[P1] ibook RAM question

[Brian Pearce]

> A few weeks ago, I was trying to catch up on reading my email from 
> this list and noted a couple of messages where people talked of using 
> low power RAM in their clamshells.

> Did you see any noticeable improvement in your battery life with the 
> low power chips or is it simple a lower temperature, less heat 
> solution?

This is a good opportunity to mention that I've recently upgraded the 
RAM in my clamshell iBook, from an additional 256MB to an additional 
512MB. I considered buying the low-power RAM, but decided against it 
because it was so much more expensive, and because I'm not yet 
convinced it would make any real difference.

As a result, I've experienced a *slight* increase in battery life, 
probably due to a decrease in disc access in OS X. (I'm still using the 
original battery that shipped with the iBook three years ago, which 
needs to be replaced.) Performance is nicely improved (though there are 
limits as to how well OS X is going to do on an older iBook), and the 
iBook is much quieter.

So as I said, I'm still not convinced that the low-power RAM is worth 
the additional cost.

BRIAN/bpearce at cloud9.net