Need 4GB of ram for new (aluminium) macbook

Playalistic · 20-11-2008, 8:25 PM

Hi chaps,

I'm looking around for 4GB of RAM to upgrade a new aluminium macbook. The only one i've found so far (which also seems to be out of stock everywhere i've looked) is the kingston 4GB kit. Any suggestions which RAM I can use and where it is in stock please?

Also, I'm going to put a 7200rpm drive in, I've been thinking of the Seagate Momentus 7200.3 320GB drive, any suggestions on this? Not too bothered about power drain just looking for performance for running vista thru VMware fusion. Cheers!

ash · 20-11-2008, 8:51 PM

Try the Crucial website?

jont · 20-11-2008, 8:52 PM

this at crucial.com : 4GB kit (2GBx2), 204-pin SODIMM, DDR3 PC3-8500 upgrades for Apple MacBook Pro 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (15-inch DDR3) MB470LL/A Laptop/Notebook, CT898331 from Crucial.com ??

Jon

Playalistic · 20-11-2008, 10:24 PM

Are these definitely compatible with the new aluminium macbook, not the MBP by the way.

Playalistic · 20-11-2008, 10:41 PM

From the manual:

Each memory slot can accept an SDRAM module that meets the following
specifications:

Â Double Data Rate Small Outline Dual Inline Memory Module (DDR3) format
Â 1.25 inch (3.18 cm)
Â 1 GB or 2 GB
Â 200-pin
Â PC3-8500 DDR3 1066 MHz Type RAM

The sticks in the link were 204-pin so I guess these wouldn't be compatible.

Playalistic · 20-11-2008, 10:46 PM

Answering myself here but just run the memory profiler tool (had assumed before that it was a windows only thing) and it shows up the following:

Memory upgrades from Crucial.com - Determine My Memory Needs

As compatible. Happy times.

jont · 20-11-2008, 10:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Playalistic

Are these definitely compatible with the new aluminium macbook, not the MBP by the way.

Apologies - didn't read post but you found the right place

Jon

Playalistic · 20-11-2008, 11:01 PM

I'm still slightly concerned though as the manual states 200-pin sodimms yet these are 204-pin. I'll call crucial anyway and confirm.

Digitalize · 20-11-2008, 11:25 PM

Trust Crucial, if it doesnt work you get a refund.

**Steven** · 21-11-2008, 10:02 PM

You definitely need DDR3 ram with 204 pins

DDR2 ram is not compatible with the new aluminium macbook

Playalistic · 22-11-2008, 4:28 PM

Ordered yesterday at 4pm ish delivered today at 8.30am. All installed and working great now if anyone was interested. Crucial are outstanding!

Also replaced the hard disk with a 320gb seagate momentus 7200.3. All sorted!

TerryUK · 03-12-2008, 4:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Playalistic

Ordered yesterday at 4pm ish delivered today at 8.30am. All installed and working great now if anyone was interested. Crucial are outstanding!

Also replaced the hard disk with a 320gb seagate momentus 7200.3. All sorted!

Can you tell much diffrence in speed with the new HDD and RAM?

I just got myself a macbook last week, so far so good but Vista litreally kills mac when running in a virtual machine.

Playalistic · 03-12-2008, 4:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TechTez

Can you tell much diffrence in speed with the new HDD and RAM?

I just got myself a macbook last week, so far so good but Vista litreally kills mac when running in a virtual machine.

Without a doubt. Especially with VM performance. It wasn't horrible before but not exactly screaming. After the HD upgrade and bumping the VM up to 2GB of allocated RAM everything is fine. Should tell you i'm running server 2008 though which is a little less frivolous than normal vista.

TerryUK · 03-12-2008, 4:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Playalistic

Without a doubt. Especially with VM performance. It wasn't horrible before but not exactly screaming. After the HD upgrade and bumping the VM up to 2GB of allocated RAM everything is fine. Should tell you i'm running server 2008 though which is a little less frivolous than normal vista.

I was using server 2008 too !

It was running horrible, it was able to run though, but it felt way to slow, need to find a way to let me edit my word documents and visual basic, currently trying 'crossover' if that fails looks like only way left is using bootcamp which i dont think supports server 2008 :-(

Playalistic · 03-12-2008, 5:29 PM

Are you using VMWare or Parallels? You can bootcamp with 2008 server, it's not officially supported but I know a few people who have this set up.

