Hmmmm.....G3?

[MalcolmJID]

Am I gonna regret buying a G3 iBook?

I'm really strapped for cash atm, and just want a laptop (Mac of course) with OS X Tiger for general internet use, IM'ing and word processing (college work).


Would a G3 iBook with max RAM (640MB) or as high as possible, run OS X Tiger ok and the usage I put up there ^^ and perhaps light use of Photoshop?

Cheers, Karl

 

[mduser63]

I'm assuming you mean a relatively fast (for a G3) iBook. If so, then yes I think it would be fine for the things you mentioned. I'm not sure about Photoshop, but I guess as long as you weren't doing anything too intensive, you'd be OK.

 

[MalcolmJID]

Yea, hoping for an 800MHz one

 

[chaosbunny]

800 mhz one is definitely ok even for light photoshop work. Since it is for personal use it won't matter a great deal if a filter needs 10 or 30 or 60 sec I guess. I'd recomend Photoshop CS or 7, since CS2 may be too much. I'm running CS on the G4 cube in my sig and scanning and light editing is no problem.

 

[munckee]

I had a 900mhz G3 ibook for quite a while and used it for exactly what you're talking about (although I put mine through moderate to heavy PS use). It's slow, but if you go into not expecting much, it'll be just fine. Mine was.

 

[MalcolmJID]

The Photoshop use would be a smaller images...(not hi-res photos) just me making band logo's (about 500*125 pix. kind of size), and adding a few blurs and text etc....how's that?

 

[MalcolmJID]

This will be my first Mac...so I was looking at lower-end stuff, but not that low end that I couldn't have Tiger etc.....

 

[Chaszmyr]

It will be very slow by modern computer standards, but people were using photoshop long before the 800mhz G3 came out.

 

[jTreu]

i know two people who use G3 ibooks who say they work just fine for wod proccesing and internet surfing. i dont think you should have a problem.

 

[Lord Blackadder]

G3 iBooks should be adaquate for what you are talking about, but make sure to max out the RAM if you want acceptable performance, especially with any kind of Photoshop work.

Also be aware that the 900mhz (and maybe certain other models) iBooks have a reputation for spontaneously toasting logic boards.

 

[MIDI_EVIL]

Don't go spending much cash on it because the MacBooks are such a reasonable price.

I would say don't waste your money.

Save up a bit longer and put the money toward a new machine.

Rich.

 

[disconap]

If you're getting it cheap, go for it. It won't drop that much more in price in the next year or so, so you'll get most of it back when you sell it.

And I agree with above: PS7 is the way to go, and I would suggest using Panther, not Tiger; Tiger will run on it, but Panther will probably run faster at that amount of RAM/take up less HD space.

I had a G3 700 ibook for ages, loved it, and PS7 and AI10 both ran flawlessly on it (even at the same time)...

 

[Maxwell Smart]

Just make sure that you get a machine with Quartz Extreme (on some of the 600Mhz iBooks and then everything else after it) Also, it might be in your best interest to get a G4 iBook (800Mhz-1Ghz) as with the new Macbooks they are severely less than what they used to be and you would get a pretty big performance increase.