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How slow could you REALLY go?

Hrududu

Hrududu

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jul 25, 2008
2,309
662
Central US
With a good number of us still using PPC systems with some regularity, and the PoewrPC challenge
that many have chosen to get into, I have been wondering this for a while now. If you are being 100% honest, how old/slow of a PowerPC machine would you really be able to use as a full time rig for a month. Obviously there is quite a spread when it comes to power in the G3-G5 era (I'm assuming nobody would actually opt for an old world ROM system) so it is quite a bit easier to work with a quad/dual core G5 that it would be a 233MHz G3 iMac. So I want to hear from you guys! Pick ONE portable and ONE desktop machine that you really believe you could use full time for a month with only a cell phone to compliment it. I'd prefer to hear about the machines you actually have/had access to rather than a theoretical one, but you can speculate if need be. My picks would be:

Desktop: Dual 1.42 MDD G4 (could probably do the DP 1.25 but I like FW800 & APX)
Laptop: 1.5GHz 12" PowerBook
 
Desktop: iMac G4 700MHz. Tiger and TFF run reasonably.

Laptop: iBook G3 500MHz. Tiger isn't bad. TFF is slow, but not as bad as the Clamshell. Camino should work for basic browsing.

No SSDs in any of my Macs btw.
 
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Laptop: 1.5GHz 12" PowerBook G4 since I really notice the difference with the 1.33Ghz model I also own

Desktop : Dual G5 (or higher) since I own it and because it has more RAM which I need for QEMU virtualisation and larger screen/work-area

And SSD's in both, if only for the speed increase , lower temperatures,better battery life (G4) and less noise (G5)

OS Wise in descending order of preference
  1. Leopard for Macports, Coreplayer, and other *NIX stuff
  2. OpenBSD but they have dropped a lot of browsers
  3. Debian/Ubuntu or derivative but needs improved Mesa for video playback
 
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Desktop: 400mhz PowerPC G4 with 2GB ram running Leopard. Doable, we did it from 2004 to 2014.
Laptop: 17" PowerBook G4 1.0Ghz, 2GB ram running Leopard. I use this Mac now.
 
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Desktop: Dual-processor 1.42 GHz Power Mac G4 MDD (or perhaps Dual 1.25 GHz, I actually have both configurations), Mac OS X Tiger or Leopard
Laptop: 12" 1.33 GHz iBook G4, Mac OS X Tiger

Admittedly, as someone who is used to modern Intel-based Macs, both these systems would result in some compromises for me.
 
I am doing basic task on computer. So i don't have problem with using Macintosh LC 475. If i need to do something powerful i can use telnet to my Linux machine and i can use Links to browse web. If i just need to read news and check weather i can use Gopher even on my A600 or A4000.
 
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Laptop would have to be either my 1.67GHz 15in SLSD, my 15in DLSD, or my 1.5GHz 12in PowerBook G4. My desktop would definitely be my Dual 2.3GHz PowerMac G5. All of those do not have SSDs, but do have max RAM. I survived on G5 only back in October 2014- February 2015 when my HP desktop kept killing itself in spectacular ways. G5 will also be my main desktop while taking part in the challenge, and likely the DLSD or 12in 1.5GHz PBG4s being my main laptops.
 
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But since this is how slow I can go... I can survive on my 600MHz iBook G3 Snow for my laptop (I would take a Lombard or Pismo over it if I had a working one), and my 1GHz iMac G4 as my desktop. One thing is that i would not be able to connect to my school's internet using the iBook, and I would have to lower the encryption from WPA2 to WEP on my B/G Wireless Access Point to be able to use my iBook at home online as well. Even at that, the iBook being online would only really be for checking email, listening to Spotify, and sending files to and from the iMac. The iMac would do the bulk of my web-browsing, along with my phone as that would be allowed. Would I likely pull my hair out at the slow internet browsing, absolutely. But would it be a deal breaker to have slow internet, not at all. For doing everything other than internet browsing, both the iMac and iBook are still more than capable using era correct software.
 
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I use a 17" PowerBook G4 with a 1GHz G4 (+ 1MB L3 cache) and 2GB RAM as my laptop. I don't think I could use something with lower specs since I highly doubt that anything lower would be able to do 360p YouTube on LWK or 720p on CorePlayer.

As for a desktop, I kinda use a 3.06GHz Pentium 4 or a 2.93GHz C2D laptop connected to a monitor but I've been avoiding the laptop due to its abysmal gaming performance and severe overheating issues that may or may not be getting worse. My 400MHz Sawtooth would drive me nuts to use as a desktop!
 
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KawaiiAurora said:
I use a 17" PowerBook G4 with a 1GHz G4 (+ 1MB L3 cache) and 2GB RAM as my laptop. I don't think I could use something with lower specs since I highly doubt that anything lower would be able to do 360p YouTube on LWK or 720p on CorePlayer.
Click to expand...
One step back are the titanium PowerBooks.

The only model I'd be comfortable with would be the Titanium DVI. My son had that model and because of L3 cache it was a rocket. But it has a 1GB max ram limit.

I survived with a TiBook 400 for a number of years, but admittedly that was running Tiger when it got replaced. I later put Leopard on it but I wasn't the one using it. My wfe apparently didn't mind.

I am an advocate for Leopard over Tiger, but there is a point and I'm not sure I could do my old TiBook 400 with Leopard. And since I am not using Tiger, and since the Titanium DVI only has 1GB of ram the lowest I'd go is the same model you have, my 17" PowerBook.
 