TerryUK · 03-12-2008, 5:32 PM

I was using parallels.

can i just ask, on your trackpad thing, are the two top corners hard to click down? On mine i need to put a lot of pressure the top two corners and the bottom two click really easy. Just wondering if its just mine or if they are all like that.

Playalistic · 03-12-2008, 5:38 PM

They're all made like that AFAIK. It's hinged from the top if that makes sense?

Try VMware instead, its supposedly a bit faster than parallels. Either way, usually most VM performance issues are solved by a little more RAM and quicker IO (7200rpm disk etc).

ash · 03-12-2008, 6:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TechTez

I was using parallels.

can i just ask, on your trackpad thing, are the two top corners hard to click down? On mine i need to put a lot of pressure the top two corners and the bottom two click really easy. Just wondering if its just mine or if they are all like that.

Yeah they are built like that.

J0hnEast0n · 03-12-2008, 7:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Playalistic

Hi chaps,

I'm looking around for 4GB of RAM to upgrade a new aluminium macbook. The only one i've found so far (which also seems to be out of stock everywhere i've looked) is the kingston 4GB kit. Any suggestions which RAM I can use and where it is in stock please?

Also, I'm going to put a 7200rpm drive in, I've been thinking of the Seagate Momentus 7200.3 320GB drive, any suggestions on this? Not too bothered about power drain just looking for performance for running vista thru VMware fusion. Cheers!

Mac Upgrades - Macintosh Upgrades in the UK

Playalistic · 03-12-2008, 7:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by J0hnEast0n

Mac Upgrades - Macintosh Upgrades in the UK

Umm cheers, but read the rest of the thread

! I ended up buying ram from crucial.

newbie1980 · 08-12-2008, 4:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Playalistic

Ordered yesterday at 4pm ish delivered today at 8.30am. All installed and working great now if anyone was interested. Crucial are outstanding!

Also replaced the hard disk with a 320gb seagate momentus 7200.3. All sorted!

can you post a link to the exact products?

also, how easy is it to do yourself?

is there a possibility to pu in a 7200 500GB into the new macbooks?

newbie1980 · 08-12-2008, 4:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by newbie1980

can you post a link to the exact products?

also, how easy is it to do yourself?

is there a possibility to pu in a 7200 500GB into the new macbooks?

i have just noticed the extra RAM is 96 quid on crucial. that is exactly the same as you would pay for getting it straight with your order from apple

Playalistic · 08-12-2008, 5:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by newbie1980

i have just noticed the extra RAM is 96 quid on crucial. that is exactly the same as you would pay for getting it straight with your order from apple

Cool, however I bought mine from John Lewis not from Apple, also you don't get to keep the original RAM as well (although how useful this is I am not sure

) so really you're not comparing like-for-like here.

The hard disk I purchased is here:
SEAGATE HD Momentus 7200.3/320GB 2.5''SATA7200rpm - Misco.co.uk

You might be able to get it cheaper if you shop around. I didn't really look hard. You could fit a 500GB drive if you so wish.

The upgrade process was very simple for the HD. A little more complicated for the RAM as it requires you take off the complete back panel. I'd recommend you take a look at the manual PDF from the Apple site as this details the whole procedure.

With the HD I backed up my original drive with time machine, installed the new drive and OSX then restored my backup. You can also use superduper to create a bootable backup I believe which would simplify the procedure. HTH.

jms_uk · 24-01-2009, 4:20 PM

The RAM prices are now down to £66 (crucial) and £55 (Kingston)...

Its probably worth holding on to the original RAM just incase the "3rd party RAM freezing issue" rears its ugly head.. The annoying thing, is that it doesn't appear to affect all MBs/MBPs and it seems to be random what type of RAM it is.. some people are reporting Crucial is fine, others not.. same with Kingston.. and so on..

I'm taking the plunge and going for a 4Gb upgrade of either (not sure which) - but considering a High St apple reseller is asking for £160

to fit the "apple branded" RAM in-store that's extortionate!!

Playalistic · 24-01-2009, 5:29 PM

The crucial stuff has been fine for me. I ran a hardware test once it had been installed which obviously checked out fine. Also i'm pretty much on my mac constantly with stacks of things running and usually one or two virtual machines as well, I've never had a single problem with the crucial stuff. I have kept the original ram just in case.