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Wow.. I didn't realize RAM wasn't upgradeable at all :(

OrlandoTragic

OrlandoTragic

macrumors 68000
Original poster
May 13, 2007
1,517
380
Orlando, FL
Welp. I sold my 13" MBP the other day in hopes of getting one of the new 13" MBP's, but was sorely disappointed at the lack of a better resolution, so I settled on a 13" MBA with the thought being that I could just bump the RAM up to 4GB.

Now I find out that I can't upgrade at all :( It's my own fault for not doing more research I suppose. I just felt like venting.
 
D

donster28

macrumors 68000
Oct 5, 2006
1,726
811
Great White North
duelingdragons said:
Welp. I sold my 13" MBP the other day in hopes of getting one of the new 13" MBP's, but was sorely disappointed at the lack of a better resolution, so I settled on a 13" MBA with the thought being that I could just bump the RAM up to 4GB.

Now I find out that I can't upgrade at all :( It's my own fault for not doing more research I suppose. I just felt like venting.
Click to expand...

For what the MacBook Air is made for, you don't really need the extra 2 gigs. I bought a base 11" yesterday after some extensive research and believe me I was not disappointed a bit after playing around with it for a while. No matter what I throw at it it remains snappy. I am a videographer looking for a more portable solution to my 2009 MacBook Pro 13" (which I sold to get the air), and believe me Final Cut runs like butter on the Air! HD videos from the web run great as well. Microsoft Office 2011 just zooms. Heck, you can even play COD Modern Warfare 2 on it, just search for videos on YouTube for evidence.

And you know what else, I've had multiple programs running including memory hogs like Safari and never did my memory run out. I was monitoring it with Activity Monitor.

Having an SSD drive really helps in this regard so don't get put off by the 2 gigs. It is hard to teach an old dog new tricks. I myself wanted the 4 gig version, believing in what I learned before: more memory is better. man, was I wrong on this one. :)
 
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bobobenobi

macrumors regular
Feb 4, 2010
202
0
donster28 said:
I myself wanted the 4 gig version, believing in what I learned before: more memory is better. man, was I wrong on this one. :)
Click to expand...

More memory is *always* better. Just because you talked yourself out of spending the extra $100 doesn't mean that memory suddenly becomes unimportant.
 
D

donster28

macrumors 68000
Oct 5, 2006
1,726
811
Great White North
bobobenobi said:
More memory is *always* better. Just because you talked yourself out of spending the extra $100 doesn't mean that memory suddenly becomes unimportant.
Click to expand...

Duh, I was not saying memory is unimportant, I was just justifying its needs. And no, I did not talk myself out of spending more, I was just wise to buy enough for my needs. And yes, $100 is still a heck of a sushi dinner.

More memory is always better if your needs demand it. I have a Mac Pro with 12 gigs of RAM and I don't even get to use half of it for my very demanding applications. I will not be opening a boatload of apps on my MBA so why waste my money on something I don't need.

BTW, have you used a base MBA yourself? Just curious.
 
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rkahl

macrumors 65816
Jul 29, 2010
1,021
0
donster28 said:
I find it hard to believe you don't know what it's made for, and you're logged in to these informative forums. If you really need to know, Google is your friend. ;)
Click to expand...

Who needs google when you have donster28?
 
K

KPOM

macrumors P6
Oct 23, 2010
18,311
8,326
duelingdragons said:
Welp. I sold my 13" MBP the other day in hopes of getting one of the new 13" MBP's, but was sorely disappointed at the lack of a better resolution, so I settled on a 13" MBA with the thought being that I could just bump the RAM up to 4GB.

Now I find out that I can't upgrade at all :( It's my own fault for not doing more research I suppose. I just felt like venting.
Click to expand...

Hellhammer said:
If you're still within the 14-day return period, go and exchange it for model with 4GB of RAM.
Click to expand...

x2. You just bought it yesterday, so you can return it and get the 4GB version. Apple eliminated their restocking fees.

They really need to do a better job educating people that the RAM isn't upgradable. Better yet, they ought to make 4GB standard on the next revision.
 
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rkahl

macrumors 65816
Jul 29, 2010
1,021
0
KPOM said:
x2. You just bought it yesterday, so you can return it and get the 4GB version. Apple eliminated their restocking fees.

They really need to do a better job educating people that the RAM isn't upgradable. Better yet, they ought to make 4GB standard on the next revision.
Click to expand...

I agree 100% about the RAM education. Apple could even profit more by doing so. Even a pop-up window disclaimer would do it.
 
