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Peter · May 17, 2003, 06:27 AM

I added 512Mb of ram to my iBook and wow it is so fast! It feels faster than the iMac 800 with 512Mb RAM that I played around with in a store. I dont think I'll need to upgrade for a while

So anyone with any doubts about spending money on ram for your iBook, go for it

billybob128 · May 17, 2003, 04:24 PM

did that to mine a while ago and it was awesome it blasted through everything that i threw at it

serious there was a little laser beam and everything else like that...

Peter · May 17, 2003, 04:26 PM

Originally posted by billybob128:
did that to mine a while ago and it was awesome it blasted through everything that i threw at it

serious there was a little laser beam and everything else like that...

maybe there is!?

SSharon · May 18, 2003, 01:15 AM

not just for iBooks, add more RAM to any Mac running OS X and you will notice it.

vickster · May 18, 2003, 07:22 AM

I've got 384mb in my iBook 700. Any justifications for spending $100 to bump it up to 640mb?

vickster

Peter · May 18, 2003, 07:26 AM

Originally posted by vickster:
I've got 384mb in my iBook 700. Any justifications for spending $100 to bump it up to 640mb?

vickster

sell the 256 on ebay and get a 512, it is so fast

Word, Proeus, Excel, Safari, Minerva, iTunes AND Mail all open running smoothly

andreas_g4 · May 20, 2003, 06:17 AM

RAM. Is. King.

Seriously, I don't understand people who buy an iBook and don't get a 512 MB stick asap. It's the cheapest speed-bump that is possible.

Peter · May 20, 2003, 06:58 AM

Originally posted by andreas_g4:
RAM. Is. King.

Seriously, I don't understand people who buy an iBook and don't get a 512 MB stick asap. It's the cheapest speed-bump that is possible.

my 700 runs OSX very very very nicely know *drools* It is a pleasure to use

AssassyN · May 20, 2003, 08:30 AM

Originally posted by vickster:
I've got 384mb in my iBook 700. Any justifications for spending $100 to bump it up to 640mb?

vickster

Most definitely. The more RAM the better, and the greatest part is RAM is now such a cheap upgrade. I remember back in 1998 RAM was painfully expensive, yet still just as important of an upgrade, and so to have 512MB of RAM in any desktop machine was a definite wow-factor as it cost a pretty penny. These days, we shouldn't take for granted how much RAM does at such a small price in comparison to a few years back. Get 640MB, you'll be very pleased.

Carl Norum · May 20, 2003, 04:02 PM

I think there may be some placebo effect at work here. I didn't notice between having 256 MB and 512 MB of RAM. (384 -> 640 I guess). I expect it really depends on what you're doing - anything disk intensive instantly removes any advantage you'd have from having a bigger stack of RAM.

Peter · May 20, 2003, 04:19 PM

Originally posted by Carl Norum:
I think there may be some placebo effect at work here. I didn't notice between having 256 MB and 512 MB of RAM. (384 -> 640 I guess). I expect it really depends on what you're doing - anything disk intensive instantly removes any advantage you'd have from having a bigger stack of RAM.

Since I upgraded the RAM i never get the spinning ball

But all I do is, chat, search the web, word process, music & Dreamweaver.

escher · May 20, 2003, 06:58 PM

Originally posted by PeterClark2002:
Since I upgraded the RAM i never get the spinning ball

If true, that's great. I just ordered a 512MB stick from OWC this morning. I would kill to get rid of that damn beach ball. I wonder whether bumping the RAM from 320MB to 576MB will really rid me of the spinning beach ball.

I still think I'll upgrade the HDD to a 40GNX as soon as I get the courage to perform open heart surgery on my iBook. Wish I could find somebody to do the overclock at the same time. My soldering was good enough to fix my graphite AirPort Base Station, but there's no way I'm soldering on the iBook's motherboard. Carl, would you be interested?

