Apple Releases New PowerBooks

[mongoos150]

CT12864AC53E
New Egg $117.95
Crucial $135.89

These are the generic DDR2-533 MHz 1 Gb SODIMMs. Hardly half the price.
The point being, neither the Crucial nor the NewEgg are guaranteed to be Powerbook compatible. They might turn out to be, or perhaps not. I would NOT recommend that an inexperienced Mac owner tackle identifying and testing RAM on their own. If you want to take on the risk of doing your own testing, then that's up to you. In the mean time, though, please be careful about claiming compatibility and exaggerating price spreads.

CT479196 is the Crucial part for Powerbooks. Paradoxically, they are on sale right now for $124.21, less than the Crucial generic.

Last time I checked bro the crucial was much more expensive, they must've come down recently. I suppose I'll pick up the mem. from crucial if it's mac gauranteed, but I'm hardly a beginner...I've been using newegg ram in my machines for the past five years; never had a problem.

 

[CmdrLaForge]

To put it a little more tactfully Apple charges a huge premium for their RAM. The hard and fast rule is to never buy extra RAM from Apple, always buy it third party - just make sure it's from a reputable dealer that sells Apple-compatible RAM specifically and has a lifetime warranty - those are the only companies you want to deal with.

In general you are right. Here is the deal with the new Powerbooks. If you want 2 gigs of RAM you have two options:
- buy two 1 gig sticks separatly and through the Apple RAM away
- buy 1 gig stick from second supplier and buy 1 gig from Apple

Whats better? Or just stick with 1.5 gig? Is that enough?

 

[al3000]

Are you FING serious? You're actually considering Apple ram? You don't DESERVE a PowerBook!

That's not true! It's my first mac and I figured it would be much easier to do it built to order... didn't realise about the price difference! I am still suprised what I was told about it could take up to 3 weeks, the guy said we could take it home with the 512MB in, then when the new RAM arrives we could take it back to have it fitted, although the bullring store isn't that close to me so we decided we should wait.

One more thing... if I was to have 2x512MB sticks, is it not possible to change these at a later date, or can you not take them out once they are in? Thanks

 

[generik]

That's not true! It's my first mac and I figured it would be much easier to do it built to order... didn't realise about the price difference! I am still suprised what I was told about it could take up to 3 weeks, the guy said we could take it home with the 512MB in, then when the new RAM arrives we could take it back to have it fitted, although the bullring store isn't that close to me so we decided we should wait.

One more thing... if I was to have 2x512MB sticks, is it not possible to change these at a later date, or can you not take them out once they are in? Thanks

You can change them later. Unlike the 12" PB

 

[c2104338]

CT12864AC53E
New Egg $117.95
Crucial $135.89

These are the generic DDR2-533 MHz 1 Gb SODIMMs.

I bought a 1Gb stick from macsales for $119- 100% compatible and lifetime warranty. definately worth having a look at.

 

[mygoldens]

Hi,

One of the reasons holding me back from switching now would be that VPC would be too slow to work effectively.. since you use VPC too how would you rate its performance on the new PBs?

I would rate it as acceptable. Turning off all the eye candy and clear type (the Mac high res screen, you do not need it). Also, I do not run anti virus or anti spyware. I have it NATed behind the Mac. It is acceptable. The previous generation, it was still to slow. In my opinion, Tiger made it slower. I have installed Office 2003, Visio 2003 and Onenote. They are all running very well. Of course I use the Mac alternatives when ever possible. I also have the latest Mac Office.

If I browse the web (keeping away from the virus and spyware) I use the Mac side Safari or Firefox. When necessary, IE is always standing by in VPC. I also have a home Windoze PC I can access through remote desktop, VNC or PCAnywhere (on the Windows side, that too is acceptable now).

You are not going to play games, run 10 apps at once (limited memory in VPC, I run 396meg RAM, anymore and Windoze slows down) or be as fast a regular PC. But, it keeps you in the Mac world and able to use those Windoze only programs at a moments notice.

