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1GB Memory Upgrade for iBook G4?

R

Rocketmunkee

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 13, 2004
23
0
I had just upgraded my memory to 640MB on my iBook G4 933Mhz and then this morning I was looking for external HDs and found this site boasting it has 1GB chips for the iBook G4...

Is that possible? I am building my iBook into an FCP editing system and the boosted memory would be sweet.

Thanks.
 
no way

It's crap. iBooks can only handle up to 640mb of RAM. Not worth the risk and money. Need to upgrade to Powerbook if you want more ram capacity.
 
Re: no way

Originally posted by appleretailguy
It's crap. iBooks can only handle up to 640mb of RAM. Not worth the risk and money. Need to upgrade to Powerbook if you want more ram capacity.
Click to expand...

crap? get your facts straight.
Transintl. has a 1gb upgrade for the ibook. im going to buy 1 soon. and the 933 does actually support it. it's not cheap though. but if you want max mem. go get it.
 
yeah the chip will probably work, unless the mobo limits the amount of ram it can use. The previous limit was based on the fact that 512 was the max chip avaible the 1GB chip came onto the market within the last year
 
Agreed. It's a lie. I have an iBook G4 @800MHZ and spent a lot of time looking for RAM...this was over the past 3 weeks. Any 1GB claim is a fabrication. I've noticed that on several sites, the 1GHZ RAM stick is said to fit all G4's... but then there is a disclaimer in small print that says:

(excl. iBook).

which presumably means "excluding iBook G4's"

I'd say you are maxed out for sure at 640MB.
 
APOLOGY

Very sorry everyone. Just talked to my mac tech....these chips WILL WORK. Not a scam. As always, make sure you trust the company and they have some sort of guarantee on the memory. Have at it, FCP guy.
 
Yowza! I stand corrected.

:eek:

Thanks for the linx. At $450, that's 41% of the cost of my iBook. I got a 512 for $109.

Still interesting though....
 
Originally posted by keysersoze
Yowza! I stand corrected.

:eek:

Thanks for the linx. At $450, that's 41% of the cost of my iBook. I got a 512 for $109.

Still interesting though....
Click to expand...

Actually the $450 must have been first release prices. The Trans site is now showing $375. Still pricey. But as they are the only offer on the boards...

I can wait on Re-upgrading my memory as I have other peripheral devices to buy with $375 and change... Thanks for all the replies. I really opened a can of worms on this one. :)
 
Those chips will work, but I can't stress enough the recommendation against getting one. Exceeding memory limits on logic boards can cause problems with performance, especially with a low L2 cache like the iBook has. For what any normal person would use an iBook, 640MB of RAM should be enough. If you want to do things like FCP and DVD Studio, you should not have bought an iBook. I don't care what the Apple Sales people say, iBooks should be used for smaller things. Desktops and PowerBooks should be used for Final Cut and whatnot.
 
Originally posted by Calliander
Those chips will work, but I can't stress enough the recommendation against getting one. Exceeding memory limits on logic boards can cause problems with performance, especially with a low L2 cache like the iBook has. For what any normal person would use an iBook, 640MB of RAM should be enough. If you want to do things like FCP and DVD Studio, you should not have bought an iBook. I don't care what the Apple Sales people say, iBooks should be used for smaller things. Desktops and PowerBooks should be used for Final Cut and whatnot.
Click to expand...


Why? Do you have any experience in this field? If you've got any links to real-life accounts of problems caused by these 1gb RAM, please, give us some links. It's very interesting indeed.
I personally think that it's not the imitation of the motherboard, but in fact a way for Apple to defrenciate the ibooks from the powerbooks. The ibooks are seriously becoming decent machines now. Look at what they did with the dual display capability of the ibook being crippled for example.
Ofcourse I could be totally wrong here. Just looking forward to hearing from someone that's actually tried it.
 
