MacBook max memory?

[koffiejunkie]

I've kinda decided to go for a MacBook. MBP is, of course, first prize, but I want something as small as possible. I really wish Apple would make the MBP available in something the size of the Sony Vaio TX5 (I think - 11" jobbie with all the bells&whistles).

Anyway, I looked up the maximum memory on the MacBook - 2GB according to the Tech Specs page on Apple's website. Then I looked at what Kingston has for the MacBook, and noticed they say the 3rd gen MacBook can take 4GB.

Does anyone here have a MacBook running on more than 2GB?

 

[Gadget Man]

I have a Macbook 3rd generation. There are two slots which can take 2 x 2GB. The machine will however only recognise 3 GB out of the 4 GB if you put in this configuration. Even though a 1 x 1GB and 1 x 2GB is not matched, there is little performance difference between that and a 2 x 2GB. There was a link to a site that had done some tests about 2 months ago (don't have this link now - do a google search).

I eventually upgraded to 2 x 1GB Samsung chips. The 2GB Samsung chip was almost three times the price. Didn't seem like value and I didn't need to boost RAM beyond 2GB.

Hope this helps.

JayN

 

[bwana]

I know the MacBook Pro would recognise 3 out of 4gb but never knew the MacBook would do that.

 

[koffiejunkie]

I know the MacBook Pro would recognise 3 out of 4gb but never knew the MacBook would do that.

Is this a hardware limitation or the OS being 32bit? I thought the C2D chips are 64bit capable - are they still shipping 32bit OSX with it?

 

[koffiejunkie]

There was a link to a site that had done some tests about 2 months ago (don't have this link now - do a google search).

Thanks JayN, I'll look this up tonight.

 

[bwana]

Is this a hardware limitation or the OS being 32bit? I thought the C2D chips are 64bit capable - are they still shipping 32bit OSX with it?

Tomorrow would be a better day to ask.

http://eshop.macsales.com/Reviews/MacBook/Testing/Memory_Benchmarks

 

[koffiejunkie]

Tomorrow would be a better day to ask.

Too true...

http://eshop.macsales.com/Reviews/MacBook/Testing/Memory_Benchmarks

Thanks this is good news. Interesting to see that there's a slight performance benefit when going from 3GB to 4GB even if the OS only sees three. I guess when you have 3GB the OS still loses the memory that's used for video RAM, while, if you have 4GB, that can be taken from the extra GB.

A 2GB so-dimm is rougly 4 times as expensive as a 1GB, so I guess I'll wait for a while before I make that jump. It's just good to know it's possible.