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Dare I sell my beloved Powerbook 12" for a netbook?

S

scmacdaddy

macrumors regular
Original poster
Dec 4, 2002
128
6
LA
Sooooooo, I've got a 12" powerbook with 1.25gb ram and 1.5 ghz and about a 2hr battery life. I also have an imac for everyday use. I mostly use this guy when i travel, such as movies on the plane, and in the living room to check fantasy baseball while watching real baseball on TV. I could probably get $400-$500 after fees on ebay or about that on craigslist, so it would be about an even trade

My goals are much better battery life, smaller and thinner (powerbook is 1.2 in thick and 4.5 lbs) Ubuntu on a netbook looks nice. i am just having a hard time getting rid of this beauty. Anyone else switch to a netbook? Any suggestions on which to get? I like Lenovo as a brand so the S10 and the eee 1000HE seem like my top choices.
 
Wait...keep the 12'' PowerBook, save towards a netbook(and the tech there is only getting better...Ion, new CPUs, etc)
 
I'm in a similar situation. I'm considering selling my 12" iBook and getting a netbook, but it's tough.

In the end, I think I won't sell it and I'd advise you to do the same. Save up for a netbook if you really want one.
 
scmacdaddy said:
Sooooooo, I've got a 12" powerbook with 1.25gb ram and 1.5 ghz and about a 2hr battery life. I also have an imac for everyday use. I mostly use this guy when i travel, such as movies on the plane, and in the living room to check fantasy baseball while watching real baseball on TV. I could probably get $400-$500 after fees on ebay or about that on craigslist, so it would be about an even trade

My goals are much better battery life, smaller and thinner (powerbook is 1.2 in thick and 4.5 lbs) Ubuntu on a netbook looks nice. i am just having a hard time getting rid of this beauty. Anyone else switch to a netbook? Any suggestions on which to get? I like Lenovo as a brand so the S10 and the eee 1000HE seem like my top choices.
Click to expand...

Last week I got the Asus Seashell 1008HA. Thin and light. Sealed battery but gets 5-6 hours of life. Nice for carrying around when I don;t want to take my Mac.
 
Your powerbook does everything a netbook does. And it doesn't cost you anything to keep it. There are only 2 advantages I can see with trading it for a netbook: better battery life, and lighter weight. The disadvantage is you lose OSX as a supported operating system. If it were me, I'd just keep the PB and use it as a netbook.
 
Wotan31 said:
Your powerbook does everything a netbook does. And it doesn't cost you anything to keep it. There are only 2 advantages I can see with trading it for a netbook: better battery life, and lighter weight. The disadvantage is you lose OSX as a supported operating system. If it were me, I'd just keep the PB and use it as a netbook.
Click to expand...

I completely agree with this and I would like to add that what the OP uses the powerbook for I now use the iPhone. Advantages are that I can check fantasy baseball while at a sports bar or during family functions and I don't look as weird pulling out a computer since everyone else is checking their emails and texts on a blackberry.
 
scmacdaddy said:
Sooooooo, I've got a 12" powerbook with 1.25gb ram and 1.5 ghz and about a 2hr battery life. I also have an imac for everyday use. I mostly use this guy when i travel, such as movies on the plane, and in the living room to check fantasy baseball while watching real baseball on TV. I could probably get $400-$500 after fees on ebay or about that on craigslist, so it would be about an even trade

My goals are much better battery life, smaller and thinner (powerbook is 1.2 in thick and 4.5 lbs) Ubuntu on a netbook looks nice. i am just having a hard time getting rid of this beauty. Anyone else switch to a netbook? Any suggestions on which to get? I like Lenovo as a brand so the S10 and the eee 1000HE seem like my top choices.
Click to expand...

Keep the PB. The highest processor frequency I've seen in a netbook is 1.6 GHz, so you're not losing much there. Your RAM level is about the same as what comes in a netbook.

I recommend keeping the PB and getting an extra battery or two.
 
Shake 'n' Bake said:
Keep the PB. The highest processor frequency I've seen in a netbook is 1.6 GHz, so you're not losing much there. Your RAM level is about the same as what comes in a netbook.

I recommend keeping the PB and getting an extra battery or two.
Click to expand...

You can't just do a straight comparison like that. There will be a fair few netbook processors which can outpace the G4, as well as having faster RAM too. However, that said, I think you should wait as I'm sure the G4 is adequate for your needs and then see what hand Apple plays.
 
BlizzardBomb said:
You can't just do a straight comparison like that. There will be a fair few netbook processors which can outpace the G4, as well as having faster RAM too. However, that said, I think you should wait as I'm sure the G4 is adequate for your needs and then see what hand Apple plays.
Click to expand...

Of course there will be something that can outpace the G4. That's technology.

The only benefit I see in getting a netbook is a 16:9 screen and a built-in webcam.
 
Get a dell mini 9. 100 Percent compatiable with OS X using the boot123 cd and retail disk ( at least pay for the OS )
 
Get a new battery for the PowerBook. The keyboard on the PB is lightyears better than the netbooks, as is the trackpad.

