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cgnjny

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Hi all --

I currently have a G3 iBook purchased in 2002 and installed a memory upgrade to 384 following the purchase. Obviously, there was a great speed increase and less "wear" on the HD as there is a lower need to access cache constantly.

I am trying to perk up this computer once again yet don't want to invest in a new Apple just yet... if I upgrade to the max of 512 megs, will it make much a difference between the two?

I know this question might sound a bit inane, but don't want to upgrade if there won't be a significant "need". I am running 10.2.8 right now, planning on going to Panther (and possibly Tiger)... will the upp'd memory help that as well?

Thanks.
 
cgnjny said:
I am trying to perk up this computer once again yet don't want to invest in a new Apple just yet... if I upgrade to the max of 512 megs, will it make much a difference between the two?

Well more RAM always helps.

At the moment you must have 128MB built-in and 256MB in the user accessible slot for a total of 384MB.

You can upgrade to 640MB by replacing the 256MB stick with a 512MB stick.

Personally I think you'll see a noticeable improvement with 640MB, I think 512MB and above is when you see the swap space being accessed very little. It'll be a bit pricey to upgrade but you can always sell the 256MB stick on eBay to make a little of it back.

Try running this program
Do I Need More Memory to see if you'll benefit from more RAM.
 
Panther

Panther makes a big difference, I must say. Although I have found 256 MB far too little to run Panther efficiently, I will tell you that Panther will boast a great perceived speed improvement over Jaguar. I've used Jaguar on an old system, and it was excrutiatingly slow. After I installed Panther, it seemed much quicker. My boss uses Jaguar, and her computer (although it boasts a good processor) seems far less efficient than mine in many tasks. I agree with the previous poster; upgrading to 640 MB total RAM would be a wise choice.

Mike LaRiviere
 
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