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Would i feel let down with i book
- Thread starter PlanB
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G4's pretty snappy compare to the older G3. Default DDR266 128MB + additional 512MB RAM should be good enough for most word processing and web browsing tasks.
But what's your budget and what do you intend on doing w/ the iBook?
But what's your budget and what do you intend on doing w/ the iBook?
Personally I find my iBook to be pretty snappy. I reguarily use MSword, Mail, Safari and iTunes, often all running at the same time. The only time I have encountered any major slowdown was when importing a CD whilst running filters in photoshop... as the others have said, it depends on what you want to run on it.
My iBook 800 (640mb ram) is now almost a week old, it definitely is slower than the 2003 Sony Vaio I am selling, but I was prepared to sacrifice a little speed for stability. I find the Safari browser particularly slow, but I can have as many apps open as I like and it just chugs along at the same speed.
PS Elements 2.0 works fine, as does Appleworks, mail, DVD player etc. The iBook leaves the PC laptop for dead when it comes to functionality, stability, style, not to mention incredible battery life and that wonderful OS x.
Very happy with the iBook. A nice big powerbook would have been nice but I couldn't justify the extra (AUD) $1100-1500 in price tag.
Max
PS Elements 2.0 works fine, as does Appleworks, mail, DVD player etc. The iBook leaves the PC laptop for dead when it comes to functionality, stability, style, not to mention incredible battery life and that wonderful OS x.
Very happy with the iBook. A nice big powerbook would have been nice but I couldn't justify the extra (AUD) $1100-1500 in price tag.
Max
ozimax said:
How slow is slow?
Do you have some examples of how long things take that you notice as lagging?
For example, you say Safari is slow, do you mean opening pages, or opening new pages in new windows?
What about bootup speed?
Shifting between applications?
ozimax said:
Are you sure thats not your connection? You have plenty of Ram, so its unlikely to be that....
speed lust
We recently bought a 12" ibook, and I'm very pleased with it. I had used Windows PC's all of my life, not counting a brief jaunt into the crashtastic world of OS9, mainly due to price. Things are definitely different, but not like night and day. The 800mhz performs quite well, a little slowdown when I use Photoshop with a lot of applications open, but otherwise I'm completely satisfied (and perhaps a little surprised). This being said, I'm not speed obsessed. I don't troll around the boards complaining about speed bumps and release dates.
I get a little irked by people, even Apple Store employees, who are quick to dismiss the iBook in favor of the Powerbook simply on the basis of their conditioned speed expectations. I mean, selling Powerbooks to people who just use iTunes, Mail, and Safari, because the iBook is perceived as "too slow"?
To be very honest, this 12" has been the most enjoyable computer experience I can ever remember having. If you are focused on speed and the bleeding edge, however, perhaps you should join in the countless G5 PB moans/ posts.
We recently bought a 12" ibook, and I'm very pleased with it. I had used Windows PC's all of my life, not counting a brief jaunt into the crashtastic world of OS9, mainly due to price. Things are definitely different, but not like night and day. The 800mhz performs quite well, a little slowdown when I use Photoshop with a lot of applications open, but otherwise I'm completely satisfied (and perhaps a little surprised). This being said, I'm not speed obsessed. I don't troll around the boards complaining about speed bumps and release dates.
I get a little irked by people, even Apple Store employees, who are quick to dismiss the iBook in favor of the Powerbook simply on the basis of their conditioned speed expectations. I mean, selling Powerbooks to people who just use iTunes, Mail, and Safari, because the iBook is perceived as "too slow"?
To be very honest, this 12" has been the most enjoyable computer experience I can ever remember having. If you are focused on speed and the bleeding edge, however, perhaps you should join in the countless G5 PB moans/ posts.
Go to the local store
Either an Apple store, or you can go to the nearest CompUSA. Hopfully there is one near you and you can go try them out. I would say you wont feel disappointed if you are doing web browsing, and docments on it. Games, well a few will work fine, like Age of Methology, but a game like Halo might run so great. I always tell people to try it out before buying.
Either an Apple store, or you can go to the nearest CompUSA. Hopfully there is one near you and you can go try them out. I would say you wont feel disappointed if you are doing web browsing, and docments on it. Games, well a few will work fine, like Age of Methology, but a game like Halo might run so great. I always tell people to try it out before buying.
PlanB said:
I have the 12" 800 mhz with just the 256 ram. It runs really well, but Garageband sometimes stops. It says the HD isn't fast enough. I've gone in and made a few adjustments but it still stops sometimes.
For me it's not an issue though cause I use GB on my G5. Everything else runs remarkably well on the iBook.
i just upgraded from a 400mhz iMac (740MB RAM) to a 12in iBook 800 (640MB) (see sig). I am a design student so i use processor-intensive apps like photoshop and illustrator on a daily basis. this machine is great, i do not notice any slowdowns at all. boot time is fast, but i hardly ever restart. switching between apps is FAST no matter what they are (textedit -> photoshop). its a great machine.
As was mentioned before, it depends on what you will use it for.
