Should I upgrade memory from 1GB??

[Heb1228]

Here's my question for some of you that have some experience with different memory configurations in Macs...

I've got a PB (the one in my signature) and I'm wondering if it would be worth it to upgrade the memory to 1.5GB or do I really just need to wait until I can get 2 1GB sticks and max it out to 2GB.

I guess my queston is whether another 512 is going to make much of a difference... (I know, very subjective question, but I'd like to hear your thoughts.)

 

[barneygumble]

Here's my question for some of you that have some experience with different memory configurations in Macs...

I've got a PB (the one in my signature) and I'm wondering if it would be worth it to upgrade the memory to 1.5GB or do I really just need to wait until I can get 2 1GB sticks and max it out to 2GB.

I guess my queston is whether another 512 is going to make much of a difference... (I know, very subjective question, but I'd like to hear your thoughts.)

Well how much memory do you ussually have free and what do you use your computer for?

 

[CanadaRAM]

You don't have to get matched pairs, so you could do it one 1 Gb modulee at a time.

The answer is: You need it when you need it.

That is, it will make precious little difference when you are running one or two programs. But as soon as your application and data load goes over 1 Gb, your performance will start to suffer, and the extra RAM would help.

 

[Heb1228]

Good question, should have stated that originally.

I do a fair amount of video editing, some medium level photoshop work (in photophop elements). Some webdesign with Dreamweaver. I probably go back and forth between power user and home/email user several times a day. I rarely have more than 100MB of memory free... heres a current screenshot:

 

[barneygumble]

Good question, should have stated that originally.

I do a fair amount of video editing, some medium level photoshop work (in photophop elements). Some webdesign with Dreamweaver. I probably go back and forth between power user and home/email user several times a day. I rarely have more than 100MB of memory free... heres a current screenshot:

If that is your standard usage i would suggest more it will zip along

 

[mkrishnan]

Another useful question is... do you see "load dependent beachballing?" That is, sometimes, you get a beachball because of issues in the way an app is coded. Like sometimes, especially with pages that have javascript, and so on, Safari will beachball tabbing between tabs even when it's the only thing running. But do you see beachballs that occur specifically in times when you are pushing the machine hard, whereas the same would not occur if you did the same specific routine with less other things going on?

Your profile sounds like you need the ram, but your free memory indicator isn't a very useful piece of information -- OS X will try its darnedest to use up all the memory it can. Most of that is replaceable stuff -- that is, the system can immediately dump it and use the memory for something else, if it needs to. The problem comes in when all the memory is being used by stuff that cannot be dumped, and you have to page out to virtual memory.

If you really want to get into it, you can also go and look at your page-ins and -outs.

But if I were you, I'd go buy the RAM.

I am on the verge of upgrading iBooks, in the next month, and going from 640MB to 1.5GB. My need probably falls in between the two, and closer to 640MB (although with Tiger, I definitely had to scale back my usage pattern to stay happy in 640, so I need at least another 128MB).

 

[Heb1228]

If you really want to get into it, you can also go and look at your page-ins and -outs.

Where would I find this and what should I look for? Is this different than the pagein/outs thats in the picture I posted above?

Also, does adding more memory drain your battery any faster?

 

[mkrishnan]

Eeep, no, they're one in the same. But I don't know how to analyze it.

Someone (probably Trevor) posted a guideline somewhere in these here fora on how to interpret them. It's mostly the size of the page-outs, I think, that is important.

Anyway, if you can afford it, go snap it up!

 

[Heb1228]

I found something helpful in one of the linked articles in one of the threads. In terminal, if you type in "top", it gives you a live readout of whats going on with pageins/pageouts. The numbers in parenthesis about 6 lines down show how many you've had in the last 1 second. The article said if that number is constantly between 25-50, you really need memory. Just sharing the info, maybe somebody else can use it

 

[Abstract]

^^He can do the same thing in Activity Monitor.

You need more RAM, sir. That is all.

 

[Heb1228]

^^He can do the same thing in Activity Monitor.

You need more RAM, sir. That is all.

Activity Monitor doesn't seem to show the Pagein/outs for the last 1 second. It shows disk activity for the last 1 sec, but this is different from what it is showing in terminal, from what I can tell. Am I missing something?

Yeah, I figure I probably do need more RAM. Now if I can just find some cash around here somewhere...

 

[Heb1228]

OK, so I went ahead last night and ordered 2 1GB sticks from newegg.com to max out the RAM. I also went a little crazy and ordered a 120GB 5400 RPM Seagate notebook hard drive. So I should be seeing some good performance boosts here in the next few days when it gets delivered.

Any advice on installing? I think I'll do one stick of memory at a time to make sure there's no problem, and after that seems ok, go for installing the hard drive.

 

[faintember]

Any advice on installing? I think I'll do one stick of memory at a time to make sure there's no problem, and after that seems ok, go for installing the hard drive.

Sounds like the right order. When you install the ram try using
Rember or Memtest to check your ram throughly. I just bought an external enclosure and a new HD for my PB, and after getting an enclosure that was not faulty, the copying using Carbon Copy Cloner worked great.

 

[Heb1228]

Sounds like the right order. When you install the ram try using
Rember or Memtest to check your ram throughly. I just bought an external enclosure and a new HD for my PB, and after getting an enclosure that was not faulty, the copying using Carbon Copy Cloner worked great.

Thanks! Those memory testing programs will be perfect!

Now I'm trying to decide whether to clone my current drive (orginally installed 2 years ago with the release of Panther) or do a fresh install of Tiger. Hmmm... decsions decisions... but these are the fun type to make

 

[bodeh6]

Thanks! Those memory testing programs will be perfect!

Now I'm trying to decide whether to clone my current drive (orginally installed 2 years ago with the release of Panther) or do a fresh install of Tiger. Hmmm... decsions decisions... but these are the fun type to make

Just do a fresh install and transfer all of your music/pics/movies/docs and reinstall all of your apps. It should be more stable and there should be less problems.