Is 4GB ram really needed or will 2GB be good enough for me?

Im gonna pick up a macbook and looking at the $999US/$1099CDN model that is 2.26 C2D, 250GB, 2GB ram with 3MB L2 and 8x superdrive (superdrive is dvd burner right?). Anyways, just wanted to know if this will do the 2GB or pay more money for 4GB. If I add 2 more GB what brand of sticks will do? Any brand as long as their DDR3?

I notice the 2GB DDR sticks to be at least $50 a piece, and since the 2GB macbook model would ship with 2x1GB sticks and if I replace them I obviously wouldnt be able to use it so it would be a waste of money. Shouldnt I just pay the extra $100 to apple directly and get them to add the extra 2GB ram? Then I dont have to fiddle with other parts or selling off the 2x1GB sticks,.

 

Yes, with the Superdrive you can burn both DVD's/CD's.

As for if the extra RAM is needed, it really depends on what you're planning to do with the machine. Most users are fine with just 2GB.

Any DDR3 1066mhz laptop RAM will do. Make sure to get two 2GB sticks (there are only 2 memory slots).

Good video guide on how to install the additional RAM:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ue23Qbk8mf0

 

if you need more ram don't buy it from apple. 2GB is actually not bad on osx, but if you want more buy it from newegg or something and install it yourself. It'll be much cheaper.

 

If the money isnt the issue, get the upgrade. Better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it, I always say.

 

My current installation of OSX with safari open is using almost 1.5GB of RAM. if it were me, I'd get 4GB.

On Win7, 2GB is enough for a basic setup. I have not done a thorough review of my system yet to see what's eating up all that RAM.

 

It depends on your needs. I don't know about Snow Leopard, but Leopard actually handles very well in a 2GB situation.

 

MBP 13"
Safari open with 2 browser windows
Itunes on and playing music
1.24GB on the activity monitor.
I have the activity monitor open most of the time and I don't think I have ever gone over 1.5gb of used memory.
However it all depends how many and what programs you have open but I think in general the OS doesn't use nearly as much as vista or win7(haven't kept up with win7 lately though)

 

Win7 has done a good job with memory. My Win7 laptop uses 390MB and it has 4GB of to play with. Vista ... let's not talk about that one kay?

I have to go through my leopard system and see what I can do to bring it down to 1GB. I also have 4GB for leopard to play with.

The killer is my OpenSuse installation that will happily run at around 190MB.

 

The more memory that you have, the more that the operating system will use.

Right now, I have 6GB of ram in my desktop, and well more than half of that is being used (I have about 12 applications open), but some of that is inactive too. It has already been allocated, but isn't currently being used.

Either way, I wouldn't buy the ram from Apple. That is just a waste of money.

 

I use my MBP for "normal" stuff like the OP, I have 4GB RAM (b/c I need to use VMware and have Win7 on it as well), but under OS X I rarely see over 1.5GB ram in use FWIW.

On my Win7 Pro x64 work desktop, I have 8GB RAM...I currently have 3 IE8 tabs open in 2 browers, 2 Windows Explorer, MS Outlook and AutoCAD 2010 open with 2 drawings and I've only engaged 2.2GB even with Norton AV running. I'd consider that "above average" use and I've barely crossed 2GB.

 

Do you know the CAS latency on the MBPs? And are they forced or read off the chip?

If it's CAS 7, $50 each is only $10 more than the absolute cheapest one on Newegg. You won't be able to sell the 2x1GB sticks for money, but selling such a cheap item isn't worth the hassle. Plus, you'll get the warranty through Apple, which will let you walk into the store and exchange RAM for free, rather than having to ship stuff to whatever Taiwanese company you bought RAM from.

 

Yep, as others have said, depends on your needs. One thing to note, if you're planning on running any type of virtual machine (like Windows in VMWare, Parallels, etc.) I would say you need 4GB, as you'll be splitting it between two full operating systems running at the same time.

And buy the RAM yourself. You'll be able to get 4GB for the MBP cheaper than $100 from almost anywhere (online), and it's not hard to install at all.

 

While easy to install, the price issue is not necessarily the case anymore, and industry reports suggest that RAM is not going to be inexpensive anymore as wholesale production prices from Micron etc has finally picked up.

For MB and MBP entry models that still do not ship with 4GB, the 2x2 upgrade by Apple is priced at $100. For any non-power users who may be reading through the forums this approach carries the advantage of the memory being directly covered by Apple in the event of a failure instead of the end-user having to call and deal with Crucial, Kingston etc (which is OK, but potentially more of a hassle compared to the AppleCare or the standard 1yr warranty), i.e. AppleCare would probably just swap the RAM in-store for you. You also must have a #00 phillips screwdriver to fit into those tiny little screws on the bottom case, which costs $5-10 depending on source.

If you look around right now on NewEgg etc for DDR3 2x2GB upgrade kits from any manufacturer, the price has doubled in the past 4 months to $90-120 without shipping... in September I bought two 4GB kits to upgrade our notebooks for $110.

You can still save a little (maybe) by going with aftermarket RAM, but the big advantage of the past is long gone.

 

I see users here barely using more than 2GB of RAM.
On my MBP 2.66 with 4GB RAM I have even the mouse going slow (the new apple touch mouse) with the following running:
- Paralles (one virtual Win7 running, almost nothing heavy running on the machine)
-Mail
-Calendar
-Safara
-1 or 2 Remote Desktop sessions.

I find that Parallels kills the laptop, without running it I only get over 2GB myself with FCE.

 

two is fine for basic stuff... i found using photoshop and a few other heavy programs tend to bog down a bit where 4g would help it out.

 

I just received a macbook pro refurb last month with 2 gig ram. I thought I may get by on only the 2 gig, but that was not the case. When running virtualbox, (which works very well btw), and osx, it just wasn't enough. If not for running a virtual machine however, I am pretty sure the 2 gig would have worked out fine.

As far as the prices, 100.00 for 2 gig installed is not bad right now. Most online places wanted at least that, some more. I found some for 35.00 a stick from J&R music (74.00 shipped), and it was pretty easy to install.

If I were at all worried about the installation I would just buy it from apple. my how things change.