parallels for macbook 2.0 specs?

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nantaprong

Bit poster
may i ask a question please,,,,im new to parallels and im not much of a pro at com..
i have a macbook 2.0 ..... and in the meantime i have 512 mb of ram...and its not enough for running parallels....so im planing to take one of the 256mb (256 + 256 2 slots for macbook) out and put a 1 gig...so i will have 1.25 gig in total......this is my first laptop....so i dont really kno what to do and what i shouldnt.......but the main reason i want to upgrade is so that i can use parallels without lagging....so can anymore tell me if i upgrade it, is it enough for parallels to run properly?
thank you very much
 
Be aware...

The Macbook uses dual-channel RAM. If your RAM is not matched (i.e. the same make/model) of in each slot, your RAM will work at half the speed it could work at.

I would either put in 2x512mb sticks or 2x1gb sticks.

Mine has 2x1gb sticks.
 
"The Macbook uses dual-channel RAM. If your RAM is not matched (i.e. the same make/model) of in each slot, your RAM will work at half the speed it could work at."


This is inaccurate. The RAM does not run at 1/2 speed nor do the modules have to the same model. They only need have the same specs. They can be from different manufacturers and do not have to be "matched pairs." Even if you do use matched pairs the performance increase is at best about 6%.
 
so...i can buy a 1 gig of 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM (since that is the ram spec for macbook)...
and plug it in with my 256mb of 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM .... rite?
..and what are the disadvangtages if the two rams are unequal.?
thank you
 
I think you will see far more benefits than detriments. The "matched pair" thing is more of a recommendation from Apple, but as far as any reports I've seen (people using 1.25GB, etc.) there is no danger at all involved in harming your hardware.
 
nantaprong said:
so...i can buy a 1 gig of 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM (since that is the ram spec for macbook)...
and plug it in with my 256mb of 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM .... rite?
..and what are the disadvangtages if the two rams are unequal.?
thank you
Click to expand...
If both RAM modules are the same size, the machine will operate in interleaved mode, giving you a modest speed increase for sequential references -- a few percent overall, or maybe (guessing) up to 25% for some operations. Those bursts of speed give you the few percent average improvement. There isn't any choice about RAM specs -- it's right or it doesn't work.

IME, Parallels runs best with 2 gig in the machine, with about 768 k for the VM. I've tried several combinations and for my WIN2k configuration, that was the best.
 
I just bought 2x1G PC2 5300 for ~$150. Don't buy memory from apple. They wanted 4 times this for comparable memory. There is a significant increase in memory performance running in dual channel mode so, as long as you are upgrading anyway, buy two memory modules with identical specs from the same manufacturer. Macbooks have proven to be a bit flaky with memory, running some modules at speeds below their rating. G. Skill DDR2 performs as advertised. Here is what I bought and I recommend it. I alloted 1G for the XP VM and am more than happy with the performance of the VM and the host OS.
 
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