640mb in ibook, is there a difference?

relic

I just bought a new ibook 700 12 inch, the store was out of the 512mb modules so I have to wait until Friday. First impressions with 128mb, SLOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWW. How can anyone work comfortably with this machine? My question is, does 512mb make a big difference, if not this is going back and I?m getting the new IBM ThinkPad X23. You guys have to see it to believe it, resizing the windows is molasses on a cold day, applications start slower the my Grandpa in the morning and the Java speed is the worst I?ve ever seen on any computer. This machine is just for surfing and writhing java scripts, nothing intensive, JUST TEXT stuff. I don?t think I need to buy a $2500 Powerbook to do that. Anybody else started with 128mb then went to 640mb, can you share your experience.

brianmacos

I bought the 700mhz iBook and I added 256 megs to make my system have 384 and I have no problem I am sure that thing will fly along just fine with 640 megs. 384 seems to be enough for me and I work on my site use VPC and do many other things on my system. You will be 100% happier after you get more ram that is for sure. I wouldn't know how slow it is with just 128, mine came standard with 256 in it but I upgraded it right away in the store to 384.

dave boyce

I've done the 128->640 upgrade on the 700MHz iBook. There's a huge, and instantaneous improvement in performance. Everything starts much more quickly, switching between running applications is much faster, moving applications into and out of the dock is fast and smooth. It's made an enormous difference.



An extra 512Mb will make you a very happy

person.

matsu

That's the thing. It seems to me, from the overwhelming majority of internet accounts, that OSX really needs 256MB to run decently. Apple specs 128 but this is truly the bare minimum. The ship some iBooks with 256, but they're 128x2 which virtually guarantees you're wasting a 128MB module at some point down the line.



They should either sell them with 128(x1) or 256(x1) so that even if your machine doesn't have the most memory you can upgrade it without throwing out a perfectly good module.



The situation right now seems like the one with win95/98, way back when M$'s 'minimum requirements' often could bearly boot the machine. Ok, that's a little exaggerated, but you get the point. 256 is the real minimum OSX requirement, not 128. End rant.

rogue27

I'm thinking that 10.2, being more efficiently coded, might be a touch less memory intensive than X.1, but still, more RAM is typically better, up to a point.



128 is listed as the minimum on the box, but in reality, you'll want more.

tarimko bintasir

The iBook can't ship with a 256x1. The 128 is on the motherboard, there's only one ram slot. You'd need a motherboard change to do anything with the stock 128.

matsu

It's just RAM soldered onto the Motherboard. Especially because it can't be changed it should now start off with 256MB soldered onto the motherboard. It's nothing that would require a motherboard redesign -- instead of soldering 128MB density of chips, solder 256.

klinux

Hi all:



Newbie here (1st post!). This is my first tentative step toward the Mac world (three Wintel PC and laptops at home with WinXP but 12" iBook combo drive to arrive this week!).



I want to add more RAM to the iBook as well but on Pricewatch, the 512MB @ $112 is almost triple the price of 256MB @ $42. You guys think that is worth it? I will mostly use this ibook for organizing music, photos, and surfing the web (no gaming).



Thanks!



{{edited for spelling}}



[ 07-02-2002: Message edited by: klinux ]</p>

roduk

128Mb is the minimum to run OS X itself, but if you want to be able to do something useful with your iBook and run some applications, 256Mb is a much more realistic minimum.

klinux

Sorry, I should be more clear. My question should have been: Is addding the additional 512 MB RAM more cost effective (i.e. we all know it will perform better @ 640 MB) then adding the 256 MB RAM to the iBook 700Mhz?

brianmacos

I added the 256 meg chip to mine to make it 384 and I am happy with the performance. Every thing works well. I use Office X, Dreamweaver MX and VPC just to name a few and they all run fine on 384. Either way you go you will be happy. 640 would be nice but I didn't want to spend that much money on ram. If I ever have that much ram in this thing it will be the ordered off the net some where because it is much cheaper.

chromos

[quote]Originally posted by klinux:

<strong>Sorry, I should be more clear. My question should have been: Is addding the additional 512 MB RAM more cost effective (i.e. we all know it will perform better @ 640 MB) then adding the 256 MB RAM to the iBook 700Mhz?</strong><hr></blockquote>



Last week I upgraded my Pismo from 320 MB to 512 MB, and couldn't be happier. It wouldn't seem like such a big difference, but I have about 10x fewer pageouts now. And with a 4200 rpm hard drive, that translates into much better performance. I would spend the extra $70 on the 512 MB module.

spiffster

since chronos said he upgraded his Pismo with a 512, is it possiable to do this to an original blueberry iBook? Currently, mines "maxed" out at 288 MB, according to Apple, but is there any reason that it cant swap out the 256 MB module for a 512?

matsu

I don't know, but I believe I've read somewhere that it all depends on what kind of RAM chip you use. Something about the voltage, density, and arrangement of the chips on the DIMM itself. There's a type that works I believe, but me dumb about these things. Check the iBook and iMac sections at MacNN, and maybe the archive. Or just post a topic there, I think a few people have done it on older iMacs and iBooks.

relic

640mb later and I'm loving life, big difference in performance, very happy indeed. With the ram maxed out I feel that this ibook just surpassed my old powerbook G4 500. Everything opens so fast now. Itools is a bliss and IE is no longer the bloated software I once thought. Wow, just to think I was so close to throwing this thing out the window. If you have an ibook don?t even start the thing unless you have 640mb of ram. I can?t believe Apple would even ship this thing without at least 256mb. So, I now highly recommend this little guy to anyone who?s looking for a small but powerful travel companion. Screen is beautiful, the keyboard is soft and precise and the graphic card is good enough to play Medal of Honor.at 1024x768. I even run it at 800 mhz now, so cool. Ok I?m going to stop, getting a little hot over a hunk of plastic. Keep up the good work Apple, can?t wait for the 1ghz model.





Relic

brianmacos

I wouldn't say you need to buy 640 megs but 384 is a good starting point!!!

matsu

I think I'll wait for the iBook to approach 1Ghz myself. And, if only they'd sell the thing with 256MB soldered onto the MoBo instead of 128. Then, you could take it to 768, but more importantly you could take it up to 512 on the cheap (and that ought to be enough).



I wonder if anyone makes 1GB DIMMS that will work in any of Apple's 'Books yet?

brianmacos

[quote]Originally posted by FellowshipChurch iBook:

<strong>I spent the $200 on the memory taking my 700 14 in iBook to 640 and I see no difference.



My old old compaq 75mhz windows 95 with 32 meg of ram was faster at day in and day out business.



I went to compusa today to play around on some G4 machines and yes they are much faster but these G3's are well.... less than favorable.</strong><hr></blockquote>



Do you like to WINE a lot if your damn iBook is that slow then stop posting about it all you do is talk about how slow it is. You hear no one else crying about it do you? NO! Do us all a favor and don't post BS. I run my iBook with 384 megs with no problem and you say you notice no difference with 640 and it still seems slow may be your brain is just slow. Sorry for being rude but it gets a little old reading your pointless posts about how you think your Mac is so slow. I know people running 233mhz macs and don't cry about it a bit.

<img src="graemlins/oyvey.gif" border="0" alt="[No]" />



[ 07-05-2002: Message edited by: BrianMacOS ]</p>