Impending switcheroo... RAM upgrade?

After ages with WinXP, virus issues and constant defragmentations, I'm ready to leap into the world of shiny apples. The fact that the new range of iBooks are gorgeous has nothing to do with it.

Really.

Anyway, I've pretty much decided to go with an iBook (12". G4 1GHz) due to financial constraints and application. But I wanted to run RAM upgrade by some pros (at this point, anyone who's used to OSX).

My applications for the iBook would be this:
Mainly: Word processing, presentations, spreadsheets, browsing the web, chat programs, music. (Anything remotely teacher-ish.)
Others (for leisure): graphics and design (programs such as Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, Flash)

I know it boils down to the number of programs I run at the same time. It might be something like this:
iChat, MSN, dreamweaver & photoshop (I usually run dreamweaver and photoshop as a pair when I work on my website, graphic sizes also reasonably small), Safari, iTunes, and email

Is it reasonable to expect 256MB RAM to hold out well?

and

Should I be considering a RAM upgrade right off the bat or should I wait for a bit to see how much I need before upgrading?

Thanks so much for your contributions.

By the way, Appleworks 6 vs. Office v.X? Which do you prefer and why? (This is rather important due to work.)

iJanet (soon soon)

I'd recommend at least 512mb.
I use Office X, and I think it's great. Haven't used AppleWorks, but it should suffice for most tasks.

definitely get at least 512MB of RAM, but not from Apple.
You should get whatever the minimun Apple offers and get the upgrade from either Crucial or NewEgg or someplace like that.

Thanks for the assist, guys. I'm from Singapore though, so I'm not entirely sure what's available here.

Devilboy, what exactly is Crucial, a store of some sort? Is there perhaps a manufacturer of iBook RAM that I should look out for instead?

jaetique said:

Thanks for the assist, guys. I'm from Singapore though, so I'm not entirely sure what's available here.

Devilboy, what exactly is Crucial, a store of some sort? Is there perhaps a manufacturer of iBook RAM that I should look out for instead?

Click to expand...

www.crucial.com

its a webstore that specializes in computer RAM

I'd definelty get more ram......and then you'll absolutely have no problem running as much as you want. I run iChat, iTunes, photoshop, illustrator, and InDesign all at the same time...plus browsing the net also....

Yeah this 256 just isn't cuttin it. I think they should have shipped with no less than 512 but i understand they are trying to appeal to switchers like myself by keeping cost down. They barely had me at the $999..but then i got the federal discount and they totally had me. haha

D3v1L80Y said:

definitely get at least 512MB of RAM, but not from Apple.
You should get whatever the minimun Apple offers and get the upgrade from either Crucial or NewEgg or someplace like that.

Click to expand...

Crucial is a memory fabber, it is also sold at Newegg.

But crucial sucks, get corsair (value select)

-> www.newegg.com