[manofsteel300]

i have a blue and white 400 running osx.2.5
i have 192 mb of ram right now a 64 mb dimm in teh first slot and 128 in the second
ram prices are so cheap right now on www.pricewatch.com and i am seriously considering upgrading. What should i know about more ram and osx? what improvements will i likely see? how much is enough? would 512 mb dimms work in my computer? if i buy a generic brand from pricewatch will it work in my mac?

Thank you in advance.

[Chinasaur]

manof,

I have a B&W 450...

1. Our puter's will only take 256MB chips for a total of 1GB...no 512MB chips..they might work..but would only show 256MB if they worked at all.

2. I had a PC133 stick of 256 laying around..don't remember the brand..it worked. I would imagine any 256MB PC100/PC133 will work in our boxes.

3. I don't run OSX (I don't even play an OSX user on TV..) but from what I've heard..the more the better. I've heard people saying going from 512 to 768 was noticeable..so max the sucker out to 1GB and enjoy

[libraryguy]

Well, according to Apple's specifications, you can only use 256meg dimms for that model. So, your max would be about a gig of RAM, which is more than enough I would think. That would mean taking out the 64 though. My experience with OS X is the more
RAM the better...even going from 128 to 256 made a drastic improvement on my sister's iMac and my cousin's eMac. You can see all the specs of your model here:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=43123

[edit] Also wanted to mention that Mac OS X and macs in general I guess, can be pretty finicky about the RAM you use. I've had to send RAM back that worked on a PC but my mac wouldn't recognize...my cousin has had the same problem twice.

[manofsteel300]

thing is about buying 4 256 dimms from pricewatch is that i wont be able to send them back if my mac doesnt recognize them.. but i am really tight on cash so i would rather purchase those than from owc or some other mac vendor

[SSharon]

If you're looking for a better price rather than maxing out to 1gb I have 2 extra 128mb chips for a b&w g3 I can't promise they work but the other 2 (I got 4 but only used 2) have been working fine for over a year now, they are still wrapped and everything I could give you a discount, are you actually in California (I know it says so, but mine says IL and I go to school in maryland) anyway, if u, or anyone else wants them e-mail me at [email protected] with whatever you think is a fair price (I don't really have time to do research and figure it out myself). oh yea, more ram and os x go very well together my MDD with 768 is one happy machine.

[drHo]

well at least in my experience DO NOT BUY GENERIC? NO NAME BRAND for your B&W. way back i bought (4) 256mb ram sticks for my B&W 450 online...welll it effed up my mobo. got a new mobo. got 512mb ram (what i thought was good ram from best buy) and it worked. when it was time to upgrade to osx OSX would not install...went though sh1t for about 3months. finally i was about to give up...and ran Tech-tool pro on OS9 and it told me that the ram was bad. ok so i bit the bullet and bought (4) 256mb chips from Crucial.com (payed a little more) and havent looked back since. Now i',m running 10.2.5 with 1gig-o-ram on my B&W 450. I wouldnd recommend anything below 768mb for macs below 700mhz...osx is just way to demanding.. just my 2cents.

[bousozoku]

I have a B&W G3/400 with Ultra2SCSI drive. I found that boosting it past 512MB helped performance quite a bit. While 1GB doesn't make the machine faster than newer machines, it certainly helps a busy system.

I've found OtherWorld Computing to be a great source of memory, whether big name or their own name. Here's their link: http://eshop.macsales.com/

[manofsteel300]

ok it seems that osx is really picky about ram.. if so what is my best option from ram that has been tested for macs? do i have to buy from a mac seller? like owc or dealmac (dealram?)
what about crucial?
or how about ram thats not no name.. but hasnt been tested for macs?

[bousozoku]

How expensive is cheap RAM that doesn't work that you must return?

Buy the Mac-compatible RAM from companies/re-sellers which have already tested it and can validate that it works with Macintosh.

You can buy PC100 or PC133 RAM for that machine and it's really not that expensive right now. I have been buying TechWorks RAM since my first Macintosh but last year switched to the OWC brand. Everytime I looked at Crucial, they were more expensive for the same items.

[superlarry]

make sure that you get a LOW-DENSITY 256 MB chip - that's very important, and hard to do lately. the reason that 512 MB chips will work, but only at 256 MB, is that they are "high-density," using a newer technology that older computers can't utilize. if you end up with a high-density 256 MB chip, only 128 MB will work. beware of shady dealers, because they'll claim low-density but ship you high-density (because it's cheaper). yes, it happened to me.
i believe all powermacs after the Yikes! (including the cube) can handle high-density RAM, as well as those imacs. basically if your mac is about 450 MHz or faster, it has been engineered to handle high-density RAM.

[kentuckyfried]

Be careful of cheap ram.....The last time I picked up some "cheap" ram from OWC, I ended up having to return it b/c my BW wouldn't recognize it...or to be more exact, the memory was incompatible and kept causing kernel panics until I removed all the units. I ended up losing money shipping all that stuff back to them for a refund, luckily I talked them out of a re-stocking fee they were going to hit me with.

The ones that did work measured 1/8" higher than all the other 256 modules I had ever seen, got them at Fry's at $30 per DIMM.

I still see a kernel panic now and then, I don't know if that's the memory or if it's some problem in 10.2.5.