Chosen Solution
What is the maximum RAM you can install in a MacBook Unibody A1278?
There are six machines in the A1278 Model. Some will take a maximum of 6 GB of RAM and some will take 8. So Bac is the only one here that gave a correct answer. Machine identification is critical and answers given without that information are just guesses.
according to various sources, including this one, and also Mactracker, you CAN install up to 6GB of RAM in the MacBook Unibody A1278 (aka MacBook Late 2008) the same source mentioned above also mentions that real-world testing shows an almost negligible performance difference running match RAM modules vs running 2GB + 4GB
I installed 8GB in my late 2008 Unibody Macbook. Make sure you have the appropriate firmware upgrade: http://blog.macsales.com/9102-secret-fir… I first went from 2GB to 4GB….huge, night and day difference. Like a new machine. Then I wanted more, and went from 4GB to 8GB…some difference. Not near as much noticability as 2 to 4. If I hadn’t already paid for it, staying at 4 would have been fine. But YES 8GB is fine. Few people, sellers, Apple….almost nobody will tell you this is okay. Oh yeah, and of course it voids the warranty in our 7 year old client ;).
Apple says 4 GB but some people have installed 6 GB. A 2GB and a 4GB. Ralph
i would recommend to go with 4 GB as recommended from Apple, I installed 8 GB and didn’t noticed significant difference. Whether or not more RAM will benefit you depends completely on your usage. I have my Mac mini maxed out at 8 GB, and I wish I could stuff more in there–I get a lot of pageouts, depending on what applications I have open. In general, it behooves one to install as much RAM as one can afford. Especially if one uses Adobe or other memory-hungry apps.
I’m running 6 GB with no issues whatsoever. Had installed 8 GB for about a day, didn’t have any problems, unfortunately had to give one module back to it’s owner :(
i did the same, i replaced my 2 GB with 8 GB. in Mac, i didn’t notice much difference, but in Windows 7 it is so fast.
I just installed 8 GB of RAM from Crucial in my A1278 without any trouble. Its registering as 8 in “About this Mac” and in the Activity Monitor. We’re sailing smoothly! :)
Hi guys, this is what i read in everymac.com regarding the max RAM you can put on A1278. I hope it works. I will give it a try with 8GB: “Apple officially supports a maximum of 4 GB of RAM. Originally, this model was only unofficially capable of stably supporting 6 GB of RAM, but as confirmed by site sponsor OWC, it is capable of supporting 8 GB of RAM if updated to Boot ROM Version MB51.007D.B03 and running MacOS X 10.6 “Snow Leopard” or higher” Martin
@mattapoisett, e.g. try to run some virtual machines simultaneously with 4gb. then you will see the big difference.
i would recommend to go with 4 GB as recommended from Apple, I installed 8 GB and didn’t noticed significant difference
I purchase and install 4GB Elpida and it goes plenty Good. Best regards and wishes from Canary Islands!
i just tried 8gb in my mac book 13 A1278 with mac os x lion and it’s running for some hours now without any problems. :)
The 8 GB came in the mail today and installed easily and there seems to be no problems with it.
I installed 8GB (2x4GB) in my 2ghz core duo A1278 and changed the 160GB Hard drive to a momentus hybrid 500Gb and the laptop was screaming fast in comparision to the pre-updates system. It identifies ALL 8GBof memory and it runs statistical analysis regressions faster than my Quad core i-7 920 running at 2.8GHZby a factor of about 6-10 times. I ran all the database and merging processes on the i-7 then ported the data out to the macbook to run the regressions. I couldn’t believe the performance difference between the two systems. The i-7 has 12GB ddr3 1600mhz memory and 7200 rpm drives. So yes the upgrades to the mac book were worth the investment. Only thing faster is current generation processors (>2.5Ghz i-5/i-7) with full SSD drives.
i am running 2x8GB so 16GB RAM overall. All fine.
