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Buying a used iBook

iMarcus93

iMarcus93

macrumors newbie
Original poster
I'm thinking of buying a used iBook and I found a very good one. It's 12" and has got an 600mhz processor, 640Mb Sdram, 20gb hdd, CD-RW-DVD combo and right now it's running a 10.4 Tiger. The price for that is 30.000 Hungarian Forint which is at about $153.

Now I am using a Windows based desktop computer for everything and this iBook would be my first Mac. So I would like to use this little mac for browsing, chatting, watching movie from my NAS and for photoshop. Will this iBook do these things for me? 🙂 I'd like to know the Mac OS X system better and I think this would be a great start.

What do you guys think or advise?

Ohh and sorry about my english
 
Don't do it. Those iBooks are notorious for GPU issues and very slow by todays standards. You can't even browse the web on those anymore without getting worked up because it takes 30 seconds to scroll.
 
If you really want to use photoshop save up enough money to buy an intel mac it will work much better. Everything else should work fine, unless the movies are in HD in which case the iBook will have a hard time playing them if it even plays them at all.
 
I wouldn't buy ANY G3 anymore unless its less than $70 US. The one you're talking about is a $30 computer. Also, less than 700MHz really isn't good for daily use anymore. G3's are also stuck on Tiger, which is a great OS, but rapidly losing support (the next version of Firefox isn't going to support Tiger or PPC for that matter) so its only a matter of time before you stop seeing Safari and other application support loss. Go for a G4 at least.
 
Don't do it! I bought an iBook G4 and I regret it. It can't even play YouTube videos properly, and to be honest, it has very little functionality. Are you sure you'd be okay keeping your data on a 7 year old computer? It could die at any time. Plus the battery is probably terrible. Also, G3 and even G4 isn't supported by many Web browsers or modern software.

Avoid the temptation, and save up for an affordable Intel Mac or PC instead.
 
My wife uses an PPC G4 iBook 1.33ghz and 1.25 mb ram for word processing, e-mail, and surfing. If the video is flash, then it will suffer;it depends on the coding of the video.

In your case a 600mhz is probably too weak to do much.
 
old-wiz said:
My wife uses an PPC G4 iBook 1.33ghz and 1.25 mb ram for word processing, e-mail, and surfing. If the video is flash, then it will suffer;it depends on the coding of the video.

In your case a 600mhz is probably too weak to do much.
Click to expand...

I have the same type. I couldn't image having half the processing power!
 
I bought an iBook G3 for only $90 (including shipping). It has an 800 MHz processor, 640 MB of RAM, and an upgraded 80 GB hard drive and runs 10.4.11 Tiger (it's the late 2002 12" revision). So far it may be a tad slower than my eMac, but it's actually pretty responsive, and I generally don't use YouTube on it (on the rare occasion I do, setting it to the lowest quality (240) helps it run a little smoother.)

Some of you may wonder why I bought this. I am still left without a laptop after my HP Pavilion notebook died, and I don't have as much money for a MacBook, so I figured this iBook was actually a rather good deal, and I would use it as a temporary laptop (almost like a netbook) until I had enough cash to get either a regular MacBook or a 13" MacBook Pro. I usually use it when I'm out of the house, or if the Internet access isn't working on the eMac.

I think a more recent and higher-end iBook G3 would be a rather good deal for under $100, than buying a 500 or 600 MHz one for nearly $200, but that's just me. Again, I only bought it as a TEMPORARY notebook to hold me over until I get an Intel Mac laptop.
 
Hrududu said:
I wouldn't buy ANY G3 anymore unless its less than $70 US. The one you're talking about is a $30 computer. Also, less than 700MHz really isn't good for daily use anymore. G3's are also stuck on Tiger, which is a great OS, but rapidly losing support (the next version of Firefox isn't going to support Tiger or PPC for that matter) so its only a matter of time before you stop seeing Safari and other application support loss. Go for a G4 at least.
Click to expand...

I believe you need Leopard for Safari 5 now.
 
i have to admit the iBooks are not such a good choice with the various logicboard problems, graphic card problems....
but they shout out so much "we are made by Apple" so from a collectors point they are a must have , but its getting harder to find a good one that still hasn't developed one of the issues and has a fully woking battery,that still charging up , if it hasn't ,hands away from it

so if you are really tight on budget i would say better get a iMac G3 600mhz or 700mhz ,they are portable too (nice handle),but much more reliable , i think it's the most reliable Mac ever 🙂

but why is everybody so obsessed with youtube , ok its alright to see some crazy kid going down some steps on a skateboard and breaking its jaw on impact with the ground , but declaring a computer useless if it cant play that in streamed form does not make more sense then these kids have ..you can always download it and play it then if your entire life depends on it
 
I have an 800 mhz g3 w/ 640 RAM and it's ok BUT

I bought a used iBook on eBay about a year ago. An 800 mhz g3 w/ 640 RAM. That's the maximum RAM it'll take. I upgraded the OS from 10.2 to 10.3 because I was having problems with the internet connection dropping off - both dial-up and also wireless via AirPort. The upgrade has helped. I use it for e-mail and browsing with FireFox 1.5.0.1 for Mac OS 10.

The Firefox is working fine, but other browsers such as Safari, Opera, and Camino all have problems.

I think it is unfortunate that companies such as Apple are phasing out their support for older laptops such as the G-3. But that is reality so you might think twice before spending any money on older technology. I really love my little iBook but if they are not working with newer technologies then they can be frustrating.

Hope this helps.

:apple::apple::apple::apple::apple::apple::apple::apple::apple::apple::apple:
 
I guess then I have to save more money for a Macbook! Thanks guys for you answers, I really appreciate it. 🙂
 
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