[k10k]

I purchased a 12" ibook two weeks ago, and I am unsure if I need to upgrade my RAM. I will only use Office 2004 and Adobe inDesign and other applications like bbedit and subethaedit. I know you can get some apps for mac os x which can recommend the amount needed but I just wanted to know if 256mb was that slowwww or could I survive the holidays with 256mb ram.
And yes I made the decision of buying an ibook 1ghz instead of a refurbished 800mhz thank you for everyone's input on my previous post.

[iREZ]

Think of it this way, 256MB is dooable on your 'book but you could probably only run 1 or maybe (max) 2 programs without noticing slow ups. Go to your utilities folder and click activity monitor, then click system memory, if your page ins/outs are high then your 'book is accessing your HD which is slow and you'd benefit from a RAM upgrade.

[Thraxes]

Sure it will be enough... but it will not be that enjoyable. Invest in some RAM as soon as you can. An additional 256MB is good, 512 or even more is pure sweetness. I ran my iBook with 256 for a few days before I was able to exchange my bad 512MB module that I had bought. Even when only doing seemingly simple stuff it got slllooooowwwwww.

Then again my idea of simple stuff is haveing 6-7 MS Office documents open at the same time (lab reports consisting of about a dozen pages of formulas, tables, excel graphs and pictures), a couple of images loaded in preview and perhaps one or two low res pics getting a light workover in Photoshop. Of Course iTunes, Adium and Safari would also be running at some point... so yeah I need those 768MB RAM.

If your tasks are limited to some Word and Excel work or simple websurfing, then you can get by with 256. An upgrade to 512 would be very noticeable though, even when not doing that much.

[ginoledesma]

For Office? Yeah, it'll do. InDesign? Expect to do some waiting if you're dealing with medium/large projects, or ones that involve complex layout and design. I chugged through 256MB for 3 months doing the usual stuff -- Safari, iTunes, iPhoto, LaTeX, MS Office, GraphicConverter, and Keynote. Having them run all at the same time will tax the iBook, but not so much that it becomes unbearable. Mildly annoying, but tolerable nonetheless.

If you're going to upgrade RAM, then the very least you can do is throw in at least an additional 512MB. You'll find that a lot of the iBook owners have 640MB/768MB RAM configurations, and that's a comfortable environment to work with.

[Luca Rescigno]

You'll enjoy your iBook much more if you buy an inexpensive 256 MB module and install it for a total of 512 MB. Yeah, a lot of people would rather have 768 MB, but for what you're using it for, I bet 512 MB would be enough. My PowerMac has 1 GB of RAM, but a lot of the time I'm only using something like 300-400 MB of it.

[Robbo]

My ex's iMac has done OK for a year on 256MB. It's all down to what you use it for really - only I notice it slowing down. My ex only really uses iTunes, iChat, Safari and iPhoto (albeit simultaneously!), so when I do pop an extra stick in there for her, she'll think I've got magic fingers......may even ask me to slow it down a bit for her!

[tooki]

I do not consider 256MB to be enough for OS X under any circumstances. I consider 512MB to be the bare minimum, and for any graphics work, or for having multiple apps open, I highly suggest more than 512MB.

tooki

[d4nth3m4n]

max it out. always.

tooki i have to say that im totally unimpressed that you didnt notice and mention this-

[wataru]

Two things:

1. Your sig is way too big.

2. If you had looked at any thread in this forum you could have found the answer to his question. Hardly a thread goes by that this isn't brought up. So please, do a search first next time.

[tooki]

Originally posted by d4nth3m4n:
max it out. always.

tooki i have to say that im totally unimpressed that you didnt notice and mention this-

I deal with signatures via private message.

tooki

[Randman]

Get more ram if you're using ID.

[turtle777]

Originally posted by wataru:

1. Your sig is way too big.

Please let the admins deal with that.

All the self-appointed sig-Nazi's out there are on many people's nerves...

-t

[tooki]

Actually, we have no problem with peer rule enforcement -- it reduces our workload, and frankly is probably more effective at getting people to be aware of the rules than our efforts alone can be.

tooki

[wataru]

Originally posted by turtle777:
All the self-appointed sig-Nazi's out there are on many people's nerves...

-t

Deal with it.