My neighbor has a Tangerine flavored iBook Clamshell. It has a dead battery unit, but 300 Megs of RAM, a 20 gig HD, and 300 MHz processor. It is no longer being used, and they accepted an offer of $120. Is this a great deal? Is this a good Mac for someone who is holding out for an iMac, and will buy a new laptop in 2 years?
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iBook Clampshell : $120
- Thread starter Yamisky0
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Well, it's not a *great* deal, but it's not terrible (after having a look at eBay prices).
That said, I personally would never spend that much money on a computer that old just to have a Mac, but if it makes you happy....
That said, I personally would never spend that much money on a computer that old just to have a Mac, but if it makes you happy....
Would this be as an only computer? I'd say Clamshells are not worth much more than novelty or collectors items these days and that price seems rather high to me. I mean the clamshells' resolution is 800x600, that's not really usable anymore imo.
Its clamshell not clampshell.
Unless your taking about this clampshell then its not a very good deal
Unless your taking about this clampshell then its not a very good deal
Now now, let's not be picky.
That's a pretty good deal. Not *really good* but better then a just OK deal.
If this is your first Mac, don't worry about it. Contrary to widespread belief, iBook G3's are still great machines. (using mine to type this post; hell, I play Halo on this thing!)
Now now, let's not be picky.
That's a pretty good deal. Not *really good* but better then a just OK deal.
If this is your first Mac, don't worry about it. Contrary to widespread belief, iBook G3's are still great machines. (using mine to type this post; hell, I play Halo on this thing!)
why do i find that hard to beleive? the halo bit neway
I'm pretty amazed myself. I didn't believe it could be done either, but other people swore it could be done. Low and behold, it runs, albeit a little laggy. And granted, I don't have a clamshell, but an 800 MHz "IceBook". I don't think a clamshell could run Halo, but the OP's has twice the RAM mine has (mine only has 256 MB) so it's still great for a non-gamer's computer, for internet, email music, etc.
Despite what cassie and others may have posted, I'd call it a pretty terrible deal. Remember, ebay is almost invariably overpriced.
I'd hardly call it 'usable' in os x. Hell my 450mhz G3 imac is barely usable.
You have no chance of playing any near-recent game on it.
In the pc world, I just chucked out a working 433mhz celeron+motherboard because it was worth precisely zero. I'd say the same for the clamshell.
I'd hardly call it 'usable' in os x. Hell my 450mhz G3 imac is barely usable.
You have no chance of playing any near-recent game on it.
In the pc world, I just chucked out a working 433mhz celeron+motherboard because it was worth precisely zero. I'd say the same for the clamshell.
I love playing Age of empires and warcraft on my clamshell. It also runs nes emulators fine.
Its just not good with any sort of videos. It will play divx files in a small window. You have to let youtube download completely and shut everything else off to watch something, and its still pretty crappy. WMA files were surprisingly ok with flip for mac. These observations were made with a 366 indigo with 320 mb of ram. The 466 I have is a little better and plays dvds.
As for function, the wallstreet I have is great for bboards and is still my favorite for word processing, it has a great feeling keyboard. It all depends on what you want to do with it.
As a note dual usb ibook g3s are still great usable computers for web 2.0 stuff. I have used almost every model and the 900 with 32mb vram was of course the best. You can snag those for about $200 now and I would recommend that for a primary cheap apple laptop. The clamshell is more of a guest computer and sits around with my coffee table books. It is still just too cool to get rid of
Its just not good with any sort of videos. It will play divx files in a small window. You have to let youtube download completely and shut everything else off to watch something, and its still pretty crappy. WMA files
were surprisingly ok with flip for mac. These observations were made with a 366 indigo with 320 mb of ram. The 466 I have is a little better and plays dvds.As for function, the wallstreet I have is great for bboards and is still my favorite for word processing, it has a great feeling keyboard. It all depends on what you want to do with it.
As a note dual usb ibook g3s are still great usable computers for web 2.0 stuff. I have used almost every model and the 900 with 32mb vram was of course the best. You can snag those for about $200 now and I would recommend that for a primary cheap apple laptop. The clamshell is more of a guest computer and sits around with my coffee table books. It is still just too cool to get rid of
Well, I'd have to disagree with you. I absolutely love it. I am currently typing this post from it. Even if the price I named was bad for me, I feel good as they were giving the money to their son who was the technical owner of the laptop(though he hadn't used it in months). It is running the most recent version of 10.3.9 with all of the security updates, no lag or anything. It is really an amazing operating system, and I cannot wait for my grandfather to send me his iMac and for WWDC for the new announcement.
I am currently typing this post from it. Even if the price I named was bad for me, I feel good as they were giving the money to their son who was the technical owner of the laptop(though he hadn't used it in months). It is running the most recent version of 10.3.9 with all of the security updates, no lag or anything. It is really an amazing operating system, and I cannot wait for my grandfather to send me his iMac and for WWDC for the new announcement.
Great!!
A lot of people here are spoiled when it comes to performance. Which is not unusual for mac lovers . Take it out, and show of your vintage, useful and functional ibook. How many people can say their 8 year old computer works great and they use it as their primary machine!!!!!!!!!
Kudos for Apple and you!
A lot of people here are spoiled when it comes to performance. Which is not unusual for mac lovers
. Take it out, and show of your vintage, useful and functional ibook. How many people can say their 8 year old computer works great and they use it as their primary machine!!!!!!!!!Kudos for Apple and you!
I would like to know just how many of you that say how slow and bad this machine is have ever used a clamshell iBook. I have a indigo iBook 366, it runs 10.4 sure its not a intel or a G4 but it gets what I want done, I use it to surf the web, I have a small chunk of my most recently played music and I use it to store sheet music when I meet with my band. Its my secondary laptop and its a champ. I would say $120 is not a bad deal at all.
Not too bad
$120 is not much money and if it does what you need it to do right now and for the next few months you have got a computer that works and does what you need. This machine was once a top-modern computer that ran Office, Mail and web browsers. It can do it now, but you must realize that you will have to run 3-6 year old versions of some software.
For 2 years? Forget it, you should only plan to do what you need to do right now. This machine will not be good for things beyound that. Also forget buying it to use as a laptop, you will not get a battery that works well unless you buy a new one (I think they are around $120 from Apple but could be wrong there). So basically you have a desktop and a little display. The cpu is fine for a lot of things, but what you will need is more hard drive space. At least if you have music and digital photos or want to install more than the most basics apps onto it. 512 MB is great for that machine!
$120 is not much money and if it does what you need it to do right now and for the next few months you have got a computer that works and does what you need. This machine was once a top-modern computer that ran Office, Mail and web browsers. It can do it now, but you must realize that you will have to run 3-6 year old versions of some software.
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