Questions about an old Wallstreet

[mrgreen4242]

I'm thinking about buying a Wallstreet from another MR member. It's a 250mhz 13" model with 384mb RAM, 6gb HDD (I only need the basic OS X apps and 2 gigs for temporary picture storage and a few working files, so this will be plenty for this machine), and CD-ROM (can't playback DVDs on these so not really a big deal).

Since I've never used this machine (or any Mac from this era - my first mac since my Classic was an 800mhz G4) I wanted to ask for some opinions on how it would perform some basic tasks:

1) Running 10.3.9. I HATE OS 9. I have to run X.
2) Wireless web browsing, while out of town or just in the bedroom. I like Safari, but Firefox is fine if it's better on older G3 machines?
3) Email, preferably with Mail, but again Thunderbird would work, if that's faster.
4) As a dumping ground for digital pics while on vacation. Will this thing run any of the semi-rent versions of iPhoto (with smallish photo libraries... say under 1000 1mb photos) so I can review, crop, sort, and maybe even do some slideshows while on vacation, etc. Is there a lower system requirement application like iPhoto that would work for this?
5) Word, Excel, PowerPoint... which version should I look for, does the video out work OK for giving PowerPoint presentations?

My criteria for acceptable performance are

1) waking from sleep in less than 30 seconds or so.
2) Running OS X.3.9 fast enough to be comfortable (ie, no waiting more than a few seconds for a Finder window to open, etc)
3) Launching any of the above apps in less than 10-15 seconds
4) Running any of the above applications ONE AT A TIME "comfortably"... so, load web (basic, non Flash/heavy Java) pages as fast as the data connection allows, compose emails without frustration, edit/create basic Word or Excel files, playback and make small edits to PowerPoint presentations, view, rotate and crop 4MP photos without having to twiddle my thumbs.

I can't afford much in the way of a laptop at the moment , and the price is right on this Wallstreet. I figure I will have to add a $25 WiFi PC Card (quickly) and a $20-25 USB PC Card (eventually), which is going to bring my total cost up to $150, which is just about as much as I can sink into a laptop right now.

Question is: is it even worth it or will I be disappointed?

Thanks for any advice from all you old school Mac users!

 

[MacNut]

I would be interested to find out what kind of graphics card is in there. How will it affect battery life. With all old equipment you need to know how much wear and tear it has and is it gonna hold up to your usage or is it on the verge of failure.

 

[mrgreen4242]

I would be interested to find out what kind of graphics card is in there. How will it affect battery life. With all old equipment you need to know how much wear and tear it has and is it gonna hold up to your usage or is it on the verge of failure.

According to what I can find on the net the GPU is a ATI Rage 4mb VRAM model. The current owner says he gets 2+ hours of life with the current battery. It looks to be in very good shape, judging from the pics. My usage should be fairly gentle.

 

[Eidorian]

I'd go with 10.2.8 unless you really need 10.3. I try to stick with native support and not XPostFacto.

 

[MacNut]

What is his usage on it, is he slamming the processor or just doing casual things like you want to do?

I agree 10.3 will ad more strain so if you can stick with 10.2 you will do better off, what is the current OS now?

 

[slooksterPSV]

I'm thinking about buying a Wallstreet from another MR member. It's a 250mhz 13" model with 384mb RAM, 6gb HDD (I only need the basic OS X apps and 2 gigs for temporary picture storage and a few working files, so this will be plenty for this machine), and CD-ROM (can't playback DVDs on these so not really a big deal).

Since I've never used this machine (or any Mac from this era - my first mac since my Classic was an 800mhz G4) I wanted to ask for some opinions on how it would perform some basic tasks:

