Hi all! I have a Macbook (2008) with 2 GB of RAM. The last few months it has been running sloooow - lots of clocking. Would I notice a significant increase in speed if I boost that RAM up to 4 GB (the maximum)? Or is the machine going to still run slow just because it is getting out of date (though is in otherwise excellent condition)? I have 8 GB in my 2010 iMac, and it is MUCH faster - but is that the RAM or the speedier components?
Thanks!
- BH
iMac, OS X Mountain Lion
Insufficient RAM is only one possibility for what might be causing your MacBook to be slow. Another is available disk space. How much free space do you have on your hard drive? What operating system are you running on it?
Insufficient RAM is only one possibility for what might be causing your MacBook to be slow. Another is available disk space. How much free space do you have on your hard drive? What operating system are you running on it?
Thank you for helping, laundry bleach! I have a 250 GB hard disk on the laptop, 167 GB of which is used, so it's about 2/3 full. (I could easily cut that down by 30 GB if it would help.) I am running Lion (10.7.4). All software is up to date.
Thank you,
- BH
You are welcome. 2/3 full means you have plenty of free space, so I would not worry about that. RAM is a good choice for an upgrade.
Thank you, laundry bleach! Luckily, it will be a pretty inexpensive fix. I'll try it.
Gratefully,
- BH
You are quite welcome. Yeah, RAM is fairly inexpensive. Be sure to go to a reputable dealer that gives a good lifetime guarantee. I usually use Other World Computing but there are plenty of others.
Thank you for awarding the "helpfuls" for this thread. It is not mandatory but it is much appreciated.
Thanks for the OWC link. They seem to have a good reputation. It is actually eaiser there to find the exact memory I need than it is on the Apple Store site. OWC uses the Model Identifier to find your memory, while Apple is using vague "family names" (like "Macbook Generation 6" or "Macbook White Enclosure" - both from around the same time period. How ... not helpful.) When I click on the should-be-right "family," the specs don't exactly match my computer, so I'm wary of getting the memory from Apple. Which is fine, OWC looks good! So, long story short, thanks again!
- BH
Should I add RAM?
