Getting my new PB, do I need to Upgrade the Ram right now?

[rschapel]

Hello all:

FINALLY I am getting my laptop, G4 1.25 15" PB, it comes with 512mb of Ram. Should I be looking to upgrade this right away? How much of an impact does going to 768 make on system performance? I am going to be doing some imovie and iDVD stuff, just some home movie type things and I was wondering if this was an upgrade I need right away? I might do it anyways, since the moons are aligned and I have access to the money, but I think its Kind of silly since I will actually only be going up 256Mb when I buy my 512mb, so I was just windering if this will make an overall improvement that I will notice in day-day usage?

 

[oingoboingo]

Hello all:

FINALLY I am getting my laptop, G4 1.25 15" PB, it comes with 512mb of Ram. Should I be looking to upgrade this right away? How much of an impact does going to 768 make on system performance? I am going to be doing some imovie and iDVD stuff, just some home movie type things and I was wondering if this was an upgrade I need right away? I might do it anyways, since the moons are aligned and I have access to the money, but I think its Kind of silly since I will actually only be going up 256Mb when I buy my 512mb, so I was just windering if this will make an overall improvement that I will notice in day-day usage?

512MB is a good amount of RAM for general purpose OS X usage. You shouldn't need to upgrade straight away. Just get the PowerBook, play around with it for a while, and keep an eye on the memory usage via the 'top' command, or with a 3rd party system monitor. If you see that you're always running into the swap file and the hard disk is thrashing about, then you might need to think about some extra RAM. Otherwise, save your money! You can add RAM easily at any time, so there's no need to worry about adding it at purchase time.

 

[Sabbath]

I think you'll be fine with 512MB until 1Gb dimms come down to a more reasonable price. It always seems a waste to spend money upgrading memory when you have to remove some of the old memory. I wouldn't bother going to 768MB (from 512MB, however I have 768MB up from 256MB and I would definitely recommend that move) it won't make a huge difference over 512MB, just wait until you can afford to go for the gig dimm.

Meanwhile enjoy your new powerbook

 

[JasonL]

I opted to pay $90 to have all 512MB on one stick and ordered another 512MB from Crucial (for $110 IIRC). For my use 1GB made the $200 worth it. The 1GB sticks are very expensive right now otherwise I'd have even more RAM.

See how 512MB works for you. Depending on what applications you are going to be using it could work out just fine. I think most people running OS X could benefit from a good 1GB of RAM, though. Enjoy your new PB!

 

[jxyama]

I opted to pay $90 to have all 512MB on one stick

if you can afford it, i recommend doing what JasonL did and put 512 MB on one stick. that way, money you spend in the future for more RAM will be better utilized...

 

[rschapel]

Thanks for the advice, but I bought a refurb, so I didn't have a choice on how the memory is coming... maybe I'll get super lucky and it will all come on one Dim, man wouldn't that be sweet. I did end up buying the 512mb so-dim in any case. I bought crucial from newegg so I shouldn't have any troubles with it. I bought the memory now rather than later becuase my work offers a intrest free loan to purchase home computers, and if I get the ram now I can include it in the purchase. Maybe that dim will fit in my Wifes PC laptop... hmmm

 

[jxyama]

Thanks for the advice, but I bought a refurb, so I didn't have a choice on how the memory is coming... maybe I'll get super lucky and it will all come on one Dim, man wouldn't that be sweet. I did end up buying the 512mb so-dim in any case. I bought crucial from newegg so I shouldn't have any troubles with it. I bought the memory now rather than later becuase my work offers a intrest free loan to purchase home computers, and if I get the ram now I can include it in the purchase. Maybe that dim will fit in my Wifes PC laptop... hmmm

yeah, there is a good chance it will work with your wife's PC. i've given mine to my sister who's got an IBM. and i plan on passing my 512 MB to my gf when 1 GB comes down in price...

 

[kbonnel]

I too plan on getting a refurb. I just figure I would replace the 2 256's with 512's, and sell the 256's on ebay.

Samuel L Bronkowitz.

Let us know how your refurb is. I am very curious.