The Computer Blog

Thursday, May 03, 2007

Not Quite as Planned

Memory upgrades I ordered from Other World Computing arrived the night before last (along with the Adobe software upgrades from Apple), so I wedged in hardware system upgrades along with the new software upgrades. The first thing I replaced was one of the 1GB DIMM's in my MacBook Pro, substituting for it a 2 GB DIMM that raised the internal memory up to its 3 GB maximum. The consisted of removing the MBP's battery, using a Phillips #00 screwdriver to remove the memory bank cover, then popping out the old DIMM and replacing it with the new and bigger one. Then, I took the 1 GB DIMM I had just removed and took it over to my wife's iMac, an Intel-powered Core Duo model that uses the same type memory. After disconnecting the unit and placing it face down on a towel, I opened the small door on the iMac's bottom and used the small levers underneath it to pop out the machine's DIMM's. I replaced a 512MB DIMM with the 1GB DIMM out of the MBP and then buttoned the iMac up. Then, I moved on to my wife's MacBook and replaced a 256MB DIMM with the 512 MB DIMM I had just pulled out of the iMac. Now, that's what I call getting the most bang for the buck, i.e., getting to upgrade the RAM in three machines for the price of one!

I also upgraded the memory in my Mac Pro, replacing two 512 MB fully buffered DIMM's with two 1 GB DIMM's. My initial plan had been to then apply to Other World Computing for their memory rebate, which for the two 512MB DIMM's would have amounted to $75. Well, that was last week. When I checked last night, the rebate amount had dropped to $65. The ten dollar drop was just enough to cause me to rethink my plan. I was comfortable taking half the cost of a new set as a rebate but the drop to 43% of their value was more than I wanted to bear. Instead of sending the extra DIMM's back, I reloaded them into the machine. That placed the overall memory amount at 5 GB and left me with two slots in the bottom riser card to fill. Because of the high cost of the fully-buffered memory the Mac Pro uses, I figured I was much more likely to spend $150 to add two 512 DIMM's and top it off at 6 GB rather than send the DIMM's in and spend than $438 to take it up to 8 GB. (I like round, even numbers.)

My wife hasn't ordered Flash CS3 yet, so I haven't had an opportunity to look at it. Microsoft's introduction of Silvernet has made me wonder if we might want to hold off, but I have decided we need to press ahead. Flash is already established on the web and its cross-platform capability is a given. I'll watch what happens with Silvernet with interest, but it's too early for me to consider putting anything but Flash on my website.

I've been thinking about asking her to order Dreamweaver CS3, too, so I can take a look at it and decide whether or not to use it instead of GoLive 9 to update and maintain my website. But money is a bit tight at the moment, so it's unlikely that I'll ask her to do that anytime soon. A better idea is to wait a few more weeks and download the Adobe CS3 trial software. We might even do the same thing with Flash.

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