Upgrading Memory in MBP-Which Brand?

markw10markw10
Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
I purchased a C2D MBP last fall and because of the extra $500 or so for 3GB chose to go with 2GB. I'm sure memory has gone down in price some and most of all it's cheaper to buy elsewhere than Apple.

My questions:

Since I have 2GB of memory would each slot be filled up requiring me to purchase one 2GB stick to use with one of the 1GB sticks already installed or would it be just one 2GB stick allowing me to get a 1GB stick to add to it?

Is this something that is easily done by the user?

Most of all, what is the best memory out there? I want a reasonable price but don't want to buy anything that will cause stability issues.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 4
    jupiteronejupiterone Posts: 1,564member
    My Ramjet RAM is working just fine for me. But I've seen others suggest Crucial too. But I only upgraded from 1GB to 2GB.



    I'm not sure of your configuration, but I always heard that you should pair them evenly so you would need 2 x 1.5GB chips (does that exist?), to equal 3GB. But maybe someone else can verify that.



    Changing out the RAM on my MBP was sooooooo simple. ...Once I found the correct screwdriver. \
  • Reply 2 of 4
    f0nd004uf0nd004u Posts: 19member
    to have 3gb of RAM installed in a MBP, you need 1x 1gb, 1x 2gb. It's really hard to find 2gb chips in ddr-2 667 laptop format, and when you do find them, they're really expensive. Buying it from apple actually isn't a bad idea. But, you can check newegg, and new chips are coming out all the time. 2gb chips will get cheaper eventually.



    I've heard people get good results with most all the nicer ram available: Corsair, Patriot and OCZ are always good choices, as are mushkin and crucial. Check reviews on newegg for compatibility.
  • Reply 3 of 4
    lundylundy Posts: 4,466member
    If you bought it with 2GB, then it has two 1GB modules. To get 3GB you would have to toss one of those and replace it with a 2GB module which is very expensive.



    Check Activity Monitor under System Memory/Pageouts to see if there are a lot of pageouts after exercising the machine with your usual workflow for a couple of hours. If there are none or just a few thousand, then more memory isn't necessarily going to make much difference.



    The memory in the MacBook is probably the easiest to install of any Apple notebook ever. See http://eshop.macsales.com/tech_cente...book/high.html for a video of how to do it.
  • Reply 4 of 4
    markw10markw10 Posts: 356member
    I'm thinking of getting the one in this link:

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145172

    My question: Is it safe to pair that with one of the 1GB sticks in my machine or am I better off getting the matching version of a 1GB stick from Corsair?

    As well, I know this will mean my memory is no longer dual channel but is it true that the extra 1GB far outweighs the loss of dual channel?
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