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Upgraded Macbook...Now it's worth it.

P

Photo-Mac-Guy

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 4, 2006
15
0
New Hampshire
Last month I bought a base model macbook from a friend.(New in box) He bought it, and before opening it decided to go macbook pro. So I got it for $850. It was less computer than I wanted, but for the price I couldn't pass it up. I finally upgraded. 2GB Ram made a huge difference. I am a professional photographer and use photoshop a lot. The 1.83 processor does great. I don't see much difference between my 24" imac and this when it comes to working in photoshop. Yesterday, I received my 160GB Seagate Hard Drive.
I am a happy man now. Plenty of free space, and fast. All for less than a new base model price through the apple store.
Oh ya, I called Adobe, and they switched my PC license of CS2 to Mac for $5.95 shipping too.
 
d_and_n5000 said:
Sort of...the iMac and MacBook Pro can handle 3GB of RAM, the Mac Pro can handle up to 16GB, but the MacBook and Mac mini can only hold 2GB.
Click to expand...


Actually the new Core 2 Duo Macbooks will hold 3GB. I will get the 2GB Stick when the price drops alittle. I have two machines to put it into, so $400-500 is not worth it right now. These machines don't slow me down now.
 
Nice. I'm currently running with 1GB [MBP]. I'd like to upgrade to 2GB but all my slots are filled up so I'd have to sell the current sticks first.
 
Photo-Mac-Guy said:
Actually the new Core 2 Duo Macbooks will hold 3GB. I will get the 2GB Stick when the price drops alittle. I have two machines to put it into, so $400-500 is not worth it right now. These machines don't slow me down now.
Click to expand...


No they won't. MacBooks can only hold 2Gb. Even the new C2D ones. Only the new C2D MacBook Pro's are the only notebooks that can have upto 3Gb.
 
MalcolmJID said:
No they won't. MacBooks can only hold 2Gb. Even the new C2D ones. Only the new C2D MacBook Pro's are the only notebooks that can have upto 3Gb.
Click to expand...

Yes; the new C2D Macbooks can, and will, hold the 3GB. 1x1 and 2x1 GB. The increased performance over 2 GB is minimal. It increases performance for multitasking.
 
Although it hasn't been tested by Apple, some third party sellers have tested. I believe OWC was where I have seen this. I have seen the screen shots.
 
The downside to using mismatched DIMM sizes is that the mem controller no longer runs in dual channel mode. It doesn't matter much for the MBP, but the difference in 3D stuff with the integrated graphics will likely be noticable.

Probably depends what you do how much difference it makes.
 
Episteme said:
The downside to using mismatched DIMM sizes is that the mem controller no longer runs in dual channel mode. It doesn't matter much for the MBP, but the difference in 3D stuff with the integrated graphics will likely be noticable.

Probably depends what you do how much difference it makes.
Click to expand...

I completely agree. I don't believe it is worth it at this time with the price. I don't think there will be a worth while performance increase.
 
MalcolmJID said:
No they won't. MacBooks can only hold 2Gb. Even the new C2D ones. Only the new C2D MacBook Pro's are the only notebooks that can have upto 3Gb.
Click to expand...

Just because Apple doesn't offer it as BTO doesn't mean it won't work. The Macbook has the same innards as the Macbook Pro, and therefore, if the MBP can use 3, the MB can too. Obviously Apple considers that anyone who would want more than 2GB RAM will want a discrete graphics card, a bigger screen, and a faster CPU, namely a MBP.

Nice find with the link.
 
Photo-Mac-Guy said:
Last month I bought a base model macbook from a friend.(New in box) He bought it, and before opening it decided to go macbook pro. So I got it for $850. It was less computer than I wanted, but for the price I couldn't pass it up. I finally upgraded. 2GB Ram made a huge difference. I am a professional photographer and use photoshop a lot. The 1.83 processor does great. I don't see much difference between my 24" imac and this when it comes to working in photoshop. Yesterday, I received my 160GB Seagate Hard Drive.
I am a happy man now. Plenty of free space, and fast. All for less than a new base model price through the apple store.
Oh ya, I called Adobe, and they switched my PC license of CS2 to Mac for $5.95 shipping too.
Click to expand...

very cool, i run Adobe CS3 PhotoShop on my MacBook with 2 Gbs, very fast too. :D
 
Erasmus said:
Just because Apple doesn't offer it as BTO doesn't mean it won't work. The Macbook has the same innards as the Macbook Pro, and therefore, if the MBP can use 3, the MB can too. Obviously Apple considers that anyone who would want more than 2GB RAM will want a discrete graphics card, a bigger screen, and a faster CPU, namely a MBP.
Click to expand...

Different motherboard, different chipset... (945P vs 945G, IIRC).
 
Episteme said:
Different motherboard, different chipset... (945P vs 945G, IIRC).
Click to expand...

Are you sure? And even if it is, it probably just means 945 with Integrated graphics, and 945 sans Integrated graphics... They are both the Napa platform, as opposed to Santa Rosa. : (
 
Erasmus said:
Are you sure? And even if it is, it probably just means 945 with Integrated graphics, and 945 sans Integrated graphics... They are both the Napa platform, as opposed to Santa Rosa. : (
Click to expand...

Yeah. Check the pix on ifixit, and yeah, that is the difference. The P/G thing is a standardised thing for Intel -- compare it to P956/G965. (Santa Rosa uses the 965 series).

However, a dif motherboard layout could have meant it may not have supported more than 2GB, it's down to how you hook up the memory. Sounds like it does tho'.

Can't be Santa Rosa, it's not out yet. Soon, hopefully... :)
 
Willis said:
Just as a note, Mac Pros address 32Gb... just that its REALLY expensive for 4GB sticks.
Click to expand...

I want to see this.

I'm not doubting that the Mac Pro can address that much. I just want to see it in operation, because that would be wicked fast.
 
d_and_n5000 said:
I want to see this.

I'm not doubting that the Mac Pro can address that much. I just want to see it in operation, because that would be wicked fast.
Click to expand...

Check out a thread link further up... It has been done, but not many people have done it

EDIT... realised it was a different link, I will find it =)
EDIT 2: Linky
 
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