Hey y'all. I've been looking into buying a small, 2nd laptop for basic internet/email/media usage, and I'm toying with the idea of picking up an old G3 iBook. As I'm a tight sod, I can't really afford anything better than a G3, and the ones I've been looking at seem to have similar specs (500Mhz, 128Mb RAM 20Gb HDD etc). I'm wondering though, what's the performance going to be like with these? I mean, they all seem to come with OSx (Tiger, I think) - surely 500Mhz and 128Mb isn't enough? Anyone have any experience with OSx and G3 machines? Cheers guys...
OSX on G3 powermac runs sluggish doing heavy tasks, but just browsing web/using iChat, it's fine, though I think I had 384MB in the old bugger, I have it at home, but it got replaced with a mini to browse on my gf's desk
Ah right, thanks for that. This will be my first Apple machine, and while I initially didn't really want to spend too much, I'm thinking the G3 probably won't cut it. I'm now thinking I should wait, save, and go for a nice G4 Powerbook instead...
I have a G4 400mhz with 640mb of memory, its fine for email, internet, remote desktop. Memory wise its fine (expect 400mb to be used and 200mb free with general usage), but the CPU is too slow to deal with say full screen video.
Righty, next question then; can anyone recommend a good place to purchase G4 Powerbooks (2nd hand/refurb), or am I better off using eBay?
For the cost on ebay it might be worth considering an old Macbook refurb from apple direct.. The problem with old powerbooks is that most dont have wifi, and only a little memory... Just something to consider...
I'd agree that some of the eBay prices are ridiculous, but the problem is that I don't want to spend much more than £400 or so. If I'm lucky, I could probably pick up a G4 Powerbook for around that price. The cheapest refurb (atm) is around £600 for a Macbook, but tbh they're way over-specced for what I want to do, and I can't justify the cost (I'm still paying off my gaming lappy I bought 6 months ago). Plus, ultra-portability is a must, and I’m actually wanting a 12” model (13” are the smalled Macbook available) I did manage to find a few refurb stores that dealt with older Apple machines, but again, their prices were also stupid. How the hell can they get away with charging nearly £700 for a 12" G4 Powerbook 1.5Ghz? Just seems daft, especially when you can pick up a decent spec Acer lappy for £350! Anywho, enough of my ranting...guess I'll just have to keep an eye on eBay.
Try and get your hands on a 12" powerbook. I'm currently using a 1ghz powerbook G4 and its plenty fast enough. Although, If I were you I'd set up some sort of ad blocker because flash on a mac runs extremely slowly and as everyone knows, most ads are flash. Actually as I'm writing this post, the flash ads at the top and right of this page are jerking along slowly and making the text cursor lag behind what I'm actually typing.
Adverts and window aren't running too slowly considering that it is a 400mhz on mine... Its useful that Camino has an advertising blocker built in though (improves speed a little)...
