Resolved Mid 2012 13" RAM upgrade Question

[meson]

The time has finally come to upgrade the machine I bought this spring. The plan is to replace the boot drive with a 256GB Crucial MX100. The original HDD will be going into an enclosure.

I'm currently torn between getting a matched pair of DDR3 1600MHz CL9 1.35V sticks or going with a single 8GB stick leaving open the possibility of bumping to 16GB, if my wife ever takes it over for her photo editing (a real possibility 1-2 years down the line).

The only thing I can't seem to confirm is the latency and voltage of the stock RAM. It currently has 2x2GB Elpida RAM. Based on specs offered by companies as Mac RAM, I'm inclined to believe it is DDR3 1600MHz CL 11 1.5V, but I'm not positive. Can anyone confirm this?

If I go with a single stick, I'll leave one of the stock sticks in for a total of 10GB.

I know performance is slightly better with matched sticks, but I don't think it'll be evident in day to day tasks one way or the other, and I know Macs have run unmatched pairs reasonably well since the PPC days, as I ran unmatched sticks when I bumped the ram on my old 12" PowerBook.

 

[Weaselboy]

Here is what you want accruing to Crucial.com and they have always been on target that I have seen.

DDR3 PC3-12800 • CL=11 • Unbuffered • NON-ECC • DDR3-1600 • 1.35V

 

[DeltaMac]

...
I know Macs have run unmatched pairs reasonably well since the PPC days, as I ran unmatched sticks when I bumped the ram on my old 12" PowerBook.

Small correction here -
There's only a single RAM slot on a 12-inch PowerBook, so "matched", or "unmatched" has no meaning on that model.

 

[meson]

Weaselboy,

Thanks. I'll likely grab an 8GB stick of CL 11 1.35V. I suppose if I run into issues, I can always run with a single 8GB stick and be okay.

DeltaMac,

Perhaps mismatched was the incorrect term, and thanks for the correction. But regardless, the CPU was using RAM of two different sizes and manufacturers with 128MB soldered to the board and the stock 128MB that I replaced with 512MB.

I'll be placing my order soon, and I'll let you all know how it works out in the end.

 

[meson]

My new SSD, enclosure and ram arrived yesterday. The installation was a breezed. My tool kit with precision torx drivers is still on its way from China, but I had an appropriately sized Allen wrench to remove the screws from the sides of the internal HDD.

The installation of ram and SSD were a breeze. I'm now at 10GB or ram. My version of Carbon Copy Cloner didn't want to work with Yosemite PB2, so I ended up installing Mavericks on the SSD, upgrading to Yosemite PB2, and restoring from Time Machine. I tried Migration Assistant, and like it has every time I've tried over the years, it chugs along and then runs into issues somewhere along the line. Trim Enabler is installed and working.

I couldn't be happier with this machine now. No more waiting to wake from sleep, Photoshop opens up in seconds, Mathematica opens in 5 bounces. I can run a virtual Windows machine without the HDD read speed grinding progress on anything and everything to a halt. I wasn't entirely sure what to expect with the VM on a dual core machine, but the HDD really was the bottle neck.

On Black Magic Disk Speed test, I hit about 330MB/s write and about 500MB/s read. Something I didn't do any research on, but I should note is that in a USB3 enclosure, the write speed was the same at about 330MB/s, and the read speed was still an impressive 430MB/s.