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Will more RAM help me?

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Original poster
Feb 24, 2006
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Sorry if this is a very basic question....

I have a 2.4Ghz MBP with 2GB of DDR3 RAM.

I use my computer for internet, iPhoto, Word, watching Quicktime movies, and sometimes iMovie.

I am thinking of upping the RAM to 4GB. Would this speed up my system at all? Finder refresh? Make things open faster? Make movies export faster? Or would what I use my computer for not benefit from doubling the RAM?

I'm going to upgrade to Snow Leopard on the day it comes out, and I understand since it is 64-bit, the Finder and apps will be much snappier. Should I just do that? Or will adding more RAM help me me?

Thanks guys!
 
Depends if you're using all your available RAM; open up Activity Monitor, click on System Memory, and check your Page Outs. If there aren't any, don't bother. If there's not much there, don't bother. If there's a ton of paging going on there, then I'd consider upgrading.

Snow Leopard alone should make the system feel snappier.
 
loft3 said:
Sorry if this is a very basic question....

I have a 2.4Ghz MBP with 2GB of DDR3 RAM.

I use my computer for internet, iPhoto, Word, watching Quicktime movies, and sometimes iMovie.

I am thinking of upping the RAM to 4GB. Would this speed up my system at all? Finder refresh? Make things open faster? Make movies export faster? Or would what I use my computer for not benefit from doubling the RAM?

I'm going to upgrade to Snow Leopard on the day it comes out, and I understand since it is 64-bit, the Finder and apps will be much snappier. Should I just do that? Or will adding more RAM help me me?

Thanks guys!
Click to expand...

Given your own criteria, you need an SSD and not more RAM.
 
loft3 said:
I was thinking about getting an SSD. Wonder what a 256 is going for now?
Click to expand...

Still +500$. 128GB goes for ~200$ at lowest though. Get 4GB RAM, it'll speed things up. If you get SSD, don't store your movies there, you'll be wasting it. 128GB is enough or even one with less space is OK.
 
I have the same MBP (see sig). 1-2 months ago I upped the stock 2GB or RAM from 2 - 4GB from crucial. It cost me £60 and was really worth it.
I use my MBP for similar uses to you and not that it would hang much but it is noticeably faster now.

The main advantage is that once you have opened a program in OS X and close it it is stashed on the RAM so reopening it is much faster. I tend to restart my MBP once a week so this helps.

It has also been said that OS X will always use more RAM and 4GB seems to be a standard now. Id say go for it!
 
Trivial rock said:
I have the same MBP (see sig). 1-2 months ago I upped the stock 2GB or RAM from 2 - 4GB from crucial. It cost me £60 and was really worth it.
I use my MBP for similar uses to you and not that it would hang much but it is noticeably faster now.

The main advantage is that once you have opened a program in OS X and close it it is stashed on the RAM so reopening it is much faster. I tend to restart my MBP once a week so this helps.

It has also been said that OS X will always use more RAM and 4GB seems to be a standard now. Id say go for it!
Click to expand...

Very helpful! Thank you!
 
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