 

[generik]

I would rate it as acceptable. Turning off all the eye candy and clear type (the Mac high res screen, you do not need it). Also, I do not run anti virus or anti spyware. I have it NATed behind the Mac. It is acceptable. The previous generation, it was still to slow. In my opinion, Tiger made it slower. I have installed Office 2003, Visio 2003 and Onenote. They are all running very well. Of course I use the Mac alternatives when ever possible. I also have the latest Mac Office.

If I browse the web (keeping away from the virus and spyware) I use the Mac side Safari or Firefox. When necessary, IE is always standing by in VPC. I also have a home Windoze PC I can access through remote desktop, VNC or PCAnywhere (on the Windows side, that too is acceptable now).

You are not going to play games, run 10 apps at once (limited memory in VPC, I run 396meg RAM, anymore and Windoze slows down) or be as fast a regular PC. But, it keeps you in the Mac world and able to use those Windoze only programs at a moments notice.

Just curious, what changes did they make that brought about these improvements? There still is no bump in CPU speed..

 

[~Shard~]

CT12864AC53E
New Egg $117.95
Crucial $135.89

These are the generic DDR2-533 MHz 1 Gb SODIMMs. Hardly half the price.
The point being, neither the Crucial nor the NewEgg are guaranteed to be Powerbook compatible. They might turn out to be, or perhaps not. I would NOT recommend that an inexperienced Mac owner tackle identifying and testing RAM on their own. If you want to take on the risk of doing your own testing, then that's up to you. In the mean time, though, please be careful about claiming compatibility and exaggerating price spreads.

CT479196 is the Crucial part for Powerbooks. Paradoxically, they are on sale right now for $124.21, less than the Crucial generic.

Thanks for the info CanadaRAM, I thought that was the case. Your education on this matter is appreciated.

 

[~Shard~]

In general you are right. Here is the deal with the new Powerbooks. If you want 2 gigs of RAM you have two options:
- buy two 1 gig sticks separatly and through the Apple RAM away
- buy 1 gig stick from second supplier and buy 1 gig from Apple

Whats better? Or just stick with 1.5 gig? Is that enough?

I personally would never go so far as to throw RAM away, but it would be your choice I guess. Apple RAM is very good quality, so I would keep it. You're still technically paying for it when you buy the machine, so I don't think you would be further ahead from a cost savings point of view by tossing it. I would just buy a 3rd party 1 GB stick myself.

 

[generik]

I personally would never go so far as to throw RAM away, but it would be your choice I guess. Apple RAM is very good quality, so I would keep it. You're still technically paying for it when you buy the machine, so I don't think you would be further ahead from a cost savings point of view by tossing it. I would just buy a 3rd party 1 GB stick myself.

Nah, Apple ram is not of exceptionally good quality. But it is decent ram, definitely not cheap no brand stuff.

Still I would keep it rather than pawn it off on ebay, if your PB ever needs servicing Apple will flat out *refuse* to service it with third party ram installed.

Flat out.

They will take out the modules and put it in nice anti static bags when returning your laptop to you, unserviced. Citing that those are unauthorised third party parts.

Hence best you keep your Apple modules

 

[~Shard~]

Nah, Apple ram is not of exceptionally good quality. But it is decent ram, definitely not cheap no brand stuff.

Really? Interesting, I was under the impression it was of higher quality. Good to know then...

 

[efoto]

The real limit would be imposed by the Northbridge - it's extremely rare for all of the potential address lines of the 64-bit processor chip to be implemented by the motherboard chipset.

The G5 has 42-bits of physical addressing - the 4 TiB number. The real limit of the chipset is likely to be much smaller, probably 36-bits (64 GiB) at the absolute max - but possibly only 34 or 35 bits....

This isn't bad - it would be a waste of money to create the circuitry to address memory configurations which would be non-sensical over the lifetime of the chipset.

Did you realize that 16 GiB of DDR2 RAM will consume 200 watts to 250 watts of power just for the DIMMs ????

4 TiB of RAM would need on the order of 50 Kilowatts to 65 Kilowatts of power for the RAM.

So, now we know one reason that Apple went to a higher amperage cord connection!

I never know what I'm saying, that was just quoted from Apple's site , hence the link to cover my arse when the flaming started

I usually just reciprocate what I hear from wiser sources, and since I revere Apple to equal a low-level god, I believe them

Wow, I had no idea! That a significant amount even just for the "actually possible" 16 GB, let alone the silly 4 TB amount! It will be interesting to see how this will work when those higher amount of RAM become more common...

