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Got a gig. Makes a BIG difference.
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torifile
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2004-08-31, 18:31

I just upgraded my rev. c powerbook to 1.25 gigs of RAM. Wow! This thing flies with all that RAM in it. Even typing in Safari with the animated smilies doesn't slow down

I got a great deal on the RAM that Outpost was selling ($149 for the gig). I'm quite happy with it. If you've got a powerbook and you haven't maxed out the ram, you don't know what you're missing.
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Wrao
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2004-08-31, 19:03

is this the RAM you got?

That is cheap for a gig, I could max out my RAM for the same price as a gig on ramjet.com!
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Moogs
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2004-08-31, 19:04

Yep. RAM is your friend. I got four in my G5 now... no image shall slow me down... ev@R! Now for that Radeon 9800 Pro Special Edition.

Bwahahahahahahaaaa!

PS - I'm now poor.

...into the light of a dark black night.
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Wickers
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2004-08-31, 19:22

Quote:
Originally Posted by Moogs
PS - I'm now poor.

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torifile
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2004-08-31, 19:25

Quote:
Originally Posted by Wrao
is this the RAM you got?

That is cheap for a gig, I could max out my RAM for the same price as a gig on ramjet.com!
Yup. That's it. Sure it's only got a one year warranty but my platinum visa doubles that so it's got 2 years to go bad. That's more than long enough for me. I figure in 2 years RAM will be cheaper anyway.
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Escher
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2004-08-31, 23:42

Quote:
Originally Posted by torifile
I just upgraded my rev. c powerbook to 1.25 gigs of RAM. Wow! This thing flies with all that RAM in it.
torifile: Did you go to 1.25GB from the stock 256MB? 512? 768?

I was cheap and only put a 512MB stick in my Rev.C 12-inch PowerBook (for a total of 768). Should I really regret not spending the extra money on a 1GB stick?

Escher

I've been waiting for a true sub-PowerBook for more than 10 years. The 11-inch MacBook Air finally delivers on all counts! It beats the hell out of both my PowerBook 2400c and my 12-inch PowerBook G4 -- no contest whatsoever.
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ast3r3x
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2004-09-01, 00:06

Quote:
Originally Posted by Escher
torifile: Did you go to 1.25GB from the stock 256MB? 512? 768?

I was cheap and only put a 512MB stick in my Rev.C 12-inch PowerBook (for a total of 768). Should I really regret not spending the extra money on a 1GB stick?

Escher
Yeah, I have (2) 256MB sticks in my 15" AluBook. I didn't know you could get a 1GB stick for that cheap. I was going to pay $110 or whatever for a 512MB stick, but if I can get 1GB...even with only a year warranty, I think I may have to do that.

Is it always that cheap or is that just some sort of special?
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MCQ
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2004-09-01, 01:00

It's been running maybe the last 2-3 weeks on Outpost. I first saw a thread about it over in the Anandtech forums. I don't think it's currently a listed special on Outpost, but I don't know how much longer they could hold that price. The next cheapest I think is ~$200 for 1 GB sodimm.

I've been thinking about getting one myself, haven't pulled the trigger yet though.
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torifile
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2004-09-01, 05:06

Quote:
Originally Posted by Escher
torifile: Did you go to 1.25GB from the stock 256MB? 512? 768?

I was cheap and only put a 512MB stick in my Rev.C 12-inch PowerBook (for a total of 768). Should I really regret not spending the extra money on a 1GB stick?

Escher
I went from the stock 256 and it was killing me. My pervious powerbook had 640 megs and it was faster in use than this one was before I upgraded. I actually got lucky because the 512 stick bought was bad and I have to return it to amazon and then I found this deal.

