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Memory upgrade to a PB 12" 1.33Ghz

arnette

arnette

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 22, 2002
314
105
Manhattan Beach
Hey-ya,

I have a 12" PowerBook 1.33Ghz that currently has 768MB of RAM. I'm thinking of replacing my 512 stick with a 1GB stick for a total of 1.25GB of RAM.

Now my question is: would it be worth the expense? I'm really looking for performance increase in MS Office (particularly Word) and maybe other apps like iTunes, Firefox, but not much else. A full system upgrade is a ways away for me but thought this might be a nice stop-gap. Word in particular really bogs down when I have a large file open to work on.

Any comments or suggestions? Thanks!
 
gr8tfly

gr8tfly

macrumors 603
Oct 29, 2006
5,333
99
~119W 34N
Depends on how long before you upgrade. It'll cost a $200 or so (I think, this week anyway). You get a little back when you sell it, but mostly it will help make the sale. If you venture into video or even audio editing, higher res still cam - you will benefit from the extra RAM.

I did a the same swap on my PBG4 1.67 17", which got me from 1.5GB to 2GB. I think it was this last spring. At that time, I thought I was probably going to go the Intel (MacBookPro), when I heard of the Core 2 in the "near future". I think between what part it played in selling the machine and the use I got running at 2GB, the $200 or so was worth it. IMHO anyway.
 
Passante

Passante

macrumors 6502a
Apr 16, 2004
860
0
on the sofa
Restart your powerbook and use it for a few hours. Then open activity monitor and look at the number of page outs in the memory tab. If that number is high then you need more memory. 768 MB of RAM was fine until I started to install widgets. They all use some of your RAM.

A gig stick from Other World Computing http://eshop.macsales.com will set you back $140.

Note that this may not improve the performance of Word.

Also if keep an eye on your hard drive if its the 80 gig size. They have a high failure rate.
 
arnette

arnette

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 22, 2002
314
105
Manhattan Beach
usvi4me said:
Why not leave the 512 stick in and take out the 256k chip ? This way you will have a meg and a half.
Click to expand...

My Powerbook has only one user-accessable RAM slot. It now has 512MB stick in there. I believe the built-in RAM slot is 256MB soldered in. You're probably thinking of a 15" PowerBook.

I'm running OS 10.3.9 so Widgets aren't really a thing for me. I'm holding out for Leopard before i even think of upgrading. Besides, my system runs great for what I need it for... with the performance exception of Word.

I'm going to give activity monitor a look-see tonight when I get home and perhaps it will give me some indication of whether or not a RAM upgrade would be worth it. Resale value, maybe. But I'm more interested in the performance increase.

Oh, and I have had issues with my HD in the past. AppleCare took care of that and gave me a new motherboard as well.

Thanks
 
D

deadpixels

macrumors 6502a
Oct 30, 2006
913
0
upgrading your RAM will not directly improve performance in Word, i suppose that what you have now is more than enough for that, but it'll help if you're using Word and have many other apps open at the same time :D
 
arnette

arnette

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 22, 2002
314
105
Manhattan Beach
deadpixels said:
upgrading your RAM will not directly improve performance in Word, i suppose that what you have now is more than enough for that, but it'll help if you're using Word and have many other apps open at the same time :D
Click to expand...

ah! Exactly what I was confused about. Good answer. Makes sense. Damn you Microsoft! Write better code!
 
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