MacBook RAM for Cheap
Apple works hard to hide the fact that you can buy cheap MacBook RAM at the fraction of their $150/2GB price and install it yourself. All it takes is these few simple steps:
- Download the Crucial System Scanner.
- Mount the drive and run the scanner.
- Order the memory from Crucial. The scanner will take you directly to the correct webpage. The price as of August 28th, 2009 is $40 for a 2GB stick.
- Buy a Phillips size 00 screwdriver at the hardware store if you don’t have one. This will cost you $5. I used a size 0 and it worked fine on my aluminum MacBook. A normal toolset may or may not have such a small screwdriver.
- Follow the installation instructions here.
My late 2008 MacBook came with two sticks of 1GB, one in each of the two slots, so I upgraded to a total of 3GB. If you want to increase to 4GB, you’ll have to buy 2 2GB sticks and replace both your 1GB sticks.
Total cost:
$45.44 for a total of 3GB
$85.44 for a total of 4GB