Totally worth it. I ran a thorough test of the hardware last night just to be sure and it passed. There's a whole thread of people having good luck with it over at macnn.
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ast3r3x
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2004-09-01, 08:03

Well I just ordered it selected overnight shipping, putting it to $149.63. For some reason it says it was $139.99 for it when I went to checkout. What programs do you guys use to test your RAM? I'll hopefully get it tomorrow since I got the order in today at 9, and I'd love to be able to test it, know it's good, and feel I get an amazing deal.

I can't wait, I am pissed I lose 256MB because I was cheap when I got my computer, but I can't complain about 1.25GB of RAM
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psmith2.0
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2004-09-01, 08:18

Timely thread, as I'm on the cusp of doing this. I've still got the 512 (2 x 256) that came in my 15" PowerBook. I was thinking of just getting a 512 and bumping to 768, but I don't know.

Here's the deal: I ALWAYS have Mail, Safari and iTunes running. Always. To that, add the occasional Sherlock, Address Book and iChat.

Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign and/or FontAgent Pro when I'm doing "real" work.

I'd benefit from more than 512MB wouldn't I? What, exactly, would be the obvious, tangible difference I'd experience? Quicker launching and quitting? Faster switching between apps? Overall responsiveness/snappiness?
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Escher
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2004-09-01, 08:38

Quote:
Originally Posted by pscates2.0
Quicker launching and quitting?
Only on the second launch, I believe. Definitely not on the first launch after a restart.

Quote:
Faster switching between apps? Overall responsiveness/snappiness?
Yes and yes.

pscates: You would benefit immensely from a 1GB stick. With a 512MB stick, you'll go from 512 to 768 (50% increase). With an extra US$50 for the 1GB stick, you'll be able to go from 512 to 1.25GB. That's whoppin' 150% increase for only 50 bucks more.

If you haven't already bought a 512MB stick like me, the 1GB stick should be a no-brainer.

Escher

I've been waiting for a true sub-PowerBook for more than 10 years. The 11-inch MacBook Air finally delivers on all counts! It beats the hell out of both my PowerBook 2400c and my 12-inch PowerBook G4 -- no contest whatsoever.
  quote
Escher
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2004-09-01, 08:41

Quote:
Originally Posted by torifile
I went from the stock 256 and it was killing me. My pervious powerbook had 640 megs and it was faster in use than this one was before I upgraded. I actually got lucky because the 512 stick bought was bad and I have to return it to amazon and then I found this deal.
torifile, you lucky bastard! Seeing the $150 price for this 1GB stick, I sure wish I had hobbled along with the stock 256MB in my 12-inch for an additional six weeks. But hey, 768 is plenty for me.

Escher

I've been waiting for a true sub-PowerBook for more than 10 years. The 11-inch MacBook Air finally delivers on all counts! It beats the hell out of both my PowerBook 2400c and my 12-inch PowerBook G4 -- no contest whatsoever.
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ast3r3x
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2004-09-01, 08:54

Quote:
Originally Posted by pscates2.0
Timely thread, as I'm on the cusp of doing this. I've still got the 512 (2 x 256) that came in my 15" PowerBook. I was thinking of just getting a 512 and bumping to 768, but I don't know.

Here's the deal: I ALWAYS have Mail, Safari and iTunes running. Always. To that, add the occasional Sherlock, Address Book and iChat.

Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign and/or FontAgent Pro when I'm doing "real" work.

I'd benefit from more than 512MB wouldn't I? What, exactly, would be the obvious, tangible difference I'd experience? Quicker launching and quitting? Faster switching between apps? Overall responsiveness/snappiness?
I want to say all of the above. I know that often I saturate my paltry 512MB (I'd imagine you do in photoshop and indesign) and have to write to my disc for virtual memory. Switch to an application and it has to load all of it into the RAM if it isn't already there. Well if it's on your HD it takes x milliseconds to access it, plus the read time for all of the information. If you are working on a photoshop and indesign file it could easily fill up to 300MB or over. Well get a regular work load going on your computer, open photoshop, and start doing some stuff. Listen for your HD. It probably shouldn't be reading or writing if you have enough RAM.

