Another PPC I bought for no reason...

[ryannel2003]

So I was browsing eBay the other day and I just happen to come across a PowerBook G4 in very good shape. I've always loved the design so I put in an offer for $95 and I got it! Just received it a few hours ago and I already love it. It's the September 2003 Aluminum 15" with 1.25GHz G4, 1GB RAM, 32GB SSD and ATI 9600 graphics. It's in very good shape with some minor scratches (no dents!) but it had some hiccups while setting up. It kept kernel panicking so I removed one stick of 512MB RAM and it stopped. I added the 1GB SODIMM from my iMac G4 for 1.5GB of RAM and it's currently installing Leopard. Another issue is the backlit keyboard is incredibly dim even at its highest setting, so I'm assuming it needs to be replaced. The CPU fan makes a pretty loud racket so I'll need to replace that. Also, the computer came standard with a SuperDrive but somebody installed a Combo drive in it's place. I'm thinking I'll buy a DL SuperDrive off eBay and install that and upgrade the drive since it's so small. Otherwise, I like it quite a bit and it's a better web browsing machine than my iMac for some reason.

What's the best way to put an SSD in this thing? Anything else I should replace while I have the machine opened? Thanks.

 

[MacCubed]

Best way for an SSD, mSATA SSD+Enclosure. The mSATA is like 40$ for an 128 GB and the enclosure I have cost me 20$ much cheaper than a Kingspec SSD and better performance

 

[Altemose]

Samsung makes some solid mSATA SSDs and users here have tested a number of enclosures you can purchase.

 

[ryannel2003]

I decided to buy a refurb PATA HD off eBay instead. I didn't want to spend too much money so for something this old a 5400rpm HD should be ok. I also purchased a DL SuperDrive, a new fan and a new (used) keyboard. Should be ready for surgery next week.

 

[bunnspecial]

Since when does one need a reason to buy a PPC Mac?

 

[Mnowell69]

Since when does one need a reason to buy a PPC Mac?

Never a truer word said. My wife on the other hand just doesn't understand.

 

[ryannel2003]

The keyboard on this machine is everything. If this computer gets used to type nothing but documents I'll be ok with that. I do wish I had waited and gotten a High Res model but I feel for the condition this machine is in I did ok.

 

[ryannel2003]

I was curious as to why my read and write speeds were so slow when the computer has an SSD installed and now I know why:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820208445

That's what's installed... and the read and write speeds are pathetic. I'm pretty sure the HDD I ordered is going to be faster than that. If not at least I know where my bottleneck was.

 

[Mnowell69]

That's despicable.

 

[ryannel2003]

The crazy thing about this machine is that it browses the web better than my iMac G4 and that has a new SanDisk SSD installed. This machine also runs Leopard much, much better than my iMac did. I brought the PowerBook to work with me today and have been browsing the web on it pretty effortlessly. I'm impressed with how well it handles the web.

 

[ryannel2003]

This PowerBook is an impressive piece of machinery. The clock speed between both it and my iMac are identical (1.25GHz G4) but the PowerBook browses the web much better than the iMac and the graphics are smoother in Leopard. I'm really looking forward to getting the new parts installed next week.

 

[Dronecatcher]

This PowerBook is an impressive piece of machinery. The clock speed between both it and my iMac are identical (1.25GHz G4) but the PowerBook browses the web much better than the iMac and the graphics are smoother in Leopard. I'm really looking forward to getting the new parts installed next week.
View attachment 569282

I have the exact same model - for some reason, my first install of Leopard was sluggish and below par but after installing it again (after trying Tiger, Morphos and Debian) it's silky smooth. There seems to be a perfect balance in the hardware that makes it a pleasure to use.

 

[ryannel2003]

I have the exact same model - for some reason, my first install of Leopard was sluggish and below par but after installing it again (after trying Tiger, Morphos and Debian) it's silky smooth. There seems to be a perfect balance in the hardware that makes it a pleasure to use.

I'm going to re-install the system software when my new HD comes so I'm sure it will run even better after a fresh install on a new/better drive. I have some graphical lag here and there but so does my new Retina Pro so I can't complain about this machine, especially since it's nearly 12 years old.

 

[MacCubed]

Turn off animate opening applications it helps a lot

 

[MacCubed]

Also turn on the 2D Dock it looks a lot better than the 3D one

 

[redheeler]

Turn off animate opening applications it helps a lot

Turning it off doesn't help a whole lot, although it does tend to lag with the 3D dock enabled on lower-end GPUs, and will increase GPU usage a little bit.

To me, bouncing icons on the dock is one of OS X's sleekest and most iconic design features. I always keep it enabled, and it normally doesn't have a huge impact on system performance.

 

[MacCubed]

I turn it off cause it seems to lag on only my PowerBook G3 and I like to have all of my macs with the same features

 

[eyoungren]

To me, bouncing icons on the dock is one of OS X's sleekest and most iconic design features. I always keep it enabled, and it normally doesn't have a huge impact on system performance.

Except if you have a G4/400 running 10.5.8 with with 256mb ram!

Watching the icon bounce for a minute or more can be agonizing.

 

[bunnspecial]

With a 9600 or better, the majority of the "eye candy" gets offloaded to the GPU and a 9600 is more than capable of handling it.

I don't see much performance difference between it on vs. off with a CI GPU. Turn the "eye candy" off if you want to, but don't expect to see the huge performance increases that you see by turning it off with a low-end GPU.

urn it off cause it seems to lag on only my PowerBook G3 and I like to have all of my macs with the same features

That's what a Rage Pro/Rage 128(depending on which G3 you have) will do in OS X...

 

[val1984]

This PowerBook is an impressive piece of machinery. The clock speed between both it and my iMac are identical (1.25GHz G4) but the PowerBook browses the web much better than the iMac and the graphics are smoother in Leopard. I'm really looking forward to getting the new parts installed next week.
View attachment 569282

The PowerBook has twice the L2 cache the iMac has and a much better video card (Radeon 9600M vs GeForce FX 5200), I think that's enough to explain the difference

 

[tevion5]

Never a truer word said. My wife on the other hand just doesn't understand.

Ask her why she need so many shoes. Or jewellery. Or makeup accessories. People just like things.

And we just happen to like old slow noisy computers

 

[SkyBell]

Clean looking machine! Sometimes I wish I had the money to buy things on a lark, but then again I've got enough worthless junk I don't use enough already.

 

[ryannel2003]

Clean looking machine! Sometimes I wish I had the money to buy things on a lark, but then again I've got enough worthless junk I don't use enough already.

It's nice to be able to buy certain things but sometimes I wish I hadn't. I have to admit after I first bought this machine I thought I made a mistake but now I'm glad I got it.

So yesterday I installed my new keyboard (nightmare), new 80GB Seagate drive and new left fan. The hard drive write speeds are pretty bad, but the read speeds have improved and the whole system feels quicker despite having an SSD installed previously. I might put a larger, newer hard drive in at some point since this is a cheap refurb but it works well for now.

 

[128keaton]

I just bought a 2006 12" PowerBook G4 for $32 including shipping. Happy!

 

[redheeler]

I was curious as to why my read and write speeds were so slow when the computer has an SSD installed and now I know why:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820208445

That's what's installed... and the read and write speeds are pathetic. I'm pretty sure the HDD I ordered is going to be faster than that. If not at least I know where my bottleneck was.

An SSD that can't even reach the max speeds of an IDE connection... absolutely pathetic. The SATA 3 SSD I just put in my Gigabit Ethernet G4 should be better at doing that.

I just bought a 2006 13" PowerBook G4 for $32 including shipping. Happy!

13" PowerBook G4?