Hard Drive vs RAM

[Miguey]

since i got good grades in school, my mom is giving me some money to upgrade my iBook(100-150). the dilema is that i need to figure out if i should upgrade the hard drive vs the RAM or perhaps get some software(FCE). what do you guys think? its the last rev iBook 14 inch.

right now its standard 512 ram, 60 gig hd etc...

right now im doing some gaming, WoW, Warcraft 3, starcraft, some Jedi knight, and video editing here and there.

oh yea and if i were to get RAM would these two suffice?

http://shop1.outpost.com/product/4389075

http://shop1.outpost.com/product/4054652

Thanks

edit-wohoo 100 posts!

 

[mad jew]

Congratulations on your good grades.

Upgrading the internal hard drive is very expensive considering how much extra space you'll get. I'd buy the RAM or maybe look into getting an external hard drive. Do you need the extra space or the extra RAM? Are you accumulating lots of page ins and outs (check Activity Monitor) over a short period? At this stage, I'd say go for the RAM.

 

[Miguey]

woah quick reply..thanks for the congrats.

the page in/outs are roughly 200,000/98,000 in about 10 minutes(camino ichat running). i can go with this hard drive space for quite a while, as long as i burn my movies from iMovie.

 

[mad jew]

Definitely get the RAM and then think about getting an external hard disk when the time comes.

 

[Angrist]

RAM

An internal hard drive upgrade on that machine is FAR more hassle than it's worth, and won't improve your performance at all.

512MB is the absolute bare minimum RAM that I'd run in an OSX system, bumping up to a gig or higher will make your entire user experience snappier and smoother.

 

[GimmeSlack12]

RAM.

Get a 1GB chip and max it out. It will really really be noticeable. Just a little snappier, and not waiting as long for things that you used to wait for. As for the Hard Drive, get an external at some point cause changing the internal drive is not an easy process.

 

[bbergie]

Congratulations on your good grades.

Upgrading the internal hard drive is very expensive considering how much extra space you'll get. I'd buy the RAM or maybe look into getting an external hard drive. Do you need the extra space or the extra RAM? Are you accumulating lots of page ins and outs (check Activity Monitor) over a short period? At this stage, I'd say go for the RAM.

What are page ins and outs? How can I acquire that information from my computer and what does the information mean?

Thanks.

 

[drummerbooker14]

Most definitely RAM

 

[GimmeSlack12]

What are page ins and outs? How can I acquire that information from my computer and what does the information mean?

Thanks.

Page-ins are how often RAM is accessed. Page-outs is how often virtual memory is accessed. Do a search through the forums for a better explanation but that is the jist of it. When you have little memory there is higher page-outs because Virtual memory is accessed more. So if you have a large number of page-outs then it means that you could use more memory. A lot of page-outs would be considered over 10,000 (I think).

You can find this information using Activity Monitor in your Utilities folder.

 

[bbergie]

Page-ins are how often RAM is accessed. Page-outs is how often virtual memory is accessed. Do a search through the forums for a better explanation but that is the jist of it. When you have little memory there is higher page-outs because Virtual memory is accessed more. So if you have a large number of page-outs then it means that you could use more memory. A lot of page-outs would be considered over 10,000 (I think).

You can find this information using Activity Monitor in your Utilities folder.

Thanks for the info. I'll check my activity monitor and try to make sense of all this.

 

[Miguey]

alright so i shall go with RAM, but does anyone know if that RAM would work?

 

[GimmeSlack12]

Just make sure it is 333MHz PC2700 DDR-RAM and you'll be all set. Installing it is a breeze. And be sure to get 1GB! Cause it rules!

EDIT: Yes, both of those will work fine. Get the lifetime warranty.

 

[funkychunkz]

Spend wisely too, make it go a long way. You'll feel good about buying RAM, I'm sure, but have you got a good mouse? Sometimes you can salvage ram from oldish computers, that have recently gotten mem. upgrades (but were disposed for lack of speed). I know it sounds crazy, but some people don't think to reclaim their RAM!

