What upgrade(if any) do I need?

Question

Note: I posted this earlier in the Gaming post which was in this forum, but I saw that both my post and the post above mine were not answered, and I figured that the thread was no longer being looked at actively.
I have a black Macbook with 1 gig RAM and all the standard features which come with a black Macbook. I recently received the Orange Box, and seeing as the Macbook is my only computer, I installed it into Windows through Boot Camp. As soon as I got to the main menu, I noticed a few issues. The first being that the menu screen had no art on it, just the available selection options(i.e. Find Server, Create Server etc.). I thought that this might just be a Mac glitch, so I went ahead and clicked Find Server and entered a server to play in. Everything looked fine until I actually selected my character and started to play. While I could see the graphics, my FPS was abysmal and soon after I had begun the game my computer restarted itself. I know that I cannot put in a graphics card because the black Macbook uses the integrated/shared graphics system, but I was just wondering if there was anything I could do/upgrade in order to run this game? Do I need more RAM, do I need to update some drivers, or is my situation completely hopeless? Any and all help is greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

etresoft wrote:
ypw wrote:
I don't know about that statement that it will be more expensive the longer you wait.
All the manufacturers pretty much use the same components. Once the Dells and HPs of the world ramp up on the next version of RAM, the old chips will start getting more and more expensive.
Don't know about that. Perhaps the ICs are the same components as long as they're packaged by the IC maker with their own labeling. However - much of the memory module market are chips that might not carry the actual IC manufacturer's logo on the IC packaging (OCZ, Patriot, Corsair, PNY, etc). There's probably bare die ("Known Good Die") sales which the purchaser can take bare silicon die to a packaging company and then use with custom SODIMMs.
Anyone can make a circuit board for the DIMMs, and I think there are probably multitudes of manufacturers worldwide capable of that. Here's one example:
http://kunyutec.trustpass.alibaba.com/product/11744004/PCBFor_Memory_Module_DDR2_SoDimm.html
In any case, my experience has been that memory prices fluctuate wildly and it takes a while before lack of demand is outweighed by poor supply. I bought my 1GB module from Crucial.com for my iBook G4 1.42 in Sept of 2005. The price was somewhere in the $150 range. Right now it's going for $77. PC2700 SODIMMs were a relatively mature product when I bought that module, but they're still being made and the price hasn't ramped up quite yet. I don't think we've gotten to the point where it's sure that PC2-5300 memory prices have reached their low never to come back. When the product reaches "end of life" manufacturing, I'm sure the price will start ramping up when the only viable sources are "new old stock". I remember when NASA was combing eBay for electronic parts that were no longer being made.