Dear LJ: Help me not want to throw my computer out the window?

[kitchen_kink]

motive_nuance offered to help me out with this, but he's been absolutely swamped lately and so I would feel bad to ask him right now. Besides, I might be able to do it myself, with a bit of help. :)

My computer is a Mac iBook, about 5 years old. It runs Mac OSX version 10.4.11, and has a 1.2 GHz Power PC G4 processor. It has 256 MB of memory, which I think is where I'm running into problems.

I've never considered myself a "power user," but at the moment, using, say, a browser, the Mail program, and Word at the same time causes the machine to slow down considerably. iPhoto and iTunes slow it to a crawl unless they are the only things running.

I'd like to add more memory to the machine - I think that would solve a lot of problems - but I'm told that going to the Apple store and having the Geniuses do it is going to cost me a lot more than I really have to pay.

So: how do I do it? Where do I shop, how much do I get, how much should I expect to pay, and how the heck do I install it?

Thanks, LJ!

Comments

[ricevermicelli.livejournal.com]

In the past, with a PowerBook of similar vintage, I have shopped at crucial.com. I don't recall prices - sorry.

Installation instructions were included with the new RAM, IIRC. They were pretty easy - I did it myself.

[madbard.livejournal.com]

Go to MacSales.com. Find their memory area - you literally click on a picture of your computer, and they tell you what they need. Way cheaper than Apple. I get all my Mac hardware stuff from them.

[madbard.livejournal.com]

Here, I'll even make it a little easier. I'm pretty sure they have installation guides on the site too.

[dr-memory.livejournal.com]

Changing out the memory in apple laptops is actually really easy. You remove a few screws and on certain models pop out the keyboard, and et voila, there's the little chip thingy. It's trivially easy.

I recommend going to Crucial for the memory: put in your model number and they'll find the exact upgrade you need, and they'll send it to you along with instructions on how to install it.

Strong recommendation: buy the largest amount of memory that your ibook supports. OSX is rather ram-hungry these days, and I'm not surprised that trying to run it with only 256mb is giving you heartburn.

[pir.livejournal.com]

Ditto. Max out your memory and I also recommend crucial. This may be your machine (double check for yourself) so it'll cost you a whole $57 to add 1Gb.

256Mb isn't enough for the OS, let alone any applications.

Be aware, though, that PPC is seriously depreciated and 10.4 is unlikely to get updates much longer. I'd be budgeting for a newer (x86) Mac... but then I'm a geek.

[dr-memory.livejournal.com]

Yeah, after 5 years it's at least time to start thinking about a new laptop. Maybe not this year, but next. If nothing else, consider upgrading to 10.5 soon, since that will continue to receive security updates for at least another year or two; not sure when Apple's going to cut 10.4 off the update train but I'd assume "soon."

[srakkt.livejournal.com]

I'm no Mac guy at all, but Crucial is generally my go to place for all things RAM-related, both personally and for work. They have quality product and lots of weird specifications.

[dda.livejournal.com]

I'll second (or third or whatever) the recommendation of both more memory and buying Crucial (although NewEgg (http://www.newegg.com) might have better prices). Installing the RAM should be easy, provided you have a reasonably small screwdriver available. :-)

The rumour is that the next version of OS X (10.6 Snow Leopard) will be Intel-only and Apple just announced lower prices and upgraded performance for their entire laptop line, I believe, so you might look at refurbed versions of the previous generation of laptops; those prices can be quite good. Check Apple's site for more info.

@

[unknownrockstar.livejournal.com]

oh a Mac, well there's your problem. :p
even with older PCs though, memory chip types are cheap, until they stop making your machine, then no one needs those SDRAMs or whatever, so with no demand, the price becomes absurd in short order.
seems like you got some fair advice here though, so, sorry for wasting 15 seconds of your day. <3

[per-simmon.livejournal.com]

Not going to echo the good advie, just adding: if you keep your comp well cleaned out, it'll run smoother all round. I'm not sure how this translates for a mac user, but making sure clean out the temp files, spyware and registry once a week is good. Also making sure you've uninstalled anything you don't use and defragmenting the hard disk(s) every few weeks helps.

[cos]

That's not so relevant here. Running OS X with 256M RAM is guaranteed to make things very frustratingly slow. And on OS X, there's no such thing as a registry, spyware is not nearly so prevalent, and temporary files are just some more files on disk that do no harm.

[concrete.livejournal.com]

I'll help put it in :)

[flamingsword.livejournal.com]

You have been friended. You are not obligated to friend me back or any such thing, I'm just letting you know that another crazy person is watching you on the internet.