ibook memory and hard drive

[in2themystik2]

I have decided to switch to mac for the first time and get an ibook soon. I use the computer for average, normal, everyday things (e-mail, research, internet, word, school work, etc.). I was wondering from those who have ibooks if they would recommend upgrading the memory to 768MB or 1G, or if you think the 512MB would be enough for me. For people who have 512MB of memory, do you find that it works for you, or wish you had more?

Also, as for the hard drive, I was thinking it would be wise to upgrade to 60GB. If anyone has any views or opinions on this, that would be helpful!

Any other suggestions or knowledge you may have regarding Mac or iBooks would be appreciated, as I am still learning!

Thank you so much!

EDIT: I ordered my iBook Sunday night!! To extend its life because i'll have it for several years, I got an 80GB hard drive, because I have not filled mine up that fast, and I'll still have my desk top. I also just went ahead and got 1 GB of RAM because it was less hastle than waiting, and if i'm spending that much, i just figured I should do it now. Anyway, I am so excited and now just have to wait for it to get here!!

 

[buryyourbrideau]

For your uses, 512 would do you just fine.

If you wanted to then upgrade to 768 but dont do it through Apple. Order some extra memory from These Guys
and you would be in great shape.

Its very easy to install RAM your self. They also include directions on how to install the RAM if you dont know how.

And yes I would upgrade to at least an 80GB drive if possible. I use mine for the same things, and my HD is almost full.

Hope this helps

 

[in2themystik2]

For your uses, 512 would do you just fine.

If you wanted to then upgrade to 768 but dont do it through Apple. Order some extra memory from These Guys
and you would be in great shape.

Its very easy to install RAM your self. They also include directions on how to install the RAM if you dont know how.

And yes I would upgrade to at least an 80GB drive if possible. I use mine for the same things, and my HD is almost full.

Hope this helps

I'm curious about the hard drive size, because it seems like Mac hard drives fill up a lot more quickly than PC drives. I have had a gateway all through college, have a lot of music and photos and such on it, and it's just now half full, and it's 40 GB hard drive. I have read a lot of posts though on this site that indicate that much larger hard drives are needed, so I was just curious if they way they work is different and they fill up more.

Thanks for the help!

 

[mad jew]

I'm curious about the hard drive size, because it seems like Mac hard drives fill up a lot more quickly than PC drives.

Interesting theory. Although the formatting type is different, they'll both fill at the same rate assuming you're doing the same sort of stuff with them.

 

[OutThere]

I'm curious about the hard drive size, because it seems like Mac hard drives fill up a lot more quickly than PC drives. I have had a gateway all through college, have a lot of music and photos and such on it, and it's just now half full, and it's 40 GB hard drive. I have read a lot of posts though on this site that indicate that much larger hard drives are needed, so I was just curious if they way they work is different and they fill up more.

Thanks for the help!

Mac drives will fill up just the same way as PC drives, depending on how much stuff you load onto them. If you're only using 20gigs of hard drive space, in the grand scheme of things, you do not have "a lot of music and photos and such" on it...we have more.

 

[slooksterPSV]

I'm curious about the hard drive size, because it seems like Mac hard drives fill up a lot more quickly than PC drives. I have had a gateway all through college, have a lot of music and photos and such on it, and it's just now half full, and it's 40 GB hard drive. I have read a lot of posts though on this site that indicate that much larger hard drives are needed, so I was just curious if they way they work is different and they fill up more.

Thanks for the help!

Ok, I have an external firewire cause I want my music on a drive where I can use another Mac to access it. If you're not going to rip cds, videos, etc 40GB is plenty. I install lots of other apps so I have about 20GB left. When you install all the basic apps and that it uses up about 10GB total, that's how your mac will come is used up about 10GB. Hard drives on Macs can always be expanded via firewire and usb 2.0 (or 1.1 or 1.0 if you have those). The other thing is 512MB of RAM should be enough. I'm running Photoshop, iCal, Safari, Adium, 5 Widgets, iTunes. And I still have memory free. The other thing is, it never hurts to upgrade RAM + it's easy! So yeah upgrade the RAM if you have the money. It never hurts. It'll do you a lot of good.