Z

Zortrium

macrumors 6502
Jun 23, 2003
461
0
I recently upgraded the RAM from 2 gigs to 4 gigs on my wife's aluminum MacBook (which is used pretty much exclusively for Firefox, OpenOffice, and Mail) because it was constantly beachballing from all the swapping.

So yeah, you want 4 gigs. 2 isn't nearly enough nowadays.
 
n1tut

n1tut

macrumors regular
Nov 20, 2010
198
1
Glen of Newmill, Keith, Scotland
Usual rubbish spoken about 2gb not being enough.

4gb would make no difference to my usage nor would it do to many others. If you KNOW that you actually need the max then buy it, but do not try telling me that I need it.

tut
 
M

mm1250

macrumors 6502
Sep 3, 2007
327
43
It's a bit disappointing that Apple doesn't put any disclaimer on their website that the memory is non-user upgradeable like other laptops on the market. I think in a year to come, tons of users who thought they can update their ram and didn't know about this limitation because Apple never disclosed are going to be extremely pissed!
 
S

simeezee

macrumors member
Jun 18, 2009
88
0
donster28 said:
For what the MacBook Air is made for, you don't really need the extra 2 gigs. I bought a base 11" yesterday after some extensive research and believe me I was not disappointed a bit after playing around with it for a while. No matter what I throw at it it remains snappy. I am a videographer looking for a more portable solution to my 2009 MacBook Pro 13" (which I sold to get the air), and believe me Final Cut runs like butter on the Air! HD videos from the web run great as well. Microsoft Office 2011 just zooms. Heck, you can even play COD Modern Warfare 2 on it, just search for videos on YouTube for evidence.

And you know what else, I've had multiple programs running including memory hogs like Safari and never did my memory run out. I was monitoring it with Activity Monitor.

Having an SSD drive really helps in this regard so don't get put off by the 2 gigs. It is hard to teach an old dog new tricks. I myself wanted the 4 gig version, believing in what I learned before: more memory is better. man, was I wrong on this one. :)
Click to expand...

I agree with you on this one. I have iStats menus installed and constantly monitoring my RAM usage. 2GB of RAM is sufficient.
 
Hellhammer

Hellhammer

Moderator emeritus
Dec 10, 2008
22,164
582
Finland
mm1250 said:
It's a bit disappointing that Apple doesn't put any disclaimer on their website that the memory is non-user upgradeable like other laptops on the market. I think in a year to come, tons of users who thought they can update their ram and didn't know about this limitation because Apple never disclosed are going to be extremely pissed!
Click to expand...

Usually companies don't advertise the shortcomings of their products. You should always do your own research before buying.
 
Beanoir

Beanoir

macrumors 6502a
Dec 9, 2010
571
2
51 degrees North
Not everybody feels the need to run 4GB of RAM in their MBA, I for one don't need it, and the extra money to get it would have been a waste of money.

I do however think Apple should allow for user upgradable RAM in ALL of their computers.

The RAM can be upgraded by the user, but only if you have the required tools and know-how, I wouldn't recommend doing it unless you are very confident you have both.
 
R

rugox

macrumors regular
Oct 16, 2008
124
0
More RAM is always good. Getting more RAM isn't a waste of money in this case if the MBA can't be user upgraded. This is especially true if you are thinking about the OS X Lion due to be released this summer.
 
G

G4DP

macrumors 65816
Mar 28, 2007
1,451
3
If the OP has any desire to upgrade the OS in the Summer to Lion then he will need 4GB. It seems from the few source so far it needs at least 2GB alone.

Any Dev's want to chime in on this one?
 
H

Hands Sandon

macrumors 6502
Aug 3, 2008
349
0
4GB's has the bragging rights, but my base 13" flies always, no matter what. It feels like it's got 130 GB's of RAM. So what if some people have the 132 GB or the 258 GB's models? ;)
 
Psilocybin

Psilocybin

macrumors 6502a
Jan 16, 2011
592
0
Ontario, Canada
G4DP said:
If the OP has any desire to upgrade the OS in the Summer to Lion then he will need 4GB. It seems from the few source so far it needs at least 2GB alone.

Any Dev's want to chime in on this one?
Click to expand...

It runs fine on 2gb. I'm running it on a 2009 MacBook 2.0 dual core/2gb ram with no lag and no problems
 
Alvi

Alvi

macrumors 65816
Oct 31, 2008
1,209
311
Mars
When I bought my 13"MBP it came with just 2GB and it didn't quite do it, it was fast but it didn't really work well when multitasking, I upgraded to 8GB because now it's cheap, although it was overkill, mostly I'm using 3.5 GB, the highest I reached was 6 I think.

Anyway, it's better to use your memory at a 50% than at a 90%
 
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