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pks1850 · Nov 14, 2003, 04:06 PM

My memory order from Cruical came in the other day (512MB). Just a word of advice for anyone planning on doing the RAM upgrade themselves. Go out and invest in a small screwdriver set (like the ones you see in the computer stores).

I hurried home and quickly opened up the RAM package and popped off my iBook keyboard. Took out my Airport Extreme card, and then... realized that I didn't have the right screwdriver to do the job

So I spent the next few minutes scrounging around the house to find any kind of tool that would work. Really didn't feel like hopping in the car to run to the store. I ended up using a small, sturdy pocket knife to unscrew and screw the plate back on. Nerve wracking -- yes. But it got the job done

Cruising along with 640MB of RAM makes life a little more enjoyable.

Macvault · Nov 14, 2003, 04:17 PM

Just wondering if you find the need for more RAM or does 640 do fine? I noticed it is possible to get a 1GB chip for the new iBook. I just got a new iBook and I guess I'll go for 640MB since the 1GB is so expensive right now. Just hope it's enough ;-)

mikeini · Nov 14, 2003, 06:07 PM

i currently have crucial running in my pc and love it. when i finally get my ibook, is that still the best ram out there for it?

Hypnosis · Nov 14, 2003, 08:35 PM

i thought the new G4 ibooks only support 640 mb MAX? am i wrong?

Cadaver · Nov 14, 2003, 09:23 PM

Originally posted by Hypnosis:
i thought the new G4 ibooks only support 640 mb MAX? am i wrong?

They will (unofficially at present) support up to 1.125GB of RAM with the new 1GB SO-DIMMs.

dracoleb · Nov 14, 2003, 11:02 PM

But for the cost of the 1GB RAM SODIMM you might as well get a 15" powerbook. I personaly don't think the price it worth it for the iBook, my 640MB iBook G4 feels plenty fast as is.

pks1850 · Nov 15, 2003, 12:05 AM

To be honest, even in my default configuration the 256MB seemed like enough -- it was fast enough that it didn't interfere with my experience. Of course, all I was doing was surfing the Web, reading e-mail and listening to iTunes. With the 640MB everything just seems a little more "snappier." For the $100+ I spent, I think it's well worth it.

My main reason for the upgrade is that I know I'll be running some graphic editing apps down the road (e.g. Photoshop, graphic conversion programs). Having the extra RAM should help.

As for the 1GB RAM... I'm not convinced the extra incremental performance gains justify the cost. YMMV.

Ohenri · Nov 15, 2003, 12:45 AM

Originally posted by pks1850:
As for the 1GB RAM... I'm not convinced the extra incremental performance gains justify the cost. YMMV.

I feel you. But like all the ram chips over time, we are just in the early stages. Not sure where you're @, but you should see the ram pricing for that same 1G stick on the CDN side of things. I've seen them top @ $1K-$1.5K! Now that's a new iBook!

Cadaver · Nov 15, 2003, 09:29 AM

384MB is not enough, in my opinion, to smoothly run OS X. It works fine, but I was only able to have one application running without resulting in disk thrashing (VM swap). The upgrade to 640MB made a noticable difference for me. Perhaps its more significant on my machine (600MHz with a relatively slow 15GB HD), but it helps none the less.

nickgold2012 · Nov 15, 2003, 06:09 PM

It seems like some apps will force pageouts no matter your physical memory. I use Menu Meters to keep a constant watch on memory usage, and I almost never see it go above 175MB or so. This is running 10.3.1 on a G4 450 Sawtooth with 1.38GB installed, and running as many apps as I reasonably can.

Maybe if the one app you are running is Photoshop with a 100MB+ graphics file, then yeah, 384 might be a little low. But I would think that most folks would be fine with 384MB. I would be interested to see actual memory usage tests showing that more than 384MB really enhances performance for most uses.

Cadaver · Nov 16, 2003, 09:23 PM

I think 512MB is the sweet spot for MacOS X balancing price vs. performance. However, since there's no way to configure an iBook with 512MB, the motherboard 128MB + and slotted 512MB is the way to go. Now, if Apple would put 256MB on the motherboard, then upgrading to 512MB (additional 256MB) would be a cheap investment, versus the more expensive 512MB SO-DIMM (presently about $130).

And don't forget, MacOS X will use any available free memory as a big dynamic cache, and will release it as soon as it's needed for an application. You can see an easy example of this after a reboot of an OS X machine. Application launching will be faster after the app has been launched once already. This will remain the case until the OS needs the memory space for something else and the cache is removed.

I've seen a noticeable improvement in performance going from 384MB to 640MB on my iBook, and that's just with Office, GraphicConverter, Mail, Safari, Firebird, EndNote. Oh, I also rarely shutdown the iBook; I usually just close the lid and let it sleep (hence some of the performance benefits).