I'll still do it, regardless of the power consumption costs. If I can swing the initial budget then the power bill is the least of my worries.



I just realized that this was the "New PowerBooks" thread and not the "New PowerMac" thread, sorry to everyone for all of the off-context references and conversation. I don't know what I was thinking....it's been a very strange week

 

[CmdrLaForge]

I personally would never go so far as to throw RAM away, but it would be your choice I guess. Apple RAM is very good quality, so I would keep it. You're still technically paying for it when you buy the machine, so I don't think you would be further ahead from a cost savings point of view by tossing it. I would just buy a 3rd party 1 GB stick myself.

I agree. Makes more sense that way and 1.5 gig should be ok

 

[~Shard~]

I agree. Makes more sense that way and 1.5 gig should be ok

Yep. And you can always get a 2 GB stick later...

 

[AidenShaw]

Yep. And you can always get a 2 GB stick later...

PowerBook thread....no 2 GiB SO-DIMMs yet!

 

[RHMMMM]

NewEgg has had a deal for the past couple weeks on DDR2 SO-DIMMs. This is what I put in mine. No Mac guarantee on it or anything, but it's been working fine for me. $74 after rebate is unbeatable right now. It's "Transcend" branded, but Samsung chips on the board. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820208312

My bad...forgot to say that it's 1GB...yep, 1GB for $74AR...and it works right in my 17".

 

[~Shard~]

PowerBook thread....no 2 GiB SO-DIMMs yet!

That's why I winked and said "later"...

 

[Squonk]

That's why I winked and said "later"...

When 2GBers are available, does anyone know if they would work in the newest PowerBooks?

I was playing with BTO options on the latest iMac's and they have a $1200 option for a config of 2.5GB (512 on board and a 2GB module). So, I gather the 2GB memory modules are bleeding edge at this point...

 

[Squonk]

I would rate it as acceptable. Turning off all the eye candy and clear type (the Mac high res screen, you do not need it). Also, I do not run anti virus or anti spyware. I have it NATed behind the Mac. It is acceptable. The previous generation, it was still to slow. In my opinion, Tiger made it slower. I have installed Office 2003, Visio 2003 and Onenote. They are all running very well.

...snip...

You are not going to play games, run 10 apps at once (limited memory in VPC, I run 396meg RAM, anymore and Windoze slows down) or be as fast a regular PC. But, it keeps you in the Mac world and able to use those Windoze only programs at a moments notice.

What configuration is your PowerBook that you are running VPC on?

My PB is a 1.25GHz with 1.5GB RAM and the 4200rpm drive

The only application that I really want to run on VPC is MS Money - I really like that program. I'm thinking, hoping, that VPC on the 1.67GHz with 1.5GB and the 7200rpm drive would be just fine for occasional (say 1 to 2 hours per week) of PC application usage. Comments anyone?

Now I'll throw this out there too - has anyone tried running MS Access on VPC? Is that advisable for small Access projects?

Thanks Much!

 

[~Shard~]

When 2GBers are available, does anyone know if they would work in the newest PowerBooks?

I was playing with BTO options on the latest iMac's and they have a $1200 option for a config of 2.5GB (512 on board and a 2GB module). So, I gather the 2GB memory modules are bleeding edge at this point...

Good question - not sure, actually...

 

[mygoldens]

Just curious, what changes did they make that brought about these improvements? There still is no bump in CPU speed..

Well, it appears to me (I am not a hardware developer) to run acceptably. Speed is subjective, what I consider to be acceptable, someone else will find slow. I have the remote Windoze PC I can always fall back on. It is a fast system. Let me re-state, I use the remote connection, then fall back on VPC. But, I find myself using VPC more, since it appears to be acceptable in performance.

I have (another poster wanted to know) a 15 inch Powerbook, the new resolution 1440x960, 2gig DDR2 RAM, 80gig HD 5400 RPM. I would have opted for the 7200 RPM 100gig, but the store I purchased the Powerbook has a 15 day no restocking fee return policy, I do not like, just bring it back, full refund. I could not pass up the free test drive and so far it is outstanding. Of course, a G5 would have been the optimum, but.

