How to Upgrade Your MacBook Pro’s RAM

MacInstruct’s Matthew Cone has posted a handy tutorial on do it yourself MacBook Pro RAM upgrades. As Cone notes, adding more RAM is one of the cheapest and most effective ways to boost your computer’s overall performance, since it’s where the machine dynamically stores the code and instructions for OS X and any open applications on your Mac.

Consequently, installing higher capacity RAM modules in your MacBook Pro will allow you keep more applications open at once and perform more tasks simultaneously without the system having to dip into memory swap files on your hard much slower hard drive. For example, you could open a bunch of memory-hogging applications while ripping a CD, watching a DVD, and uploading photos to the Internet – all at the same time – without the computer bogging down. Installing more RAM in an older MacBook Pro, should yield a big difference in the way your computer performs everyday tasks, like loading websites, and by historical standards, RAM is amazingly cheap these days.

Your editor notices a substantial performance boost from upgrading his workhorse Core 2 Duo MacBook from two to four gigabytes a couple of years ago, and is finding the prospect of doubling it again to 8GB, currently possible for less than 50 bucks, enticing. Note that if you have a middle-aged Mac like mine, a firmware upgrade may be necessary (free download from Apple Support) to support a higher RAM limit.

Also note well that Cone’s tutorial is for the MacBook Pro only. The MacBook Air’s RAM modules that are hard-soldered to the logic board, so and non-upgradable, so you’re stuck with whatever the machine shipped with originally.

For compatibility information and pricing, it’s hard to beat Other World Computing’s website.

For Matthew Cone’s full, illustrated tutorial on MacBook Pro RAM upgrading, see:
http://www.macinstruct.com/node/392