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Q: upgrade RAM (or swap?)

Three MacBook to upgrade more RAMs (or swap) - all from our kids, who dumped their old macbooks to us, and we poor parents just want to make the best usage of them as servers at home. Just need to run this by you to make sure what I learned from reading internet posts is valid! Thanks a lot.

 

#1) MacBook Pro - 13", Mid 2000, MacBookPro7,1  4GB      Core 2 Duo    2.4 GHz, El Capitan
#2) MacBook - 13", MacBook3,1                               2GB       Core 2 Duo   2.2 GHz, OSx10.5.8
#3) MacBook - 13", MacBook1,1                               512MB   Core Duo     1.83 GHz, OSx10.4.11

 

Even though changing the boot drives might also improve performance, I am not considering doing that now since I don't know how to do that yet. Changing chipsets are easier for me.

 

Questions:

A) Is it wise to buy an 8GB RAM set (2 X 4GB) for #1, give #2 the old RAM (2 X 2GB) from #1, give #3 the old RAM (2 X 1GB) from #2?  Want to make the best usage of hand-me-downs.

 

B) Is it true that the Max RAM for #1 is 8 GB (some said 16GB but I doubt it because this is not 2011's model, it's 2000's)

                               Max RAM for #2 is 6 GB (some said that Apple only supports up to 4GB but 6GB actually works, not sure?)

                               Max RAM for #3 is 2 GB (this one might be a waste of upgrade since it only has Core Duo chip. The best it can do is a Snow Leopard OS, then what?)

 

C) My goal is to maximize the usage (of course to minimize the $ if I could), meaning better OS in hope that without changing the disks, we can have faster computers running the usual MS office and serving as a server (Audio, network, video streaming for recording).

 

D) #3 can be dropped in upgrading business because I am afraid it was born to be petite, can't hope it to become Kobe Bryant even if I give 16GB ram to it. Thank you very very much.....

MacBook Pro

Posted on Jan 2, 2016 10:20 PM

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