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undead-design

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 12, 2006
18
0
Hey everyone. I am getting an older Powerbook G4 17 inch from a friend pretty soon. She's selling it to me for about 700 bucks because it only has the on board 512 MB of RAM and the usual wear and tear. I think it is a fair price (as I am buying it to hold me over until I need a new laptop next school year), but after looking into upgrading the memory on Apple's store online, $300 dollars for 1GB of RAM seems a bit ridiculous! I need more then 1GB to run Aperture, Photoshop CS2 and Final Cut Pro. But that means I am spending nearly 1000 dollars for a kind of dated computer when I could buy a refurb macbook pro for a few hundred more. Am I wrong, is there anywhere else I should shop for RAM? Or anything I need to know!?
 

barkins

macrumors regular
Sep 15, 2006
169
2
Encino, CA
undead-design said:
Hey everyone. I am getting an older Powerbook G4 17 inch from a friend pretty soon. She's selling it to me for about 700 bucks because it only has the on board 512 MB of RAM and the usual wear and tear. I think it is a fair price (as I am buying it to hold me over until I need a new laptop next school year), but after looking into upgrading the memory on Apple's store online, $300 dollars for 1GB of RAM seems a bit ridiculous! I need more then 1GB to run Aperture, Photoshop CS2 and Final Cut Pro. But that means I am spending nearly 1000 dollars for a kind of dated computer when I could buy a refurb macbook pro for a few hundred more. Am I wrong, is there anywhere else I should shop for RAM? Or anything I need to know!?

Check Ebay... :)
 

undead-design

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 12, 2006
18
0
I was thinking that...but....

barkins said:
Check Ebay... :)

thats what i was thinking about doing but i don't know enough about RAM for laptops to know what to look for. I saw that the apple site lists it as:

"Apple Memory Module 1GB PC2700 DDR333 SO-DIMM"

Should I just ebay search that? Is Apple RAM the same as other RAM? Kind of a stupid question :confused: , but I haven't actually had to buy RAM for an Apple before. Thanks!
 

26139

Suspended
Dec 27, 2003
4,315
377
Patience...

Dude...crucial.com, 18004memory.com and kingston.com all have better prices.

If a macbook pro is only a little more and you can afford it...why not?
 

Pressure

macrumors 603
May 30, 2006
5,032
1,373
Denmark
NewSc2 said:
no, any RAM with the right specified size should work fine. Check newegg.com for prices and reviews, and http://www.crucial.com/ can help you determine which size you would need.

For PowerPC based system I strongly suggest getting ram that has been tested and deemed compatible with Apple systems.

The new Intel based computers isn't as fuzzy about ram as the PowerPC architecture is.
 

Swarmlord

macrumors 6502a
Sep 18, 2006
535
0
Where are you seeing a Macbook Pro of that caliber for just a "little bit" more? The cheapest new one is $2K and even refurb is just slightly less than that. That 17" screen would really help with the software you listed and if the copies you have are written for the PowerPC processor and not Universal or Intel that G4 machine would work fine for less money.

Maybe I need to browse the refurb unit area a little more often if prices are that much lower than new.
 

NewSc2

macrumors 65816
Jun 4, 2005
1,044
2
New York, NY
Pressure said:
For PowerPC based system I strongly suggest getting ram that has been tested and deemed compatible with Apple systems.

The new Intel based computers isn't as fuzzy about ram as the PowerPC architecture is.

I wouldn't say so. There are many, many Powerbook owners that use 3rd party RAM (including me) with no problems. Samsung, Corsair, Crucial, and Kingston are all very reputable brands. Newegg has many reviews of satisfied Powerbook, iBook, iMac, and Powermac upgraders.
 

WildCowboy

Administrator/Editor
Staff member
Jan 20, 2005
18,358
2,769
You'll find a lot of recommendations on here for OWC and DMS. PPC Macs can sometimes be picky about RAM, and both of these companies are knowledgeable and stand behind their products with terrific customer service. Both sites have online memory wizards that will allow you to input your machine specs and they'll show you the exact memory you need.
 

generik

macrumors 601
Aug 5, 2005
4,116
1
Minitrue
appleretailguy said:
Dude...crucial.com, 18004memory.com and kingston.com all have better prices.

If a macbook pro is only a little more and you can afford it...why not?

Because she is a gurl! Even if it is sold at a lousy price there is still the scent :rolleyes:

NewSc2 said:
I wouldn't say so. There are many, many Powerbook owners that use 3rd party RAM (including me) with no problems. Samsung, Corsair, Crucial, and Kingston are all very reputable brands. Newegg has many reviews of satisfied Powerbook, iBook, iMac, and Powermac upgraders.

I'd buy from a very reputable dealer for a PPC machine. I once bought a Kingston module that is certified for the exact same PB model, it didn't work.. or rather it did but kernel panics from time to time. Works great in another PC laptop though.

Go figure.

OWC all the way for this.
 

undead-design

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 12, 2006
18
0
thank you guys....one more thing

Pressure said:
For PowerPC based system I strongly suggest getting ram that has been tested and deemed compatible with Apple systems.

The new Intel based computers isn't as fuzzy about ram as the PowerPC architecture is.

generik said:
Because she is a gurl! Even if it is sold at a lousy price there is still the scent :rolleyes:



I'd buy from a very reputable dealer for a PPC machine. I once bought a Kingston module that is certified for the exact same PB model, it didn't work.. or rather it did but kernel panics from time to time. Works great in another PC laptop though.

Go figure.

OWC all the way for this.

Thank you all. Thats exactly what I was worried about. After going to macsales.com and datamem, I found a few things that were kinda confusing. There is different prices on the 1GB memory but I am not really sure what the difference are between any of them. It is a helluva lot closer to my kinda prices then 300 dollars for 1GB.

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/iBooks-PowerBooks/G4-Aluminum/
There is a few prices here. $189.00, $144.95, $138.99

http://www.datamem.com/AMM12.asp
The best price here is $131.00 but there is another one that is listed as "call"

Any further suggestions? :D

appleretailguy said:
Dude...crucial.com, 18004memory.com and kingston.com all have better prices.

If a macbook pro is only a little more and you can afford it...why not?

As for the "little bit more" I got my prices mixed up with the black macbook thats on there for around 949.00 or something. My mistake.
 
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