Home > Consumer Reviews > Kingston Apple 4GB Kit (2x2GB Modules) 667MHz DDR2 SoDimm iMac and Macbook Memory (KTA-MB667K2/4GR)
Kingston Apple 4GB Kit (2x2GB Modules) 667MHz DDR2 SoDimm iMac and Macbook Memory (KTA-MB667K2/4GR)
See it at Amazon.com for $106.08Average Customer Rating
(5.0 out of 5)
Amazon Customer Reviews
Most Helpful First | Newest First | + Share56 of 62 people found the following review helpful:
Great RAM But For Older Macs
(5 out of 5) by Tim Challies on Dec 30, 2008 (Oakville, Ontario)This is high-quality RAM and it may well make a significant difference to your machine. If you find that you're running many programs at once or using some more demanding programs like Photoshop this RAM will give you a bit of an edge. Read some of the reviews here and you'll see that.
But do note, this RAM is for the mid-2007 iMacs and MacBooks. The latest generation, the ones released in 2008 with Intel Core 2 Duo processors can still use it, but will do better with a slightly faster RAM. This is PC5300 RAM and is 667MHz. What you actually want for the latest generation of Macs is MC6400 RAM running at 800MHz. It's not going to be a night and day difference, but it's about the same price and you may as well get the right stuff.
To find the stuff you should get, search for this here at Amazon: KTA-MB800K2/4G. That is the Kingston part number and will turn up the one you want.
But do note, this RAM is for the mid-2007 iMacs and MacBooks. The latest generation, the ones released in 2008 with Intel Core 2 Duo processors can still use it, but will do better with a slightly faster RAM. This is PC5300 RAM and is 667MHz. What you actually want for the latest generation of Macs is MC6400 RAM running at 800MHz. It's not going to be a night and day difference, but it's about the same price and you may as well get the right stuff.
To find the stuff you should get, search for this here at Amazon: KTA-MB800K2/4G. That is the Kingston part number and will turn up the one you want.
23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
Works perfectly in my MacBook Pro
(5 out of 5) by Phillip Roncoroni on May 25, 2008 (Manhattan, New York)Bought this RAM for my Core2Duo MacBook Pro and it works perfectly. Easy to install, you just need a tiny jeweler's style screwdriver and much, much cheaper than Apple's ridiculous price.
I don't understand why Steve Jobs needs to sell machines with two RAM slots using 2x1GB chips, especially when he wants Apple to be seen as "environmentally friendly." Nobody savvy is going to pay Apple's RAM upgrade extortion prices, so why not offer a 1x2GB option for extra, leaving one RAM slot free, so the customer can buy a single, additional 1x2GB chip elsewhere? Apple gets extra money from the 1x2GB fee, the single additional chip is cheaper for the end user and it saves two 1x1GB chips from going in the garbage.
I don't understand why Steve Jobs needs to sell machines with two RAM slots using 2x1GB chips, especially when he wants Apple to be seen as "environmentally friendly." Nobody savvy is going to pay Apple's RAM upgrade extortion prices, so why not offer a 1x2GB option for extra, leaving one RAM slot free, so the customer can buy a single, additional 1x2GB chip elsewhere? Apple gets extra money from the 1x2GB fee, the single additional chip is cheaper for the end user and it saves two 1x1GB chips from going in the garbage.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
Good for my iMac
(5 out of 5) by David Obando on Aug 15, 2008I installed the 4GB in my 24 inch iMac. and it works perfectly. Easy to install and now I can load all the apps I need!
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Fast like Nascar!!!
(5 out of 5) by M. Ponce on Mar 27, 2009 (Berkeley, CA USA)Background information:
--------------------
13 inch, white Macbook
Mac OS X Tiger (10.4)
1 GB RAM memory
Resource intensive apps:
- Parallels Desktop with Windows Vista OS
- Adobe Photoshop and InDesign CS 4
- The GIMP (open-source)
- Scribus (open-source)
- Citrix Remote Client
I bought the 4 GB Kigston RAM for my 13 inch white macbook because I was tired of running a sluggish Parallels set-up with Vista that would freeze both systems. Also, my macbook was extremely slow when running Photoshop and InDesign CS4. Running one of these three applications was asking for a total system freeze.
