difference between 1GB and 2GB ram

It depends upon what you do.

If you do lots of intensive video work then the more the merrier. If you just surf the net, chat, visit YouTube then 1 GB is more than enough.

If you have lots of applications open at the same time and all of them are doing something then the more RAM the better.

As an example I have 4 Gb RAM and I can see what is being used at any given time. My most intensive workload to date has been all at the same time :-

Converting an .avi movie to DVD using VisualHub

Converting and burning 2 .avi files to DVD (using the internal superdrive and an external burner)

Watching an .avi movie on VLC

Responding to emails as they come in

Going to Google when necessary

At the most intensive time I was using 1.8 Gb RAM (2.2 free) and the processor was running at 70%.

Don't think that by stuffing your system with RAM everything will run much faster - it won't. The best way to think is that it will allow you to do multitask if you want to.

Paul.

1 GB is the minimum. If you do more than one program at a time, you need 2GB.

It costs $50 to upgrade to 2 GB right now via OWC. That price will only go up the longer you wait. Macbook RAM has been out for quite a while now. I expect there will be a new, "popular" RAM chip fairly soon. Once all the Chinese factories switch over the a new RAM chip, the price for all the old ones will go up.

Just think of it as Dial-up vs. DSL. Most software will work, but it may run slow. I have ArchiCAD, and WMvare that was very slow with 1GB, after the upgrade, starting up windows is faster than on PC.

I went from 1 gig to 2 a couple of months ago. I don't see a huge difference in speed (I use many apps at the same time, but don't do any intensive things), but what I do see is that my pageouts decreased from about one-third to one-half of page-ins to very, very few. That makes me happy!

If you have the newest model with the better logic board that will take 4GB of RAM, it won't be nearly as important at this moment as it is to upgrade the older model, which is limited to a maximum of 2GB. Now is the time to upgrade the older models - it will be dirt cheap as long as you don't buy the RAM modules from Apple. You will get more out of your machine, you will save wear and tear on your hard drive, and your machine will be worth more when you go to sell it.

myhighway wrote:
If you have the newest model with the better logic board that will take 4GB of RAM, it won't be nearly as important at this moment as it is to upgrade the older model, which is limited to a maximum of 2GB. Now is the time to upgrade the older models - it will be dirt cheap as long as you don't buy the RAM modules from Apple. You will get more out of your machine, you will save wear and tear on your hard drive, and your machine will be worth more when you go to sell it.

It might pay off when the machine is upgraded to the next version of OSX. Successive operating systems seem to be able to use (and require) larger and larger amounts of system memory to function better.

However - I've got 4GB on my MacBook right now, and I've always seen at least 2GB free. However - it was cheap and I do think it'll eventually pay off.

I'm also eagerly awaiting the 200GB Hitachi 7K200 7200 RPM drive I just ordered. I don't know if I really needed that much capacity, but maybe it'll come in handy if I want to boot Windows.

I agree that if one can afford a $1500 MacBook but can't afford another $100 for a full memory upgrade by skipping a show and a dinner or two, something's being miscalculated:))