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Should I Max Out the RAM in New MBP?

geerlingguy

geerlingguy

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Feb 11, 2003
562
6
St. Louis, USA
I'm going to be purchasing a MacBook Pro next week from the Apple store (the 2.4 GHz, 160GB 15" LED one), without any options (I don't want to order it online), and I am thinking about whether or not I should upgrade from 2 GB to 4 GB of RAM *yet.*

I would order through Crucial, as the 4 GB kit (2x2GB) only costs about $400 shipped... but should I upgrade now, or plug away with 2 GB until a later time when memory is cheaper?

I mostly browse the web, read email, and work in Dreamweaver, with iTunes running, on my iBook G4 with 640 MB of RAM, and don't run into any problems. But I also use Photoshop CS3 and Final Cut Express (non-HD) about 2-3 times a week. Would 2GB be plenty for now, or should I go all out? (Money isn't a huge issue right now...).
 
I would say wait it out for a few months until it becomes a problem.

But, that depends on how much youre using final cut express. If youre encoding video a lot, you might want to move up to 4 gigs. But everything else youre doing, 2 gigs is enough, 2 gigs should even be enough for casual video encoding.
 
For what you are doing, it seems like 2 gb is enough. But since money is not an issue, I would just do it now rather than later. But then again, I would probably blow the money on food or something anyways so might as well spend it on the extra 2 gigs.
 
Oh and if you do max out the ram, be sure to let us know how it is...i want to know what the start up time is with maxed out ram on the new MBPs
 
geerlingguy said:
I'm going to be purchasing a MacBook Pro next week from the Apple store (the 2.4 GHz, 160GB 15" LED one), without any options (I don't want to order it online), and I am thinking about whether or not I should upgrade from 2 GB to 4 GB of RAM *yet.*

I would order through Crucial, as the 4 GB kit (2x2GB) only costs about $400 shipped... but should I upgrade now, or plug away with 2 GB until a later time when memory is cheaper?

I mostly browse the web, read email, and work in Dreamweaver, with iTunes running, on my iBook G4 with 640 MB of RAM, and don't run into any problems. But I also use Photoshop CS3 and Final Cut Express (non-HD) about 2-3 times a week. Would 2GB be plenty for now, or should I go all out? (Money isn't a huge issue right now...).
Click to expand...

You want to spend $250-350 more for Apple to install your new 2gb SO-DIMMs and keep the original 1gb sticks? I'm not sure about you, but that sounds like a non-decision to me. Non-education price upgrade to the 4GB of RAM would run you $750 whereas you can get the same RAM and keep your 2x1gb sticks as backup for $400.


I really, really fail to see the issue here. Unless you just like throwing money at Apple.

:apple:

Edit: Blah. Yay, I rant for nothing. Keep on reading, nothing to see here...
 
Sbrocket said:
You want to spend $250-350 more for Apple to install your new 2gb SO-DIMMs and keep the original 1gb sticks? I'm not sure about you, but that sounds like a non-decision to me. Non-education price upgrade to the 4GB of RAM would run you $750 whereas you can get the same RAM and keep your 2x1gb sticks as backup for $400.


I really, really fail to see the issue here. Unless you just like throwing money at Apple.

:apple:

Edit: Blah. Yay, I rant for nothing. Keep on reading, nothing to see here...
Click to expand...

Your post makes no sense. They are not talking about upgrading to 4GB through Apple. They are getting the 4GB third party. They just don't know if they should do that right away, or use the 2GB for a while before upgrading.
 
aaronw1986 said:
Your post makes no sense. They are not talking about upgrading to 4GB through Apple. They are getting the 4GB third party. They just don't know if they should do that right away, or use the 2GB for a while before upgrading.
Click to expand...

And that was what the little "Edit" note was for. I left the rest of the post there on the off-chance that someone who hadn't noticed the price disparity between Apple's 4gb option and 3rd party vendor prices might be reading this thread.

:apple:
 
aaronw1986 said:
Your post makes no sense. They are not talking about upgrading to 4GB through Apple. They are getting the 4GB third party. They just don't know if they should do that right away, or use the 2GB for a while before upgrading.
Click to expand...

You act like he didnt notice his rant was wrong. He added the line at the bottom hoping somebody like you wouldnt come late and point out what he already pointed out.
 
he didn't specify he had made a mistake...just that it was a rant. I wasn't sure if he meant just not to pay attention because it was long, or because he had realized that's not what they meant.
 
Sbrocket said:
Edit: Blah. Yay, I rant for nothing. Keep on reading, nothing to see here...
Click to expand...

No problem... happens to the best of us!

I might pick up the laptop today; I'll be passing by the Apple Store this evening, and I might bring my student ID and checkbook. I think I'll get the following:

-MacBook Pro 2.4 (from Apple)
-iPod nano (free, with Mac)
-APIOTek 18-in-1 (really like 3-in-1...) ExpressCard (for camera files from my SLR!)
-2x2GB RAM (maybe from OWC, or Crucial...)

So the question is - is the OWC RAM kit from a reputable manufacturer? The reason I usually buy Crucial is because they make thier own RAM, I've never had a problem with it, and it's reasonably priced. I don't buy from places like 18004memory.com because they're usually shady about who they get their RAM from.
 