Originally posted by junior
Why? Do you have any experience in this field? If you've got any links to real-life accounts of problems caused by these 1gb RAM, please, give us some links. It's very interesting indeed.
I personally think that it's not the imitation of the motherboard, but in fact a way for Apple to defrenciate the ibooks from the powerbooks. The ibooks are seriously becoming decent machines now. Look at what they did with the dual display capability of the ibook being crippled for example.
Ofcourse I could be totally wrong here. Just looking forward to hearing from someone that's actually tried it.
Click to expand...

12" PB rev. A had a listed retail max. of 640 MB, but the technical specification (no link, sorry, can't remember where i saw it, it's in apple's developer section somewhere) said it can handle up to 1 GB (or maybe more). rev. A 12" PB has the same 256k L2 cache. so i don't see any reason why iBook G4 can't go up to 1+ GB.
 
APPLE RAM specs

Apple's maximum RAM specs are tied to what was available at the time of release rather than an actual theoretical RAM ceiling.

I have a Pismo. Apple specs stipulate 512MB max. Right. Everyone knows that it will easily handle 1GB RAM now. I bought mine from Smalldog as a new/open box blowout and it has been using 1GB RAM from the get-go.

No problems whatsoever; in fact, it probably cuts down on hard drive usage having that much RAM--you have to hit the drive less during regular use.

If Apple lists 640 as it's max for the iBook, it is because 1GB RAM chips for that unit were not available at time of release. Now that they are here I would bet they will work just fine. Actually, you'll have a hair more than 1GB if you do it, becuase the 128 chip permanently mounted on the mobo will still be there, right? That means you're looking at 1.1GB RAM.

That's not bad for a portable. You'll get a lot done. And your HD will probably last longer.
 
Re: APPLE RAM specs

Originally posted by D*I*S_Frontman
Apple's maximum RAM specs are tied to what was available at the time of release rather than an actual theoretical RAM ceiling.

I have a Pismo. Apple specs stipulate 512MB max. Right. Everyone knows that it will easily handle 1GB RAM now. I bought mine from Smalldog as a new/open box blowout and it has been using 1GB RAM from the get-go.

No problems whatsoever; in fact, it probably cuts down on hard drive usage having that much RAM--you have to hit the drive less during regular use.

If Apple lists 640 as it's max for the iBook, it is because 1GB RAM chips for that unit were not available at time of release. Now that they are here I would bet they will work just fine. Actually, you'll have a hair more than 1GB if you do it, becuase the 128 chip permanently mounted on the mobo will still be there, right? That means you're looking at 1.1GB RAM.

That's not bad for a portable. You'll get a lot done. And your HD will probably last longer.
Click to expand...


That's not actually true since 1GB RAM have been out for nearly a year now.
I honestly think that Apple's just doing this to make the 12" PB look more superior.
 
Calliander

I agree completely. The RAM boards were spec'd before gig chips came out. But...if you want to do FCP VIDEO, PLEASE buy a powerbook.
 
Re: Calliander

Originally posted by appleretailguy
But...if you want to do FCP VIDEO, PLEASE buy a powerbook.
Click to expand...

But why? A friend of mine who has been editing with FCP on his PB G3 for years says that my new iBook is more than capable. Someday when I become adept at dv editing, I will probably upgrade to a dual G5 tower... but until then...

I am not planning on doing effects heavy rendering, etc. But this is off topic. My original goal was to get a new computer and this particular ibook became available to me within my budget. It wasn't until after I purchased it that I started messing around with FCP. I am a photoshop/flash junkie... just looking to expand.
 
Originally posted by junior
Why? Do you have any experience in this field? If you've got any links to real-life accounts of problems caused by these 1gb RAM, please, give us some links. It's very interesting indeed.
I personally think that it's not the imitation of the motherboard, but in fact a way for Apple to defrenciate the ibooks from the powerbooks. The ibooks are seriously becoming decent machines now. Look at what they did with the dual display capability of the ibook being crippled for example.
Ofcourse I could be totally wrong here. Just looking forward to hearing from someone that's actually tried it.
Click to expand...