 

[GimmeSlack12]

Sometimes you can salvage ram from oldish computers, that have recently gotten mem.

???

Do you have extra DDR memory lying around in old computers? I understand your point, but think about what computer we are talking about (An iBook G4).

 

[funkychunkz]

???

Do you have extra DDR memory lying around in old computers? I understand your point, but think about what computer we are talking about (An iBook G4).

Not me personally, but I know a guy on my block who did had exactly that, not surprising seeing as he has 16 arrayed computers (and nice ones at that). He gets free stuff from work and gives free stuff to my other friend (but not me, , don't know him THAT well).

 

[mad jew]

Page-ins are how often RAM is accessed. Page-outs is how often virtual memory is accessed. Do a search through the forums for a better explanation but that is the jist of it. When you have little memory there is higher page-outs because Virtual memory is accessed more. So if you have a large number of page-outs then it means that you could use more memory. A lot of page-outs would be considered over 10,000 (I think).

You can find this information using Activity Monitor in your Utilities folder.

Good explanation. It's not really how many page ins or page outs you have, but how quickly they accumulate that matters. The numbers are reset after a reboot and if you're finding that you get quite a few of them in a short period, then you'd benefit from more RAM.

 

[Miguey]

ok, i was at the apple store in the Brea mall yesterday and....i fell in love with the JBL Speakers Creature II...so i spent my money and got those in black for 75 dollars ( demo ones, yes i am cheap =p) and i am in love with this! Ill end up getting RAM from Fry's since theyre so cheap...damn these speakers have a lot of base..

 

[elfin buddy]

Is 10'000 page-outs really a sign that you need more RAM? When does a Mac start counting page-ins versus page-outs? I'm on a 1.33GHz 12" PowerBook with maxed 1.25GB RAM, but I've got almost 67'000 page-outs

I was using Azureus for most of the day though, so might that have jacked up my page-out count?

 

[thewhitehart]

...its the last rev iBook 14 inch.

right now its standard 512 ram, 60 gig hd etc...

right now im doing some gaming, WoW, Warcraft 3, starcraft, some Jedi knight, and video editing here and there.

Just curious - I have an ibook 12" with a gig of ram. How is running WoW on it with just 32mb vram? Is it snappy enough to play?

 

[dogbone]

Is 10'000 page-outs really a sign that you need more RAM? When does a Mac start counting page-ins versus page-outs? I'm on a 1.33GHz 12" PowerBook with maxed 1.25GB RAM, but I've got almost 67'000 page-outs

I was using Azureus for most of the day though, so might that have jacked up my page-out count?

http://homepage.mac.com/joemikeb/ActivityMonitor.htm

Page ins are nothing to worry about. It's not the number of Page outs per se it's how fast they accumulate. If you've been up for two weeks without a restart then a million page outs wouldn't necessarily mean anything bad.

Check how long you've been up for using Terminal, type in uptime

Also a forum search on "page in page out" will bring up a few threads where these concerns have been discussed.

 

[dmw007]

ok, i was at the apple store in the Brea mall yesterday and....i fell in love with the JBL Speakers Creature II...so i spent my money and got those in black for 75 dollars ( demo ones, yes i am cheap =p) and i am in love with this! Ill end up getting RAM from Fry's since theyre so cheap...damn these speakers have a lot of base..

Nice purchase Miguey, but get the RAM as soon as you can- more RAM should definitely help speed up your iBook G4.

 

[Miguey]

Just curious - I have an ibook 12" with a gig of ram. How is running WoW on it with just 32mb vram? Is it snappy enough to play?

yea it is, i can run it full screen with 20 fps outdoors, or window mode which adds 7-8 more FPS...inside caves its practically flawless, 30-60 FPS, if you want i can pm you with Screenshots, but i am only in begininng...