Not sure about laptops, because my iBook G3 clamshell is running 10.3, so no TenFourFox, and my iBook G3 snow has a stinky keyboard... So for laptop I'd probably go with my PowerBook G4 15" 1.67 GHz.

However, speed wise, I've used my G3 B&W 300 Mhz with 256 MB of RAM, and it runs TFF reasonably for my needs. I consider this machine my "baseline" machine because it's the lowest requirement computer that can run Tiger. :)

For the PPC Challenge, I intend to use a variety of machines to see what I can cope with and what works best for various tasks. :)
 
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eyoungren said:
One step back are the titanium PowerBooks.

The only model I'd be comfortable with would be the Titanium DVI. My son had that model and because of L3 cache it was a rocket. But it has a 1GB max ram limit.

I survived with a TiBook 400 for a number of years, but admittedly that was running Tiger when it got replaced. I later put Leopard on it but I wasn't the one using it. My wfe apparently didn't mind.

I am an advocate for Leopard over Tiger, but there is a point and I'm not sure I could do my old TiBook 400 with Leopard. And since I am not using Tiger, and since the Titanium DVI only has 1GB of ram the lowest I'd go is the same model you have, my 17" PowerBook.
Click to expand...
I could probably go with my 1GHz TiBook over the 12" PowerBook. Like you said, the L3 cache is what really makes these things snappy and really "feel" faster than the clock speed indicates. I find my 667MHz TiBook is much easier to use than the 1GHz iMac G4 17"
 
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Back on topic, I could manage with the TiBook 867MHz. The 667MHz suffers for lack of L3 cache. I'd honestly prefer the 15" DLSD for better performance. Desktops, only have a G5 2.0 DP so thats my only option.
 
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Desktop - Well... I don't know. My 1.42 eMac w/ 2 GB RAM is more than adequate for most of what I do, so I could probably stand to drop down to the 1.25 or even 1 GHz model, or equivalent spec PM/iMac.

Laptop - I bet I could get away with a 600 or 700 MHz iBook G3 if I had to, maybe even the 500 MHz if I tweaked it enough.
 
I could live on a dual 1ghz Quicksilver, but it would probably be a slow and tedious month. I'd be much more comfortable using a dual 2.7 or Quad(I actually use the former more often these days for PCI, but used a Quad as a main computer at work a year or two ago).

I wouldn't mind using a 1ghz Ti either, but would rather have a DLSD.

And, yes, as much as he may think otherwise this forum is operated by the MR administrators and operators and not one prolific poster frequents this section and uses it as his bully pulpit for inane nonsense. There's a reason why some of the "old regulars" don't post here that often anymore despite still being heavily involved in PPCs(I bought a pair of eMacs from another old regular just yesterday).
 
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Sorry if I offended anyone. Didn't know the color was so hard to read on Tapatalk.

However, I'm sure if I complained about the text color one of you would've said the same thing to me...
 
I can really do everything I need with an iBook/PowerBook-G4 plus iPhone combination.
The 2x1.2 GHz PM MDD and the 2x2.0 PM G5 are even better except from the noise and power-consumption.
Critical tasks at limit are:
- VPN/RDP to Win'08 server (with VirtualPC7/WinXP-Fundamentals/MS-RPD-Client)
- WhatsApp/GoogleMaps (with TFFBox)
- All Cloud services (with iPhone plus iFiles-App)
- iCal/Contacts (with SOHO Organizer)
- Video-streaming for Netflix/Amazon/iTunes (with iPhone)
- YouTube (with WebKit/ClickToPlugin/CorePlayer)
- AppleMusic (with iPhone/LineIn)
Other basics for my daily work are still kind of "up-to-date":
Office'08; DEVONthink; email; webDAV; FileSharing; ScreenSharing; etc.
The G3-Clamshell and Snow or G4-Titanium could also do a lot of stuff, that I need for daily work, but they are to be saved from being burned by daily task just for the pleasure of classic/os9 and other stuff from macintosh-garden etc on the go for a ride on sunny days ;)

If I look at the future of more and more software being offered as a service and subscription, I'm happy to stick with PPC and older intel-hardware and their compatible OS X.

Currently I also feel most comfortable with my favorite 2008 core2duo aluminium-MacBooks: a 2,4GHz 13" MacBook and a 2.53 GHz 15" MacBookPro (with USB 3.0 PC-Card) - both sport the removable battery-door with easy access to the hard drive and came for about 200€ each and work hand in glove with my PowerPC-Macs.
(It's worth to mention, that the PowerBook-like looking Core2Duo intel-MacBookPro's with silver keyboard (15" and 17"), 2.4 GHz (or more) processor have a superb bright antiglare-screen and can be found in really good condition for even less than 200€. Maybe a better value for money than their successors with the black keyboard and no PC-Card/34-slot)
 
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in regards to the font colour thing my view is this

akash.nu response to to Slix could of defiantly been worded/said better and cerently I would of mentioned that to akash if i was handling the situation

but it does not warrant Henrry/people to then start acting rude towards people about it (it becomes the whole tit for tat thing) its basically a nasty double ended pencil/sword/dildo

I dont personally have a problem with the font colour Slix used as i just use the normal MR website but i can see how it can be an issue for others who dont use the MR website.

going back on topic in terms of which slowest mac i could use... bit of a tough one... I can live without a computer for a month if i had to im not going to suddenly stop functioning :p (and I have actually done so in the past) the slowest computer I have used for any length of time in recent history was my Dual 1.42Ghz MDD I used that a couple years back for about a month when my main computer at the time died... handled the 20 tabs in TenForFox like a champ :)
 
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