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bigpumbaa

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 25, 2004
40
0
So I've got 512mb on my Window machine, and it runs great for what I do with it. When I get an iBook, does it make sense that 512mb (in total) will be enough as well? For me its not a matter of "buy as much as you can afford", its a matter of being thrifty without sacrificing speed. iBook uses would probably be limited to iLife apps, word processing, and wireless internet. No heavy photo or video editing. What do you guys think?
 

sotied

macrumors regular
Apr 12, 2003
116
0
Boston
Fill it up

I've got a Dual 867 tower and an iBook 1.2GB. I find that having more ram will never hurt you and will often help.

While I write for a living and planned not to use my 'book for anything more than Word and some surfing, I'm now using it to do some P-shop work, check my email, play poker online, keep iChat active and play with iMovie and its bretheren.

SO, I'm glad I maxxed out the Ram in the 'book and I suspect for the short money, you will be too.

Jeff
 

alywa

macrumors 6502
May 6, 2004
350
7
RE iBook RAM

My wife has a 12" iBook, 1Ghz. It comes stock with 256MB, with 1 DIMM for expansion.

She basically uses the iBook for photo viewing, word-processing, iTunes, and internet. 256MB was usable, but I added an extra 512MB. My reasoning was as follows:

The iBook only has one expansion slot. While 512MB total would probably have been fine, it wasn't too much more expensive to buy the extra 512 instead of the 256. Plus, I would have hated to get into a situation where I had to ditch a 256MB stick for a larger one.

Your iLife needs, if you use Garage Band or iMovie, will certainly be better suited with at least 768MB of RAM.

-alywa
 

Colonel Panik

macrumors regular
Feb 23, 2004
206
14
Dublin, Ireland
Memory is not that expensive anyway, not if you shop from the right sources. Don't buy Apple's memory, except if you have to (e.g. they sometimes have a non-user accessible memory module).

Personally I always max out my RAM. You've got to remember that a computer is more than a processer, and to access the real world speed of a machine you have to find the slowest parts. And having more RAM will certainly speed up your machine. I also see it as future-proofing. It will make your machine useable for longer.

Anyway, iLife apps aren't exactly machine-light. Garageband requires lots of muscle, as does iPhoto with 5000+ photos, and iDVD ain't exactly a word processor...
 

maya

macrumors 68040
Oct 7, 2004
3,225
0
somewhere between here and there.
You have a portable I say ALWAYS MAX IT OUT, no matter what. You only have one slot to play with max it out since its a waste of money to buy anything less without maxing it out you will throw it away and kick yourself later for not maxing it out now.

1GB of ram goes for 160 USD with taxes and shipping you are looking at 180 USD for a GB of laptop ram if you call that expensive try buying from Apple. The more ram you have the faster and more apps you can run. I have found music encode also faster and no buffer under-runs while burning CD or DVD's. :)
 
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