Macbook Pro RAM...

Eighth Avenue

Eighth Avenue

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Iain
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Hi guys,

looking to upgrade the RAM on my 13" Macbook Pro from 4GB to 8GB but don't know a great deal about computers. I know how to change the RAM but don't know what to look for in terms of specs.

Are there any particular brands I should be looking for that give better performances than others? Also anywhere in particular you recommend buying it from? Had Scan recommended to me, good prices?

Thanks

Iain
 
Firstly you need to make sure your MBP can 'see' 8Gb of RAM. My 13" white MacBook (the one before the current one) and it can only see 4Gb (currently at 2Gb, going to 4Gb soon when funds allow). Also, what are you reasons for wanting to go to 8Gb? My 2Gb seems to hold up to 80% of the conditions I throw at it (the only reason I want the 4Gb is for the 20% when I get bogged down and I need to get on with work). What processor does it have? If it's the older dual core Intel you won't see much improvement over 4Gb as the processor will hold you back. If you have the new i5 or i7 (especially the i7) then it might make more sense.

If it's a year or so old you're looking at DDR2 ram, but if it's one of the newer ones you're looking at the more efficient DDR3 type ram.

What sort of work are you doing and what particularly is causing you to bog down? I've found closing all the programs I'm not using (right click on the dock and 'Quit') speeds me up quite a bit if things are slowing down, and I shut down every night to get a fresh start every morning.

For the record I have a 2.5y/o white MacBook, 2Gb RAM, 2.4Ghz Core 2 Duo Intel processor and a 500Gb HDD (upgraded from the original 160Gb).

Also, Crucial are generally the place to buy upgrades for Macs:
http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/drammemory.aspx
 
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Thanks for the reply Jack. I have a 13" Macbook pro, not he brand new ones with the i5 but eh core 2 duo, 4gb one. I was under the impression that you could upgrade it to 8gb although I'm not 100%.

I want to upgrade as I run CS5 with Bridge as well as Chrome and iTunes (and possibly finder), some times it freezes up a little and doesn't run as slick as i'd like when I apply filters in cs5. But, as I have said, I'm not great with computers so is this the RAM or that the processor can't hack it?
 
Eighth Avenue said:
Thanks for the reply Jack. I have a 13" Macbook pro, not he brand new ones with the i5 but eh core 2 duo, 4gb one. I was under the impression that you could upgrade it to 8gb although I'm not 100%.

I want to upgrade as I run CS5 with Bridge as well as Chrome and iTunes (and possibly finder), some times it freezes up a little and doesn't run as slick as i'd like when I apply filters in cs5. But, as I have said, I'm not great with computers so is this the RAM or that the processor can't hack it?
Click to expand...

A mixture of both. This is how I understand it (although I may well be wrong):

Imagine an office. You have a desk, a man and a filing cabinet. The filing cabinet is your hard drive, the desk is your ram and the man is your processor. On the desk is some paper (all the stuff you're doing on your laptop at once). When you upgrade the ram, you make the table bigger so you can fit more paper on it, but even then if the man can't keep up with moving the paper around things are going to slow down. Upgrading your ram may well give you some improvements but you're looking at a pretty hefty sum to pick up two 4Gb sticks, which may not improve the speed as much as you'd like. I've also read that upgrading your ram doesn't make your computer any faster, it just helps to minimise the things slowing it down.

You might be better off trying to improve your work flow rather than upgrading. Like I said, make sure any program you're not using is closed properly rather than running in the background. Neither Finder nor your browser should take up a lot of power when doing simple tasks but CS5 may well start taxing your processor and ram if you're doing particularly complex tasks. I often have problems when I'm running iPhoto and Photoshop CS4 at the same time. I may try Bridge to see if it improves things.
 
Nuffles said:
A mixture of both. This is how I understand it (although I may well be wrong):

Imagine an office. You have a desk, a man and a filing cabinet. The filing cabinet is your hard drive, the desk is your ram and the man is your processor. On the desk is some paper (all the stuff you're doing on your laptop at once). When you upgrade the ram, you make the table bigger so you can fit more paper on it, but even then if the man can't keep up with moving the paper around things are going to slow down. Upgrading your ram may well give you some improvements but you're looking at a pretty hefty sum to pick up two 4Gb sticks, which may not improve the speed as much as you'd like. I've also read that upgrading your ram doesn't make your computer any faster, it just helps to minimise the things slowing it down.

You might be better off trying to improve your work flow rather than upgrading. Like I said, make sure any program you're not using is closed properly rather than running in the background. Neither Finder nor your browser should take up a lot of power when doing simple tasks but CS5 may well start taxing your processor and ram if you're doing particularly complex tasks. I often have problems when I'm running iPhoto and Photoshop CS4 at the same time. I may try Bridge to see if it improves things.
Click to expand...

I use Bridge to flick through the images and decide which to edit, I then pop them into CS5 to edit them, I have iTunes open as I like to listen to music as I edit and have Chrome open to stop me from getting bored :D and to sometimes watch tutorials on different editing techniques.

The website you gave me recommends 8GB for £71.99, not too bad but may wait a while. Gutted that the new i5 model is only £50 more than mine :(
 
Eighth Avenue said:
I use Bridge to flick through the images and decide which to edit, I then pop them into CS5 to edit them, I have iTunes open as I like to listen to music as I edit and have Chrome open to stop me from getting bored :D and to sometimes watch tutorials on different editing techniques.

The website you gave me recommends 8GB for £71.99, not too bad but may wait a while. Gutted that the new i5 model is only £50 more than mine :(
Click to expand...

That's exactly what I do with iPhoto. Have you discovered the joys of spaces yet? You can set up spaces with Chrome (Firefox in my case) in one space, Bridge and Photoshop in another, and finder in another. You can then flick between these spaces with (in my case) cmd+an arrow key. This massive improves work flow as you have to use the mouse less.
 
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Eighth Avenue said:
Aye, although I've cut it down to two spaces and use for everything in one, VLC in the other although i've set up the touchpad to do it with a three finger swipe ;)
Click to expand...

Mine's too old for three finger swipe :'( I enquired in the Apple store as to whether or not a firmware upgrade would give me multitouch mk2 but alas no. I only get two finger scroll and two finger tap to give right click. I would love two finger zoom/rotate and three finger swipe but not for a year or so I shouldn't think.
 
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