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superblue · Nov 26, 2002, 11:04 AM

Am I likely to see much of a bump going from 384 to 640 on my 500MHZ iBook? I know OSX likes lots of RAM... but 384 is well over the required 128MB... and 512MB ain't that cheap!

Mainly used for iTunes, IE and Mail, with occasional Office and Macromedia MX suite when I'm away from my PowerMac.

claughery · Nov 26, 2002, 12:07 PM

more ram = cheap = better perfromance!

Get the more ram! You will not be dissapointed!

Vax · Nov 26, 2002, 03:16 PM

If you use a lot of apps at the same time (for me at least 4 or 5), you will notice a bid difference. A good way to find it out is vm_stat (open a terminal and type in 'vm_stat"). Look at the pageout number. If you have a lot of pageouts after working/playing for 2 or 3 hours: upgrade!
I did it and it was worth the money. By the way, you can get 512MB for about 80$. Check ramseeker, macsales, ...

Greetings...
Vax

Peter · Nov 26, 2002, 04:14 PM

you can never have too much ram

coming from a guy who only has 128Mb

Eug · Nov 26, 2002, 04:19 PM

I went from 384 to 640. No difference 95% of the time.

Made a difference when running a bazillion apps, or VPC.

That said, I'm going with 768 in my TiBook.

Peter, 128 MB is ultra painful IMO. Going to 384 from 128 is like day and night.

-Q- · Nov 26, 2002, 05:41 PM

Originally posted by PeterClark2002:
you can never have too much ram
coming from a guy who only has 128Mb

What he said. Max it out now and it's one less thing to worry about later...

Peter · Nov 26, 2002, 06:29 PM

I'll see when I get my iPod for Xmas (woooo!) 10Gb of puree music. anyway after that if its too slow I'll upgrade, but at the minute its quite fast on 128!

Phoible · Nov 26, 2002, 07:04 PM

Unless you notice that your computer is paging to disk a lot, there is probably no real reason to spend money on an upgrade. Getting more RAM won't make your computer any faster; it just will cause it not to run slower when lots of applications are open. If you had 128MB or anything less than 256MB, the upgrade would be a no brainer, but 384MB should probably be enough. I have been running with 384MB since May of 2001, and I haven't had any problems with running out of RAM (the number of pageouts tend to be pretty small, and even with several programs open, I have plenty of memory unused). OS X tends to claim all of your memory, but not use it, so the numbers that you see in the "top" command can be misleading.
If you really aren't sure, pay attention to the sounds that your computer makes. If you hear lots of disk activity when you aren't loading programs, then you are likely using significant amounts of virtual memory, and you might want to go for a RAM upgrade.

nredman · Nov 26, 2002, 08:17 PM

Originally posted by superblue:
Am I likely to see much of a bump going from 384 to 640 on my 500MHZ iBook? I know OSX likes lots of RAM... but 384 is well over the required 128MB... and 512MB ain't that cheap!

Mainly used for iTunes, IE and Mail, with occasional Office and Macromedia MX suite when I'm away from my PowerMac.

i have 384MB in my 600mhz iBook and i find it runs 10.2.2 well...the most i run at the same time is iTunes, Navigator, Fire, Charla, and sometimes IE....so i am not sure how Office and Macromedia MX would run...when i got this iBook i was going max out the RAM but i'm glad i didnt because 384 is enough for me

fibroptikl · Nov 26, 2002, 09:11 PM

I got my iBook about a week ago on Wednesday, and have been using the 128MB of memory, and for simple tasks it works fine. I am hoping it will become my main computer though, and when it does with my Terminal, Instant Messaging, Entourage, lots of IE, Macromedia Utils, and lots of mp3 stuff, and fun stuff here and there I'll be going to 640.

But I can afford it, it'll be a worthwhile investment and is always recommended, and I agree so that's why I'm buying.

- - - macfreak - - - · Nov 26, 2002, 09:30 PM

Originally posted by Vax:
If you use a lot of apps at the same time (for me at least 4 or 5), you will notice a bid difference. A good way to find it out is vm_stat (open a terminal and type in 'vm_stat"). Look at the pageout number. If you have a lot of pageouts after working/playing for 2 or 3 hours: upgrade!
I did it and it was worth the money. By the way, you can get 512MB for about 80$. Check ramseeker, macsales, ...

Greetings...
Vax

What type (Brand and model) of ram should I buy? I recently bought a 512mb block (no name), and upon boot, the ibook reported having 384mb installed. Weird. I tried inserting the ram a couple of times, to see if the contact might have been bad, but the results were quite the same.
I also experienced the same problem when installing ram in a B&W G3 PowerMac, but it was 256mb at that time, and the powermac only saw 128mb.
Anybody know what kind of ram I should buy? I live in Denmark, which is in Scandinavia - if anybody should be in doubt...

fibroptikl · Nov 26, 2002, 09:46 PM

You need according to the Apple iBook Tech Specs; Single 1.25-inch standard SO-DIMM slot (3.3V) supports up to 512MB SO-DIMM for a total of 640MB of SDRAM so perhaps that will put you on a track. On most sites they have configurators, where you can select your system and model.

http://eshop.macsales.com AKA Other World Computing has memory for your model, and is a very frequented place by many people here.

