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12" PowerBook G4 - recommended price and max OS?

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I've been watching a couple of auctions selling a 12" PowerBook G4, both in near-perfect condition (one comes with all the original packaging and materials too). I'm contemplating giving one a go as a distraction-free writing machine, and was wondering what a good price range would be, and what the maximum OS is? Wikipedia says Leopard, but I'm not sure why they wouldn't run Snow Leopard.

Anyway, if I do get one it'll just be for a bit of fun, but I did own one new back in the day, and I still remember it as being my favourite laptop I've owned.
 
Amethyst1 said:
That's very simple - the final Snow Leopard is Intel-only.
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Wow, I had no idea! Now I'm trying to remember what machine I had back when it was released - must have been an Intel iMac, I think, so I never clicked that Snow Leopard marked the transition.
 
Carnacki said:
and was wondering what a good price range would be
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I'd look at completed listings on ebay to get a pointer. If it's a 1.5 GHz in great shape with everything included I can see it going for anything between 50 and 100 bucks. Truth be told, I wouldn't pay more than about 60~70 for it, and only if I were in a really good mood. :)
 
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Amethyst1 said:
I'd look at completed listings on ebay to get a pointer. If it's a 1.5 GHz in great shape with everything included I can see it going for anything between 50 and 100 bucks. Truth be told, I wouldn't pay more than about 60~70 for it, and only if I were in a really good mood. :)
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^^^ Second that.

If it's in decent shape and just the PB without all the packaging and documentation, I'd pay no more than $30, so this estimate is right on. I paid about $50 for the last one I got and that was around 2012 I think. $25 for the Mac itself and $25 to replace the screen that got damaged when the original owner sent it rolling down a flight of stairs.
 
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Don't laugh - I recently sold my 867mhz 12" for 10 bucks (a fluke - hopefully) and my 1.33 12" for 35. Just the PBs, dead batteries and charger. But the 1.5 can be pricier as it's the last & fastest.
 
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12inch G4's must be common place in the US because of the prices you people are mentioning. Outside of the US, only faulty 12inch machines are going for that price. You get a decent working one and your easily looking at more than $140

just had a look on the UK ebay site and the cheapest working one i could find is £80 ($102). I found a couple in the US and they were all over $130, working units no boxes.

Are you lot sure on the prices you'd pay for a working 12inch Aliminuim G4 macbook?
 
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Amethyst1 said:
Don't laugh - I recently sold my 867mhz 12" for 10 bucks (a fluke - hopefully) and my 1.33 12" for 35. Just the PBs, dead batteries and charger. But the 1.5 can be pricier as it's the last & fastest.
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I bought a 1.5GHz 12" in 2017 for 90 Canadian. Condition was about 7/10.
 
laptech said:
12inch G4's must be common place in the US because of the prices you people are mentioning. Outside of the US, only faulty 12inch machines are going for that price. You get a decent working one and your easily looking at more than $140

just had a look on the UK ebay site and the cheapest working one i could find is £80 ($102). I found a couple in the US and they were all over $130, working units no boxes.

Are you lot sure on the prices you'd pay for a working 12inch Aliminuim G4 macbook?
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That's as much as I'd pay ($30 USD). All it's worth to me.

Prices may have increased since the last time I looked and I won't argue that, but I'm not currently in the market for one of these.
 
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laptech said:
just had a look on the UK ebay site and the cheapest working one i could find is £80 ($102).
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Are you looking at active listings or sold ones? If active, they are overpriced IMO. I'm in Europe and aware of the fact that prices can be higher than in the US - but I still wouldn't pay that much. As I said, I only got 10 euros for my 867mhz and 35 euros for my 1.33ghz. Both were working and in good condition, but the batteries were flat.
 
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For your interest, this is what I have paid (including postage) for my five Powerbook 12inches. All have been bought in the past couple of years on UK Ebay.

£10.00 - 1.5GHz. Sold for parts but works perfectly. Even includes a 140GB HD

£16.49 - 1.33GHz. Sold for parts with box. Just needed a HD installed

£25.00 - 1.5GHz. Works perfectly but ram area is a bit battered

£16.69 - 1.5GHz. Boxed. But has graphics and power issues.

£18.50 - 867Mhz. Seller packaged it terribly. And it got bent in the post. But works

You can definitely still pick these up for cheap, if you are patient, and don't need an absolutely perfect specimen.
 
I don't know where you all are finding these cheap PowerBooks. In my eBay browsing recently every PowerBook I have seen was either A.) unfathomably expensive or B.) crap.
 
In my experience, the prices of PowerBooks in general tend to be higher in Europe than in the U.S.
Personally if I saw one for less than 50euros I would expect problems with the screen image, HD, optical drive or a combination of these faullts.
Just checked on PBook 12" currently available on the most popular French website. There were only 2 available, which surprised me, I expected to see many more:-
Apple powerbook G4 12". PPC 1 Ghz, RAM 1,25Go, HD 100GB. Wifi, bluetooth, OSX 10.5.8. New charger, battery no longer holds a charge. 100€ ($US117)

PowerBook G4 12". It appears to function but unable to boot to desktop, maybe requires attention. 100€ ($US117).

