First time Mac buyer

[lonenight69]

I am planing on buying a new iBook G4 12.1" and would like to know what info would be helpful in buying. I plan on staying with the standard 30GB Ultra ATA hard drive since i already have a 250GB external that i keep all my stuff on. I would like to upgrade to the 1.256GB DDR266 SDRAM (256MB built-in and 1 GB SO-DIMM) witch costs $600 to upgrade from the stock 256MB DDR266 SDRAM (built-in). I have noticed advertizements for 1.0 GB RAM memory cards that are a lot less pricey that the upgrade so i was wondering if this works or not? If this does work what is the best way to go about this, were should i buy it and what kind. If this doesn't work is there another way to do about it?
-Thanks

[Big Jim]

It would probably be cheaper to buy the iBook as per spec and get your Ram upgrade from Crucial. But this does mean you will have to open up the iBook to fit it. So what it comes down to, is if you feel comfortable with that then go for it, if not, then get the upgrade fitted at source.

Jim.