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So how good is a 500 MHz PowerBook G3 with OS X?

SkyBell

SkyBell

macrumors 604
Original poster
Sep 7, 2006
6,603
219
Texas, unfortunately.
I'm truly fed up with the problems of my white iBook G3, so I'm looking into PowerBooks. It's gonna cost over $300 to fix my iBook, I might as well just buy another one at that point. But I don't want to take another chance with these things, so a PowerBook is in order.

I'd get a G4, but those things are way overpriced, so it looks like a G3 is a good option. I'm looking at the 500 MHz models, and even though they are still ridiculously overpriced, a few fall into my price range.

I don't really need much out of it, It'll only be used for web surfing, maybe a little music, and a few small games. Panther would do fine.

But if I do this, I certainly am downgrading MHz wise. Will it be fast enough to do these tasks with minimal lag?

Thanks in advance.


(BTW, if anyone can convince me that a clamshell iBook would be just as good, that would be great, as those things are much more affordable)
 
bartelby

bartelby

macrumors Core
Jun 16, 2004
19,795
34
I'm running 10.3 on a 350MHz iMac with 384MB RAM. It's a touch slow, but I'll be wacking in 1GB RAM soon. That should make some difference.

Until it died last week, my wife used a PowerBook G3 266MHz with 512MB RAM. That was fine, it ran 10.3 too using xPostFacto.
 
tersono

tersono

macrumors 68000
Jan 18, 2005
1,999
1
UK
It'll be entirely useable with Panther or Tiger (if you go for Tiger, turn off spotlight indexing, though) provided you have plenty of RAM (512mb or more). I use an old B/W G3-400 with 1Gb RAM to run Tiger server fairly happily - it handles iTunes just fine too, just don't ask it to run much in the way of games or video.
 
S

SoLibertyDies

macrumors regular
Oct 16, 2006
164
0
Spanaway, Wa
I got my clamshell for $50.

hahaha

<3 ebay.

The Dualusb iBook G3 runs panther like a charm, if you get one that's not doomed from the start, which with that gen was probably 1 in three.
 
Consultant

Consultant

macrumors G5
Jun 27, 2007
13,314
34
clamshell iBook are ancient. Good if you are into collecting those type of things. Compared to iBook G3 clamshell are much slower.

PowerBook are typically faster than iBooks, but personally I would not buy a powerbook g3 (unless it's really cheap such as $100 with decent ram and I have not money to get anything else). Keep in mind you probably have to upgrade the harddrive, as many come with very small HD.

If you do not need a portable, a desktop is much better.
 
Airforce

Airforce

macrumors 6502a
Jan 12, 2006
933
0
Seems like a waste of good money to invest in ancient hardware. Why don't you save up a little bit and grab yourself a used Macbook. :)
 
SkyBell

SkyBell

macrumors 604
Original poster
Sep 7, 2006
6,603
219
Texas, unfortunately.
Consultant said:
clamshell iBook are ancient. Good if you are into collecting those type of things. Compared to iBook G3 clamshell are much slower.

PowerBook are typically faster than iBooks, but personally I would not buy a powerbook g3 (unless it's really cheap such as $100 with decent ram and I have not money to get anything else). Keep in mind you probably have to upgrade the harddrive, as many come with very small HD.

If you do not need a portable, a desktop is much better.
Click to expand...

I have my Mac mini for my desktop. Not to say it's not doing a great job, but sometimes I don't feel like sitting at my desk in an uncomfortable plastic chair. I like to go outside and enjoy the weather. And my 800 MHz iBook G3 did that fine until just recently. I could buy a clamshell or a PowerBook G3 for less then it would cost to fix it.
 
M

match311

macrumors member
Jun 16, 2007
71
0
This may sound crazy, but if all you are using the laptop for is music and internet... maybe you should buy an ipod touch. It's in your price range and will do all the things you want and even more if you jailbreak it. The SDK for the iphone/touch is coming out soon too if you are scared of jailbreaking.
 
