iBook upgrade questions

ghostee · Feb 3, 2005, 08:50 PM

I've had my 12" iBook G4 800 mhz with the stock 256 mb of RAM for about.... 10 months now. It's very usable, but there are times I get the beachball spinning for a while, or other slowdowns. Also, the UI seems somewhat slow. Would upgrading my memory remedy these? I've been hesitent to put my PC I upgraded from away completely, and am hoping an upgrade could help accomplish that. I don't run that many programs at once, normally I'll have a web browser with a bunch of tabs open, Adium X for IM'ing, iTunes playing some mp3's... nothing all that "intensive". I usually go to the PC for BitTorrent and Soulseek p2p purposes, as I don't want to bog the iBook down even more when it's choking on webbrowsing. I'd like to do everything on the iBook.

I'd guess that upgrading the memory would help. Apple says the max on this iBook is 640mb, but there are reports of getting 1gig sticks to work in it. I don't want to risk wasting money, but want the best performance/price ratio. Worth it to go 1gig, or should I stick a 512 in her? Or is my iBook just that outdated and slow already?

On another note, how well do a bluetooth keyboard and mouse work when the iBook is also running on wireless? Is there any interferrence caused by this? All my phones are 900mhz, and the Airport Extreme has never given me a problem before.

Thanks for any advice you guys have,

Tony

ghostee · Feb 5, 2005, 12:48 PM

Bump

Darwin · Feb 5, 2005, 02:50 PM

I would say that you should upgrade your RAM

Go to Utilities and then to Activity Monitor, select System memory from the tabs at the bottom and see how the RAM is being used, if you have low free memory and your not running a lot of programs then defiantly upgrade

As for the Bluetooth I have not seen any problems with it and i'm on a wireless network, remember that Wifi and Bluetooth are different technologies and both should not get inference with each other, if there was a problem with this then you would have heard about it here

jxyama · Feb 5, 2005, 04:08 PM

get a stick of 512 MB. for your uses, that'll be plenty and you will notice a good boost in performance. 1 GB RAM is still quite expensive and i don't think it's worth it for your uses.

BT uses 2.45 GHz, the same as Airport, but they shouldn't interfere...

i have a two year old rev. A PB with 640 MB RAM and 867 MHz G4. it's working great.

Feb 3, 2005, 08:50 PM	#1
ghostee macrumors 6502 Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Wood Dale, IL	iBook upgrade questions I've had my 12" iBook G4 800 mhz with the stock 256 mb of RAM for about.... 10 months now. It's very usable, but there are times I get the beachball spinning for a while, or other slowdowns. Also, the UI seems somewhat slow. Would upgrading my memory remedy these? I've been hesitent to put my PC I upgraded from away completely, and am hoping an upgrade could help accomplish that. I don't run that many programs at once, normally I'll have a web browser with a bunch of tabs open, Adium X for IM'ing, iTunes playing some mp3's... nothing all that "intensive". I usually go to the PC for BitTorrent and Soulseek p2p purposes, as I don't want to bog the iBook down even more when it's choking on webbrowsing. I'd like to do everything on the iBook. I'd guess that upgrading the memory would help. Apple says the max on this iBook is 640mb, but there are reports of getting 1gig sticks to work in it. I don't want to risk wasting money, but want the best performance/price ratio. Worth it to go 1gig, or should I stick a 512 in her? Or is my iBook just that outdated and slow already? On another note, how well do a bluetooth keyboard and mouse work when the iBook is also running on wireless? Is there any interferrence caused by this? All my phones are 900mhz, and the Airport Extreme has never given me a problem before. Thanks for any advice you guys have, Tony __________________ iPhone 3GS 32gb Laptop: Macbook Pro 15"/2ghz C2D Server: Windows Home Server/4.7TB HTPC: AMD X2 2.2ghz/Vista Gaming: AMD X2 2.6ghz/4850/Vista

Feb 5, 2005, 12:48 PM	#2
ghostee Thread Starter macrumors 6502 Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Wood Dale, IL	Bump __________________ iPhone 3GS 32gb Laptop: Macbook Pro 15"/2ghz C2D Server: Windows Home Server/4.7TB HTPC: AMD X2 2.2ghz/Vista Gaming: AMD X2 2.6ghz/4850/Vista

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Feb 5, 2005, 02:50 PM	#3
Darwin macrumors 6502a Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: round the corner	I would say that you should upgrade your RAM Go to Utilities and then to Activity Monitor, select System memory from the tabs at the bottom and see how the RAM is being used, if you have low free memory and your not running a lot of programs then defiantly upgrade As for the Bluetooth I have not seen any problems with it and i'm on a wireless network, remember that Wifi and Bluetooth are different technologies and both should not get inference with each other, if there was a problem with this then you would have heard about it here

Feb 5, 2005, 04:08 PM	#4
jxyama macrumors 68040 Join Date: Apr 2003	get a stick of 512 MB. for your uses, that'll be plenty and you will notice a good boost in performance. 1 GB RAM is still quite expensive and i don't think it's worth it for your uses. BT uses 2.45 GHz, the same as Airport, but they shouldn't interfere... i have a two year old rev. A PB with 640 MB RAM and 867 MHz G4. it's working great.