How much RAM?

S

smelly1966

Registered
I am going to 'switch' but my main question is how much RAM do I need.
I keep hearing that 128 MB is not enough.
My needs are modest. E-mail Browsing and some lite duty photo editing. I may burn the occasional DVD photo album.
 
OS X works great with 1G of memory :) If your box supports it, fill it. RAM is cheap, and you get so much benefit from it. So, basically, the best thing is to put in as much RAM as you can afford. For instance, if you have a G4 sawtooth tower, it uses up to 4 PC100 dimms, you can get a 256M stick for $27, so for just over $100 you can have 1G in the puppy. Or, for $42 you can get a 512M stick, and get 3 of them for $130 and max the box out at 1.5G. And if you actually want apple branded/certified RAM you'll pay about 2x, so $200-$300 for 1-1.5G worth. PC133 chips are just slightly more for the quicksilvers, and if it's a laptop, those chips have gotten cheap too.

Brian
 
smelly- I'm about the same as you. I mostly surf the net, do homework, burn cd's and do the occasional iMovie or work with digital photos. A Mac and OS X would be the perfect solution for you, I promise you won't be let down.

As for your ram question, 1 gig is definately NOT needed. However, 128 mb is not enough, in my opinion. I'm currently using an eMac (700 mhz G4) with only 128 mb of ram and it's a bit slow. It's usable, but I'll be upgrading as soon as I get a little cash.

I would have to suggest you don't have less than 384 mb. That's the standard 128 + a 256 mb stick that should cost no more than $50. I will be purchasing a 512 mb stick for about $90 but that's just because I'd rather have too much ram than not enough.

Good luck with your purchase!
 
Actually, it would be best to buy an iMac with only the standard amount of ram and purchase 512 mb from another company. Apple charges way too much for their ram and you be ripping yourself off by purchasing it through them.
 
I thought that the built in memory could only be upgrade by apple, with only one slot being available for the customer to use/upgrade?
 
<i>I thought that the built in memory could only be upgrade by apple, with only one slot being available for the customer to use/upgrade?</i>

Yes, Macs usually ship with one memory slot populated. You can, however, remove this memory if desired. It is not soldered or otherwise permanently fixed to the motherboard. You can add or remove memory from a Mac just as easily as you can from a PC. As others have stated, you can save significantly by doing it yourself.
 
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