Let's be fair, in my experience a working charger here for a 12" PB would easily sell for 20euros. So anyone finding a PBook 12" for less than 50euros is getting a bargain.

And for anyone looking for a PBook, especially a 12" model I'd say that unless the fans have been completely cleaned and the cpu re-pasted one could expect overheating.
I've purchased three, and completely refurbished 2. The 3rd I've been putting off until I've found the courage to attack another 12". Imho they should come with a diy government health warning.....;) I'd go as far as to say they are the most difficult laptop I've ever torn-down & completely refurbished, but what great satisfaction when one has suceeded! Just ask @AphoticD who wrote up a great tear-down/refurb report HERE.
I'll just add that once one has mastered an iBook 'Clamshell' refurb, you're about ready to attack a 12" PBook.
 
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Yeah man, if your only goal is to write and have no desire for a collector specimen, you can find them pretty cheap with little imperfections if you're patient. I picked up an 867mhz specimen with a retail boxed copy of tiger for 20 something bucks USD shipped. It's not perfect but works well for what it is, a glorified paperweight that looks cool resting on top of my Mac Pro 1,1 :)

You can find them very cheap if you are patient.

Like most powerbooks, their prices go up and down. I recall same time last year, they were much pricier than what you can find now. I think their prices have bottomed out somewhat and are on their way back up.
 
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laptech said:
just had a look on the UK ebay site and the cheapest working one i could find is £80 ($102). I found a couple in the US and they were all over $130, working units no boxes.

Are you lot sure on the prices you'd pay for a working 12inch Aliminuim G4 macbook?
Click to expand...
I bought one last year for £10. It had a Swedish keyboard so nobody wanted it utan mig. 1.5GHz as well. It was a bit grubby, though but I am used to deep cleaning notebooks and keyboards so a bit of grime doesn't deter me.
 
I find it interesting that you guys found 12"s for so cheap, but I suppose we are all good at finding this sort of stuff for a good price.
I have two 1.5Ghz 12"s, one was $10USD at an eWaste place. The other I think I got off of Shopgoodwill.com. I don't totally remember but I'm pretty sure it was around $40.

Now, I haven't checked eBay or other online sellers like letgo\offer-up in months, because I have yet to see a 12" PB of any kind on there for less than $200USD. On eBay I usually see the last model listed for $250.

My other two 12"s are a 1.33 and an 867Mhz. The 867 came locally on Craigslist for a fair price, box and original documents included, I think I paid around $40 or $50. The 1.33 was another shopgoodwill. I check there from time to time but it can be hit or miss. Sometimes the bid wars get just plain ridculous, other times I can get an item for next to nothing. They are also horrible at listing what the item actually is. The only things I knew about the two 12"s I got off there was that they were 12" powerbooks with a mini DVI. Narrows out the first two early models but still lucked out to get a 1.33 and 1.5.
 
Allegedly there is a Snow Leopard beta that will run on PPC.

I tried to install it and failed. I'm not sure how these .isos you get online work, I looked inside some of them and they appear to have some Boot Camp or virtual machine stuff on them, so I'm thinking they're not at all versions meant to run natively on a PPC. I wish someone would elaborate on this, as I'm really not knowledgeable on the subject.
 
C.D.Burner said:
Allegedly there is a Snow Leopard beta that will run on PPC.
Click to expand...

forums.macrumors.com

Snow Leopard on unsupported PPC machines

[ ©© Ltshears, Wikimedia Commons] A CLOUDED LEOPARD: Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard on PowerPC WikiPost last updated: 11 April 2022 OVERVIEW We’re exploring how to run early builds of Snow Leopard on (later) G4 and G5 PowerPC Macs. This WikiPost outlines testing methods to get a Developer...
forums.macrumors.com forums.macrumors.com
 
C.D.Burner said:
Allegedly there is a Snow Leopard beta that will run on PPC.

…I wish someone would elaborate on this, as I'm really not knowledgeable on the subject.
Click to expand...
A group of people collaborated and got 'Snow Leopard' to run on PowerPC hardware by cobbling together kexts and other system files from Leopard and the Snow Leopard betas. Some of those betas still had PowerPC parts.

It is limited to 10.6. You will never be able to upgrade past 10.6 and you will never be able to run Intel only apps meant for Snow Leopard and above.

While it is a laudable exercise in making something that was never intended for PowerPC work on PowerPC, there is nothing you can do with it that you can't do on Leopard already. Anything meant for Snow Leopard means Intel, which means it won't run on this and anything that's going to be universal will mean you can run it on Leopard already.

From my point of view it's a useless exercise. When the devs can make Intel apps run on PowerPC natively and you can update past 10.6 then I think they'll have something.

Note, I am not criticizing what they have done. It's necessary to advance, but right now, Snow Leopard on PowerPC is pretty much a nothing burger.
 
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