Ed's Big Plans

I had previously installed 4GB of memory (over two banks) in Tin– receiving a an addressable 3.3GB, while Pewter uses 2GB (over two banks). I’ve decided now to put 3GB of memory (2GB + 1GB) in each Tin and Pewter now as it makes the most use of the memory– empirical testing shows no difference whether or not the larger chip is in the first bank. Dual channel is now disabled, but there is no appreciable difference– all system functions and software still behave the same. According to Softpedia, I really only had access to 3.0GB anyway, even though 4.0GB were installed– I also notice that it’s actually an Intel Core 2 Duo addressing issue rather than an Apple motherboard issue. The honesty from Apple about the hardware limitation is appreciated.

Only 3GB was ever available on either machine.

The conflicting report about maximum RAM (3.0GB or 3.3GB) from multiple sources really had me wondering, so I used activity monitor to figure out what was actually in use by the system– it turned out it actually was only 3.0GB.

At least this way, both machines have maxed out their memory and I won’t have to worry about memory upgrades again.

On a side note– the 2•1.0GB chips (that came from Apple in Tin) actually run really hot when the CPU is full throttle in both Pewter OR Tin, regularly reaching in excess of 90ºC, while the 2•2.0GB chips run at a more reasonable 70ºC at full throttle. With the machines now handling one hot and one cold chip each, they now both operate at 85ºC at full throttle. This was tested with a simple Python script that infinitely loops and performs a bunch of arbitrary memory and arithmetic operations. I might post some details about what chips are in each machine and the precise operating temperature if I have time. I’m also quite happy that I rarely use all the memory on my system — thus am also unlikely to have any page outs