Just Returned - I Have It!

I just returned from the Apple Store, with the MBP... I think I'm going to do the upgrade to 4 GB... however, do you guys think I should stick with Crucial (about $400), go with OWC (about $240), or someone else?
 
geerlingguy said:
I just returned from the Apple Store, with the MBP... I think I'm going to do the upgrade to 4 GB... however, do you guys think I should stick with Crucial (about $400), go with OWC (about $240), or someone else?
Click to expand...

Hrmm, go with OWC. That price is great (not only that, OWC will buy your 2x1GB sticks of RAM, so the price could be even better), and they are a great company to deal with - amazing customer service.

If you have any problems with the RAM, they are great about accepting exchanges or returns.
 
i bought from OWC... cost me $239, but it looks like they dropped the price down to $229 since yesterday. i might contact them about that...

i'm new to apple, and this computer is going to need to last me 3-4 years. the most memory-intensive program i run is photoshop cs3, but i don't want anything slowing me down. ichat, itunes, firefox, and cs3 rendering high quality filters is quite a load for my 1.1gb of ram on this system... whether it be osx or windows (bootcamp) i want the most out of my macbook.
 
whateverandever said:
Go with Corsair.

http://shop3.outpost.com/product/5175606/

$226 shipped, and you're not supporting those goons at OWC who price-gouge on rare products.
Click to expand...

Oh good. You'd recommend that the OP buy Corsair RAM that is not Mac-compatibility guaranteed, from a online seller that doesn't support Macs, rather than guaranteed compatible RAM from OWC who supports Mac to the hilt, because OWC have the temerity to charge the full price on the hard drive you want to get and nobody else stocks. Splendid reasoning. Take your axe and grind it elsewhere.
 
wait a second, it's nice that buying 3rd party ram is cheaper, but doesn't that void the warranty?
will the 1 yr manufac. warranty still cover that? what about applecare?
 
Illicit said:
wait a second, it's nice that buying 3rd party ram is cheaper, but doesn't that void the warranty?
will the 1 yr manufac. warranty still cover that? what about applecare?
Click to expand...

you can upgrade ram under warranty. It is advertised as user-replaceable.
 
Doesn't affect the warranty in any way. RAM is user-upgradable and the worst that could happen is it doesn't work. It can't hurt the computer if it's bad.

I'd hold off, personally. But, money matters to me. I'm buying the same laptop for my wife to be delivered some time next week and I thought about maxxing out the RAM, but then I just kinda figured, I've got 2G in this computer and it rolls right along, I doubt she'd have any problems with hers. Give it a year and the price will probably fall off another C-note...
 
aaronw1986 said:
you can upgrade ram under warranty. It is advertised as user-replaceable.
Click to expand...
Neato. Didn't know that. Thanks

zadillo said:
Hrmm, go with OWC. That price is great (not only that, OWC will buy your 2x1GB sticks of RAM, so the price could be even better), and they are a great company to deal with - amazing customer service.
Click to expand...
How does OWC buy your ram? Can you provide a url?
 
changing the ram doesn't void the warranty.

I believe OWC has a lifetime warranty too.
 
CanadaRAM said:
Oh good. You'd recommend that the OP buy Corsair RAM that is not Mac-compatibility guaranteed, from a online seller that doesn't support Macs, rather than guaranteed compatible RAM from OWC who supports Mac to the hilt, because OWC have the temerity to charge the full price on the hard drive you want to get and nobody else stocks. Splendid reasoning. Take your axe and grind it elsewhere.
Click to expand...

You and your RAM nutiness. Corsair sells Mac ram that's 100% the same as their "ValueRAM" series.

What brand of RAM is OWC anyway? It's not like they're manufacturing it. [Insert guarantee quote from Tommy Boy here]

And the temerity to charge full price? Do you even bother to look into stuff before you post with such arrogance? They're charging a full $100 over MSRP on the new 250GB WD drive. They WERE charging a full $125 over the MSRP on the new 160GB 7200.2 Seagate drive (now they're charging a mere $58 over MSRP at their $233 price, down from $240 a few days ago, down from $300 two weeks ago or so).

So yes, I recommend the OP go buy Corsair RAM. It works. It's from Fry's (who have great return policies and CS). It's the best price. You and your "guaranteed Mac compatible" RAM... can you please point out DDR2-667 RAM that DOESN'T work with Intel macs? If you could, I'd take you more seriously. Till then... "guaranteed Mac compatible" means nothing.

Edit: And here's a report of the RAM working fine, just in case anyone cares:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145172
"Works exactly as advertised, in both Macbook (2ghz white core duo) and Macbook Pro (15" 2.33ghz core 2 duo)."

Not sure why you'd want to run a single module in a Macbook since you can only address 2GB on the CD chipset, but whatever.
 
whateverandever said:
They're charging a full $100 over MSRP on the new 250GB WD drive. They WERE charging a full $125 over the MSRP on the new 160GB 7200.2 Seagate drive (now they're charging a mere $58 over MSRP at their $233 price, down from $240 a few days ago, down from $300 two weeks ago or so).
Click to expand...

That must probably due to the fact that it's a build to order machine so you pay for the extra man hours and extra other costs (a reservered production line? longer hours to build a machine?) as well...
 
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