When is RAM overkill?

[Whigga Spitta]

I just ordered a Powerbook (making the switch) and was wondering, how much RAM is overkill? I'll be at college next year, so I can assume my tasks will be mainly Office, Safari, and iTunes. Being the dork that I am, I enjoy having a lot of fun with Photoshop, and I hope to be able to come out with a hip-hop CD using GarageBand (hahaha).
I DID order the one 512 RAM option, and I am debating getting another 512 from crucial (roughly $125), OR going for the gold and getting a Gig stick from OWC.
Is 1.5GB of RAM too much (for what I will use)? Or will 1GB handle this?

 

[reaper]

You can never have enough!!!

No, but seriously, if you use photoshop for anything serious you will need a lot of ram, maybe not 1.5gig but if you can afford it, why not? It will make your general mac experience that much better and when you really need it, it will be there.

- reaper

 

[JamesDPS]

I just ordered a Powerbook (making the switch) and was wondering, how much RAM is overkill? I'll be at college next year, so I can assume my tasks will be mainly Office, Safari, and iTunes. Being the dork that I am, I enjoy having a lot of fun with Photoshop, and I hope to be able to come out with a hip-hop CD using GarageBand (hahaha).
I DID order the one 512 RAM option, and I am debating getting another 512 from crucial (roughly $125), OR going for the gold and getting a Gig stick from OWC.
Is 1.5GB of RAM too much (for what I will use)? Or will 1GB handle this?

You'll probably be fine with 1GB of ram, unless you're dealing with some seriously large photoshop files a lot; GarbageCan doesn't need a lot in terms of resources... 1.5GB wouldn't be "overkill" per se, but might be unnecessary because of OS X's amazing memory management skills My old powerbook does everything you describe quite well with only 640 MB of ram, and the 2.5 gigs in my powermac are MORE than i need, even for logic pro with a cr@pload of audio instruments (ESX and giga samples) and a few space designer plugins....

 

[FuzzyBallz]

1GB (2x512MB) is plenty for notebook use. The 1GB stick is just rip off.

 

[mactastic]

Anything over 8 Gigs is overkill.

 

[Whigga Spitta]

i was going to try and mod. the Powerbook so it could get 10 gigs, but i guess thanks to this thread, that seems unnecessary.

well thanks for the input, it looks like 2 x 512 is the way to go... plus, i COULD always upgrade.

 

[Chip NoVaMac]

You can never have enough!!!

No, but seriously, if you use photoshop for anything serious you will need a lot of ram, maybe not 1.5gig but if you can afford it, why not? It will make your general mac experience that much better and when you really need it, it will be there.

- reaper

For what you describe, do you think given the memory costs today that moving from 512 to 768 is a good jump, or by a 1gb upgrade and eat mac and cheeses for the next 6 months or so?

 

[JFreak]

overkill would be to have more ram than hard disk space, but as that won't likely happen, buy as much as your wallet permits.

 

[Savage Henry]

Thereis a simple formula that applies to all computers from all backgrounds. RAM is overkill where the following condition is met:

RAM > Hardrive


Personally I tend to go between 512 and 768, which is overkill for me on most apps, but then I do nothings amazingly resource-drainingly special.

 

[crenz]

RAM is overkill where the following condition is met: RAM > Hardrive

So how does this apply to computers with solid-state disks, where RAM is the harddrive?

 

[Savage Henry]

So how does this apply to computers with solid-state disks, where RAM is the harddrive?

There always a smart arse!!!!

My technological ignorance in the field of computing has been shown up again! I shall now crawl back into the more obscure forums on the Net where I will look and feel like a king!