Identifying Mac Models

By Christopher Breen (mac911@macworld.com)

Mac 911 Tip of the Week

A reader who wishes to remain anonymous is rightly confused about his MacBook and the amount of RAM it can hold. He writes: "I have a MacBook Intel Core 2 Duo running at 2GHz. I'd like to upgrade it to hold 4GB of memory but I'm not sure if it will hold that much. Some Web sites say that it will hold just 2GB, yet Apple's website says it will hold 4GB. Which is true?"

It depends on which MacBook you have. Apple issued several 2GHz MacBooks with Intel Core 2 Duo processors. Some support just 2GB of RAM and others, 4GB. Allow me to suggest that you download a copy of Ian Page's free Mactracker to help you identify which MacBook you have. It couldn't be much easier to use.
Get Mactracker

Just launch it on your MacBook, select the This Mac entry in the list of Mac models, and double-click on the name of your MacBook on the right side of the window. Click the Memory/Graphics tab in the window that appears and look at the Maximum RAM entry. Here you'll learn how much RAM your MacBook can handle.