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Questions about buying memory for Powerbook.

K

Kinseek

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 26, 2005
12
0
I`m soon going to buy a shiny new 15" Powerbook (Superdrive, 1.67ghz, 128VRAM) and the stock 512mb RAM that accompanies it we all probably agree is a little low. Apple is greedy when it comes to buying RAM (over twice the price!) so I`m searching around for alternatives. The "Kingston ValueR DDR SO-DIMM PC2700 1024M" appears to be good value as I found it rather cheap and it looks like a good performer at glance. Adding it to the stock 512mb will bring my total memory up to a nice 1.5gig of ram. But I got some questions in that regard:

1. Will it fit my Powerbook? Do I have to concern myself if it is the right "combination" with my other 512mb?
2. Good value for my money? Any other reccomandations?
3. Does it give good performance? Are there any notable differences between the different kinds of memory chips I can get for my current setup?
4. Is there any noticeable difference between having 1gig of RAM and 1.5? What kind of usage would I need to have to notice the difference? I don`t edit videos nor images (which I take is the thing you would mostly need big amounts of memory for), but will I still experience a difference where I could say "hm, that made a little difference...). I do play games alot...
5. Will having 1.5gig of RAM as opposed to 1gig affect my battery-life?
6. I`ve heard that some people have had problems with the ValueR type from Kingston? Anything you can say about that?

Thanks.
 
robbieduncan

robbieduncan

Moderator emeritus
Jul 24, 2002
25,611
893
Harrogate
1) It should do. I have had no problem using standard PC2700 SO-DIMMS in my 15" PowerBook
2) As you don't seem to state a price I have no idea! I bought a 1Gb Cosair Value Select stick for my PowerBook just over a month ago for £125 which seemed OK at the time.
3) To be honest in a PowerBook if the RAM works it's all much the same. Buying really expensive low CAS RAM will not make much of a difference.
4) I noticed a massive diffference between 768Mb and 1.5Gb.
5) 2 sticks of RAM will drain the battery a little bit faster than 1 stick. This might well get balanced out due to the fact that you will swap out of RAM less so the harddrive might not get spun up so much.
6) I have no experience of this RAM, my 1 stick of Crucial and 1 stick of Cosair RAM seem happy enough together.
 
K

Kinseek

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 26, 2005
12
0
Ah, yes of course you would need the price. I can get said memory chip for about 1100NOK, which would be around $170 or £94. (we have more taxes here in Norway so I don`t know how it would compare, but for a 1gig of RAM its cheap over here.).
 
T

Tilmitt

macrumors member
Apr 30, 2005
95
6
Kinseek said:
3. Does it give good performance? Are there any notable differences between the different kinds of memory chips I can get for my current setup?
Click to expand...

There is zero difference in performance between all the different brands of ram running on Apple computers cause Apple make them all run at the same latencies regardless of what they are rated for. Anyone who is selling "performance" ram is just trying to rip you off.
 
M

machiker

macrumors newbie
Apr 21, 2005
23
0
Take a look at Other World Computing. I just got a 1GB stick of Apple certified RAM for $138. Works great, and OWC is a great company to buy from.
 
CanadaRAM

CanadaRAM

macrumors G5
Oct 11, 2004
12,417
6
On the Left Coast - Victoria BC Canada
Tilmitt said:
There is zero difference in performance between all the different brands of ram running on Apple computers cause Apple make them all run at the same latencies regardless of what they are rated for. Anyone who is selling "performance" ram is just trying to rip you off.
Click to expand...

That's correct; the difference between brands is not performance, it is compatibility.

Kingston do not guarantee their ValueRAM (KVR-) series generic memory for use in Macintoshes. The Kingston RAM that is guaranteed compatible is the KTA-PBG4333/1G

The trick would be to find a Norwegian seller who guarantees Mac compatibility for the RAM they sell. Otherwise you'll either have to experiment with generic in hopes of finding a compatible module, or import.
 
robbieduncan

robbieduncan

Moderator emeritus
Jul 24, 2002
25,611
893
Harrogate
Kinseek said:
Ah, yes of course you would need the price. I can get said memory chip for about 1100NOK, which would be around $170 or £94. (we have more taxes here in Norway so I don`t know how it would compare, but for a 1gig of RAM its cheap over here.).
Click to expand...

I paid around £125 including taxes and shipping. So £94 is great of that includes taxes and still pretty good if it doesn't.

The RAM i bought did not guarantee compatibility, but it works fine. As long as it's PC2700 it should work. Thats kind of the point of specifications!
 
cluthz

cluthz

macrumors 68040
Jun 15, 2004
3,118
4
Norway
As for buying RAM in norway, buy cruicial. Several stores sells it, they have decent mac support and it's high quality. It's stupid to use like $2500+ on a machine and save $10 and you'll end up with bad ram ....

I've bought things from OWC several times and it has been a pleasure.. I think you'll get atleast 200NOK for shipping, and remember to add 5% duty and 25% vat, when you calculte your prices :eek:


1GB vs 1.5GB: if you are going to use your machine for websurfing and word, you'll have no performance boost..
If you do highend gfx design / 3d / video, then more is merrier
 
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