I am not a fan of Intel. To in bed with M$ for me to believe they are going to make an Apple compatible processor. I think there will be a whole bunch of problems with the new Mactel Powerbooks, I did not want one. I will hang on to this one for 3 years and see what has happened with the Mactels. I am hoping there will always be a Powerpc processor lurking around on Apple's store for sale.

 

[Squonk]

(snip)

I have (another poster wanted to know) a 15 inch Powerbook, the new resolution 1440x960, 2gig DDR2 RAM, 80gig HD 5400 RPM. I would have opted for the 7200 RPM 100gig, but the store I purchased the Powerbook has a 15 day no restocking fee return policy, I do not like, just bring it back, full refund. I could not pass up the free test drive and so far it is outstanding. Of course, a G5 would have been the optimum, but.

(snip)

Thanks. I hear you on the "test drive/return" flexibility. For me, since I know I'll hold on to this one for many years (and I'm a hardware/performance junkie), I'd just have to go for the 7200rpm. I'm actually quited bummed that my 15/1.25 only has the 4200rpm. My photo collection (6MP and 8MP) is growing quickly and I'm feeling the "need for speed"...

 

[mygoldens]

What configuration is your PowerBook that you are running VPC on?

My PB is a 1.25GHz with 1.5GB RAM and the 4200rpm drive

The only application that I really want to run on VPC is MS Money - I really like that program. I'm thinking, hoping, that VPC on the 1.67GHz with 1.5GB and the 7200rpm drive would be just fine for occasional (say 1 to 2 hours per week) of PC application usage. Comments anyone?

Now I'll throw this out there too - has anyone tried running MS Access on VPC? Is that advisable for small Access projects?

Thanks Much!

I am sorry, I have not had much work in Access. See my other post for my specs. I personally think you would be ok. I use VPC more than a few hours a week. Again, speed is subjective. The best thing to do is go to the Apple store and see if they will let you load up VPC on a Powerbook and see what you think. I could have done that, but with the other improvements I saw, I was impressed enough to get one and try. But, I have the 15 day no re-stocking fee trial.

Good luck, the new notebook is a lot faster than the one you have, I also had that model. It is very slow in my opinion, even on the Mac side. Right now I have about 15 apps running, including VPC and no apparent slowdowns. On the 1.25, it would have been a little doggy. But take yours to the store, setem side by side and play. You will probably see a big difference.

 

[Squonk]

I am sorry, I have not had much work in Access. See my other post for my specs. I personally think you would be ok. I use VPC more than a few hours a week. Again, speed is subjective. The best thing to do is go to the Apple store and see if they will let you load up VPC on a Powerbook and see what you think. I could have done that, but with the other improvements I saw, I was impressed enough to get one and try. But, I have the 15 day no re-stocking fee trial.

Good luck, the new notebook is a lot faster than the one you have, I also had that model. It is very slow in my opinion, even on the Mac side. Right now I have about 15 apps running, including VPC and no apparent slowdowns. On the 1.25, it would have been a little doggy. But take yours to the store, setem side by side and play. You will probably see a big difference.

Thanks! You are making me drool for a new machine... I'm sure one look at the new screen and I'll go weak in the knees.

 

[plinden]

In general you are right. Here is the deal with the new Powerbooks. If you want 2 gigs of RAM you have two options:
- buy two 1 gig sticks separatly and through the Apple RAM away
- buy 1 gig stick from second supplier and buy 1 gig from Apple

Whats better? Or just stick with 1.5 gig? Is that enough?

Personally, if I wanted 2GB, I would probably go for the BTO 1GB option from Apple and order another 3rd party guaranteed 1GB later. The 512MB stick is going to be pretty useless unless you have to send your PB in for repairs and you're not going to get much for it if you ebay it.

So that would add $200 to the cost (effectively meaning Apple are charging $300 for 1GB)

Everyone seems to see lower prices for Crucial RAM than I do. I see it as $160. So is the $40 extra worth it for 1GB straight out of the box? It's close, and I would probably do just it for the convenience.