Edit: I've only had my computer running for a day or two, and I'm at 233,000 pageouts. What are you at?
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staph
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2004-09-01, 10:00

Quote:
Originally Posted by ast3r3x
Edit: I've only had my computer running for a day or two, and I'm at 233,000 pageouts. What are you at?
Well, on my computers I have:

iBook with 256MB, 17 days uptime: 1,012,871 pageouts;
Powermac with 1280MB, 9 days uptime: 514,105 pageouts.
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psmith2.0
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2004-09-01, 10:13

I know I'm gonna get blistered for this, but what's a "pageout"?

I'm guessing it's when the hard drive is accessed for memory, judging by the above context? Something like that?
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torifile
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2004-09-01, 10:14

Quote:
Originally Posted by pscates2.0
Timely thread, as I'm on the cusp of doing this. I've still got the 512 (2 x 256) that came in my 15" PowerBook. I was thinking of just getting a 512 and bumping to 768, but I don't know.

Here's the deal: I ALWAYS have Mail, Safari and iTunes running. Always. To that, add the occasional Sherlock, Address Book and iChat.

Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign and/or FontAgent Pro when I'm doing "real" work.

I'd benefit from more than 512MB wouldn't I? What, exactly, would be the obvious, tangible difference I'd experience? Quicker launching and quitting? Faster switching between apps? Overall responsiveness/snappiness?
Everything is faster. Even the first launch of things (I suspect because nothing needs to be moved around to make room for the newly launched application). It's been great. I'd recommend it if you can spare the $$.
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ZO
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2004-09-01, 10:14

Im still with 256 as well (12inch PB) and its killing me as well. Im trying to get my work to spot me the GB, but things go slowly.

Bittorrent downloads (more the 3-4 concurrent) will FREEZE my system. Cold. Only a forced restart will do it. I've tried with Tomato and Azureus, but they both eventually kill me if I have too much stuff downloading. I didnt think OS X would succumb to such things.

Paging is hell as well....

god I want more ram

I'm having deja-vu and amnesia at the same time. I think I've forgotten this before.
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Brad
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2004-09-01, 10:15

Quote:
Originally Posted by torifile
If you've got a powerbook and you haven't maxed out the ram, you don't know what you're missing.
Thanks for the link, my fellow RTP-er. I had been browsing the online outlets and hadn't come across any deals that good just yet.

My order has officially been placed! I should get it Friday just in time to play around with it over the weekend. Whee!

The quality of this board depends on the quality of the posts. The only way to guarantee thoughtful, informative discussion is to write thoughtful, informative posts. AppleNova is not a real-time chat forum. You have time to compose messages and edit them before and after posting.
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ZO
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2004-09-01, 10:34

crap... not available for export

anyone want to help a poor ol Zo out?

;-)
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staph
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2004-09-01, 10:42

Quote:
Originally Posted by ZO
…Azureus… I didnt think OS X would succumb to such things.
Not to mention the consistent kernel panics that Azureus causes on dual-processor Macs (pity — it's a good client).

-S
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ast3r3x
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2004-09-01, 10:50

Quote:
Originally Posted by pscates2.0
I know I'm gonna get blistered for this, but what's a "pageout"?

I'm guessing it's when the hard drive is accessed for memory, judging by the above context? Something like that?
To my understanding it's the number of times OS X's memory management system has had to write to the HD in place of RAM. I could be mistaken, but that was always my understanding. Perhaps this link will help out?

I think pageout is when it's writing to the disk, and pagein, is when it's staying in the RAM? I am not really sure what's what...I guess Brad would be able to clarify.

Is lack of RAM the real reason BitTorrent freezes? I figured it was just shoddy programming.

Is there any chance that more RAM will increase the speed which DVD2One compresses movies? I was kinda hoping that my slow HD was the reason it didn't go faster. I guess I'm probably just delusional that my 1.25 G4 can output video faster then my HD can write.

