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    MBP 15' on the way... 8 or 16GB update?

    Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by Nekki, Mar 13, 2012.

  1. Nekki

    Nekki Notebook Evangelist

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    Hi there,

    My new mbp is on the way to my hands, and I bought it with the stock 4GB of ram to save the 200 bucks for the upgrade. Looking around I found the mbp support up to 16gb unofficially. So i wonder if the 16gb upgrade will be worth compare to the 8gb since other users claim suffer of kernel panic. What is your experience? Also, what brand do you recomend me? Found G.Skill at neweeg is top rated compared to corsair memory costing 45 bucks the 8gb kit and 135 bucks the 16gb kit (Mushkin), both certified for apple computers.

    Thanks for the advice.
     
    Nekki, Mar 13, 2012
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  2. saturnotaku

    saturnotaku Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Unless you're going to be working with a lot of virtual machines, 8 GB will be more than sufficient. I personally would stay away from Corsair. I tried two different types of memory from them and both failed OS X's version of memtest. I have the 16 GB version of this kit and it works just fine. I also ordered it from RAM Experts because they were significantly cheaper than Newegg at the time, even with the sales tax I had to pay.
     
    saturnotaku, Mar 13, 2012
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  3. bogatyr

    bogatyr Notebook Evangelist

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    I use 16GB of Corsair Vengeance 1600Mhz in mine, no issues.
     
    bogatyr, Mar 13, 2012
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  4. Nekki

    Nekki Notebook Evangelist

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    Just to note, your signature indicate you mpb's 16gb.... Is Munskin brand reliable, never heard about them.
     
    Nekki, Mar 13, 2012
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  5. saturnotaku

    saturnotaku Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    And I'm using it for virtual machines, which I pointed out in my initial response.

    I've had no problems with their memory. I used an SSD from them that failed. The RMA process was painless and I had a brand-new replacement in less than 2 weeks, including shipping.
     
    saturnotaku, Mar 13, 2012
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  6. Nekki

    Nekki Notebook Evangelist

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    Ok, just ordered 16gb munskin. Since i will be heavely using win7 thorugh virtualization, i prefer to have a smooth system.

    Thanks
     
    Nekki, Mar 13, 2012
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  7. Nekki

    Nekki Notebook Evangelist

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    One last question, what is the best way to test the new memory installed?
     
    Nekki, Mar 15, 2012
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  8. saturnotaku

    saturnotaku Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Use the program available here. Install and follow the instructions to start your machine in single user mode. The link says 2 runs is usually sufficient; when I got my upgrade kit, I ran it 10 times. It will take quite a while, so it's probably best to let it go overnight.
     
    saturnotaku, Mar 15, 2012
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  9. ygohome

    ygohome Notebook Deity

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    I've had mushkin memory in a server for years and no problems. Mine are totally different modules than you'd see in a mac laptop but a good company from my experience.

    I wish my 2009 MBP could take 16GB. Congrats!
     
    ygohome, Mar 15, 2012
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