Technology Question for the Mac Gurus

[LabMonster]

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I'm only a year into Mac - my wife got one on eBay and made me shelve my home-built PC 😡

Anyway, I really love the Mac now, but it bogs down - 🙄 it only has 256 megs of Ram.

Ok - Obviously the DIMMs don't need to be paired like the older PC's I'm used to. So my question is: with an iMac, 17", 1GHz, 256M, running 10.28, what do I do to squeeze all I can out of this sucker?

I would like to get 2 512M mem chips and upgrade the OS, but I'm sure someone here has opinions on different combos I could used to maximize the system.

I'll likely keep this one until/through medical school and she will need a new one for graphics... Suggestions?

 

[kas23]

You should ask this question on such message boards as the one found at www.thinksecret.com or www.macrumors.com. The people on those boards are a heckuva lot more tech savvy than the people here. Not to say we are not tech savvy, but we are just better with bodies. Good luck.

 

[Iwy Em Hotep]

I'm only a year into Mac - my wife got one on eBay and made me shelve my home-built PC 😡

Anyway, I really love the Mac now, but it bogs down - 🙄 it only has 256 megs of Ram.

Ok - Obviously the DIMMs don't need to be paired like the older PC's I'm used to. So my question is: with an iMac, 17", 1GHz, 256M, running 10.28, what do I do to squeeze all I can out of this sucker?

I would like to get 2 512M mem chips and upgrade the OS, but I'm sure someone here has opinions on different combos I could used to maximize the system.

I'll likely keep this one until/through medical school and she will need a new one for graphics... Suggestions?

Any of these options will improve your system, and all of the benefits are additive. I've arranged them by cost.

#1: Try not to run too many programs at once. Most of the slowness comes because the computer is swapping from disk to RAM, and you can avoid that somewhat by not using up all of your computer's RAM.

Cost: $0

#2: Get another stick of RAM. 512MB total will be just great. No need to get more than that unless you're a Photoshopping beast.

Cost: $30

#3: Upgrade to Panther/Tiger. The more current the OS, the faster your Mac will run.

Cost: $80, if you're a student

#4: Upgrade the hard drive for a faster one. This one requires some minor surgery.

Cost: $70-120 (probably, I have no idea)

 

[ItsGavinC]

I like options 2 and 3, however I disagree slightly that 512 MB is enough RAM.

The effects of OS X often make the OS "feel" as though it is slow, and upping the RAM can help to overcome this delayed feeling, even if you aren't Photoshopping. Go for 768 MB of RAM.

Especially up it to 768 if you get Tiger, which I highly recommend by the way.

 

[Sessamoid]

I like options 2 and 3, however I disagree slightly that 512 MB is enough RAM.

512 MB for basic general use should be adequate, but the 512 MB sticks aren't much more expensive than the 256 MB sticks. Might as well go for the larger memory stick. I have 640 MB in an old iBook G3 500 Mhz, and it runs adequately. Nobody would claim it's snappy, but then again it's four years old now.

Anyway, adding more memory would be the surest and cheapest way to speed up the performance of the iMac.