Upgrade the memory in a MacBook in 3 minutes
When I bought my wife's refurbished MacBook I got it with the smallest amount of RAM I could get, in this case 1GB. The reason is that Apple charges a lot more for memory than what you can buy from aftermarket sellers like Memory America or Other World Computing, both great resource for Mac memory and hard drives.I purchased a 2GB memory upgrade from OWC for $41, which included the cost of shipping. For perspective if you bump the memory on a MacBook from Apple up from 1GB to 2GB there is a $100 charge for it as of this writing. The nice thing about the OWC site is that they will help you identify exactly which memory works for your model of MacBook. If you have another good resource for Mac memory please add it to the comments below.
While 1GB of memory is adequate to run OS X smoothly on a MacBook I think it's important to have as much memory as you are comfortable putting in your machine. Some applications— especially Firefox, my primary web browser—leak memory pretty badly and the longer you run those applications the lower your performance can get. As I compose this post on my Mac Pro my little iStat memory counter tells me that Firefox is using 855MB of memory. Ugh - time to restart Firefox.
The only downside to buying the memory from someone other than Apple is that you have to install it yourself or take it somewhere and have them install it for you. Installing memory on a MacBook is very simple and the only tools you need are a coin and a #0 phillips screwdriver.
While I was preparing my wife's machine I decided to put together a quick video to show how easy it is:
All told it takes about 3 minutes to do and can save you quite a bit of money by doing it yourself.
Comments
http://www.thechipmerchant.com/
Changing these out is hardly any more difficult than the MacBook and has made using Photoshop and Aperture 2 on them a much more pleasant experience.
@John Derosa: I'm glad it helps - between iMovie and my little Canon SD1100IS it only took about 40 minutes to put together, and most of that is futzing around with different fonts and music selection.
It looks like that was an anti-static mat you were working on. Is that correct?
I am often cavalier concerning electrostatic discharge and anti-static procedures when working on electronics, EXCEPT when working with RAM. There I superstitiously adhere to proper procedure.
So if you don't have an anti-static mat to work on, use an anti-static wrist strap. Some memory vendors will include a disposable one when you buy your memory. One end is attached to an electrical ground, the other to your wrist. Call me weird, but I usually install RAM in laptops by covering the top of the washing machine with a towel to protect the computer, and attach my wrist strap to the cold water pipe before opening the computer.
Static can destroy or damage RAM. There is nothing worse than trying to diagnose computer problems that are caused by bad RAM.
Yowza! Sounds like you're using a bad extension, as Firefox itself shouldn't grow to that much even with heavy usage over a long time.
@William: Agreed on the MB HD upgrade and the memory on the MBP. I've done both and they are trivial. I'm avoiding doing the HD upgrade on my MBP though. Fortunately the 200GB drive in it has been adequate.
@Magervalp: I run a streaming stock quote service through my online broker. It's a Java based application that's started up from their web site. Once that baby fires up memory is chewed up for a while. I've also noticed heavy Flash based sites will chew up memory and not release it properly until Firefox is restarted.
@Partners in Grime: This is my second purchase from them. I used to use NewEgg exclusively but OWC is nice because they have so much Mac specific information.
I bumped my MacBook to 4GB RAM and a 250 Gig HD for $200. My MacBook can only use 3.3 Gigs but matched RAM is faster and the RAM is so cheap it didn't make sense to have 3Gigs in it.
The hard drive is just as easy as the RAM though you need a Torx T8 driver for the screws that hold the drive mechanism onto the sled.
Am experiencing a gliche, however.
The laptop just (randomly) shuts down and restarts.
Spoke to Crucial ... returned the matched RAM from the first @GB kit. Put in a new replacement set.
Same problem.
Happens more when running streaming video over the Internet, but the latest random restart happened with no apps running and the laptop just sitting there, plugged in.
Tried it on Battery and on Powercord, same problem.
Anyone else encounter the same problem?
Anyone have a recommendation for fixing this?
Thanks for the help!
PBN