[OSX-Users] Re: RAM for a macbook

[Hugh Glaser]

I hesitate to venture into such informed company, and not wholly agree with
a tiny bit of it, but... :-)

On 19/07/2010 18:13, "Steve Harris" <swh at ecs.soton.ac.uk> wrote:

> On 2010-07-19, at 17:44, Marcus Cobden wrote:
>> On 19 Jul 2010, at 17:33, Christopher Gutteridge wrote:
>> 
>>> My macbook (White, 2Ghz) is feeling a bit slow and I think it would benefit
>>> from an increase in RAM. (currently 1GB)
>>> 
>>> How much can I upgrade it to?
>> 
>> Depends on the model:
>> https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Macbook#Model_specifications
>> 
>>> Is it worth it?
>> 
>> Yes.
>> 
>> I may have imagined it, but I got the feeling that my battery lasted a little
>> less longer with more RAM. I have no idea if this differs between brands of
>> RAM though.
> 
> That's normal, it's because the disk is doing less work.
Only so far.
If you can afford shitloads of RAM, then the battery will spend its time
powering the extra RAM that is not being used.
Probably not a problem.
But the battery life when asleep may be reduced, as it is keeping the RAM
alive.

Mind you, this was a few years ago, and I am sure that someone will tell me
that it is no longer true.

But a 1->2 upgrade is likely to be stunning.
It is possible that maybe 0.75 Gig of the memory is used most of the time
(system, etc.), and so you will then get 5 times that memory for the other
stuff.
And if you can get to 4 Gig (I wrote Meg first time, as I still remember
machines with K!), then the machine will be better and is likely to last
longer without additional cost or upgrade hassle.

One of the things that has changed over the last few years is how long
machines last. Used to be a couple of years, but a machine like yours, that
was bought a year or two (or more?) ago, will still be good for maybe 3 or 4
more years, unless you are doing fancy graphics processing (or similar) on
it.

Laptops tend to be hard to upgrade bits of memory, so put the most you can
afford in now.
> 
> I would definitely upgrade, it's cheap (around £40, even if you have to throw
> the old stuff away), and makes a huge difference.
> 
> http://www.crucial.com/uk/ will tell you what kind you need, and is often a
> good price.
> 
> - Steve