Lack of RAM on my iBook ?'s

qwikstreet

qwikstreet

OS X Friendly
My iBook 900mhz is only sporting 128MB of RAM right now. I have some, hopefully not too stupid, questions on the lack of RAM.

Does my iBook work harder and drain the battery faster? Esp. when I am opening apps.

This one is probably dumber:

Will the lack of memory in any way slow down communications with my wireless router?
 
Installing more RAM will give you:
more stability with OS X - less stalls (the rotating gear or lollipop will happen less often, if ever)
more apparent speed, as your system will not need to go to the hard drive so often for page-outs (your system goes to the hard drive for temp storage of in-use files whenever needed - with sufficient memory available, the system will do that MUCH less, and you will see smoother, faster performance)
So - to answer your questions directly:
less need to use the hard drive results in somewhat improved battery life, faster app opening, smoother performance, fewer pauses, etc. This will probably also give you a noticeable improvement in router use.

bottom line - There is probably no downside to adding RAM to your system, and is money well spent.
 
That's what I thought. I just wanted to make sure. I was 90% positive on the battery but was not so sure about routers. Thanks Delta.
 
It's well worth the $100 to $150 it'll cost to buy a 512mb chip and max that puppy out. There should also be a noticeable difference in how it runs. I saw a nice performance boost going from the 256mb mine came as from the factory to it's 640mb max.
 
Viro said:
Yeah. Definitely max out your RAM. There's no such thing as having too much memory.
Click to expand...

Definitely, unless it is more that your system supports and starts glitching like the G3 Powerbooks tend to do when you put a lot of RAM in. Or, there is too much if you cannot afford it all. :)
 
This was a very assuring thread since i just ordered two 512 MB sticks from Crucial to max out my powerbook (gonna sell the stock ram that came with my TiBook)

It comes August 4th -- i can't wait to run XBench :)
 
MBHockey said:
This was a very assuring thread since i just ordered two 512 MB sticks from Crucial to max out my powerbook (gonna sell the stock ram that came with my TiBook)

It comes August 4th -- i can't wait to run XBench :)
Click to expand...

I have RAM coming today for my 'new' Pismo (it is like new, treated quite well), mostly to get it up high enough to run MacOS X. The guy left 64MB in the system and 10.3 refuses to boot at all without at least 128MB installed. Still, 320MB is enough for me. The RAM only helps out to a point, by allowing you to run more before you take a performance hit, so you probably will see a small boost, but nothing phenominal. :)
 
XBench probably won't show any difference if at all. Like what Krevinek says, you'll be able to run more apps at a time before slowing down.

I'm quite happy with my current setup. It doesn't allow me to run too many apps at a time, but its enough. I hope to get a 512 stick on of these days.
 
I have 512 in it now, but i'm usually running at least 2 adope apps and an constantly switching back and forth from my Virtual PC desktop to my Mac Desktop...i think i'll see a good speed improvement (jsut for the simple fact that i'll now be able to allocate a lot more ram for my Virtual PC)
 
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