iBook Clamshell

I would assume that you can upgrade the memory, best place to check would be Crucial.com and just go through the motions of upgrading without actually buying.

It should be able to run OS X (of course not very fast). I think that if you can get one for anywhere between 100 and 300 dollars, that would be a fine way to go about learning about Mac's. Of course do not expect to be able to do anything but run OS X, email, web, and the wordpad program...

If you decide you hate the thing you can turn around and sell it on eBay without losing too much and if you like it, you can then buy a better Mac...sounds like a good plan really.

Mike

Yes, you can add RAM to the iBook, if your going to run OS X then I recommend at least 256 MB.

If you know how, you can try taking the iBook apart and putting in a new hard drive. You can put any one of these in and it will be a vast improvement in speed.

You could also add a WI-FI card.

As far as the processor, I don't think you can upgrade it, so your stuck with what you get.

(If you get something like a Pismo that will allow you to upgrade the stock processor to a 900 MHz G3 or even a 500 MHz G4)

Edit: damit, Brother Michael beat me to it.... I type too slow 😱

Brother Michael said:

I would assume that you can upgrade the memory, best place to check would be Crucial.com and just go through the motions of upgrading without actually buying.

It should be able to run OS X (of course not very fast). I think that if you can get one for anywhere between 100 and 300 dollars, that would be a fine way to go about learning about Mac's. Of course do not expect to be able to do anything but run OS X, email, web, and the wordpad program...

Click to expand...

I don't think you could get one for 100-300. I know our local mac store buys used clamshells for $250 to turn them around and sell them for quite a bit more I guess. I hear they are somewhat of a collectable and high in demand as far as used macs go.

What are you going to do with the mac? If you are doing anything very processor intensive you will be unhappy with the speed, etc. I would say a used or refurb.iBook (G3 or G4) if you need a laptop.

depending on what you do with it you could go with some sort of external hard drive to store big files if you don't need those files to be mobile with you every time you take your computer.
Mac resellers (local and online) usually sell used macs and might have clamshells.

also remember, the clamshell is somewhat old and you might run into the problem of having something go bad on it (ie hard drive, cd drive, etc.) Apple makes great quality stuff (for the most part) and they usually last longer than their pc counterparts with both hardware quality as well as usability, but things do break as well so you would be taking a risk.

etorres777 said:

Is there somewhere online I can buy a refurbished iBook clamshell that is refurbished by a trusted mac re-seller or whatever? Sorry, again, I want to make sure I know what i'm getting into. 😱

Click to expand...

The best thing to do is go to apple.com and search for a reseller through their web site- you can find both online as well as retail resellers that are approved throught them. I think they have different levels of "sellers". They have resellers, and value added sellers or something like that. Basically anyone who is listed there should be ok to buy through as far as I know, but of course there are individual stores that may not be the best. I don't have any experince with any particular one as I have never bought a used mac, just a refurb. through Apple.com. IF the site/store is not listed on Apple's site when you search then don't buy from them. there are many web sites around that are scams so beware.

I'd personally recommend against a clamshell. Besides them having slow processors, slow FSB, and slow video cards, the display is limited to 800x600 resolution, which is painfully small for OSX usage. I would highly recommend spending a tad more and picking up a newer style iBook. I've seen them for as cheap as $500.

etorres777 said:

I think i'm just going to buy a G3 or G4 something around $1000 that is a little bit more than descent. I wanted the clamshell because the way it looked but, I can't make it better, and I want it to help me not to torment me. So anyone have an idea of something with atleast 20GB, 512MB of RAM, and a CD/DVD combo, doesn't have to burn. Thanks for being so helpful guys. 😀

Click to expand...

On the apple.com refurb page (special deals on applestore.com) they have a iBook G4 1GHz/256MB/30GB/Combo/E/56K/ 12" TFT-Refurbished
A for $949. Add some memory for about $100 ish and you have you a very nice computer. Only drawback would be a 12" screen.

Here is one at smalldog that is new- ibook (doesn't say screen but is a Book G4/800 128/30/CD for only $799 but no DVD I don't think
http://www.smalldog.com/product/12653270

Find all their ibooks used, refurb. and new here:

http://www.smalldog.com/category/x/x/Powerbooks+Ibooks/iBooks/powerbook/wag103/wag10003/

I am sure there are other major etailers that can get you something you want.

I had an iBook clamshell. The fastest one they made - 466mhz w/ a 10GB HD. It had built in DVD but no CD-burner. It is also extremely heavy - I believe 8+ lbs whereas the new 12" ibooks are about 5lbs. I maxed out the RAM to 320mb and it ran OS X acceptably well. The problem is the graphics card they put in those machines was horrible. I believe 8mb VRAM? The screen also maxes out at 800x600 as has already been mentioned. Anyway, it broke - the piece of plastic that attached to the outside of the machine fell off and the button to eject the CD stopped working... I had to leave a cd in there all the time so i could eject it from the system. Otherwise I had to use the emergency eject. The connection to the power adapter also broke so that, at first the machine would only charge while if i wiggled the connection, and eventually it stopped working at all. Also the battery only held about a 30 minute charge. I say all of this because I then sold the machine on ebay. I clearly explained all of the problems that it had and I was still able to get about $570 for it-- this was only about a year ago. Apparently these are highly collectible machines, especially the key-lime color that mine was. The 466mhz model only came in key-lime and graphite and graphite is pretty boring so these are pretty popular. The bottom line is you will never get anywhere near a good value as far as $/performance on one of these machines. You could probably get a 500mhz white ibook for less and you would get more. It was a great machine though... i took it everywhere just in my backpack mixed with books and nothing ever broke. Oh wait, I guess it did... That was after about 2 1/2 years though. Not bad for a laptop.