Buying a Powerbook G4 Think I found a deal.

GeekOFComedy said:

So I'm not posting a link so no one else buys it before me lol. But what do they mean by this

Visual-defect Paint chipping on inside edge. light scratch on display. housing on bottom right corner is loose but otherwise laptop is in good condition. I don't know if it's titanium or aluminium but it says wireless G so it has to be aluminum but it doesn't say if it has bluetooth. It has 800MHz G4 and 512MB and costs EUR 163.47. Is it a good deal?? Quick reply because it ends soon

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No this is not a good deal and it is a titanium. No bluetooth except on the 1 ghz models bto as I recall.

Worth about 100 USD, tops. The loose housing notation is a very bad sign.

Most definitely not a good deal in my eyes.

My old 800mhz iBook with 640MB of RAM is almost unusable around the internet now if Flash is present

GeekOFComedy said:

By loose housing isn't that not the shell near the optical drive or is it the display!!. Also this powerbook will only be for school. Maybe youtube on the bus or tiny SD editing in an older version of final cut and skype. Also skype says video will work with those specs. I'm just gonna put tiger on it. It comes with jaguar. Also the seller is a power seller and owns a shop. It ships by upus so I doubt it's going to just break.

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Okay, if the "loose housing" means the top case, do what I did during my fanatical Titanium Powerbook years... I owned EVERY Tibook Apple made, except actually the 800mhz...

I would find a new topcase and put it on there. That way my Tibooks would always look new to me.

If you really want it, put a fast hd and 1 full gig of ram and disable dashboard on Tiger and it'll be fine but NOT at that outrageous price.

Bargain with him. Look up the prices here in the US on these old Tibooks.

Really 100USD is about what I'd pay. Does it have Airport, btw?

GeekOFComedy said:

By loose housing isn't that not the shell near the optical drive or is it the display!!. Also this powerbook will only be for school. Maybe youtube on the bus or tiny SD editing in an older version of final cut and skype. Also skype says video will work with those specs. I'm just gonna put tiger on it. It comes with jaguar. Also the seller is a power seller and owns a shop. It ships by upus so I doubt it's going to just break.

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It will likely be a piece of crap on the interweb. 800 MHz is really slow by today's standards, and won't run anything modern at a good speed with Tiger.

The case issue tells me it wasn't well cared for. I'd pay 75 UDS tops for this.

GeekOFComedy said:

So maybe panther for it?

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No. Don't even touch this thing. Tiger will be slow, and it will be hard to track down software that works with Panther. If you're talking 200 USD, you can probably get a 900 MHz iBook G3 (not recommended) or an early iBook G4.

GeekOFComedy said:

So what are my options??

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Like I said, if you're talking 200 USD, you can get either a 900 MHz iBook G3. I wouldn't get the G3 because, well it's old.

Or you may be able to get an early-mid iBook G4.

GeekOFComedy said:

Searching some of them had cracks at the display which i thought would be weird. The best ebay deal I found was a ibook g4 933MHz but it's only 133Mhz more and it's...plastic.... Heres it's link http://cgi.ebay.ie/Apple-iBook-14-G...ms=65:3|66:2|39:1|240:1318|301:1|293:1|294:50 The two downsides of this is the crack on the display bezel and a few bright spots on the screen

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What's wrong with plastic?

The better part is this one is 133 MHz more, has Leopard, an 80 GB HDD, AirPort for sure and 512 MB RAM.

This looks like a good deal.

GeekOFComedy said:

So what are my options??

Basically I have a MBP for Home/Overnights/Holidays
This will be for: school/shopping centres (handy to carry a laptop around) and cafes etc.

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So what's wrong with just using your current MBP for all occasions? Do you really need a second one designated just for school and shopping?

Some of you guys crack me up!

Richard1028 said:

So what's wrong with just using your current MBP for all occasions? Do you really need a second one designated just for school and shopping?

Some of you guys crack me up!

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I agree. Just use the MBP. No need to spend more money.

GeekOFComedy said:

2.5K laptop to school. If it got stolen.... bascially i'd be dammed.

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Do you need the laptop for school?

GeekOFComedy said:

Yes. Tech Class

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Then either keep it with you all the time or leave it in your locker when not in use.

There are plenty of us here that take our main, $2500 laptops to school on a regular basis. Just keep a close eye on it and be smart.

No reason to spend extra money on a sub-par laptop that isn't necessary.

No Powerbook G4 is a deal.

GeekOFComedy said:

So iBook?

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Don't listen to him; he's apparently one of those people who think only computers made in the last 3 years can do anything.

Cassie said:

Don't listen to him; he's apparently one of those people who think only computers made in the last 3 years can do anything.

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All the PowerPC laptops are slow slow slow, and very soon you won't be able to buy any software for them.

It's not worth the money. And I owned a Powerbook G4 for four years.

Unless you're spending all your time in TextEdit, it's not worth it.

They also never made an 800 mhz with G speed wireless, so you're also getting ripped off. Bonus! (That means it's a Titanium, likely last rev, which have very high failure rates. I used to own one of those too...)

I'm seeing 15" MBP's on Craigslist for $600 USD. Save up a bit more and you could likely get a Macbook Pro, and I'm sure you could get a Macbook. Both will do much better for you.

goMac said:

All the PowerPC laptops are slow slow slow, and very soon you won't be able to buy any software for them.

I'm seeing 15" MBP's on Craigslist for $600 USD. Save up a bit more and you could likely get a Macbook Pro, and I'm sure you could get a Macbook. Both will do much better for you.

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I never had a speed problem with my iBook G4. Sure, YouTube isn't the greatest, but it's very usable. And you shouldn't be expecting to buy new software for any machine that old.

A $600 MBP, even one of the Rev. A's, should be highly suspect. It's hard to even find MacBooks that low in price.