Apple Memory
Apple MacBook Pro 15 inch 2.0GHz Memory and RAM Upgrade Choices
MacBook Pro DDR3 1333Mhz Memory Upgrade Prices
The memory upgrades above are for 2011 Apple MacBook Pro Models such as the 13.3″ Apple MacBook Pro 2.4GHz 13.3″ Apple MacBook Pro 2.8Ghz 15″ Apple MacBook Pro 2.2GHz, 15″ Apple MacBook Pro 2.4Ghz and the 17″ Apple MacBook Pro 2.4Ghz MacBook Pro models
I have already covered the the ram upgrades for the smaller and cheaper Apple MacBook Pro models for 2011, so now it’s time to check out what’s a good deal when it comes to ram prices for the most versatile of the 2011 MacBook Pro lineup – Apple MacBook Pro 15 inch 2.0GHz featuring the Intel Quad Core i7 processor.
The bigger screen real estate paired with the faster processor on the lower end or cheaper MacBook Pro means that the 15 inch MacBook Pro 2.0 Ghz could very well be the sweet spot when it comes time to decide what MacBook Pro to buy (or upgrade to if you’re switching from the Windows OS)
You Can Buy RAM from Apple
Out of the box, the Apple MacBook Pro 15 inch 2.0 GHz comes shipped standard with just 4GB of RAM, which in my opinion is too little RAM for a modern and professional MacBook Pro, regardless of what size you choose to buy: 13 inch, 15 inch and 17 inch MacBook Pros all suffer this same fate of too little RAM installed, considering how cheap memory is today and how valuable more MacBook RAM is.
The easiest way to buy RAM is to just buy the memory upgrade direct from Apple as that would seem to make the most sense. You bought the computer from Apple (or a reseller such as Amazon) so it would only makes sense to buy the RAM from the same store that you bought your 15 inch MacBook Pro from. And you can do this, just visit the apple store and buy 8GB of RAM for MacBook Pro. The problem is that at the time of writing this 8GB for MacBook Pro from Apple will cost you $400.
Compare this to the cheapest price you can buy ram for the Apple MacBook Pro 15 inch, that at the time I write this is under $100 with the cheapest MacBook Pro 8GB RAM upgrade kits being available for $93.00.
Trade in Apple Factory RAM
The best price on RAM for the 2011 MacBook Pro models is well under $100, but you can save money on RAM upgrades even more when you remove the 4GB of factory memory, replace it with 2x 4GB DDR3 1333Mhz memory you buy online from any one of the memory stores above, and if you buy RAM from OEMPCWORLD, OWC and RAMJET you can save even more money on the final costs of 8GB for MacBook Pro 15 inch 2.0 GHz by selling your old memory – or factory memory back to these stores that buy back RAM for MacBook Pros.
You can also sell the smaller 2x 2GB memory modules privately as well on craigslist or eBay and you will make more money this way in most cases, but the price for doing so is time. When you trade in your Mac memory, you might not get top dollar for it but it’s way easier and you still save some money on 8GB memory kits for MacBook Pros.
16GB RAM for 15 inch MacBook Pro
This will change as all ram prices drop for the largest memory configuration for any computer, not jus the MacBook Pro but unless you really need to have a lot of memory for video editing, or some other professional use that warrants the costs of 16GB for MacBook Pro, I can’t really recommend you buy 16GB RAM for MacBook Pro as it’s just too expensive. I bet a year from now, the price will be less than half of what it is now, but for now your best deal on MacBook Pro RAM is the 8GB RAM upgrade kits that still double the RAM your 15 inch MBP 2.0 i7 came with and offers much more breathing room for running more applications and not just the free software that comes standard with every Apple Macintosh computer
15 inch MacBook Pro Memory Install Instructions
The good folks at Apple will gladly show you how to install memory upgrades for this particular 15 inch Apple MacBook Pro, as well as all 2011 Macbook Pro models released the end of February 2011.
Memory installs on the newest and cheapest Apple MacBook Pro with a 15 inch display could not be easier and assuming you follow the MacBook Pro memory installation instructions you can do the memory install all by yourself, and without voiding the one year limited warranty the 15 inch MacBook Pro ships with as standard (of course, you can buy AppleCare if you want to continue the warranty past the one year but the cost for an Apple extended warranty will set you back about another $100 per year, on average).
This is all in the manual for MacBook Pro 15 inch 2.0Ghz, but the ram install is super easy on this model and is the exact same as the installation on the 13 inch MacBook Pros so I won’t repeat it again here.
I will caution you, when handling any memory product, that this stuff is sensitive to static electricity, so please do your best to remove any static charges on your body before you go handling any memory product, as RAM isn’t cheap as being free yet and one little zap could fry your RAM.
To summarize, don’t buy RAM from Apple unless you have extra money to spend unnecessarily when you can buy RAM from many honest RAM stores that will be happy to help you with 15 inch MacBook Pro RAM Upgrades for much less than what Apple charges currently.
Tagged 16gb macbook pro, 4gb macbook pro ram, 8gb macbook pro, apple macbook pro memory, best ram for macbook pro, cheap macbook pro, macbook pro ram
