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fruntbut · Apr 28, 2004, 04:43 PM

my new powerbook is STARVING for ram. i'm waiting on the delivery of a 1gb module, and boy is it hard to do anything with the stock 256mb. having a few applications running and having to wait seconds for the gui to respond reminds me of a few months ago when i was using my girlfriend's hewlett-packard. thankfully it will be over tomorrow, according to fedex.

rambo47 · Apr 28, 2004, 04:57 PM

I found a BIG difference with my PowerBook moving the RAM up to 1 GB. I don't know what Apple claims the minimum amount of RAM is for running OS X, but in the real world you need at least 512 MB for a sweet user experience, and 1 GB is certainly noticably better than that.

mishap · Apr 28, 2004, 05:11 PM

For the amount of work i do all day... i have to say my little 12" has been keeping up. This mostly has to do with the fact it has 1.25 gb of ram (i'm sure)

Cadaver · Apr 29, 2004, 09:42 PM

I'll be picking one up on Saturday, and my 512MB module from Crucial is already in the mail. Didn't want to spend $400 for a 1GB module (vs. $123 for a 512MB'er).
768MB total I think should be fine for what I (will) do on the laptop. However, I agree that more = better. 2.0GB is in my G5.

Ω · Apr 30, 2004, 06:21 AM

I have a GB in my laptop, and using menu meters hardly ever go over 512MB - though I am a very low level user (Word, Excel, Safari, iTunes....)

sniffer · Apr 30, 2004, 07:38 AM

Running with 128, then you are talking. My ram stick went bad and I was stuck with 128 for two weeks once.

anaphora68 · Apr 30, 2004, 09:19 AM

Panther eats up RAM, i have 512MB in my powerbook and it seems to be just fine. As soon as I can afford it I'm goign to get a 1GB stick.

freakboy2 · Apr 30, 2004, 09:34 AM

i didn't notice much of a difference going from 768 to 1.1 gigs in my cube. osx does love ram, but once you're over a certain poit, you need to be doing a lot of stuff to get a huge improvement.

the min i'd go for in a mac is 512. at 768, i think you're good for most things. For me, the premium of price wouldn't make it worthwhile to put 1 gig in a powerbook. i'd just get a 512, but then i'm not doing hardcore stuff on it either.

fb

Mike656 · Apr 30, 2004, 09:36 AM

I took some RAM out of my G4 tower to try 128MB out a while back, needless to say my other ram sticks were back in 5 minutes later.

heresiarh · Apr 30, 2004, 09:48 AM

I've been running my pbook with 256mb for about 6 months now. i work with flash mx, photoshop and illustrator all the time. the system runs very slow but has thankfully never crashed. running 256mb on my pbook has taught me patience!!!

nevertheless, i just ordered 2 1gb modules for my pbook g4. enough is enough. im sure my system will fly from now on.

cheers
www.zeeshank.com

PS. forgot to ask, lets say im editing a 100mb file on 256mb ram, and the same file on a 1gig module, will i notice sufficient difference?

Tek · Apr 30, 2004, 10:07 AM

I have been running 256MB on my revA 12" PB. I've been saving up for an engagement ring so i have had difficulty allocating some funding to buy a 512MB chip. When I have more than 2 applications open there is a noticeable slow down. Even though its workable it becomes very annoying. I might just have to wait till July for my birthday before i can get one, but ah well, patience is my friend.

On a side note, what's with the RAM prices? I swear not even 2 months ago crucial was down to $99 or $98 for their powerbook pc2100 sodimms and right now its up to $122 or something. 18004memory was down to like $91 for their powerbook pc2100 sodimms and now they are up to like $120! I thought this stuff was supposed to go down in price??? Not up by like $30!

May God Be With You.
-Matt

iREZ · Apr 30, 2004, 11:41 AM

I'm guessing its because of the new powerbooks being released and most users get their ram from places other then Apple. They raise their prices for a few weeks then after awhile it'll start to go down again. I remember when the 1 gig stick cost $369 and now its $400+, oh well I guess I gotta play the waiting game too.

fruntbut · Apr 30, 2004, 06:45 PM

just an update for whoever is interested - i received my 1gb ram chip from 18004memory.com (aka coast to coast memory), and the performance increase is very, very, very dramatic. i can now run final cut pro, iphoto, itunes, safari, photoshop, etc. simultaneously with no slowdown, it's just great! though, strangely it didn't affect xbench, still score 120-125. that is, however, completely immaterial to me now, as it feels remarkably faster and more responsive.

i ordered the generic (samsung, i think) ram, not what they advertise for powerbooks - it is cheaper ($304.95 with 2 day fedex) and has the same specs. catalogue number LG3364U/1G 1GB DDR 333 SO DIMM.

so far so good, except one small thing. i'm having a problem with airport dropping it's connection after a few minutes - slows down until nothing. only rebooting fixes it. i don't know if ram could cause this, or maybe, when i took the battery out, i loosened the card. i don't know and i don't really have time to investigate it right now, have to write papers, but if anyone knows anything, let me know. i have airport firmware 3.4.1 and the problem occurs with several different base stations.