- - - macfreak - - - · Nov 26, 2002, 09:59 PM

Originally posted by fibroptikl:
You need according to the Apple iBook Tech Specs; Single 1.25-inch standard SO-DIMM slot (3.3V) supports up to 512MB SO-DIMM for a total of 640MB of SDRAM so perhaps that will put you on a track. On most sites they have configurators, where you can select your system and model.

http://eshop.macsales.com AKA Other World Computing has memory for your model, and is a very frequented place by many people here.

Well, isn't there a scandinavian kinda shop, cause these guys charge 35$ just for shipping. (1/3 of the price)

Vax · Nov 27, 2002, 12:18 AM

I bought mine at http://www.memoryx.com
Don't know about the shipping

But it the delivery was fast and the memory works.

vvedge · Nov 27, 2002, 02:53 AM

bought mine just this week... sweetness.

But, there are some drawbacks I have to admit. One, its a relative thing, and if you machine isn't fast enough (i've got an ancient 500/66 ) the effects are sometimes fleeting.

Secondly, your battery life goes down alot. It takes alot of power to keep that chip up and running. In sleep mode, your power drains faster too. So invest in another battery if you have the chance.

and don't pay more than you have to.... I got mine for $70 after trading in some old ram.

Vax · Nov 27, 2002, 10:57 AM

But you also improve the battery live! Because all the apps stuff is in the memory and the hard drive is less used. That safe a lot of energy.

Greetings
Vax

olli2 · Nov 27, 2002, 08:05 PM

Why don't you walk in an Apple store and try it out with a 256 MB and an 512 MB chip? It would be quite interesting!

An an other thing. When you hibernate/standby your machine instead of turning it off, apps can reside in Ram. So the more ram you have, the more app will be in ram, and started from there instead of the harddisk.

jimsmac · Nov 28, 2002, 09:51 AM

With iPhoto, I find that I get quite a lot of disk access and pageouts with my 384mb. Especially when starting it up. (I guess it has to load all of those thumb nails into ram)

kaotage · Nov 28, 2002, 10:11 AM

Originally posted by jimsmac:
With iPhoto, I find that I get quite a lot of disk access and pageouts with my 384mb. Especially when starting it up. (I guess it has to load all of those thumb nails into ram)

I have 128MB right now. And i can't use IPhoto, because i have there already some 2000 pictures. It takes a lot to load the program and then i start to delete files or something - it's just crashes. Because after 3 minutes i just can't stand it anymore. so i ordered 512MB chip.

---------------
IBook700,128MB,combo

- - - macfreak - - - · Dec 12, 2002, 12:18 PM

Originally posted by kaotage:

I have 128MB right now. And i can't use IPhoto, because i have there already some 2000 pictures. It takes a lot to load the program and then i start to delete files or something - it's just crashes. Because after 3 minutes i just can't stand it anymore. so i ordered 512MB chip.

---------------
IBook700,128MB,combo

My ibook now has 640mb (ibook700combo).
After running for almost 2 days, the swapping info shows like this:
VM: 4.84G + 63.2M 24589(0) pageins, 36829(0) pageouts.
I upgraded from 384 to 640 about 3 days ago, and I must say that for my use, it does make a difference. Now I can use photoshop and browse at the samt time. And when I launch a big program, it doesn't feel sluggish, like before.

I'd say that if you use your ibook as your primary machine, than go for the 640mb block.

Also a notice about battery power. There's 2 types of RAM. One is low power consumpting and one is not. I've got the one that is not (saved about 90$). Before that my battery under noral /heavy usage was around 3h. Now it's 3h15min - 3h30min

D'Espice · Dec 13, 2002, 07:19 AM

Originally posted by superblue:
Am I likely to see much of a bump going from 384 to 640 on my 500MHZ iBook? I know OSX likes lots of RAM... but 384 is well over the required 128MB... and 512MB ain't that cheap!

Mainly used for iTunes, IE and Mail, with occasional Office and Macromedia MX suite when I'm away from my PowerMac.

I did it, from 384MB to 640MB on my PowerMac G4/350 AGP and I can tell you: It's definitely worth it, I would never go back.

stew · Dec 13, 2002, 09:22 AM

I have three computers - none of them has less than 512MB RAM. I admit that my requirements are not representative since I'm developing 3D software...

As for an iBook, additional RAM can also give you extended battery life through less harddisk activity. Mine has 640MB since day 1, don't regret spending the extra $.

ChadC · Dec 13, 2002, 03:32 PM

I have a iMac DV 400. The best thing I ever did was upgrade the memory to 1 gig. My computer has been on for 3 days now running navigator, iChat, Mail, Photoshop, GoLive, Livemotion, ZBrush, as well as others and i have NO page outs! I am a very strong proponent of the more ram the better and you can never have to much!

Chad Coronato
ChadCoronato.com

CheesePuff · Dec 13, 2002, 05:18 PM

Originally posted by ChadC:
I have a iMac DV 400. The best thing I ever did was upgrade the memory to 1 gig. My computer has been on for 3 days now running navigator, iChat, Mail, Photoshop, GoLive, Livemotion, ZBrush, as well as others and i have NO page outs! I am a very strong proponent of the more ram the better and you can never have to much!

Chad Coronato
ChadCoronato.com

Better quit Chimra every now and then and relaunch it. It eats up lots of RAM.

Or just run sudo periodic weekly in Terminal.