[Flip500]

I'm getting more into advanced games and more demanding software, I have a 14" 2004 iBook G4 with a 1.07 Ghz processor. I want to overclock my iBook (tell me if there's a better option to speed it up) but naturally I don't want to ruin it, so I was also wondering about mods to put more cooling ect. into my iBook. I would REALLY enjoy some help if anyone has any to offer!

(To Admins:This is under iBook and not mac mods because there is so much overclocking and cooling that is not for iBook G4s, and I just want to keep it specific)

[ghporter]

Overclocking a machine with such a small footprint-and thus a small thermal transfer capability-is probably a Very Bad Thing. There are more effective ways to deal with this, such as maxing out your RAM. OS X likes RAM, and will reward you for bulking up your RAM by speeding up amazingly. As it is based on OpenBSD, OS X doesn't have any issues with a memory "sweet spot" or with having "too much" RAM (which you CAN run into with other OSs, like Windows). RAM is your FRIEND, because it is impossible to hurt the computer with more RAM (as long as you get the right stuff for your computer), and it is EASY to install.

Your iBook may be able to handle a whole GIGABYTE or RAM above the factory-installed amount. (I can't say "will" or "won't" here because the 1GHz machines seem to be on the edge-some will do fine with it, and others won't even see more than 512MB no matter what part you install.)

[Flip500]

Thank you, I was really still debating over the whole overclocking thing because i heard it was dangerous ad risky, thanks for setting a clear opinion in my mind. I have one question though, if I can only get around 1 gig from Apple where can i get someone to put 2 gigs of ram into my 1 gig iBook? If thats what you meant by more ram than it says it can handle.

[Randman]

1.25GB of ram is the max in an iBook G4. Overclocking is silly on Macs and not worth the effort and potential risks vs the small payoff.

Get a better computer or go cheap and get a gaming rig if adding ram doesn't do it for you.

[Flip500]

oh, sorry I misunderstood what ghporter said, but two questions... if i do get 1.25 gigs roughly how much will it cost and if i do get 1.25 gigs what will my 1.07 Ghz processor technically get up to, i know it will still really be 1.07 Ghz, but what will it be like (i.e. 1.4 Ghz)? Thanks for your help!

[Randman]

Originally Posted by Flip500

oh, sorry I misunderstood what ghporter said, but two questions... if i do get 1.25 gigs roughly how much will it cost and if i do get 1.25 gigs what will my 1.07 Ghz processor technically get up to, i know it will still really be 1.07 Ghz, but what will it be like (i.e. 1.4 Ghz)? Thanks for your help!

It will be 1.07 Ghz with 1.25GB of ram. You are thinking in Windows terms. Macs work differently.

Perhaps you are going about this the wrong way. Tell us what games you are playing as people can say if your iBook is good enough to handle the game(s) and how to tweak performance.

As far as ram, lots and lots of threads on this. The good thing is ram is cheaper than ever.

[ghporter]

It is not really possible to rate a Mac's performance in terms of clock speed when you increase RAM. What is possible is to explain why RAM makes such a difference.

When a computer runs out of physical RAM, it uses "virtual" RAM-storage on the hard drive-to shift less recently used data from physical RAM into. This makes more of the physical RAM available for the currently foreground application, but the time it takes to shift the data to the hard drive is quite noticable. And since applications other than the one you're interacting with still need to use RAM, there is a lot of shifting back and forth. Compared to moving data back and forth between the processor and the hard drive, moving data into and out of RAM is enormously faster.

Now, by simply maxing out the physical RAM, you will reduce how frequently the computer "runs out" of physical RAM. Going from 256MB to 1.25GB increases your RAM by 400%, and thus decreases the potential for needing to swap data to virtual RAM by the same proportion. Unless you spend a lot of your time manipulating digital photos (which tends to be both CPU and memory intensive), 1.25GB will be far more than adequate.

As I said earlier, the only thing that might get in the way of your boosting your RAM to 1.25GB is that some 1GHz iBooks seem to be picky about whether they will support a 1GB module in the expansion slot. I don't have experience in this-ours is an 800MHz computer which came with 128MB of RAM and which we upped to 640MB, which is great!

[Flip500]

Randman ... I'm playing games now like America's Army but I want to play games like Half-Life 2 and Counter Strike: Condition Zero, but some things are running kind of slow, I now have 512 MB DDR SDRAM so what are somethings that I can tweak, and any other helpful hints you might have. I also know it's not really possible to clock the cpu with the extra ram boost, but I was just asking it you wanted to guess something like 1.2 Ghz from 1.07 Ghz, but forget that I would just like some tweaking hints ect. please!

ghporter: thanks for explaning how more ram helps.

[OogaBooga]

Last time I checked, HL2 and condition:zero weren't available for Macs.

Spend $500 and get a cheap gaming PC, and use your iBook for the important stuff.

[Flip500]

Yeah your right, I don't know about HL2 (but eventually at absolute least) but I'm sure Counter Strike:CZ is on mac, and that $500 was what I really wanted to spend on ram. Besides the only computer I know of that is really that cheap is some crappy Dell...