New Apple Macbook Pro RAM is soldered to the motherboard | Ian Chilton
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Re: New Apple Macbook Pro RAM is soldered to the motherboard | Ian Chilton
#2I kind of expected this as the Airs have the same, can anyone that knows a bit more about hardware maybe tell if this is because of space concerns?
Re: New Apple Macbook Pro RAM is soldered to the motherboard | Ian Chilton
#3How is this news? I think it's well known that the new Retina-MBPs have made some hardware-upgradeability sacrifices in exchange for portability.
Re: New Apple Macbook Pro RAM is soldered to the motherboard | Ian Chilton
#4I kind of expected this as the Airs have the same, can anyone that knows a bit more about hardware maybe tell if this is because of space concerns?
RAM slots are big pieces of plastic and connector pins. Especially if you have two slots it just wouldn't fit in a laptop with that height.
Re: New Apple Macbook Pro RAM is soldered to the motherboard | Ian Chilton
#5I kind of expected this as the Airs have the same, can anyone that knows a bit more about hardware maybe tell if this is because of space concerns?
I would guess it is due to a couple of factors:
RAM can now be tested in one package on the motherboard and people can't accidentally change it. In the long run it may open some abilities w.r.t using RAM for other things since you know its exact clocking.
The production is cheaper since the MB does not need an extra "install ram" step which is probably a human.
You can probably win some height space by a couple of millimeters.
You have more control over heating.
Re: New Apple Macbook Pro RAM is soldered to the motherboard | Ian Chilton
#6Good info and glad that I have not ordered yet! At the time I was thinking of buying the base model and upgrading the RAM after the fact.
Re: New Apple Macbook Pro RAM is soldered to the motherboard | Ian Chilton
#7How is this news? I think it's well known that the new Retina-MBPs have made some hardware-upgradeability sacrifices in exchange for portability.
My thoughts exactly. But I do think that if I would put over $2000 to a laptop I wouldn't like the fact that I'm not able to upgrade memory after few years. It's ok with devices like iPad but $2000 laptop is a device that you expect to use a bit longer.
Re: New Apple Macbook Pro RAM is soldered to the motherboard | Ian Chilton
#8The mechanism Apple uses to allow user-replaceable RAM looks like it won't fit in the new case. (pic) [1]
Apple have a habit of charging fairly outrageous prices for extra RAM - $375[2] for 16GB in the current Mac Pro, and that's not even for 8GB sticks. With that in mind, $200 for the upgrade to 16GB is not that bad, which is probably on purpose.
[1] https://support.apple.com/kb/HT1270#link1 [2] http://store.apple.com/us/configure/MD770LL/A
Re: New Apple Macbook Pro RAM is soldered to the motherboard | Ian Chilton
#9I kind of expected this as the Airs have the same, can anyone that knows a bit more about hardware maybe tell if this is because of space concerns?
I would guess it is due to a couple of factors: RAM can now be tested in one package on the motherboard and people can't accidentally change it. In the long run it may open some abilities w.r.t using RAM for other things since you know its exact clocking. The production is cheaper since the MB does not need an extra "install ram" step which is probably a human. You can probably win some height space by a couple of mi…
>> The production is cheaper since the MB does not need an extra "install ram" step which is probably a human.
I suspect that's not true. I reckon it's more likely they're changing a "slot RAM into place" step with a "solder RAM into place" step.
That said they'll probably be able to simplify the case and design the mainboard however they place, since they'll no longer need to provide easy access to the RAM slots.
Re: New Apple Macbook Pro RAM is soldered to the motherboard | Ian Chilton
#10How is this news? I think it's well known that the new Retina-MBPs have made some hardware-upgradeability sacrifices in exchange for portability.
My thoughts exactly. But I do think that if I would put over $2000 to a laptop I wouldn't like the fact that I'm not able to upgrade memory after few years. It's ok with devices like iPad but $2000 laptop is a device that you expect to use a bit longer.
You can max it out with 16GB of RAM for an additional $200. I'm not sure I can see myself putting more than that into a laptop during its useful life.