About two weeks ago I was browsing Newegg and noticed their prices on 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 667MHz RAM had dropped below $100. My Macbook Pro already had 2GB of RAM (1GB of original and 1GB of Patriot), which is enough for most things. Had it not been for the fact that I've been editing wedding photos over the past few weeks, I probably never would have considered upgrading, but things had been a little sluggish in Photoshop (not too bad, but just enough to be slightly annoying), so I looked a bit more. I read up on the different brands, and it looked like GeIL was one of the leaders. Though about 20% more expensive than other brands, it had a name I remembered from my gaming days (where low latency and timing is everything), and it seemed to have good reviews. It was supposed to run significantly cooler than other competitors in the same price range. Since my Mac runs a bit on the warm side (you-could-bake-bricks-on-the-bottom-of-it warm side) components that have a reputation for running cool are of interest to me.

Unfortunately, my Macbook Pro (2.16GHz Core 2) only supports 3GB of RAM - bummer. Fortunately, Yamil has an identical 'book' and is always game for upgrading. So we decided to buy 4GB and split it 2 and 2. And we bought the GeIL.

Today, Jay went down to the states and picked the RAM up. I had it installed about 7 minutes after he walked through the door (not without snapping a picture first).

I had some doubts as to whether it would fit in the RAM slot on my Macbook Pro. Comparable PC systems are significantly thicker than the 15" Macbook Pro (which measures only about 1"), so space on the inside is counted and well-used. Then there was the fact that this RAM was third-party, and had a heatsink on it. I figured the heatsink was one of the reasons it ran cooler, so I didn't want to remove it.

To my surprise, it easily fit into the space with a margin of about .0001mm (that means I have no idea how much space there was) but it wasn't touching the cover which was easily re-installed.

So I booted up my Mac which now had the original 1GB stick that comes standard in Macbook Pros, and the 2GB of GeIL RAM. And it ran like a Macbook Pro with 3gigs of RAM.

Then I started working on some RAW images in Photoshop, and it ran faster than one of those suicidal squirrels that tries to slalom your tires as your driving down the road. The images are opening in about 65-70% of the time they normally did (which is very significant) and closing in about 1/2 the time. System resources are freed almost instantly after closing a program, while there was a delay of 3-5 seconds before. Programs are also closing much faster (about 30% faster) which I hope will lead to greater stability and fewer app-stalls while trying to close. Even at 60% load, the temperature is hovering somewhere around 120-122F (I don't remember the temps on my last RAM, but I know my fan has been running a lot less.)

Conclusion:

I've generally bought the cheap "value select" RAM. Always trying to save money... But I decided I'd shell out the extra money (in this case about $30) and get the good stuff. And it was well-worth it. The performance improvement is substantial, and the quality (so far) has surpassed my expectations. If you're thinking of upgrading RAM, I'd recommend this, especially if you have a Mac. For the price, it's a great buy. And as usual, get it through newegg.com they have the best customer service of any online retailer, and their prices are great.