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aderium · Sep 25, 2002, 01:16 PM

Hi there,

I know this topic has been discussed many times but I ll bring it up another time.
I have a ibook 600 G3 with 8 mb video ram and 256 mb ram.

Guys honestly what kind of improvements will I notice and when by adding ram? What is the max I can add on the iBook?

Another question. If I had an iPod could I use it as the Virtual Memory External Hard Drive? I heard it improves the system, by far by having an external HD for VM...

Thanks!!!

bleee · Sep 25, 2002, 01:35 PM

Originally posted by aderium:
Hi there,

I know this topic has been discussed many times but I ll bring it up another time.
I have a ibook 600 G3 with 8 mb video ram and 256 mb ram.

Guys honestly what kind of improvements will I notice and when by adding ram? What is the max I can add on the iBook?

Another question. If I had an iPod could I use it as the Virtual Memory External Hard Drive? I heard it improves the system, by far by having an external HD for VM...

Thanks!!!

You can never have too much ram no matter how much ram you have OS X will use it all. More Ram decreases the number of times OS X has to access the harddrive for swap because it can load more into memory which is faster than accessing the hd. Things will be a bit snappier. As for the iPod I wouldn't even bother trying that the iPod was never designed for that purposed in mind and it's a hassel to plug in the ipod everytime. Besides $399USD is alot for swap don't you think?

kybernaut · Sep 25, 2002, 01:36 PM

You can propably add *nothing* to your iBook right now because there is a 128 MB module in your expansion slot. You can throw it out and replace it by 512 MB max. This equals 640 MB of total RAM.

As for the effects, I can't help you... Still using 128 MB. I think a total amount of 384 MB should be sufficient for most tasks, though.

greetz

kybernaut

SupahCoolX · Sep 25, 2002, 07:36 PM

I started with 128MB in my 600Mhz iBook, then bumped it up to 256, then more recently to 384.
I saw a HUGE improvement going from 128 to 256 (this was when I still ran OS9, though). The difference with 384 wasn't quite as dramatic, but still noticeable. RAM is pretty cheap now, so I would go for it. If anything, you'll likely need it sometime in the future anyway as apps get bigger and more demanding.
Check www.dealram.com or www.ramseeker.com for the best prices.

sine -''-..- · Sep 26, 2002, 12:19 AM

i just got a 512 dimm for my blueberry, and it does indeed make a big difference. os x seems to make good use of the ram. the improvement did seem very apparent at first upgrading from 288 to 544. after i opened a bunch of programs and went about my normal bussiness, the machine was far nicer to play with, not as much harddrive access and slow ups in programs and such.
i'd say max out your ram as fast as you can.

andycroll · Sep 26, 2002, 04:19 AM

Adding 256Mb (up to 384Mb) to my iBook has made a world of difference, everything is snappier. Programs load quicker and a couple of games that I've tried run faster too.

It also helps with battery life as the hard disk isn't spinning up so much.

Not sure if the premium you'll pay will be worth it if you're having to junk the 128Mb already installed in the single slot. If you're having to junk memory you might as well go the whole hog and spend on the 512Mb upgrade, that way you won't have to junk more memory in the future.

Of course budgetery restraints may be in effect...

Andy

-Q- · Sep 27, 2002, 09:21 AM

Everyone else has covered the RAM issue (and yes, buy more RAM, the most you can afford. Max the machine).

As for having your iPod as an extra VM machine, I don't think that will work very well. Your machine will slow down when it has to start swapping info in and out of VM; I think it would only make it worse to have to swap out info across the FireWire bus. Plus, I don't know that you could set up a swap partition on a drive that is plugged and unplugged (but I'm not sure of that, I don't speak UNIX very well yet.

).

fibroptikl · Sep 27, 2002, 11:40 AM

Originally posted by aderium:
What is the max I can add on the iBook?

On your model, 640MB. A 128MB chip is soldered onto it, so unless you know what you are doing, it's gonna stay on.

You have one slot to add a stick of memory to. Whatever that is plus the 128MB = Equal to or less than 640MB.

aderium · Sep 27, 2002, 12:56 PM

Well,

I actually whent out and bought a 512 Mb Ram Chip (I will have to dash teh 128 Mb anyway so I though t I ll get the Max) it was only 90 dollars with shipping (pretty cheap!)

I have to tell you that this but was worth every penny!!!! I used to have a total of 256 and boy it was hard to work programs but my hole interface now reacts much more efficiently! I tell you they did an exc job at OS X with memory!

As far as the ipod... I have another machine with SCSI and I did go ahead and move the VM partition to another Hard drive and that improved my performance very much. Why it could not iprove it on a Fire Wire connection?

The Vm would work separaely from the main drive.. that should speed up things no?

goodkosh · Sep 27, 2002, 04:15 PM

Where did you get 512 MB of Ram for $90? Thanx

gioele · Sep 28, 2002, 04:34 PM

Originally posted by goodkosh:
Where did you get 512 MB of Ram for $90? Thanx

this page at dealram.com is a good place to start.

janitor · Sep 29, 2002, 01:04 AM

Of course you can use an iPod to house your swap files, but the point of a seperate drive for your vm is to make it faster. Therefore you'd like to use a fast drive, not an iPod that has been altered for low power useage. You'd probably lose performance going to a 3k rpm drive.

alex239 · Sep 29, 2002, 01:47 AM

DEFINITELY MORE RAM!!! I just got a new ibook and purchased HIGH QUALITY ram from www.datamem.com they were highly recommend to me by an aficionado.

$89 Bucks plus $5 shiping i think.

I actually had ram in hand before i got my ibook but i didn't install it right away. Ran some installs and did some surfing and it was good(so i thought) the Ram improved snappiness tremendously and I don't hear the HD much any more(OSX does use most of it though, but only because it can, not because it has to).

aderium · Oct 1, 2002, 04:10 PM

Originally posted by janitor:

Of course you can use an iPod to house your swap files, but the point of a seperate drive for your vm is to make it faster. Therefore you'd like to use a fast drive, not an iPod that has been altered for low power useage. You'd probably lose performance going to a 3k rpm drive.

So what Hard drive do you reccomend to swap files? do you actually feel any improvement? I work a lot with Photoshop and other programs... what u say?