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Add RAM in PB or wait and buy MB/MBP?

B

bmat

macrumors 6502
Original poster
I have a 1.67 non HD 15-inch powerbook, with 1GB of RAM. I get a lot of pageouts, and it's often slow. I think adding RAM would be useful -- for everything from my use of photo editing programs to just using things like slingplayer. On the other hand, RAM is still pricey -- About $200+ for 2GBs -- and it's a two-year old computer of a model that has the propensity (but has not been yet effected) to have a lower RAM slot failure problem (I still have a year on apple care in any event).

So, do I dump the money into the older computer (might as well upgrade the OS later too), or just struggle along using the PB knowing that I won't get another maching for a year (I just upgraded to a Mac Pro, so most of the hardware cash went there, and my *need* for a new machine is satiated for most tasks when I'm in my home office). I think the logical thing to do would be to wait, but I'd sure like to realize some additional speed in the interim.
 
bmat said:
I have a 1.67 non HD 15-inch powerbook, with 1GB of RAM. I get a lot of pageouts, and it's often slow. I think adding RAM would be useful -- for everything from my use of photo editing programs to just using things like slingplayer. On the other hand, RAM is still pricey -- About $200+ for 2GBs -- and it's a two-year old computer of a model that has the propensity (but has not been yet effected) to have a lower RAM slot failure problem (I still have a year on apple care in any event).

So, do I dump the money into the older computer (might as well upgrade the OS later too), or just struggle along using the PB knowing that I won't get another maching for a year (I just upgraded to a Mac Pro, so most of the hardware cash went there, and my *need* for a new machine is satiated for most tasks when I'm in my home office). I think the logical thing to do would be to wait, but I'd sure like to realize some additional speed in the interim.
Click to expand...

I would suggest doing some maintenance.

Is your HDD fairly full?
Can you free up space with your Mac Pro or an external or burning unneeded files to CD or DVD?

Have you emptied Safari's (or your browser's) cache? Maybe even sync your bookmarks to .Mac if you have it, or otherwise save them, and reset Safari.

Do you have any maintenance software? Check versiontracker.com for freeware to help clean up your machine, check for issues, and otherwise speed it up.

Have you repaired permissions?

All these things can help an older PB run faster again. Especially for things like surfing the web. Have your run all your software updates? What OS are you running. 10.3 or 10.4? Maybe get a cheap ebay copy of Tiger if you don't have it. Running a newer OS will actually speed your system up rather than slow it down. Generally, it doesn't tax it, it makes it more efficient.
 
Don't throw good money after bad. Do like what roland.g suggested and hopefully it will perk your PB up a bit. If it doesn't work then perhaps you can grab a refurbished MBP off the Apple store for a steal 🙂
 
roland.g said:
I would suggest doing some maintenance.

Is your HDD fairly full?
Can you free up space with your Mac Pro or an external or burning unneeded files to CD or DVD?

Have you emptied Safari's (or your browser's) cache? Maybe even sync your bookmarks to .Mac if you have it, or otherwise save them, and reset Safari.

Do you have any maintenance software? Check versiontracker.com for freeware to help clean up your machine, check for issues, and otherwise speed it up.

Have you repaired permissions?

All these things can help an older PB run faster again. Especially for things like surfing the web. Have your run all your software updates? What OS are you running. 10.3 or 10.4? Maybe get a cheap ebay copy of Tiger if you don't have it. Running a newer OS will actually speed your system up rather than slow it down. Generally, it doesn't tax it, it makes it more efficient.
Click to expand...

I agree. I recently performed some system maintenance on my PowerBook, and in the end, I noticed a decent bump in performance. There are a few threads in Macforums that I relied upon to do this work; most of the threads revolved around freeing up space on your HD. I'd recommend checking them out and following the steps. You're system is still young, and I wouldn't jump to a new system yet, if it can be avoided.
 
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