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mikemako · Mar 11, 2003, 12:54 AM

The (800MHz 12") iBooks at the Apple Stores have 128Mb or 256Mb memory in them. Every time I go in with the intent on purchasing one, the performace turns me off and I leave the store empty handed.

Is their poor performance only a result of the small amount of RAM in them?

Has anyone here who owns the referenced iBook, and has maxed out its RAM, compared their laptop's performace to the ones in the Apple Store?

If the only problem with the laptops at the Apple Stores is the small amount of RAM, then I can get one.

Thanks for any opinions.

mdc · Mar 11, 2003, 10:05 AM

i have the ibook with maxed ram and the snappy-ness of it is a lot better than the ones that i played with at the shops.

what do you have planned for the use of your ibook? i use mine for some webdesign and all my college work, and i do not think it is too slow at all. a lot of the people who have used it have commented on the speed of it.

Raidiant · Mar 11, 2003, 10:10 AM

I would recommend upgrade to 386 RAM, then you will notice huge difference in interface preformance. However the OS is not as snappy as windows because it operates in a different way nevertheless it does nothing to hinder your speed in working with applications.

Simon · Mar 11, 2003, 10:52 AM

Originally posted by mikemako:
Is their poor performance only a result of the small amount of RAM in them?

That and the fact that the machines at the shop are often in a hell of a condition. I recently went to a dealer and played around with an iMac like the one I have at home. It was much slower an very laggy. I checked out its disk. They had installed all kinds of extensions and had some strange A/V hardware connected to it just to show off some third-party stuff. I was amazed how much worse this machine felt than the one I had at home.

That said, I think adding a lot of RAM is always a good decision when you use OS X, but also, keep in mind that you never know what kind of strange stuff could be on those shop models that could be slowing them down.

xtal · Mar 11, 2003, 11:05 AM

Don't forget that you will have total control of your iBook at home. The ability to max out RAM (highly recommended), run disk utilities every now and again to keep things clean, install only necessary hardware, etc. etc.

I am very impressed with my iBook, and I think the ones at the store are a bit slow (probably the RAM).

mikemako · Mar 11, 2003, 04:00 PM

Hey Thanks

All of your posts have been really helpful. I was hoping that the ones at the Stores were not the norm for the 'snappiness' of the iBook.

I'm just going to use the iBook for school, internet, email, and maybe some light webpage design/animation. I think it will do just fine. I'm definitely maxing out the RAM.

Thanks Again