Apple selling 8GB memory upgrade kits for 15" MacBook Pros [u]

It will cost you an arm and a leg, but Apple is now offering an official 8GB memory upgrade kit for the mid- and high-end models of its current 15-inch unbibody MacBook Pro family, AppleInsider has discovered.

The kit containing a pair of 4GB 1066MHz DDR3 SO-DIMMs is available immediately for a whopping $1200, or nearly the price of the company's entry-level 13-inch unibody MacBook.

According to a page on the company's online store, the upgrades are available only for the 2.66GHz 15-inch MacBook Pro (link) and 2.93GHz 15-inch MacBook Pro (link), but not the 2.4GHz model.

It's unclear whether the memory modules are compatible with the 2.53GHz 15-inch MacBook Pro, which was introduced in October and replaced this month by the 2.66GHz model.

The upgrade kit doubles the maximum amount of memory supported by the 15-inch MacBook Pro, bringing it up to spec with its 17-inch cousin.

Its addition to the Apple online store appears to be fairly recently, as the technical specifications printed on the product page for the 15-inch MacBook Pro still indicate that the 2.66GHz MacBook Pro "supports up to 4GB" of DDR3 SDRAM.

Update: AppleInsider reader Stu just spoke with an Apple store support representative online who claims the 8GB upgrade kit is indeed compatible with the 2.53GHz 15-inch MacBook Pro. A copy of the chat transcript follows:

79 Comments

rbonner 635 comments · 17 Years

About 15 years ago

I purchased a 4GB SIMM from Other World Computing, worked great in my 2.8 Ghz MBP, now a total of 6GB Page Outs dropped off considerably.

krankerz 50 comments · 20 Years

Aren't the 2.53 GHz Macs the same spec (except for the CPU speed) as those that support the 8GB of memory? CPU speed should not be able to dictate something like this, should it? And even so, with such a small gap in speed between the two models, you'd think you could install the 8GB on the original unibody Macs.

This is all just wishful thinking as I have the 2.53 GHz MacBook Pro and would benefit greatly from the memory bump.

gmcalpin 266 comments · 15 Years

Man, I'm going to be bummed if it's not compatible with the 2.53 15" MBP. I would've wanted to upgrade after RAM prices have dropped a bit.

nasserae 3166 comments · 16 Years

Quote:

Originally Posted by krankerz

Aren't the 2.53 GHz Macs the same spec (except for the CPU speed) as those that support the 8GB of memory? CPU speed should not be able to dictate something like this, should it? And even so, with such a small gap in speed between the two models, you'd think you could install the 8GB on the original unibody Macs.

This is all just wishful thinking as I have the 2.53 GHz MacBook Pro and would benefit greatly from the memory bump.

I have the Unibody 2.4 GHz and wondering the same thing! I thought the only difference was the processor speed and the 512 MB video card! I am not interested in getting the 8GB (not for $1200) but would like to know why it is only for the 2.66 GHz!

Here is the text from MacBook Pro specs:

2GB (two 1GB SO-DIMMs) or 4GB (two 2GB SO-DIMMs) of 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM; two SO-DIMM slots support up to 4GB