How much will 1gig of RAM help a computer?

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miecz

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I have a new Macbook Pro with 1 gig in it. I am wondering how much of a difference there will be with another gig. It boots up in about 30-40 seconds right now.
 
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phase_22

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Well, first of all, it would help to state what programs you have installed, how many of those are running, what OS platform, etc. for your audience. For instance, I get the perception that photoshop uses a good deal of memory.

Sorry I cannot input too much on your query.

Good luck
 
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miecz

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Well, first of all, it would help to state what programs you have installed, how many of those are running, what OS platform, etc. for your audience. For instance, I get the perception that photoshop uses a good deal of memory.

Sorry I cannot input too much on your query.

Good luck
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I have 120 gig HD and am using Mac OS right now. I plan on putting Ubuntu and Vista on it in the future. FOr this computer, I am mainly using it for internet (Firefox), Audacity, and word processing. I plan on playing games in the future, but I have exams now.

The main thing I am interested in is how fast the OS loads and how fast I can get into Firefox, Audacity, and other programs. This might sound stupid, but I do not like to miss a word in a lecture, because when I boot up in class, I usually miss the first moments because I have to wait for everything to load.

Tell me this: How long would it take to load Mac OS with 2 gigs and not 1. If you have 3 gigs, how would that compare? My OS loads in like 30-40 seconds.
 
IcY18

IcY18

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RAM doesn't help your system load, it is volatile in a sense that once you turn your computer off anything that was stored in the RAM is now gone. More RAM would help other programs open but since you already have 1 gig anymore would be redundant. i can only see 1+gigs of ram helping if you want to play games.
 
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pongrules

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This bit of advice will help you more than another gig of RAM:

Turn the computer on BEFORE the lecture starts. Hope that helps. :roll:
 
M

miecz

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This bit of advice will help you more than another gig of RAM:

Turn the computer on BEFORE the lecture starts. Hope that helps. :roll:
Click to expand...

I am studying in Europe, where civilized people live. I come onto these boards, and then I see a different type of person.

Pongrules: get civilized. Lots of tech does not mean high civilization. Tradtions and customs do.
 
S

sweetpants

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This bit of advice will help you more than another gig of RAM:

Turn the computer on BEFORE the lecture starts. Hope that helps. :roll:
Click to expand...

I am studying in Europe, where civilized people live. I come onto these boards, and then I see a different type of person.

Pongrules: get civilized. Lots of tech does not mean high civilization. Tradtions and customs do.

Miecz: you're being pretentious... people don't like that either.

I'm not familiar with Mac's or their OS... I don't forsee 1 GB of memory helping out much in anything other than games... (which is a joke in itself on a mac ;) ) Unless of course you're doing some decent multitasking that would benefit from 2GB of memory but I don't know that for sure.
 
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RubberCement

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Sorry, mate. I have to agree with PongRules on this one. Perhaps in Europe a few people are too snooty to plan ahead (all that "civilization" must be a weighty thing to carry). Most of the professors I know would prefer that all equipment is on and running before the lecture starts (nuisance beeping and so forth at boot time). It's a courtesy thing.
 
SSS_DDK

SSS_DDK

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start task manager (what's it called on MAC?), check how much swapping is taking place..if you have too much swapping (i doubt it unless you play BIG BIG games) then upgrade. At the same time, you seem the kind of guy whom paying a little extra for 1 gig of RAM wouldn't hurt much (though for some reason, memory upgrades in Europe are more expensive than in the US) so probably do the upgrade anyway.
 
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miecz

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Sorry, mate. I have to agree with PongRules on this one. Perhaps in Europe a few people are too snooty to plan ahead (all that "civilization" must be a weighty thing to carry). Most of the professors I know would prefer that all equipment is on and running before the lecture starts (nuisance beeping and so forth at boot time). It's a courtesy thing.
Click to expand...

If you put mute on, you would not have that problem.

BTW, if you are wondering about prices here for computers, they are just odd. Somethings are pretty much on the cent compared to prices in the US, but other things are really way too much or very little. I bought a AverMedia TV card, and it was like 40 or 50 less here, but then hard drives and memory are about the same. Most people seem to buy their computers custom built here through small computer companies that sell parts locally. Macs are really expensive here for some reason. ASUS too. Monitors seem to be a little more here. I have not seen a Dell here, other than mine. Laptops are rare and computers in general, depending which country you are in. Computer cafes have lots of clients. Very cheap to use them too. Maybe 1 dollar for an hour. You can play games like Warcraft in some cafes. WIFI seems to be something bizarre in places. My dorm does not have it. Main centers have it though. You would have to get the code to get in or sometimes pay to use it.
 
kukito

kukito

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I am studying in Europe, where civilized people live. I come onto these boards, and then I see a different type of person.

Pongrules: get civilized. Lots of tech does not mean high civilization. Tradtions and customs do.
Click to expand...

Miecz, you're not going to get good advice about the Mac in these forums, especially with that attitude. I suggest appleinsider.com or arstechnica.com for Mac advice but even there you should drop the elitism. Your Mac will run better/faster with 2 GB regardless of which OS you use but it won't boot faster. But the MBP is a top of the line laptop with excellent battery life. Instead of cold booting all the time you should just close the lid and allow it to go into sleep mode. Then when you need to use it just open it up.
 
geofelt

geofelt

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I am not a MAC expert, but:
1) Look at the bios, and see if there are any unnecessary selections. For example, does it check memory before starting? does it display anything you do not need? Is it checking for devices you do not have? Is your hard disk first in the boot order?
2) Are there any unneeded programs that are started at boot-up time?, Can you remove them from the startup list.
3) I doubt that more ram will speed up boot time, it could possibly hurt. If you run ok after boot, then more ram will not help.
 
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phase_22

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I have 120 gig HD
The main thing I am interested in is how fast the OS loads and how fast I can get into Firefox, Audacity, and other programs. This might sound stupid, but I do not like to miss a word in a lecture, because when I boot up in class, I usually miss the first moments because I have to wait for everything to load.

Tell me this: How long would it take to load Mac OS with 2 gigs and not 1. If you have 3 gigs, how would that compare? My OS loads in like 30-40 seconds.
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Although I am unfamiliar with Apple Macintosh, your 120GB HD appears in the Apple store (configuration of Macbook pro) to be running at 5200rpm--getting a 7200 rpm HD should help with your interests. Also, I once messed with a trial download of diskeeper (click link) of which you may be interested in the "I-FAAST" feature.

*Check the OS requirements though*

Vista also has a feature similar to I-FAAST that adaptively favors the most used applications on the computer.
 
choirbass

choirbass

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not positive, but im not sure theres a way to change bios settings, as macs dont come with a bios, in the usual sense anyhow (that im aware)...

as others have said, your hdd is why your os and applications are taking so long to load (at only 5400rpm, or even 4200, things are naturally going to take awhile, compared to 7200, or 10k, but thats primarly to conserve battery life too)... youre not running any vastly overintensive ram hungry applications regularly, that youve listed anyhow, and not doing a whole lot of multitasking either that i can see... so 1GB is perfectly fine it seems for your uses...

the best advice (which was already given) is to just have your laptop all ready to go, booted up, applications loaded, and everything in place, 'before' the lecture starts... that way youre not having to worry about missing anything important that might happen...

the other option, is to just upgrade the hdd to a faster 7200rpm model (which will also consume battery life quicker as well usually)... but, that will make it so you dont have to wait as long for anything to load up.
 
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