SkyBell

SkyBell

macrumors 604
Original poster
Sep 7, 2006
6,603
219
Texas, unfortunately.
match311 said:
This may sound crazy, but if all you are using the laptop for is music and internet... maybe you should buy an ipod touch. It's in your price range and will do all the things you want and even more if you jailbreak it. The SDK for the iphone/touch is coming out soon too if you are scared of jailbreaking.
Click to expand...

That's a very interesting thought. I will consider it. I would buy it right away, but it's at the top of my price range, and the on screen keyboard is hard for me to use.

It's definitely a maybe, though.
 
RedDragon870503

RedDragon870503

macrumors 6502
Sep 6, 2006
299
1
match311 said:
This may sound crazy, but if all you are using the laptop for is music and internet... maybe you should buy an ipod touch. It's in your price range and will do all the things you want and even more if you jailbreak it. The SDK for the iphone/touch is coming out soon too if you are scared of jailbreaking.
Click to expand...


I have a PowerBook G3 (upgraded to a 550Mhz G4; 768 mb RAM) that lives in my living room. It used to be great for surfing the web but once I became proficient in using my iPod touch to surf the web/music/youtube/mail/photos I find myself almost never using my PowerBook at all. It is jailbroken of course.

I feel like the computing experience is not sacrificed even though screen real estate is. Contrary to what some people say, besides flash, the touch handles the web very very well.
 
SkyBell

SkyBell

macrumors 604
Original poster
Sep 7, 2006
6,603
219
Texas, unfortunately.
Right now I'm leaning toward a clamshell iBook. Unless I get the top end one, I won't get a DVD drive, but I think I could live without it.

But is 366 MHz enough for Panther?
 
S

sqwirl

macrumors newbie
Jan 7, 2008
2
0
I was in sort of the same boat last week. I have a PC laptop that I bought 2 years ago for work and my old 500mhz g3 ibook. The ibook is still kicking fine with Tiger and 640mb of ram. It struggles on flash videos but for just basic web/email/im it is fine. I wanted to get a newer apple so I thought about older powerbooks, g4 at least 1ghz. Unfortunately apple's are great at holding thier value and still pull $600+ for something in that config. I ended up just breaking down and buying a new macbook.

Though a nice 867mhz+ g4 powerbook or ibook should suit you fine for basic needs assuming that you can find one decently priced.
 
M

mBurns

macrumors 6502
Oct 3, 2006
357
0
USA
I used to own an iBook Clamshell SE. It was a superb computer. I was able to do all my tasks on it.. eventually I decided to upgrade to a MacBook Pro. I kept it around for over a year as a back-up machine. I decided to sell it so someone else could get good use out of it. It was upgraded with a 60 Gb HD, 576 Mb RAM, AirPort, Tiger... the works! I still miss the thing. I got a VERY nice penny for it when I finally sold. It was totally mint and I babied the machine all its life. I'm not sure where you bought your Clamshell but for others looking out there... search for a caring owner. Find someone who kept their box, restore cds, etc. It pays (big time) in the end!
 
one1

one1

macrumors 65816
Jun 17, 2007
1,168
28
Chattanooga, TN
The lack of ability to even watch the smallest videos kept me from keeping my clamshell around as an ornament, much less a machine. There is practically zero video ability in them, which affects the rest of what you'll do on the net also. (simple flash banners on websites and such).

I think you'll be missing the iBook soon, cassie.
 
OrangeSVTguy

OrangeSVTguy

macrumors 601
Sep 16, 2007
4,127
69
Northeastern Ohio
i got the ibook g4 in my sig for $300... very lucky i am. my g3 ibook is decent and has tiger 10.4.11 with little lag, just need to max out the memory then it will be a decent laptop. but it's fine for coming on the forums and for youtube/itunes.

what happened with the ibook? video problems?
 
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