Earlier this year, I watched my MacBook Pro devolve from a high-functioning machine into something that couldn't handle three open tabs without struggling. Battery dead in 30 minutes. Fans running constantly. It had been by my side since late 2011 — not a spring chicken, but I wasn't ready to give up on it.
I had two choices: sell it and scrape together $800+ toward a new one, or figure out if a repair could give it a few more good years. The first option meant days without a computer. The second meant a calculated bet.
I had over 70% of my 500GB storage free. The slowdown wasn't a storage problem — it was RAM. Random Access Memory is your computer's capacity to run multiple applications at once. The more you have, the more smoothly you can multitask. Run out of it, and everything slows to a crawl.
My MacBook shipped with 4GB of RAM in 2011. After several major OS upgrades, that was no longer enough — the operating system alone was consuming most of it. I was essentially asking a 60-year-old man to compete in a high-intensity workout program against people half his age.
I upgraded from two 2GB sticks to two 8GB sticks — a total of 16GB. The difference was immediate and dramatic. My MacBook was faster than the day I bought it. Right now, with everything I have open, my Activity Monitor shows 11.59GB in use. That upgrade was the right call.
I maxed mine out, but that's not always necessary. According to Digital Trends, 8GB is the sweet spot for most users. Since the cost difference between 8GB and 16GB is relatively small, going higher makes sense if you plan to keep the machine for several more years.
A new MacBook Pro runs $1,099 to $2,000+. A RAM upgrade costs a fraction of that and can add two to three years to your machine's life. Here's what you get with a professional computer repair service:
Call Dave's Computers at 908-428-9558 to ask about a RAM upgrade today.