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PkennethV

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 16, 2006
853
9
Toronto
I'm not looking to buy a new computer, but I just noticed some thing interesting when I played around with my dad's new black MacBook. I have a PowerBook G4 loaded with tons of apps and all sorts of other stuff. A few days after he bought the machine I was teaching him some basic Mac stuff (he just switched from Windows) when I noticed that my overloaded PowerBook booted considerably faster than his new MacBook. Also when I navigate quickly through Finder with {comand} Up and down to open and close folders, I noticed that if I did it really fast than the Macbook would start to lag, but my PowerBook would be fine. So is the PowerBook (in some ways atleast) "better" than the MacBook?
 

wako

macrumors 65816
Jun 6, 2005
1,404
1
Well I switched from a PowerBook G4 1.5Ghz and i can say that my BlackBook is considerably faster then that of my former PowerBook
 

extraextra

macrumors 68000
Jun 29, 2006
1,758
0
California
PkennethV said:
I'm not looking to buy a new computer, but I just noticed some thing interesting when I played around with my dad's new black MacBook. I have a PowerBook G4 loaded with tons of apps and all sorts of other stuff. A few days after he bought the machine I was teaching him some basic Mac stuff (he just switched from Windows) when I noticed that my overloaded PowerBook booted considerably faster than his new MacBook. Also when I navigate quickly through Finder with {comand} Up and down to open and close folders, I noticed that if I did it really fast than the Macbook would start to lag, but my PowerBook would be fine. So is the PowerBook (in some ways atleast) "better" than the MacBook?

You have to take into account that some applications aren't running native - they're running through Rosetta on the Macbook so they'll be slower on the MB than the PB. As for the finder etc. being slow, he might not have enough ram. 512MB is barely enough to run OS X.
 

xfiftyfour

macrumors 68030
Apr 14, 2006
2,573
0
Clemson, SC
yeah, i also switched from a PB (1.67GHz with 1gb RAM) to a new MB and there's no doubt it boots and runs faster than my former PB.
 

KingYaba

macrumors 68040
Aug 7, 2005
3,414
12
Up the irons
Well anything runs faster than my powerbook :rolleyes: Don't invest in that old technology unless you don't have the funds to get a new machine. But in that case maybe just save a little more.
 

fblack

macrumors 6502a
May 16, 2006
528
1
USA
to anwer your question: is it still worth it to buy a powerbook?

No.

Maybe if apple reduced their refurbished models to a more decent price, itd be ok. Last time I looked and its been a few weeks, a refurb 15inch macbook pro was about the same as as a 15inch G4 1.67. It was maybe like $100 more for the pro. How nuts is that? No the value is not the same. Especially with leopard around the corner and updates to photoshop not too far off. Really the hardware was lagging all around for awhile.
 

amin

macrumors 6502a
Aug 17, 2003
977
9
Boston, MA
Not worth the refurb price, but in the used market they represent a great value for money IMO. I am still very happy with my 13-month-old 15" G4 PB. I think it will continue to serve well for another year or so.
 
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