I know my 12" G4 iBook with a new battery is good for 6 hours on a charge, the PB was a little more thirsty so should get about 4.5 hours which is still pretty good.

The Atom processor in netbooks is a dog. Even at 1.6Ghz they are slow and underpowered. The G4 is a better processor.
 
wow. everyone says keep it. yeah, my biggest things are battery life size/weight and i forgot to mention webcam. although i've never tried gchat video on a netbook nor do i know if it works on linux. I'll probably end up waiting for faster netbooks since i did just get a 3GS.

edit: so does anyone have suggestions for the best battery pack to buy?
 
scmacdaddy said:
Sooooooo, I've got a 12" powerbook with 1.25gb ram and 1.5 ghz and about a 2hr battery life. I also have an imac for everyday use. I mostly use this guy when i travel, such as movies on the plane, and in the living room to check fantasy baseball while watching real baseball on TV. I could probably get $400-$500 after fees on ebay or about that on craigslist, so it would be about an even trade

My goals are much better battery life, smaller and thinner (powerbook is 1.2 in thick and 4.5 lbs) Ubuntu on a netbook looks nice. i am just having a hard time getting rid of this beauty. Anyone else switch to a netbook? Any suggestions on which to get? I like Lenovo as a brand so the S10 and the eee 1000HE seem like my top choices.
Click to expand...

You could always do what I did, go into the Dell Outlet store, and buy a Dell Mini 9, it's 100% compatible with OS X, everything works and you can install OS X from the factory disc. Here's some pictures of mine:

3602947888_17b26d419f.jpg


3602134593_80ee2d4763.jpg


3602134731_95fa07370a.jpg


3609608835_2e67ab031e.jpg


It's super quick, and everything that would work on your real Mac works on here, you can even do the Software Updates with no worries.

I paid $300 for mine with Next Day Air shipping! :D
 
Andrew Henry said:
You could always do what I did, go into the Dell Outlet store, and buy a Dell Mini 9, it's 100% compatible with OS X, everything works and you can install OS X from the factory disc. Here's some pictures of mine:


It's super quick, and everything that would work on your real Mac works on here, you can even do the Software Updates with no worries.

I paid $300 for mine with Next Day Air shipping! :D
Click to expand...

really? factory disk? that sounds too good to be true. mind you i hate dell with a passion, but still. how's the battery life? does the webcam work?
 
scmacdaddy said:
really? factory disk? that sounds too good to be true. mind you i hate dell with a passion, but still. how's the battery life? does the webcam work?
Click to expand...

No, I hate Dell also, but this thing is AWESOME, I don't have the version with the webcam, but it does work on models that have it. Yes from the factory disk, I promise, it has almost identical hardware to the Mac Mini so it's fully supported by OS X. And as for battery life, I have gotten over 4 hours of life from it, I haven't actually ran it til it died.

I would HIGHLY recommend it, it runs OS X so fast, I thought it was going to slug along, but it's VERY snappy.
 
i also have an iBook g4 and i use it for basically netbook purposes. been toying with the same idea now for a little while. I thought about the hackintosh msi wind for awhile but just decided the 12" screen and semi full sized keyboard were worth sticking with the ibook. The only problem with the dell mini 9 is that it uses really small SSD's and I need more storage than 8-16 gigs.

still on the fence but thinking about holding onto this until they decide what they are doing with their entry level macbook and hopefully revise the whitebook design. or whenever that sweet mac tablet comes out!
 
Andrew Henry said:
Ofcourse I do, I upgraded it to a 64gb RunCore SSD, also I haven't taken the sticker off yet, because well, I hate the sticky part that remains :(
Click to expand...

Sweet. :)

Maybe just find an Apple sticker to put over the Windows one? :) Goo Gone does a very good job with that residue, though.
 
Wanna guess what my answer is?:rolleyes:

I'd stick in a larger, faster hard drive (if you can, look for an ide 7200 drive or an ssd) and do a few tricks to optimize your pb for tiger and/or leopard. Google and you'll find a couple of great webpages. Most of the tricks involve turning off the eye candy and unnecessary processor sucking features.

Get on ebay, or look at your local third party mac repair shops for batteries. The mac man in moore (okla.) sold me a couple of batteries they kept around for diagnostic purposes, and they had 95% of their original capacity!

Ditto what everyone else said about the features of the pb over a hackintoshed netbook. You'll miss the keyboard and trackpad on a netbook, and you'll cringe at the thought of updates. You might as well wait for at least the nvidia ion platform, which has a beefed up atom chip along with the 9400 graphics.
 
scmacdaddy said:
Sooooooo, I've got a 12" powerbook with 1.25gb ram and 1.5 ghz and about a 2hr battery life. I also have an imac for everyday use. I mostly use this guy when i travel, such as movies on the plane, and in the living room to check fantasy baseball while watching real baseball on TV. I could probably get $400-$500 after fees on ebay or about that on craigslist, so it would be about an even trade.
Click to expand...

I recently sold one for $550 on Craigslist, but the battery was 100%+ health and it was in 8.5/10 condition.
 
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