2GB RAM sticks available for MacBook Pro? Anyone? Anyone?2GB RAM sticks ava

Yep - that's why you'll find - in the bowels of my message...

"Previously it seems that Apple has just sort of arbitrarily placed these limitations based upon the availability of chips... yet never backed away from the 'max' when the modules became available...

I couldn't find them at all when I got my first MBP... someone here found them and posted the link. Yet it is still possible that the OS will not address the chips (or even try to access anything above the 2GB mark, period).

A more promising response than that which I received!

Of course if they had any Intel iMacs in their labs that successfully addressed the 2GB modules, that would likely mean a 99% chance that the same would be true in the MBP...

Well, at <a
href= http://dealnews.com/memory/prices/PC2-5300-DDR2-S
O-DIMMS/61/2GB.html>$1,987 for a single 2GB stick of
RAM, I, at this point, could really care less
about whether it would work or not. I have the stock
1 GB coming in it, and I'll be quite happy with
another 1 GB stick in it until the price of 2 GB
drops -- well, quite a bit.

Dual 2.7 GHz PowerPC G5 w/ 2.5 GB RAM
Mac OS X (10.4.6)

My Sweet Lord! A couple of weeks back a single stick was $667-687! And now? That exact same part number at Crucial for $1,874.99. And the 4MB (two 2GB sticks) for the Dell Precision M90 was just over $1,300 - now $3,561.99. (Dell's price - high at one time - has remained a consistent $2,560 for two 2GB sticks.)

In the many years during which I've been observing the rise and fall, availability, production, etc., of RAM, I've never seen anything quite like this. Are they just in short supply? Has the demand risen because the M90 is selling like hotcakes (and/or folks have found that they can be used in MBPs and Intel iMacs)? Are only two per month being produced? Has the price of some component in the module skyrocketed?

What's the story? Looks as if it may be time for another note to Crucial! I've been dealing with Crucial (and Micron) since (I think!) 1988 and I am just genuinely curious about this (and disappointed that the sticks didn't head DOWN, to the under $500 range) and I really would like to know what's going on...

ANd you're right - when I pay more for memory than I did for my computer, I've mixed up my priorities. (Although going from 8K to 16K in 1978 was awesome, it was not even comparably expensive.)

Thanks for the update - I've just been tootling along (fat, dumb, and happy, as my Grandmother would have said) with the thought in the back of my mind that I needed to check pricing soon to see if we were below the $500 mark on the 2GB sticks and now you hobble across THIS!!... there are a number of theses in here, I believe, both for engineers and business types...

You know...

...item #3 actually crossed my mind. I know that Crucial has been an OEM for Apple in the past and as I was thinking that the modules may be in short supply because of demand and that the towers (although I'm thinking that they won't be quite so towering as the current G5) might likely use the same modules... well, my mind wandered in the same direction as yours. I'm thinking the pro series will be announced at the WWDC in August and will likely be available immediately... so if Apple is ramping up for production... now would be the time to get those chips, wouldn't it? And Apple's been doing the smart thing lately with RAM modules, knowing that a number of users are going to max out they've made the larger single-slot chip standard so that the end user doesn't end up buying two modules and chunking one or two.

How many slots total? Four in this machine, maybe? 4GB (2 x 2GB) standard for the 'highest end' machine.

Ah, I miss the good old days, when there were still enough pirate flag waving Apple employees and even more developers seeded with protos that excitement negated those pesky NDAs!

It appears that 256Meg x 64 chips used in any modules are in short supply and now driving the prices to the heights of absurdity. All modules I can find using that chip config are either priced 3-4x as they were 3 or so weeks ago or companies are simply not posting prices and asking that you email or call for pricing.

With the new Intel chips (save for the Extreme, I think?) shipping earlier than expected (July-August) it may note be just Apple buying these chips but every PC manufacturer hoping to get the higher-end Intel Core 2 Duo kitted out with lots of fast memory in anticipation of selling the machines with a chit for Vista when it's released (pure speculation but it would be a good marketing scheme for Microsoft, computer manufacturers, Intel, and would explain, I think, the price jump).

With a shipping date of "who knows?" MS needs as badly to reassure bleeding edge customers as do manufacturers who are worried that a Vista delay coupled with no 'recommended specs' for computers running the new Intel chips could mean a disastrous holiday season. Ditto for Apple - although I've no idea if the Core 2 Duo X chips will be shipping before the holiday season, but they will certainly be shipping some 'pro' desktop before that time. (And, oh, how I wish that Apple would be innovative once again and give us a true desktop - rather than tower - design! When we had those nice little Mac IIci's, we didn't worry about placing a little 13" CRT monitor on top - the more common 19" behemoths for graphic design were a different story, but with today's lightweight LCD screens I'd certainly like to see a return to true 'desktop'. I'd like all the features of a tower on my desk (not sitting on the floor ext to my desk, or sitting on my desk with the DVD tray at ear level). Ah... but I don't think anyone at Apple cares what I want - what was once a 'tower' is now a 'desktop'. Go figure.

You're right, though - spending almost $4,000 for 4GB of RAM is ridiculous... I was willing to pay $500 for a 2GB stick but I've no idea when that sort of pricing will arrive.