Upgrading Macbook with 3rd party RAM

Vox Populi Vox Dei

Vox Populi Vox Dei

High Tory
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While there's no easy way to bring down the starting price of a new Mac, there are ways to save money if you're looking to go top-of-the-line on extras, specifically memory. For example, when I bought my MacBook Pro last month, I saved over $300 by upgrading the RAM myself, a process requiring only a few minutes. Here's how I did it.

First of all, a quick glance at the economics: The bargain basement MacBook Pro from Apple will set you back $1,999.00 with 512MB of RAM (hardly enough for a system running OS X, in my opinion). To really boost the power, I grabbed 2 x 1GB sticks of RAM from Newegg, which cost around $170. Had I ordered the 2GB RAM upgrade from Apple, the price of my MBP would have jumped $500.

Seems ridiculous for a five minute procedure and some cheap RAM, right? Apple's documentation for upgrading your MacBook Pro's memory should give you a pretty good idea of what's involved, but if you're still not convinced that upgrading the RAM yourself is doable, check out the video I made of my upgrade. (Music courtesy of Rayza via CCHits)
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Watch the video here
 
Yup, have to agree here. I only wish that 2GB of RAM only cost R1500 here instead of the more like R2k it does. And what is more criminal is that by upgradig yourself you have to toss the 2x 256MB RAM that comes with the machine while if you pay Apple the $500 they keep the memory and can reuse it.
 
Who in their right mind would still make 256 RAM modules...
 
neio said:
Who in their right mind would still make 256 RAM modules...
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From what I gather the new machines benefit from having two matched pairs of ram modules in at a time - though to what degree I don't know although one article I read claimed it was as much as 10%.
 
MBP's not MB's

So the upgrade was for the MacBook PRO, not the MacBook.

All the MacBook Pro's now come with one stick of RAM, meaning you can easily go to 1mb or 1.5mb by adding one stick of memory to the 2.0ghz 15"; or go to 1.5mb or 2mb by adding 1 stick of memory to the 2.16ghz 15" or the 17".

I've read that the MacBooks are more sensitive to the memory being in dual channel mode, and they all ship standard with matched pairs of memory sticks, meaning that if you do the upgrade yourself, you are going to end up with a couple of memory sticks that you need to flog. I don't think that would be a problem if you can use ebay, should be pretty simple to get ur money back.

AFAIK there is loads of 128 and 256 so-dimm memory around - loads of <R8000 laptops come with 512mb or less.
 
Upgrading MacBook (or Pro as they use the same memory) can be done quite cheaply in SA with 3rd party RAM. I picked up a 1GB stick from Digital Planet (http://www.digitalplanet.co.za/shop/product.asp?StockID=91058) for ~R680 (after 10% discount) and works perfectly in my Macbook.

I see the price have since went up to ~R900, but still cheap compared to the R1,700 for official RAM (which comes in 2 x 512MB, leaving you with only 1GB in total)
 
redcliff said:
Upgrading MacBook (or Pro as they use the same memory) can be done quite cheaply in SA with 3rd party RAM. I picked up a 1GB stick from Digital Planet (http://www.digitalplanet.co.za/shop/product.asp?StockID=91058) for ~R680 (after 10% discount) and works perfectly in my Macbook.

I see the price have since went up to ~R900, but still cheap compared to the R1,700 for official RAM (which comes in 2 x 512MB, leaving you with only 1GB in total)
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Who you sleeping with at DP?:D

I looked around quite extensively for 1gb sticks when I wanted to upgrade my MBP, and I couldn't find anything under R1000.

I agree that the "official" ram upgrades in SA are a total ripoff considering all the kit is shipped in standard configuration and the "apple ram" is added by the back room tech. I thought you get to specify how you want your upgrade done? (single sticks or pairs that is)

All the new machines except the mini (putty knife required) are pretty simple to upgrade ram wise.
 
BobJones said:
All the new machines except the mini (putty knife required) are pretty simple to upgrade ram wise.
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Not really looking forward to using a putty knife on my mini when it arrives - but I'm still gonna do it :D
 
BobJones said:
I agree that the "official" ram upgrades in SA are a total ripoff
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Official RAM upgrades on laptops are a rip-off everywhere.

BobJones said:
All the new machines except the mini (putty knife required) are pretty simple to upgrade ram wise.
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I wish the Mini had a better graphics chip. That is the only thing I'm not keen about.
 
noxibox said:
I wish the Mini had a better graphics chip. That is the only thing I'm not keen about.
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I wish the mini had a standalone graphics chip. But it's the mini and it seems to work.
LandyMan said:
HAHAHA, a putty knife the recommended tool to open a Rxxxx electronics device :D
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Well probably not recommended by Apple but yeah - it's a pisser isnt it. :D
 
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I think integrated graphics have come a long way - I'm not too worried about the onboard graphics on the intel mini. The graphics on my g4 mini seems ok ... its the processor that struggles with the big games.
 
BobJones said:
I think integrated graphics have come a long way - I'm not too worried about the onboard graphics on the intel mini. The graphics on my g4 mini seems ok ... its the processor that struggles with the big games.
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Then again the G4 mini had a separate graphics card - Apple even mocked some manufacturers who used integrated cards at the time.
 
Yep, I got lucky getting the "secret lotto upgrade" 1.5ghz 64mb ATI version. People with the standard 32mb graphics card on the mini must struggle with games.
Video play back isn't much of a problem though, if fact I run a large LCD off the mini quite comfortably.
 
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