1) Running 10.3.9. I HATE OS 9. I have to run X.
XPostFacto is the only way you can run 10.3.9, 10.2.8 is the highest on any Wallstreet - I used to own one
2) Wireless web browsing, while out of town or just in the bedroom. I like Safari, but Firefox is fine if it's better on older G3 machines?
Firefox is a RAM hog, Safari works well, again, the Wireless cards out there, there's like one, only one that will work, and it costs like $60 I think, still works good from what I hear.
3) Email, preferably with Mail, but again Thunderbird would work, if that's faster.
Haven't tried Thunderbird, but Mail does it for me
4) As a dumping ground for digital pics while on vacation. Will this thing run any of the semi-rent versions of iPhoto (with smallish photo libraries... say under 1000 1mb photos) so I can review, crop, sort, and maybe even do some slideshows while on vacation, etc. Is there a lower system requirement application like iPhoto that would work for this?
Heck iPhoto will work with any mac capable of OS X (10.1-10.4), I used to use iPhoto on my Wallstreet 233MHz, wasn't the fastest, but it was quick though, I wonder if it was quicker than my iMac G3? Maybe, but yeah iPhoto will work perfectly, smaller albums will help speed things up
5) Word, Excel, PowerPoint... which version should I look for, does the video out work OK for giving PowerPoint presentations?
Not sure about this one, I'd say NeoOffice or OpenOffice, sadly, they run excruciatingly slow, but they work none-the-less. I'd say a version compatible with Jaguar should suit you (10.2.8)

My criteria for acceptable performance are

1) waking from sleep in less than 30 seconds or so.
The Wallstreet has beat my iBook from waking up, but then again I have web apps running so it'll wake in 10 seconds, 10.2.8 had some troubles with waking on the 233MHz PB, not sure of the 250MHz, but I think it was fixed
2) Running OS X.3.9 fast enough to be comfortable (ie, no waiting more than a few seconds for a Finder window to open, etc)
Ehh... Jaguar opens windows almost instantly, Panther may not work so well.
3) Launching any of the above apps in less than 10-15 seconds
I had Photoshop running before Finder was running on Jaguar, just make sure that you have proper permissions, but most apps open in 8 seconds or less, give or take depending on the memory requirements. Heck Photoshop runs reasonably
4) Running any of the above applications ONE AT A TIME "comfortably"... so, load web (basic, non Flash/heavy Java) pages as fast as the data connection allows, compose emails without frustration, edit/create basic Word or Excel files, playback and make small edits to PowerPoint presentations, view, rotate and crop 4MP photos without having to twiddle my thumbs.
4MP Photos, you will have to wait, the processor and VRAM aren't strong enough to make this work instantly, but it shouldn't take, but 15 seconds max, I'd say. Emails may type slowly on 10.3, but 10.2, you won't have to wait that long, maybe a couple milliseconds before it pops up. Light flash and java is perfect, Word and Excel files depend, viewing large photos will take some time to load depending on your memory usage, but still works well none the less

I can't afford much in the way of a laptop at the moment , and the price is right on this Wallstreet. I figure I will have to add a $25 WiFi PC Card (quickly) and a $20-25 USB PC Card (eventually), which is going to bring my total cost up to $150, which is just about as much as I can sink into a laptop right now.

Question is: is it even worth it or will I be disappointed?
I'd say its worth it, the first mac I had was a PB 233MHz Wallstreet with 288MB RAM, and it ran incredibly well with Jaguar, you will not be disappointed in my opinion, but that's me.
Thanks for any advice from all you old school Mac users!

The bold has my answers

 

[mrgreen4242]

I've read that 10.3.9 runs fastest on these older machines. There's nothing particular about Panther that I need, just want the fastest speeds I can eek out of this aged machine. http://www.powerbookcentral.com/columns/hildreth_moore/ospick.shtml says 10.2 is OK on it, 10.3 is "probably faster".

Can't say for sure what he's been doing with the system, doesn't sound like it was too much more than day to day use. No idea what's on it at the moment, but I will ask. The pics are of some variant of X, but can't say which. I have 10.3 CDs already as well, which is a plus.

 

[mrgreen4242]

The bold has my answers

Thank you so much for the detailed answers! Did you try Panther on yours? I seem to be getting a few different opinions on wether Jag or Panther would be fastest. Again, I don't really care which it is, I'm just interested in basic functionality and speed.

Your "review" was very promising. I can deal with wait times for working with photos. My main need is to download them from my digital camera, sort them, delete the losers, tag the remaining pics, etc. while I am on the road.

Oh, as far as WiFi cards go, there are a few out there supported by an open source driver. A couple have full support (WEP, etc) and the rest work, just no WEP. A brand new one without WEP support is $25... I think I can find one with "full support" for $45. Need to find which USB PC Cards word aside from the $30 one at macsales.com... seems like there should be at least one or two cheaper than that by now.

Thanks again!