RAM upgrade advice/panther and the general.

michaelacolettemichaelacolette
Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
maybe i posted this in the wrong forum. whatever, i'm totally oblivious, never been here before, needed some general help/advice, thought this place looked good.

anyway, i have a powerbook g4, the smallest one, and i wanted to upgrade my RAM. i don't know how much i have now, but i've left it untouched, so i assume around 256 or 512 or something.

anyway, where's the best place to get RAM for a decent price? like 1.0GB or RAM, or something.

also, how much extra ram can fit inside my computer? will i have to remove the RAM that's already inside in order to put the new one in? or will they fit side by side, like little buddies?

SECOND, panther. i want to upgrade to panther. but i'm totally cheap, and since i'm expecting the RAM to put me out a bit, $129 doesn't sound like a party. HOWEVER, i found a supposedly unopened brand new panther on ebay for $25 (so far). good idea, bad idea, what?

third! hard to install? i'm already planning on finding an apple store and forcing them to install the RAM i plan to eventually acquire, as i have never installed RAM on a mac, and therefore don't trust myself to complete such a task as of yet. anyway, should i force them to install the panther version of OSX i may or may not buy on ebay?



i used to buy cheap emachine PCs like every to years, open them up, fool around with them, install/trade ram with other people i knew, but i'm totally not comfortable doing as such with my powerbook, since it was pretty expensive and i don't want to do some serious damage that will cost me a fortune, or a new computer, or worse, no computer at all.

so, ok. the end. thanks.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 14
    brussellbrussell Posts: 9,812member
    There's probably a little memory installation door on the bottom of your machine. The 12" has 256 built in and inaccessible, and one open slot where you can put more. The other models have two slots. It's actually really easy to put the RAM in yourself. Just unscrew the door and slip the module into place. Check out the Apple web site under support and you'll find out how to do it. Don't pay to have it done - it's designed to be easily done by the user. A lot of people use places like ramjet or crucial to get memory online.



    Go ahead and get Panther, but remember Tiger is just around the corner too.
  • Reply 2 of 14
    michaelacolettemichaelacolette Posts: 4member
    thanks for the info, i didn't realize the RAM door was right on the bottom... i heard it was behind the keyboard, or something equally complicated sounding.

    also, were i to wait for tiger to come out, could i update directly from 10.2 to tiger? without worrying about panther at all?
  • Reply 3 of 14
    brussellbrussell Posts: 9,812member
    Yeah I've got a 15" and it's under the keyboard, but if you've got the 12", it should be at the bottom. Don't be afraid to do it yourself! You'll be a better person because of it.



    Sure you can bypass Panther. I just wanted to warn you in case Tiger came out soon after you got Panther - Tiger is set for "the first half of 2005," but who knows, maybe it will come in March or something. You might be ticked off if you had just upgraded, so you could wait a few months and just get Tiger. On the other hand, you probably won't be able to get it for $25.
  • Reply 4 of 14
    gongon Posts: 2,437member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by BRussell

    Yeah I've got a 15" and it's under the keyboard, but if you've got the 12", it should be at the bottom.



    You have an older model 15" then?



    And regarding the actual process for mucking with the memory, I found a *really* small screwdriver was needed. It is very possible you don't have one. In the process of adding memory to an 15" PB I found the screws were in tight, and maybe had some sort of locking compound on them, particularly one. My screwdriver (the very tiny one) did not allow a good hold. I considered quitting in the face of that one screw, rested for a while, and it opened.
  • Reply 5 of 14
    brussellbrussell Posts: 9,812member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Gon

    You have an older model 15" then?



    And regarding the actual process for mucking with the memory, I found a *really* small screwdriver was needed. It is very possible you don't have one. In the process of adding memory to an 15" PB I found the screws were in tight, and maybe had some sort of locking compound on them, particularly one. My screwdriver (the very tiny one) did not allow a good hold. I considered quitting in the face of that one screw, rested for a while, and it opened.