 

[stevietheb]

I more or less use my iBook (see sig) for the same things. My piece of advice: if you decide to stick with 512MB of RAM—don't use Word. For whatever reason, Word just sucks on this computer. Use something like NeoOffice if you need full Office compatibility. I use Mellel for my word processing—it's young, but very much geared towards scholars in the humanities (though it's still missing a few important features, like indexing). I can't say enough about Mellel (especially, if you use multiple languages that require multiple keyboard layouts).

My two cents (and no...this is not simply a "I hate MS" thing...I just don't care for Office...it's too slow and buggy on Mac...great on Windows though!)

 

[buryyourbrideau]

I'm curious about the hard drive size, because it seems like Mac hard drives fill up a lot more quickly than PC drives. I have had a gateway all through college, have a lot of music and photos and such on it, and it's just now half full, and it's 40 GB hard drive. I have read a lot of posts though on this site that indicate that much larger hard drives are needed, so I was just curious if they way they work is different and they fill up more.

Thanks for the help!

The OS takes up more room on the HD then Windows.

I would just go with the 80 now so you dont need an external in the future.

 

[slooksterPSV]

The OS takes up more room on the HD then Windows.

I would just go with the 80 now so you dont need an external in the future.

Of course Apple is better so yeah it does take more room to install. You have Exposé, QuickTime, iPhoto, iDVD (1.42GB there), iMovie, GarageBand 2 - the loops amount to 2GB. So really if you did a custom install and took out iDVD and GarageBand 2, and took out all the Printer Drivers, and Languages, you'd be at about 3.5GB usage.

 

[Laser47]

Of course Apple is better so yeah it does take more room to install. You have Exposé, QuickTime, iPhoto, iDVD (1.42GB there), iMovie, GarageBand 2 - the loops amount to 2GB. So really if you did a custom install and took out iDVD and GarageBand 2, and took out all the Printer Drivers, and Languages, you'd be at about 3.5GB usage.

Lol, the printer drivers take up about 1.7gig all by itself.
Also if you can when you get your ibook use the software restore disks to reinstall osx and unselect the printer drivers and anything else you dont want. You'll save a lot of space.

 

[slooksterPSV]

Lol, the printer drivers take up about 1.7gig all by itself.
Also if you can when you get your ibook use the software restore disks to reinstall osx and unselect the printer drivers and anything else you dont want. You'll save a lot of space.

OMG That beauty is your first mac?! AWESOME DUDE. You lovin it? I know you are.

 

[Laser47]

OMG That beauty is your first mac?! AWESOME DUDE. You lovin it? I know you are.

Of course I am.

 

[Lazyhound]

The other thing is 512MB of RAM should be enough. I'm running Photoshop, iCal, Safari, Adium, 5 Widgets, iTunes. And I still have memory free.

That's because OS X is very aggressive about swapping out to disk.

(Personally, I find 512MB to be enough, though it is annoying to have to wait ~10 seconds for the widgets to load back into memory when I don't use Dashboard for a while.

 

[in2themystik2]

I ordered it!

Well, after much thought, and suggestions from other people, I made a decision and finally ordered my 12" iBook last night!! I decided to help prolong the life of the computer, because i'll probably have to use it for at least a few years to come, I got 1GB of RAM and an 80 GB hard drive. I figured it would be easier to just have it all come complete together rather than have to worry about later adding to it and maybe screwing something up!

Anyway, I am so excited about getting it, and now I just have to wait for it to arrive soon (hopefully)!!

Thanks for everyone's help, and I'm sure I'll have more questions after I get it!

 

[ITASOR]

I'm curious about the hard drive size, because it seems like Mac hard drives fill up a lot more quickly than PC drives.

It seems like this because there's much more to do on Macs....like you start getting into iMovie, the other iLife apps, iTunes, other digital stuff, etc. On a PC (at least for me), I stick to mostly the Apps that come with it (which is basically not too much) and therefore don't experiment.

I do have to admit though, I filled my last PC laptop's 40GB HD up really quick. No problemo though, take off little door and pop in an 80GB. <--only thing I LOVE about PC notebooks.

 

[jtown]

Get the biggest internal hard drive you can afford. You can't replace with a bigger one later unless you want to void the warranty and spend a few hours keeping track of a couple dozen tiny screws. You're already spending over a thousand. Another $150 (assuming you were going to upgrade to the 60 gig already) is a no-brainer.

Don't worry about adding memory now. You can add that later for considerably less than apple charges.