iBook G3 500mhz usable for Internet?

[jclardy]

My friend got an iBook off craigslist for cheap, he is not much of a computer user, he just wants to browse the net. The problem is that it seems extremely slow. It is running 10.3 I believe and has 128MB built in along with a 256mb stick.

Would an upgrade to a 512mb stick of ram help at all? Would an upgrade to tiger help? He is trying to be able to watch YouTube videos on it in sd quality.

Does anyone have an old iBook g3 they use for browsing and have any tips?

 

[OrangeSVTguy]

The 500mhz CPU isn't really powerful enough to be able to watch videos on youtube. Try to watch them in HTML5 and see if that helps. Upgrading to 640mb and Tiger won't really do much.

 

[MacintoshMaster]

My friend got an iBook off craigslist for cheap, he is not much of a computer user, he just wants to browse the net. The problem is that it seems extremely slow. It is running 10.3 I believe and has 128MB built in along with a 256mb stick.

Would an upgrade to a 512mb stick of ram help at all? Would an upgrade to tiger help? He is trying to be able to watch YouTube videos on it in sd quality.

Does anyone have an old iBook g3 they use for browsing and have any tips?

Hi there,
The 500Mhz with max ram should be able to do internet such as ebay, news etc... But not youtube. I think Mac os 9 would be the fastest - not sure.

 

[tayloralmond]

If you want that thing to be usable, you're going to have to:

1) Max out the RAM by adding a 512MB stick.
2) Completely wipe the HDD.
3) Install OS X 10.4 and perform all updates. (some say that 10.3 is faster, but no browser supports 10.3 anymore...and you'll never notice the difference in speed)
4) Optimize the OS (google "optimize OS X" and you'll find plenty of guides)
5) Install "Camino" internet browser.
6) Go into Camino's settings and turn on the "flash blocker" (this will help block unnecessary flash ads, etc. to reduce the CPU load)
7) Go to www.youtube.com/html5 and sign up for their "HTML5" testing program. HTML5 runs MUCH better on PPC than flash does.

That's about the best you'll be able to do. I have a 466MHz Clamshell iBook that I still use occasionally for light web browsing and it does well for a 10 year old computer. Luckily, the iBook you speak of has a 1024/768 resolution display so your browsing experience should be quite acceptable. Make no mistake, it won't be lightning fast, but it will get the job done. I'm always happy to see people keeping legacy PPC machines alive. If you have any other questions or need some tips on optimizing 10.4, feel free to PM me and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Best of luck with the iBook.

 

[76ShovelHead]

My 266mhz iMac still goes online, i use it as the Intranet server in my home now, but ill occasionally run America Online and safari. I suggest you install Click to Flash on safari so that your experience is better, but don't expect to use youtube.

 

[mrsir2009]

It will browse normal sites (like this one) fine. But it just won't handle flash videos very well. You can always try using the HTML5 BETA on Youtube though.

 

[76ShovelHead]

It will browse normal sites (like this one) fine. But it just won't handle flash videos very well. You can always try using the HTML5 BETA on Youtube though.

How well is HTML5 working for you? mine stutters every so many frames. I wonder why it does that, what browser/os/specs do you have?