The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Macbook Pro RAM Question

    Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by Sonyc, Jul 24, 2008.

  1. Sonyc

    Sonyc Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    14
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    I've decided to buy a macbook pro for college, however upgrading the RAM through apple is way overpriced. I've decided to buy a 2gb DDR2 memory chip online and to install it myself.

    My question is how many slots do i have in the macbook pro for memory? I've been looking to buy the MBP with 2x1gb DDR2 memory chips, but if there are only two slots in the MBP for memory, then it'll only be a 1gb upgrade because one of the 1gb memory chips won't have a slot to fill.

    What i was looking for was to upgrade the MBP to 4gb of memory, but with only two slots that wouldn't be possible for me.
     
    Sonyc, Jul 24, 2008
    #1
  2. dbam987

    dbam987 wicked-poster

    Reputations:
    565
    Messages:
    2,530
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    56
    dbam987, Jul 24, 2008
    #2
  3. sulkorp

    sulkorp Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    145
    Messages:
    1,192
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    The MBP has two slots for memory.

    Stock, it comes with 2x1gb sticks.

    If you want to upgrade to 4gb of memory, you'd need 2x2gb sticks.

    Though if you can't afford two sticks, you can just get one, and get 3gb until you can afford another 2gb stick. Though newegg has ram for cheap, so it shouldn't be too expensive for 4gb.
     
    sulkorp, Jul 24, 2008
    #3
  4. Sam

    Sam Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    3,661
    Messages:
    9,249
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    205
    Yeah, sulkorp's idea is quite good, just get 3 GB until you can afford another 2 GB stick. But really, even 3 GB is quite good already, at the moment there isn't too much of a need for 4 GB, unless you're doing virtualization or heavy video editing in which it will help.
     
    Sam, Jul 24, 2008
    #4
  5. Sonyc

    Sonyc Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    14
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    hmm sounds like a solid idea.

    So what should i do with the extra 1gb stick lying around when i'm done installing?

    ebay?
     
    Sonyc, Jul 24, 2008
    #5
  6. dbam987

    dbam987 wicked-poster

    Reputations:
    565
    Messages:
    2,530
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    56
    Keep it as a backup. You never know when a stick will go bad on you.
     
    dbam987, Jul 24, 2008
    #6
  7. Sam

    Sam Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    3,661
    Messages:
    9,249
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    205
    I think its best to keep it store safely. If you ever run into issues with the Mac and Apple lets you exchange it for a new one, you will need to have RAM in the returned machine, and I don't think you want to give back 3 GB when you paid for 2 GB with the machine ;).
     
    Sam, Jul 24, 2008
    #7