Personal and work experience, yes.

I've had customers whose iBook logic boards were actually damaged by the 1GB chip. Perhaps the G4 iBooks will handle it better than the others, but I would still be wary.

My Dell PC had a stated limit of 512MB which I exceeded. Both the processor and the motherboard were damaged. My modified beige G3 had its processor damaged by some 512MB chips I tossed into it.

There's also something with the type of pin that they use on the RAM chips, too, but I'll have to check that out.
 
Re: Re: Calliander

Originally posted by Rocketmunkee
But why? A friend of mine who has been editing with FCP on his PB G3 for years says that my new iBook is more than capable. Someday when I become adept at dv editing, I will probably upgrade to a dual G5 tower... but until then...

I am not planning on doing effects heavy rendering, etc. But this is off topic. My original goal was to get a new computer and this particular ibook became available to me within my budget. It wasn't until after I purchased it that I started messing around with FCP. I am a photoshop/flash junkie... just looking to expand.
Click to expand...

If it's a Pismo PB G3, that things better than all the iBooks up until the G4's. :)
 
Re: Re: APPLE RAM specs

Originally posted by junior
I honestly think that Apple's just doing this to make the 12" PB look more superior.
Click to expand...
I think you've hit the nail on the head. It's Apple marketing. Yet another thing to distinguish the iBook from the PowerBook.
 
Apple always understates the amout of max ram a machine can take. I have a clamshell iBook. When it was brand new apple only said it would take a 256meg card at PC66. I have a 512 PC133 card in it cuz I had one laying around and it works great. Same thing with the 12 inch 867MHz powerbook. It says 640 is max but it will take a 1GB chip for a max of 1.25GB.
 
Calliander,

Could bad RAM be as much to blame for these mishaps as too much RAM?

Perhaps bad RAM in overspec'd configurations does more damage than bad RAM in regular set-ups. I don't know. I used good, name-brand RAM and I have had absolutely no problems whatsoever.

Then again, it just could be the wonderfully engineered Pismo platform. The best laptop ever when it comes to flexibility and durability. I am tempted to go for the speed-variable Powerlogix CPU upgrade for $339 to have a 900mhz FCP4-churning beast in a form factor not nearly as appealing to would-be thieves. Plus, with dual extended life batteries I can do word processing/web surfing @ 300mhz and probably get close to 10 hours on a charge. Now THAT's portable computing.
 
I hopped over to crucial.com/uk today just for interest's sake and almost choked that, less than a month after I bought a 512MB chip for my 12" PB, it was down to £60 instead of £71. Never mind. What was more interesting was that the 1 GIG chip (formerly £450) is now only £240. I thought in a couple of years I was going to get a cheap 1 gig chip as a nice upgrade to my PowerBook but, the way things are going, I could probably get a 4 gig chip for the same price then. If they still make PCI2100 RAM by then.
 
I think everyone needs to take a step back here.

The reason that the iBook is listed at 640 MB max RAM is that there was not a 1GB DDR266 (PC2100) SODIMM that fit in the iBook's slot when it came out. There are varying thicknesses of SODIMM out there, and the iBook G4 only supports the smaller ones. When the iBook G4 came out there were only 1GB PC2100 SODIMMs that were too thick for the iBook. TransIntl came out with the 1GB chip that fit the iBook G4 soon after its release. Apple has always under-rammed their machines, and I am pretty sure that they would not bother to update the iBook G4 specs to include this. If I had the money, or the reason, I would definitley go for the gig stick.

FCX (Final Cut Express) ran ok on my iMac G3 400 mhz. It wasn't exactly snappy, and the renders took forever, but it was definitley usable. With the iBook G4 1ghz you can even use RTExtreme. I would definitley get the RAM and FCP. The only thing that you need is a big, fast external FW hard drive. If you plan to do anything in the way of editing you need one. The 4800 RPM internal on the iBook just doesn't cut it.

Cheers!
 
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