My first-generation MacBook Pro (1.83 GHz Core Duo model) is now running with a maxed-out complement of 2 GB of RAM. It wasn’t easy.
The MacBook shipped with a gig of memory, which I thought would be plenty since my G4 had been reasonbly OK with 1 GB. But I hadn’t reckoned on two things: the enormous hunger of iPhoto, and Leopard. Both combined to make the move to a maximum memory profile (2 GB) seem advisable.
So I ordered a 2 GB upgrade kit (a pair of 1 GB DIMMs) from Other World Computing. I’ve done business with this company since 1995, when I bought my PowerMac 7200/90 and a reconditioned Radius monitor from them. I last bought a memory upgrade from them for my mother-in-law’s iMac, and that process went extremely easily.
Upgrading the memory in the MacBook Pro, on the other hand, gave me heart failure. The process of getting at the memory was easy enough, theoretically: remove the battery, and remove the cover from the battery compartment, then swap the DIMMs. But first, I had to find a P0 Phillips screwdriver—not easy, even with a full toolbench. Then I had to unseat and reseat the new DIMMs about three or four times before the machine would boot.
But, now that it has, it’s slick, slick, slick. The Finder is more responsive; iPhoto feels snappy. Leopard loves some RAM. And at $50 for the upgrade, I wish I had done it about six months sooner.