Is it worth upgrading my RAM??

tigerwoods99tigerwoods99
Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
i still only have 512MB PC133 in my DP 1 GHz G4. is it worth gettin an extra 512 or maxin it out at 1.5GB? the cheapest price on pricewatch for 512MB is 41.99. i use my computer mainly for music production, web browsin, watch OTA digital TV, movies, music, and light graphics work. my comp stutters a lot on HD content but thats likely my CPU not bein adequate. i know OS X loves RAM but is it worth it?



im plannin on buildin a HTPC mac sometime soon when the funds are available and when leopard comes out. is it worth spendin any more money on my machine or should i just wait? its pretty maxed out already with sound card, 3 hard drives, a USB 2.0 card, PCI wireless card, SATA controller, and ATSC tv tuner card.



also whats the difference between ECC and non-ECC RAM?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 5
    kareliakarelia Posts: 525member
    Go for it. $41.99 for another 512MB is good. Plus, in my opinion, 512MB is the minimum for OS X 10.4, which I assume you have. Not to mention, you said you believe your machine stutters on HD content because of your CPU, but I think 2x1GHz is fine for HD, but 512MB really isn't. It sounds like your G4 definitely has some life left to it, don't give up on it now.
  • Reply 2 of 5
    pbpb Posts: 4,255member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by TigerWoods99 View Post


    i still only have 512MB PC133 in my DP 1 GHz G4. is it worth gettin an extra 512 or maxin it out at 1.5GB? the cheapest price on pricewatch for 512MB is 41.99. i use my computer mainly for music production, web browsin, watch OTA digital TV, movies, music, and light graphics work. my comp stutters a lot on HD content but thats likely my CPU not bein adequate. i know OS X loves RAM but is it worth it?



    Max it out. Well, that's what I would do in your place. Two 1 GHz G4s are rather weak and you need at least to remove the hard disk access bottleneck because of the page outs by adding, or better maxing out, the memory.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by TigerWoods99 View Post


    ...also whats the difference between ECC and non-ECC RAM?



    See here for example.
  • Reply 3 of 5
    jeffdmjeffdm Posts: 12,951member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by TigerWoods99 View Post


    also whats the difference between ECC and non-ECC RAM?



    It doesn't matter for you, I don't think a PowerMac G4 can use ECC. For your use, I think your computer is fine for now except for memory, it's probably not that expensive to really boost it to its max.
  • Reply 4 of 5
    tigerwoods99tigerwoods99 Posts: 2,633member
    so i have to get RAM that is non ECC?? a lot of the DIMMS on ebay are ECC
  • Reply 5 of 5
    jeffdmjeffdm Posts: 12,951member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by TigerWoods99 View Post


    so i have to get RAM that is non ECC?? a lot of the DIMMS on ebay are ECC



    I suggest that you not get ECC dimms. I say that despite the fact that most of my computers use that type of memory, the problem is that a computer not built for ECC won't take advantage of it at best, and most likely, will not run at all. PowerMacs didn't take ECC until the last generation of the G5s.
Sign In or Register to comment.