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How much RAM to run...

G

GULCkid

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 21, 2005
36
0
How much RAM would you say I'd need (bare minimum) to smoothly run Tiger, Word04, Excel04, safari, azureus, quicktime, itunes, adiumX, iCal, and entourage on a new PB?

I know people on this forum usually say "get as much ram as you can afford" and "what about futureproofing?" but I'm really trying to figure out the bare minimum I'd need to run those things smoothly today.

Thanks for any help you can give me :)
 
GULCkid said:
How much RAM would you say I'd need (bare minimum) to smoothly run Tiger, Word04, Excel04, safari, azureus, quicktime, itunes, adiumX, iCal, and entourage on a new PB?

I know people on this forum usually say "get as much ram as you can afford" and "what about futureproofing?" but I'm really trying to figure out the bare minimum I'd need to run those things smoothly today.

Thanks for any help you can give me :)
Click to expand...
Bare minimum: 256Mb. But the PBs come with 512Mb which is even better.
 
nightdweller25 said:
I'm sorry, I was under the impression that wanted to run these apps at the same time.
Click to expand...

Yes, you were correct, I want to run them smoothly at the same time.

Thanks :)
 
GULCkid said:
Yes, you were correct, I want to run them smoothly at the same time.

Thanks :)
Click to expand...
Oh! Haha slight misunderstanding then!

In that case, I would recommend 768mb on a 12", and 1Gb on a 15" (it'll cost the same, because they both would involve a 512Mb chip to upgrade).

I have 1Gb on my brand new 1.67ghz PB and it's very smooth... if only the CPU were faster for the number crunching though... :rolleyes:
 
i feel 512 would be fine for running all of those apps smoothly at the same time. 728 would be better and a gig would be fabulous :)
 
Get 1 GB

Overall, I'd recommend 1 GB of RAM. If you're gonna shell out money for 512, you might as well spend the extra amount for 1 GB. Trust me, you'll fell better that you did.

You'd hate to be in a position someday down the road regretting your decision to go for less. I've done that before so I know what it feels like
 
512: Bearable
768: Nice
1 Gig: Wow, did adding that little RAM really make THAT big a difference?

That's how it went with my eMac.
 
I see people talking about having 2 gig, 2.5 gig, or in a couple of cases, 4 gig of RAM. For an everyday user doing web surfing, software development, video editing, audio conversion, etc., is it necessary to have that kind of RAM? I ordered my Power Mac (soon to be here) with 1 gig of RAM. I figured that would suffice for what I want to do with it. :confused:
 
I have a slightly lower performance Machine. An iBook 14' G4 1.33Ghz. Before I even turned the thing on, I popped an additional 512MB of RAM in their. (total 768MB) and it is good.

When I turn on the Computer, I can go in Activity Monitor and it shows I have abour 350MB of ram Free. (so what that tells me, is if I had left bare minimum 256 in their, I would be hurting). For me, 768MB is enough. I can run Word, Excel, Mail, iCal, iTunes playing music, and safari just fine all at the same time. The only time I run out of memory, is when in Safari I have multiple pages with lots of pictures. And im talking about Multiple pages with 20 - 30 pictures apeice on them. Then I get swapping to the Hard drive and I get a beach ball :( But I think thats still pretty good for this little Machine. In about a year, I will get a 1GB stick (for a total of 1.25GB) but for now, its not needed. :D
 
Well, in the powerbook you can only have 512,768 or 1.25Gig of RAM. Seeing as there's only one upgradeable slot, you will have to throw away some RAM if you decide to upgrade again later, so it's best to get it right first time.

Any of those is going to usable, 768 is probably the sweet spot.
 
depends on what you are doing with that quicktime

what are you doing with quicktime? if you are playing a 1080 HD video then you're going to need a lot of memory (and a dual g5!)
 
I also have 640mb RAM and only a 867mhz G4 and I do fine running all of what you said...except I still have panther.
 
I have a brand new PB 12" 1.5GHz 512mb ram purchased in February. And let me say I get the spinning beach ball MUCH more often than I would have hoped.

I only run firefox, itunes, iphoto, and word simultaneously. And iphoto especially slows down the PB. =(


I'm looking to get some RAM soon. How much would it cost and where should I look??
 
newegg

yOyOYoo said:
I have a brand new PB 12" 1.5GHz 512mb ram purchased in February. And let me say I get the spinning beach ball MUCH more often than I would have hoped.

I only run firefox, itunes, iphoto, and word simultaneously. And iphoto especially slows down the PB. =(


I'm looking to get some RAM soon. How much would it cost and where should I look??
Click to expand...
newegg, cheap lifetime warranty, good stuff thats where im buyin from wheni i upgrade.
 
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