Parallels would take about 5-7 minutes to load and would not restart properly if paused. Photoshop was a disaster as the application would become unresponsive when loading InDesign as well.
The Solution
----------
I decided to upgrade my laptop's RAM by purchasing the Kingston product. The installation was very simple. All you need is a screwdriver small enough to remove the metallic strip protecting the RAM compartments. Once I replaced my original RAM with these 2x2GB thunder horses and put everything back in its place, I immediately started my macbook.
The Results
----------
The results were immediate. Loading Mac OS X is fast enough but with the new RAM it's twice as fast. Running Parallels with Vista now takes 2 minutes and there are no problems when pausing the application and restarting it later. Photoshop and InDesign are both running at the same time and there is no lag at all. I can even run all three apps and the system still works very effectively.
Overall, I am extremely satisfied with the results. The Kingston 4GB kit is affordable and user-friendly. It sure beats the outrageously expensive upgrades from the Apple store (~$400). I've been able to maximize the utility of my laptop even for job-related tasks that had me chained to my iMac desktop while also extending the computer's life a few more years.
Product has been used for 2 months now.
Notes
-----
3 out of the 4 GB are used by the Mac OS X Tiger system. This is a limitation of the laptop's hardware and not the product manufacturer's fault. I can only imagine how fast the system would be if it would be able to use all 4GB. However, with Mac OS X Snow Leopard coming out later this year as a 64-bit system the problem should be fixed with some more hardware upgrades.
Video playback becomes somewhat unstable while it is streamed online. I believe this is due to hardware compatibility issues. No observable problems with DVDs or large h264 or mkv video files.
--------------------
13 inch, white Macbook
Mac OS X Tiger (10.4)
1 GB RAM memory
Resource intensive apps:
- Parallels Desktop with Windows Vista OS
- Adobe Photoshop and InDesign CS 4
- The GIMP (open-source)
- Scribus (open-source)
- Citrix Remote Client
I bought the 4 GB Kigston RAM for my 13 inch white macbook because I was tired of running a sluggish Parallels set-up with Vista that would freeze both systems. Also, my macbook was extremely slow when running Photoshop and InDesign CS4. Running one of these three applications was asking for a total system freeze.
Parallels would take about 5-7 minutes to load and would not restart properly if paused. Photoshop was a disaster as the application would become unresponsive when loading InDesign as well.
The Solution
----------
I decided to upgrade my laptop's RAM by purchasing the Kingston product. The installation was very simple. All you need is a screwdriver small enough to remove the metallic strip protecting the RAM compartments. Once I replaced my original RAM with these 2x2GB thunder horses and put everything back in its place, I immediately started my macbook.
The Results
----------
The results were immediate. Loading Mac OS X is fast enough but with the new RAM it's twice as fast. Running Parallels with Vista now takes 2 minutes and there are no problems when pausing the application and restarting it later. Photoshop and InDesign are both running at the same time and there is no lag at all. I can even run all three apps and the system still works very effectively.
Overall, I am extremely satisfied with the results. The Kingston 4GB kit is affordable and user-friendly. It sure beats the outrageously expensive upgrades from the Apple store (~$400). I've been able to maximize the utility of my laptop even for job-related tasks that had me chained to my iMac desktop while also extending the computer's life a few more years.
Product has been used for 2 months now.
Notes
-----
3 out of the 4 GB are used by the Mac OS X Tiger system. This is a limitation of the laptop's hardware and not the product manufacturer's fault. I can only imagine how fast the system would be if it would be able to use all 4GB. However, with Mac OS X Snow Leopard coming out later this year as a 64-bit system the problem should be fixed with some more hardware upgrades.
Video playback becomes somewhat unstable while it is streamed online. I believe this is due to hardware compatibility issues. No observable problems with DVDs or large h264 or mkv video files.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Great!!!!!!
(5 out of 5) by Vincent F. Machate on Jul 30, 2008I bought this memory for my black MacBook, and so far it is working just fine. As far as speed and multitasking goes, I saw a huge improvement; it was also very easy to install. I would recommend upgrading to a 4GB memory; I was able to run all of the program at the same time.