    Yeah I've got a Titanium. Do all the aluminums have RAM on the bottom? With the RAM under the keyboard it's really easy.
  • Reply 6 of 14
    michaelacolettemichaelacolette Posts: 4member
    whoa, aluminum, titanium? i have no idea which one i have. that sounds pretty stupid. how do i find out?

    i also had no idea how specific RAM was, i went to crucial and i had to pick from this massive (it really wasn't that massive) list of powerbooks, and i probably picked incorrectly. so, i probably should find out.
  • Reply 7 of 14
    drumsticksdrumsticks Posts: 315member
    This might come in handy



    http://www.info.apple.com/usen/cip/
  • Reply 8 of 14
    shawnjshawnj Posts: 6,656member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by BRussell

    Yeah I've got a Titanium. Do all the aluminums have RAM on the bottom? With the RAM under the keyboard it's really easy.



    How much RAM do you have, BRussell? I've been thinking about adding 512 MB to my existing 256 MB for $108 from Crucial.
  • Reply 9 of 14
    brussellbrussell Posts: 9,812member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by ShawnJ

    How much RAM do you have, BRussell? I've been thinking about adding 512 MB to my existing 256 MB for $108 from Crucial.



    I've got 512. I think the jump from 256 to 512 or 768 will be quite nice for you.
  • Reply 10 of 14
    tismfutismfu Posts: 76member
    I am about to get a G5 iMac 1.8Ghz. I am currently using a 1st generation TiBook running 400mhz with 256MB of ram. Obviously, this can be crippling for some things.



    If all I use my computer for is word processing, Entourage, iTunes, iPhoto (occasionally iMovie and iDVD), very limited p2p downloading once in a blue moon, and heavy Safari use (for some reason I seem to always have 8 or more tabs open and this can be taxing on my current set up), how much RAM would you recommend?



    Is 1GB enough? I can handle the $200 upgrade. To get 2GB, however, at $800+ is a little steep for me.



    Thanks for any advice.
  • Reply 11 of 14
    ichiban_jayichiban_jay Posts: 660member
    maybe I'm the oddball one but I never noticed any performance increases when I added more ram into my computer... Maybe the comp was just good at handling memory?



    Upgraded from 256 to 768. The ram IS working but the comp is still moving pretty slick
  • Reply 12 of 14
    ibook911ibook911 Posts: 607member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Ichiban_jay

    maybe I'm the oddball one but I never noticed any performance increases when I added more ram into my computer... Maybe the comp was just good at handling memory?



    Upgraded from 256 to 768. The ram IS working but the comp is still moving pretty slick



    I notice the smallest amounts of memory added immediately. RAM upgrades are our friends.
  • Reply 13 of 14
    gongon Posts: 2,437member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by tismfu

    I am about to get a G5 iMac 1.8Ghz. I am currently using a 1st generation TiBook running 400mhz with 256MB of ram. Obviously, this can be crippling for some things.



    If all I use my computer for is word processing, Entourage, iTunes, iPhoto (occasionally iMovie and iDVD), very limited p2p downloading once in a blue moon, and heavy Safari use (for some reason I seem to always have 8 or more tabs open and this can be taxing on my current set up), how much RAM would you recommend?



    iMovie is the most memory heavy thing you do so it might be the defining factor...



    I don't edit video, but otherwise my use is pretty much the same. 10+ Firefox tabs and so forth. My experiences:



    1.33GHz PB, 256MB, laggy, horrible - this was when I first switched to the Mac. It felt a lot slower than my 800MHz Windows box with 256MB.

    After adding 512MB, total 768MB: everything was good again.

    1.2GHz iBook with 256MB - typing on it now; it's surprisingly OK, I could live with it. Amazing what difference in perception after I've used Macs for half a year... or can there be some actual change in speed compared to my old PB? I'll put in +512MB soonish to get rid of the small app switching lags and such. 256MB would probably do the trick but the price difference is negligible, and there's no space for another DIMM so I'll play safe.
  • Reply 14 of 14
    shawnjshawnj Posts: 6,656member
    Just ordered 512mb of ram for 115 bucks including tax. Brings me up to 768 mb!
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