not another ibook/powerbook thread, i swear!

[doppelganger]

hey everyone, ive been reading this forum for a while and everyone heres is extremely helpful. based on what i've read here, i think the 15" powerbook is for me. im excited about this because it will be my "switch" back to the mac. (my first mac was when i was seven in the 80's. the apple IIc...oh yeah!)
im a music major in college and i'd be basically getting it for garageband, protools, logic(someday) and all the iLife stuff like making home movies/dvd's etc. but i just had a few questions:
1. do i need the 128mb VRAM for running those apps?
2. a 100 gb hard drive is probably an essential, right?
3. is it hard to install 2GB of RAM? is 2GB too excessive? will it void the warranty?
i have opened up stereos and guitar amps but i've never opened a computer before. so i'd hate to ruin a beautiful powerbook. but it doesn't look like its all that hard. any tips?

thanks everyone, sorry to ask like 800 questions. im just excited with the anticipation of dumping windows.

 

[mad jew]

Welcome back doppelganger.

1. Not really, but it'd be nice.

2. Same as 1.

3. Installing RAM isn't hard, it won't void anything but 2GB is quite a lot. You'd probably be happy with 1GB however if you can afford it, 2GB would be great.

See this for the best way of installing RAM.

 

[wdschrank]

1. not positive but don't think you NEED 128 vram. that said 128 will let you take full advantage of core image.

2. 100gb hard drive seems unnecessary to me. the extra 20gb is not a huge deal and if you run out just get an external drive.

3. while 2gb ram may be excessive it would be pretty sweet. it's extremely easy to install ram on the pb yourself. i bought a 1gb card from www.datamem.com for $350 less than apple was charging. you don't have to open the entire case on the new powerbooks. there's a ram compartment on the bottom and it takes less then 2 minutes to install the new ram.

 

[punkbass25]

1. not positive but don't think you NEED 128 vram. that said 128 will let you take full advantage of core image.

no it wont let you take advantage of core image any more then with 64mb vram whatit wil do is speed up things like photoshop, and allow you to hook up a sweet 30" apple cinema display (not that you would but you could... or would you?)

 

[kneden]

I recently switched back to a 15" PB (previous Mac was a 660AV). I bought it with the base 512MB memory, and then added a 1GB stick from OWC, for a total of 1.5GB. I use MenuMeters and saw that after I added the extra memory, the system stopped writing virtual memory pages to the disk.

While I agree with wdschrank that 2 minutes is a good estimate of how long it takes to install the RAM, finding the right size screwdriver is tougher. The small ones I had in a kit weren't small enough, but fortunately I was able to borrow one from work.

FWIW, I also got the 100GB HD & 128MB VRAM, primarily because I'm the type to try to future-proof as much as possible. HDs can be upgraded/added, but VRAM can't. Jury is still out as to whether it was worth it for me to do that.

K.

 

[pulsewidth947]

While I agree with wdschrank that 2 minutes is a good estimate of how long it takes to install the RAM, finding the right size screwdriver is tougher. The small ones I had in a kit weren't small enough, but fortunately I was able to borrow one from work.

Tell me about it! I got my Powerbook today and my 1 GB Crucial. Grabbed the flathead screwdrivers we use for repairing glasses, and it just so happens the size I want is missing looks like I'll be borrowing one from work tomorrow then!

 

[Rocksaurus]

The way I see it is you might as well get the 128 VRAM, since it's pretty cheap and not upgradeable in the future. For the hard drive, either get the 100 and stick with that, or get the standard (80 is it?) and put the extra money towards an external, since I assume sound editing will eat the GBs up.

 

[doppelganger]

thanks for all your help everyone. thanks for the warm welcome and tutorial link mad jew, im really gonna need it.
thanks wdschrank, kneden, pulsewidth947 for telling me where you got your memory. i sure as hell aint getting it from apple. i think im probably going to go with crucial because they have a pretty good reputation.
no punkbass25, i wouldnt be using the 30" display. but it would be nice to speed up photoshop.
Rocksaurus you read my mind about the sound files.
ok, i'm heading to my apple store now. gonna see what happens. thanks again!