Worth it to get a G3 iBook?

You could so that kind of stuff on a clamshell iBook if you wanted to, and those things are relatively old.

You could probabaly pick up a dualUSB iBook (500 mhz) for less than 400 bucks. Might need a little bit of memory, but it'd be good for note-taking.(Same machine, and same purpose I used freshman year of college)

iBook G3's are reaching massive price drops.

http://www.techrestore.com/xcart/home.php?cat=254

iBook G3/700 CD 12-inch
$369.99

Just bump it up to 512 MB of RAM. Get Tiger and you're ready to go. It comes with 10.2.8 if you're willing to live with it.

Eidorian said:

iBook G3's are reaching massive price drops.

http://www.techrestore.com/xcart/home.php?cat=254

iBook G3/700 CD 12-inch
$369.99

Just bump it up to 512 MB of RAM. Get Tiger and you're ready to go. It comes with 10.2.8 if you're willing to live with it.

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Holy Cow! I bought an iBook G3/700 CDRW/DVD 12" for $550 back in July, sold it 2 months later. They keep on bottoming out!

I bet you could probably find a 500 mhz machine for 300 bucks or less than.

Jschultz said:

Holy Cow! I bought an iBook G3/700 CDRW/DVD 12" for $550 back in July, sold it 2 months later. They keep on bottoming out!

I bet you could probably find a 500 mhz machine for 300 bucks or less than.

Click to expand...

http://www.lowendmac.com/ibook/ig3deals.html

White 12" iBook CD-ROM

500, $330, Surplus Computer, Wegener Media

BiikeMike said:

On a related note, What are the minimum specs of Tiger?

Click to expand...

http://www.apple.com/macosx/upgrade/requirements.html

You'll at least want a 500 MHz White Dual USB iBook, 10-20 GB of drive space, and 512 MB of RAM.

One caution I would advise you on is the battery. If the battery is still the original, then you may need to replace it rather soon. That's just the nature of being that old.

calyxman said:

One caution I would advise you on is the battery. If the battery is still the original, then you may need to replace it rather soon. That's just the nature of being that old.

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Oh yeah, I forgot about the battery. If they've been heavily used don't expect it to hold a charge for long.

http://www.pbfixit.com/cart/catalog/product_905_iBook_G3_12_Replacement_Battery_New.html

$129.99 here at PB Fix It. Can anyone else find a cheaper one?

BiikeMike said:

Just found this on Powerbookguy.com

G4 1Ghz Dual USB iBook 256MB/30GB/CD/12.1" (refurb) - $549.95

sounds like a good deal, no?

Does powerbookguy.com have a good rep?

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Yeah, Powerbookguy has some good reputation around here. What's the maximum spending limit? You're pretty close to being able to buy a refurbished iBook from Apple. The battery on that thing is more than likely new and you get a 1-year warranty like it was new.

One thing I've noticed that's gone unmentioned is the fact that G3 White iBooks have known logic board issues... ie they're known for failing. I don't think I'd take a risk on one of those without some type of replacement guarantee/warrantee...

Here's a place that sells iBook batteries that theoretically have 50% more capacity than the OEM batteries.

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/powerbook/battery/ibook-g3-g4-12inch/

BiikeMike said:

Thanks for crushing my dreams!

Click to expand...

Isn't it better to know now than when your logic board fails and you have to pay more to replace it?

Rocksaurus said:

Isn't it better to know now than when your logic board fails and you have to pay more to replace it?

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However, if you get a recent enough iBook with a bad logic board, you could theoretically qualify for a replacement. At the very least, you'd get a new logic board.

Apple's recall for the logic board calls for three years from first purchase. So if you make the following 2 assumptions, you would still be qualified.

1. The iBook has a SN that falls in the range.
2. The iBook was first purchased on the day that it was introduced.

With those assumptions made, all G3/900mhz iBooks are covered. Also, the G3/800/CD model iBook would be covered as well.

If you disregard assumption 2, many 700 and 800 mhz iBooks may also be covered.

I'm guessing that iBooks that can still qualify are still selling for higher prices. As soon as the iBook doesn't qualify, I bet the price drops.

ft

man, thats hard to say, if you could find like a 800MHz/900MHz G3 with a replaced logic board, that would be best, although I've heard somewhere that they replaced the logic board with another one that just the same so the problems can come back :-/ not sure though...

The replaced boards are just fixed boards that already broke and have the same problem. The logic board problem as I understand results from the ATI GPU seperating from the logic board over time. I advice against getting a g3 ibook, perhaps one of the pismo powerbooks would be good If the ibook is used a lot for any peroid of time it'll probably fail

Last year my girlfriend got an old orange "toilet seat" 300 mhz ibook to replace her mid 90ies pc notebook. We added an airport card (yes, you can put one in those things!) so she can connect to my wireless network, check mail, print etc. It is running 10.3.7. She absolutely loves this computer because it looks so sweet. Recently she bought a new battery for about 170 € and due to the low power consumption of the ibook this thing last for 6 hours+. My girlfriend seems to do the same things like yours with her computer. I think you'll find one of those machines for less than 250 bucks.

Just thought I'd share some user expierience