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Dezlboy

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Sep 10, 2008
259
87
My Mom has an eMac (2005) Power PC G4, 1.42 GHz, 1GB DDR SDRAM memory. It is pretty slow, and occasionally gets the beach ball. Running OS 10.5.8 Leopard.

I've used several "clean you Mac" type programs to some success. Memory can be increased to 2 MB for about $50. She uses the PC for web surf, on-line ordering and banking, and email.

Do you think she will notice a difference with the upgrade?

BTW...I'm really proud of my Mom. She's 87 and using the eMac!

Thanks!
 

0dev

macrumors 68040
Dec 22, 2009
3,947
24
127.0.0.1
What's the RAM now? If it's 512MB or less then yeah, there will be a noticeable difference. If it's 1GB you will notice some difference but probably not major unless you're multitasking.
 

0dev

macrumors 68040
Dec 22, 2009
3,947
24
127.0.0.1
Thanks Intell, and Oday. It's 1GB now, it can't hurt to max it. low density...got it! thanks again.

Yeah can't hurt, especially on such old hardware. It'll still help for sure but the difference won't be massive is all :)
 

jbarley

macrumors 601
Jul 1, 2006
4,023
1,893
Vancouver Island
What's the RAM now? If it's 512MB or less then yeah, there will be a noticeable difference. If it's 1GB you will notice some difference but probably not major unless you're multitasking.
re-read the OP's post again, concentrating on the part where they say " 1GB DDR SDRAM memory"
 

California

macrumors 68040
Aug 21, 2004
3,885
90
No matter! Your info helped and I appreciate you taking your time to answer.:)

A bigger faster hard drive would help stop the beachballs, too.

I have a relatively new 160gb 7200 RPM iDE PATA Hard drive that I think? works with the eMacs. Let me know if you need it. I don't know if you need matched pairs of ram in that, either.
 

Dezlboy

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Sep 10, 2008
259
87
Hi. I though about the CPU. But figured it was worth $50 to give it a try. Will let u know.

The hard drive is mostly empty. But thanks for the offer California.
 
Last edited:

skateny

macrumors 6502
Jul 19, 2012
448
0
New York, NY
My Mom has an eMac (2005) Power PC G4, 1.42 GHz, 1GB DDR SDRAM memory. It is pretty slow, and occasionally gets the beach ball. Running OS 10.5.8 Leopard.

I've used several "clean you Mac" type programs to some success. Memory can be increased to 2 MB for about $50. She uses the PC for web surf, on-line ordering and banking, and email.

Do you think she will notice a difference with the upgrade?

BTW...I'm really proud of my Mom. She's 87 and using the eMac!

Thanks!

With every Mac I've owned (and there have been many), the first thing I did was max out the RAM. I never had it shipped with additional RAM because doing this through Apple was always ridiculously expensive. I used Crucial for some time before finding a reliable seller on eBay at a discount.

I never regretted it.

----------

One more thing. . .

My first computer was an Amiga 1000. It was on sale at an electronics store in NYC for $699. The salesman recommended I upgrade the RAM from 256K to 512K for $75. At the time, I didn't know why this might be a good thing, but I just did it. So I've been RAM-happy from the very start. Loved that machine too.
 

Dezlboy

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Sep 10, 2008
259
87
To everyone,

I really appreciate you taking your time to post replies. I have ordered 2GB ram to replace the current 1GB. Would have done this earlier, but after I "maxed" out the eMac at 1GB to Apple's specifications, I only recently read that the eMac can actually take up to 2 GB.

Thanks again,
Scott:)
 

zackkmac

macrumors 6502a
Jul 7, 2008
879
129
Denver
I have an eMac of the same specs, the 2GB upgrade made a nice difference. However if she uses it as her main computer I would look into getting a PATA SSD drive for it. That plus the RAM upgrade will make a drastic improvement in boot time, application launching, and overall responsiveness.
 

Dezlboy

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Sep 10, 2008
259
87
Upgrade fro 1 GB to 2 GB on the eMac went well. Noticeable quicker launch time for Safari, email, Word for Mac, etc. And "snappier" when in the application.

BTW...hard drive has plenty of empty space. Mom uses eMac for web browsing, email, and that's about it. So, she should be set for a while.

Thanks again for your advice.
 
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