Escher

HoserHead · May 20, 2003, 10:40 PM

Originally posted by andreas_g4:
I don't understand people who buy an iBook and don't get a 512 MB stick asap.

Well, I have had my 512 MB stick since last Thursday, but my iBook doesn't arrive until tomorrow.

It's been a long 3 weeks...

Carl Norum · May 21, 2003, 11:03 AM

Originally posted by escher:
I still think I'll upgrade the HDD to a 40GNX as soon as I get the courage to perform open heart surgery on my iBook. Wish I could find somebody to do the overclock at the same time. My soldering was good enough to fix my graphite AirPort Base Station, but there's no way I'm soldering on the iBook's motherboard. Carl, would you be interested?

The HD install is pretty easy - anybody could do it. As for the soldering/OC job, we don't want to be doing that for people. We're just students and we can't guarantee anybody's computer will continue to work.

-- Carl

escher · May 21, 2003, 03:32 PM

Originally posted by Carl Norum:
The HD install is pretty easy - anybody could do it. As for the soldering/OC job, we don't want to be doing that for people. We're just students and we can't guarantee anybody's computer will continue to work.

That's very wise, Carl. Your detailed instructions are already more than generous. Thank you for compiling them! I'll probably do the HDD install in the coming weeks. I'll just have to take it slowly.

As for memory, I just bumped the RAM in my iBook/500 from 320 to 576. Maybe it's just placebo, but things do seem to be running more smoothly. The main advantage is less paging when switching between multiple open apps. However, OS X still accesses the HDD a lot more than OS 9. IMO, a 5400rpm HDD will do wonders for performance, especially for startup, app launch times and such.

Escher

Carl Norum · May 21, 2003, 03:43 PM

Originally posted by escher:
IMO, a 5400rpm HDD will do wonders for performance, especially for startup, app launch times and such.

True, but at the cost of more heat and power consumption.

DesignerTerp · May 21, 2003, 03:55 PM

I need to do that, I've been dragging my feet. I have 256 in there now and have been wanting to bump up to 640. I am starting to get the beachball and it drives me batty!!

bradoesch · May 21, 2003, 07:15 PM

Originally posted by vickster:
I've got 384mb in my iBook 700. Any justifications for spending $100 to bump it up to 640mb?

vickster

I used to think 384 MB was enough for my iMac. It now has 1 GB and it's a huge upgrade for the aging iMac DV. Unless you only like having a single app running, get all the RAM you can.

escher · 11:35 PM

Originally posted by Carl Norum:
True, but at the cost of more heat and power consumption.

You're absolutely right. I used to preach low power, but then got carried away by speed. My iBook/500 is starting to be dated.

I just noticed that GoogleGear is now selling the 80GN line in the smaller capacities as well. The 40GB Travelstar 80GN is only a few $ more than the 40GB 40GN ($116 vs $110.50), but uses less power, especially at idle. The power consumption for the 40GNX is indeed horrendous. Of course, my battery has been dying since the 10.2.5 OS X update anyway, so I'm tethered most of the time now.

BTW: At the 40GB capacity, the 40GNX and the 80GN have identical performance, except for latency. Latency on the 40GNX is 5.5, vs 7.1 for the 80GN. Can anybody explain to me what exactly "latency" is? Looking at performance, power consumption and price, the 40GB 80GN definitely looks like the sweet spot.

By the time I figure out which drive to install, I will probably have worked up the courage to become an iBook surgeon.

Escher

Powaqqatsi · May 23, 2003, 03:13 PM

Isn't the latency the average seek time in miliseconds ? If so the 40GNX is faster than the 80GN.

Carl Norum · May 23, 2003, 06:32 PM

Originally posted by Powaqqatsi:
Isn't the latency the average seek time in miliseconds ? If so the 40GNX is faster than the 80GN.

Usually seek time is specified as seek time. Maybe latency has something to do with rotational delay? I'd have to read the data sheet.