Tiger, TiBook and RAM

[Angelus]

Hey haven't posted a hardware question in a while but searching the other threads has only half answered my question.
Basically, i have a 667 tibook DVI with 512 RAM(two slots filled), 30 GB stock hard drive and Radeon 7500 32MB running 10.3.8.
With the release of Tiger i have seriously being thinking of upgrading and am just wondering if anyone out there with a similar spec computer can vouch for not only the overall speed performance but also the use of dashboard and general quartz performance,etc.
Now comes my second question. No one has to tell me twice that more RAM is always a good thing but my tibooks got both slots filled right now. If i upgrade to tiger, is it worth it to rip out both chips and put in 1GB? Is it worth the price for the possible gain in performance or should i just upgrade to tiger and stick with 512?

 

[ejtrowbridge]

Addressing you RAM question, I can say with without thinking twice that you will need to upgrade your RAM before installing Tiger. As you may, or may not, know Tiger itself takes 256MB of RAM just to run the operating system itself.

If you were to install Tiger with your current specs, you would be left with a laughable 256MB of RAM for your applications, documents, ect. If I were you, I would get at least pickup 1 stick of 512MB RAM (1GIG would be better), leaving you with a grand total of 768MB RAM and 512MB for your Apps and everyday processing (768 - 256 (for Tiger) = 512).

I highly recommend upgrading, or you will notice a significant decrease in speed, which is completely opposite of why you would want to upgrade to Tiger. Tiger is a very powerful OS, and requires more to deliver more.

I recommend going through: http://www.memorytogo.com. I have always had good experiences from them, and they are very through.

Installing RAM is easy. All the steps are outlined and detailed in your user guide for your Apple Computer.


Good luck, and please let me know if you have any further questions.

 

[Angelus]

Aww man i totally overlooked that 256MB RAM requirement. Thanks for pointing it out. All this talk of upgrades has had me thinking since i intend to use this mac for another two years at least. Think over summer i'll put in 1GB of RAM and replace my hard drive with a Hitachi 7k60 60GB. Hopefully that combined with tiger should see me through the next year or two and give my poor workhorse a relatively new lease of life.
Thanks again for the reply.

Angelus