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So I'm interested in extending the life of my laptop (12" iBook G4, 1.33 GHz PowerPC, 512 MB built-in RAM, expandable to up to 1.5 GB with a single 200-pin SODIMM, DDR PC2700 slot), and I've decided to do so by adding a gig of ram and an external hard drive. I know virtually nothing about this stuff, so I was wondering if anybody had any recommendations. For the hard drive, I don't need a ton of space (it will take approximately eleven thousand years for me to fill a 1 TB hard drive), so I'm more interested in reliability and value. For the RAM, I'd like something I know will play nice with a Mac without paying Apple's prices.

For hdds, I'm partial to Western Digital drives myself, though I suppose Seagate's and Maxtor are other decent options; virtually any external hard drive with a usb cable should work on any Mac that can run OSX. I'm not overly familiar with Mac ram, but I think you might be stuck buying straight from Apple for that, assuming they still have your model's type of ram available.

Crucial has a tool to find out what RAM is compatible with your machine; you can also check out Other World Computing.

I prefer FireWire drives (especially as they require less CPU time than USB drives, important for an older computer). The brand of the hard drive doesn't matter.

Nope, any RAM should work. However, DDR1 RAM's price has skyrocketed as it left mainstream - it wouldn't surprise me to find you have to pay 100$ or more for a gig of the laptop variant, which, frankly, doesn't make it worth it.

If you do decide to buy it, any "laptop" DDR (but it must be plain DDR, not DDR2 or DDR3) RAM should work (PC1600 - PC3200 - the exact rating doesn't matter since the motherboard can downclock to lower rated RAM while the RAM can work at lower clocks even if it can support higher speeds).

EDIT: hmmm.... seems I might have been wrong - looks like the price crashed again...

Netko wrote:Nope, any RAM should work. However, DDR1 RAM's price has skyrocketed as it left mainstream - it wouldn't surprise me to find you have to pay 100$ or more for a gig of the laptop variant, which, frankly, doesn't make it worth it.

Apple systems are pickier about RAM than most machines so it probably is worth the extra premium to go with a vendor like Crucial or OWC for peace of mind.

If you do decide to buy it, any "laptop" DDR (but it must be plain DDR, not DDR2 or DDR3) RAM should work (PC1600 - PC3200 - the exact rating doesn't matter since the motherboard can downclock to lower rated RAM while the RAM can work at lower clocks even if it can support higher speeds).

Some PC3200 RAM modules are not programmed with the proper SPDs to operate at PC2700 speed.