Last edited by ast3r3x : 2004-09-01 at 10:57.
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MCQ
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2004-09-01, 11:00

That link should be good enough for a paging description. IIRC, a pagein refers to grabbing a page from HD to memory, a pageout describes putting a page from memory to HD.
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Brad
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2004-09-01, 11:02

Quote:
To my understanding it's the number of times OS X's memory management system has had to write to the HD in place of RAM.
Correct.

Quote:
I think pageout is when it's writing to the disk, and pagein, is when it's staying in the RAM?
Almost! pageouts occur when data is written from RAM to virtual memory on the hard drive; pageins occur when data is retrieved from the virtual memory and restored to RAM. pageins are painful because a program stalls as it is waiting for the (magnitudes slower) drive to load the necessary data back into physical RAM.

Quote:
Is lack of RAM the real reason BitTorrent freezes? I figured it was just shoddy programming.
It's BOTH. BitTorrent gobbles up lots and lots of memory. Bad programming makes it ask for lots of RAM; lack of RAM causes it to stall when paging.

Quote:
Is there any chance that more RAM will increase the speed which DVD2One compresses movies? I was kinda hoping that my slow HD was the reason it didn't go faster. I guess I'm probably just delusional that my 1.25 G4 can output video faster then my HD can write.
Probably not. Things like video encoding are almost always CPU-bound rather than memory bound because they usually work on a relatively small chunk of data at a time.

The quality of this board depends on the quality of the posts. The only way to guarantee thoughtful, informative discussion is to write thoughtful, informative posts. AppleNova is not a real-time chat forum. You have time to compose messages and edit them before and after posting.
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torifile
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2004-09-01, 11:06

My rudimentary understanding of pageouts and pageins are when the system needs to move things into and out of memory.

When you've got an application that's been allocated some physical ram and it isn't using it right now and there's something else that needs it, that RAM gets paged out - the info in memory gets shifted the the swap space. A page in is the opposite - if you have an application that's been paged out and you bring it to the forefront - the info in the swap space moves back into physical memory.

This takes time to do and the less the better from a speed perspective.
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ZO
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2004-09-01, 14:35

Quote:
Originally Posted by staph
Not to mention the consistent kernel panics that Azureus causes on dual-processor Macs (pity — it's a good client).

-S
aha! "good"!!! In the sense that I was thinking that I was the ony poor sod that had freezes and such. Was about to totally reinstall OSX
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Snoopy
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2004-09-01, 16:46

Quote:
Originally Posted by torifile
I just upgraded my rev. c powerbook to 1.25 gigs of RAM. Wow! This thing flies with all that RAM in it. Even typing in Safari with the animated smilies doesn't slow down . . .

I think it is the the step from 256 to 512 MB that makes the biggest difference. At least that's my recollection from the early days of upgrading to OS X. If you know how much RAM all your open applications take, you can add it to the 512 MB. That much RAM should be sufficient, but it never hurts to have more, for when you get that really big application.
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staph
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2004-09-01, 19:36

Quote:
Originally Posted by ZO
aha! "good"!!! In the sense that I was thinking that I was the ony poor sod that had freezes and such. Was about to totally reinstall OSX
A panic every 12 hours or so made me think something was up! I got as far as running Techtool and checking my filesystems…
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Ryan
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2004-09-01, 19:53

I got lucky with my Powerbook. I ordered a refurb to get the Superdrive, and Apple slipped in an extra 512 without knowing it. It was only supposed to come with 128, but I ended up with 640.

Anyways, can someone tell me how much a Rev.A can hold? Is it 640 or a gig? I can't remember.
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DMBand0026
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2004-09-01, 19:58

According to Crucial, a Rev. A will only address up to a 512 SODIMM.

Info here

However, G4s can obviously address more RAM, but they may not make a 1 gig SODIMM in the speed you need.

Come waste your time with me
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