We bought a 900 MHz G3 iBook shortly before the G4 iBooks came out for my wife (Because it was white and would go with the room better then Powerbooks). Sometimes I kick myself in the butt, just because the Powerbooks we looked at and the new G4 iBooks (if we played the waiting game even longer, because we waited for the 900 MHz) are faster in most regards, the G3 900 MHz will actually beat the 800 MHz G4 ibook in some funtions, however the memory is slower, motherboard etc. However, that being said, there really has never been a time that I can remember saying that the iBook is too slow to work with. It is incredibly reliable, and does everything that my wife wanted it for, word processing, email and web browsing. She also uses it for light work, as in a small amount, with photoshop, and a lot of work in iPhoto. If you want to play games on this iBook, you will probably not get a very long life out of it, as it only meets the minimum requirements on some games already. But otherwise I think the iBook is a good steady machine. I do use the iBook to play games. I does a good job, however, I use my G4 tower to play the high-end games.
Edit: Just one more thing, our iBook has the 14" display. If you can afford the extra $200 the 14" 933 MHz iBook I would go with it. It has usually been considered the best bang for your buck in reviews of the G4 iBooks. I personally think the extra 2 inches on the screen and the extra 16% processing power and extra 25% disk storage is worth that price difference.
We bought a 900 MHz G3 iBook shortly before the G4 iBooks came out for my wife (Because it was white and would go with the room better then Powerbooks). Sometimes I kick myself in the butt, just because the Powerbooks we looked at and the new G4 iBooks (if we played the waiting game even longer, because we waited for the 900 MHz) are faster in most regards, the G3 900 MHz will actually beat the 800 MHz G4 ibook in some funtions, however the memory is slower, motherboard etc. However, that being said, there really has never been a time that I can remember saying that the iBook is too slow to work with. It is incredibly reliable, and does everything that my wife wanted it for, word processing, email and web browsing. She also uses it for light work, as in a small amount, with photoshop, and a lot of work in iPhoto. If you want to play games on this iBook, you will probably not get a very long life out of it, as it only meets the minimum requirements on some games already. But otherwise I think the iBook is a good steady machine. I do use the iBook to play games. I does a good job, however, I use my G4 tower to play the high-end games.
Edit: Just one more thing, our iBook has the 14" display. If you can afford the extra $200 the 14" 933 MHz iBook I would go with it. It has usually been considered the best bang for your buck in reviews of the G4 iBooks. I personally think the extra 2 inches on the screen and the extra 16% processing power and extra 25% disk storage is worth that price difference.
To answer previous questions, I am home now after a month on the road interstate. Hooked up to ISP this morning, same speed as last week (approx 45kbps) but for some strange reason the Safari browser went a lot quicker today...work that one out? I can't work it out but sometimes it seems that connection speed has very little to do with the time it takes for webpages etc to download.
Safari seems to do a much better job than IE of using cache to bring back up recently visited pages
The battery on the iBook is amazing. 3-4 hrs is minimum time even when playing DVDs
Max
Safari seems to do a much better job than IE of using cache to bring back up recently visited pages
The battery on the iBook is amazing. 3-4 hrs is minimum time even when playing DVDs
Max
aswitcher said:
I did a very untechnicalized test on boot up speeds, just pushed the start button on both machines and waited for them to boot up. (iBook G4 640MB ram vs Sony Vaio 1.8 Celeron 256MB ram XP home). The Vaio was a few seconds quicker on start up, the iBook a few seconds quicker on shut down.
When it comes to sleep mode, the iBook wins by the length of the straight, it's almost instantaneous in sleeping and waking up.
Shifting between apps is about the same time, both are pretty quick.
Now, if only I could afford broadband....
i got a G3 14" 600 mhz with 256 of ram, and i was like you wondering if its sufficient. This little laptop performs exceptionally well considering its speed, the OS uses less memory. Safari lags for a few seconds to boot up, and running photoshop etc isnt that slow, more like adverage.
I am not an iBook owner, so i cannot say much about their performance, but I do have a general note to add...PlanB said:
The CPU speed of a laptop (iBook or other) is only part of the equation...RAM, system bus and HD speed are also major factors...
So when choosing a laptop, keep an eye on the potential upgradeability of such components...you cannot do much with the CPU, as it is soldered on the motherboard (iBook and PB) or the system bus (although there are hacks out there) but you can deal with the RAM and HD...
Not a direct comparison, but I upgraded my Pismos' HD from a 4200rpm drive to a 7200rpm drive and the difference was noticeable...here is a link concerning drive speed/performance:
http://www6.tomshardware.com/mobile/20031031/index.html
Maximum RAM is always a good idea (as anyone will say)also...
My point is that if you do indeed buy an iBook, do splurge for the 5400rpm drive(if it is offered), as HD upgrades are difficult on iBooks (or PBs) and void your warranty...coupled with max ram, it will make a big difference in performance...after your warranty has expired down the road, you can put a 7200rpm in if you choose and further extend the competitive life of your machine (as I did)...
I personally would get a 12" PB in your shoes, as it has a marginally better video card, a line-out, mini-DVI and faster CPU and HD options...even a refurbished 867Mhz is worth consideration...
I do not want to start a iBook vs 12" PB discussion, they are both fine machines, but if you are concerned about speed and performance now as well as scaled over the long-term...consider carefully and be willing to spend a little extra if necessary, because once the choice is made you cannot go back...
I apologize for the long post...hope it was helpful...
(BTW I prefer Firefox to Safari (as it seems a resource hog), but it is just a matter of opinion)
*edit* as I briefly mentioned, video cards are also an important consideration to look at for the long-term (as the owner of a Pismo, I can attest to the limitation(s) over time)...Get the best offered.
If you want a 12" notebook, consider the 12" PB as it's about 20% faster than the iBook. Otherwise you might want the 933 Mhz (14") iBook.