Powerbook Upgrades

I got a new Mac.

Well not really, but I thought it’d be funny given my somewhat less than decisive history. I did, however, upgrade my RAM. from the stock 256 MB to 768 MB.

Why Apple considers 256 MB of RAM acceptable for OS X I’ll never understand, in fact, the minimum system requirements call for 128 MB (version 10.3). I have an old G3 iMac with 192 MB and the only thing it does these days is record TV. It’ll run Safari and barely runs Microsoft Word, but I wouldn’t call it usable. My new 12" Powerbook came with 256 MB and couldn’t really run anything without constantly paging-out. Forget quickly switching between a running Firefox and a running iTunes (not small programs) without accessing the disk, especially if you have a few tabs open in Firefox. Personally, I prefer using a remote Firefox over an SSH-forwarded X Windows in that situation and only using Safari to view the few types of multimedia that plugger has problems with.

Now that I’m running 768 MB it feels like a whole new machine. Switching between Firefox and iTunes is seamless (and I happen to be running the World of Warcraft installer as well). I’m certainly pickier than the average computer user, and probably way pickier than the average Mac user–I guess I just wish Apple’s RAM wasn’t so expensive when you’re buying a new system.