your beef is with processor speed, not MB vs MBP. The MBP also had the CD processors when they were released.
If the MacBook was the wrong machine to get, what do you actually gain from buying a MBP instead? If the C2D and OS 10.4.8 was responsible for achieving better/faster performance, then maybe the MacBook was still the right machine to buy, as both the C2D and Mac OS 10.4.8 are available for it.

With the same processor, the MB is just as capable as the MBP in running the applications you listed.

 

[munckee]

I had a first gen MacBook and was unsucessful getting 3GB of RAM to be seen by Mac OS.
As far as my choice of words. In Design ran like crap on the MacBook, any ID document that had a dozen images or more slowed down beyond the point of useability. The biggest issue I had was that I could not run more than two Creative Suite apps, with out some kind of major slow down until I shut down at least one or two CS apps. The MacBook Pro was not that much better, that is until the C2D came out and 10.4.8. After that it became much easier for me to function in Rosetta applications on an Intel Mac.
It is not to say that I was unable to get my work done, I just wasted a lot of time watching that cursor spin around.

Which version of CS were you running? I'm trying to decide between the MB and MBP specifically for CS3 usability. If you were running something older though, I can understand why it would have been troublesome.

 

[glhiii]

Just went from 2 to 3 gigs

I just got a 2-gig sim for my 17" c2d, making the total RAM 3 gigs. It is much more responsive, in my opinion -- things happen faster and smoother. 2-gig sims have come down in price to $150 or less. It's worth upgrading I think. Too bad it won't take 4 gigs.

 

[orangemacapple]

I just got a 2-gig sim for my 17" c2d, making the total RAM 3 gigs. It is much more responsive, in my opinion -- things happen faster and smoother. 2-gig sims have come down in price to $150 or less. It's worth upgrading I think. Too bad it won't take 4 gigs.

it WILL take 4 Gigs. of course it will only give you 3.3 Gigs out of it. but, hey, that's still 300 Megs more than you now have.