512 vs 1gig RAM in a 1.42 mini?

Hi,

I'm a recent switcher - I've been using a pretty loaded 1.42 mini for a while now - ordered it the day they were announced. The only option I didn't take was the 1gig of RAM. It seemed overpriced at the time. Anyway, the 512 performed fine at first, but recently things have been slowing down - more spinning beachballs, more lags b/t clicking and responding, etc. I repair permissions every now and then but nothing seems to help.

FWIW I did upgrade to Tiger, which caused a noticeable slowdown, then to 10.4.1 which helped bring it back to about the point it was before I upgraded to Tiger.

With 3rd party 1gig sticks now available for about $100 I was wondering if it would help speed things up for me. I don't do much in the way of demanding stuff, but I typically like to have all the following apps open all the time:

MSN chat
iChat
Mail
Calendar
Address Book
Firefox (several tabs)
and sometimes iTunes too

Am I really over taxing things so much or is something else bogging me down? What do you guys think?

TIA,
TM

Thanks guys.

Wow when I typed Top in terminal it said I had 68 processes going, and 'stuck' read 5, then slowly counted down to 1 and stayed there. Didn't see any reading for 'page outs' though.

I think I'll get that 1gig stick - it's not THAT much money and if it helps it'll be $ well spent...

TM

Wow thank you so much for your oh so considerate reply. It may not have occured to you but did you ever stop to consider the possibility that after a few searches I could not find an existing thread/post that spoke specifically to my circumstances?

I was not asking if more ram helped in general. If you read my original post it should be clear that I'm looking for solutions to a specific problem I've experienced: a system slowdown.

I was asking about added ram as a possible solution for said problem. I also specifically asked if there were other thoughts as to what might be causing the problem, and what solutions might exist.

I always associated gradual system slowdown with life in the PC world. I must admit I'm quite disappointed that my mac - despite keeping it fairly lean and clean in terms of 3rd party apps and gew gaws - has markedly slowed down in only a few months of use. I don't do anything especially taxing for the system as far as I'm concerned.

But thanks for bitching about what you consider to be redundant threads instead of offering educated insight into possible solutions.

TM