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I have a 13 inch MacBook Pro with a 160 gb hard drive and 2 gb of memory if I want to upgrade to 4gb memory do I have to buy another 2gb or a whole 4gb memory? Can I go bigger?

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Which generation? The earliest MBPs didn't support 4GiB RAM. –  Tadeusz A. Kadłubowski Nov 29 '09 at 19:14
@tkadlubo: He has a 13" MBP so it must be the latest version (Late 2009) –  Chealion Nov 30 '09 at 6:24

3 Answers 3

It's almost certain that your current system has 2x1GB SODIMMs in it.

You can upgrade to as high as 8GB with the 13" macbook pro, although 2x4GB SODIMMs would be pretty pricey. 2x2GB SODIMMs should work fine. You want PC3-8500 (1066Mhz) DDR3 SODIMMs.

You should be able to mix and match any sizes of chips, so you could buy a 4GB SODIMM and replace one of your 1GB for a total of 5GB, or else buy 2x2GB and replace both of your 1GBs for a total of 4GB. That would be cheaper.

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DDR3 is for the latest Mac line only. Unibody Macs in 2008 and earlier used DDR2. Check compatibility with your vendor before you order. I recommend checking crucial.com to find out what spec you need, then buy from whatever vendor gives you the best deal. –  Kio Dane Nov 30 '09 at 18:37

Use Spotlight to find "System Profiler". Open it up, and go to "Memory" on the left side of the window. It will show you what RAM chips are occupying what bays in your laptop.

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According to the Apple support website, Your MacBook Pro has two memory sockets.

What you want really depends if Apple shipped your laptop with 2x 1GB sticks or 1x 2GB sticks. I think the only way to find out is to find your original invoice / specification or just open it up and take a look.

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You can find out what size chips are in which slots under "Memory" in /Applications/Utilities/System Profiler.app –  Mark Thalman Nov 29 '09 at 23:45

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