Is a memory upgrade necessary?

t0xic_sh0ck said:

Hello,

First of all, I plan on switching from a Dell laptop to an iBook or PowerBook this coming Christmas, but i have a question about memory.

Is the base 256 MB of RAM enough for the Apple laptops, or should I go ahead and upgrade to 512 MB right away. I know 256 MB on a Windows XP machine would be almost unoperational.

Thank you for the responses!

Click to expand...

It really depends on what you are gonna be doing with your laptop, but for sure I would at least upgrade to 512. OS X requires 128 to run in the first place, so using just double that can be rather slow and annoying. I still don't see why Apple ships with a base of 256. I mean yea people always need options, but 256 is low, especially when you have a GUI like OS X. But that's not what you asked. I vote upgrade.

256 is not enough RAM. 512 is enough for everday stuff and infrequent use of processor intensive stuff, but if you're going to be using big apps frequently I'd get more than that (as much as possible). http://www.crucial.com is the standard, cheapest, most reliable RAM provider - buy from them and stick it in yourself, it's as easy as replacing batteries on a lot of things ^.^

512 at least

I agree with everyone so far. With 256 it will run, but slowly. Thats how much I have in my iMac, and I'm begging work for more. Definately at least 512, if you can upgrade further, go for it. Its worth it.

Definitely spring for the single 512 stick in your powerbook. That leaves you with plenty of room for later (from a 3rd party) if you so desire.

I personally like 768MB of RAM...but 512 of RAM is not bad either. I also tend to do more processor-intensive stuff on my laptop.

256 is usable. Just make sure the coffee pot is ~10 minute walk away so that you can set the computer up to do something, then go get coffee and come back.

My brother uses his eMac with 256MB of RAM and it works. Our school has 7 eMacs with I think 128 of RAM...and it burns to use them.

I finf it rather funny about all the complaining that Apple systems (laptops) only come with 256Meg by default. My 12" PB which came with 256Meg as standard absolutely ran fine. I since have had an extra 512Meg, and to me, havent noticed any performance increase..

yeah 512…

i'd go for another 512. it's most economical (later expansion) and you'll really appreciate it when you do it.