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iBook G4 vs G3 PowerBook 500 - which one?

Moo-Boo

Moo-Boo

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 24, 2004
109
0
Beerburrum, Queensland, Australia
Greetings from the Antipodes, my enlightened Mac colleagues,

I have a dilemma on my hands. I need to make a decision that will determine if I buy a new G4 iBook or an older but suave G3 PowerBook (Pismo) 500. Unfortunately, I can't have both, as I am not a rich man (uh, yet) so I need to choose one or the other. There are many considerations here, such as price, new Mac OS, graphics power, screen size...it goes on and on. But I can tell you I have OS 10.2 and the apps to run the PowerBook.

What would you do if you were me? I would love to know what you think!

Thanks for indulging me,

Matt
 
iBook G4, end of discussion. The ibook will be worlds faster than the G3 powerbook. And it will of course come with panther, a warrenty and all those other goodies. Its really not a hard choice in my opinion.
 
Are ya kidding?

Older processor versus new? Faster versus slower? Are you kidding me? iBook G4, hands down.
 
Don't Bother

I've just been given an iBook G4 800 as a replacement for one of the disasterous G3 iBooks and I find it a great disappointment. It "hesitates" on every other action. Even "page downing" in a list of e-mails can cause the machine to pause for several seconds! I've run the xBench test and everything is supposedly running well. It's a machine that is seriously behind the competition. My advice is to rethink your plans completely.
 
iBook - no question

1. VRAM - G3: 8 MB, iBook: 32 MB.
2. CPU - G3: 500 Mhz, iBook: 800 - 1000 Mhz.
3. Hard drive, depending on model - G3: 6-18 MB. iBook: 30-60 MB.
4. Optical - G3: DVD. iBook: DVD with CD-R.
5. Warranty - G3: zip. iBook: 1 year plus.
6. OS X - G3: 10.2 with your upgrade. iBook: 10.3.
7. Max RAM: G3: 512 MB, iBook: 640 MB
7. iBook has USB 2 support - not well implemented yet, but when the OS finally does it right you're set with next generation.

Unless the G3 is free (or close to it), I don't see any benefits other than legacy ports.

I replaced my G4 400 Powerbook with the 933 iBook G4, and it's pretty nice (other than a bad RAM problem). If you shop at Macconnection, they give a 512 MB RAM upgrade for free.

http://www.macprices.com/ibooktracker.shtml
 
snooka said:
I've just been given an iBook G4 800 as a replacement for one of the disasterous G3 iBooks and I find it a great disappointment. It "hesitates" on every other action. Even "page downing" in a list of e-mails can cause the machine to pause for several seconds! I've run the xBench test and everything is supposedly running well. It's a machine that is seriously behind the competition. My advice is to rethink your plans completely.
Click to expand...

from the sound of it you're multitasking with a small amount of ram I bet. I have a system with a G4 that is 300mhz slower than what you have and I have no issues like that at all because my ram (although its not a boatload being at 512mb right now) is enough for osx to run smooth. osx needs 512 MB minimum. when I upgraded from 256 to 512 it made a HUGE difference in how EVERYTHING worked. its that good of a boost. if you have less than 512 under osx then you are robbing your system of its full power pretty much.
 
Even as the long term owner of a Pismo, I'd have to say get the G4. There are already software apps the Pismo will not run that the G4 iBook will and that will only get worse. And on thing I didn't really notice about the Pismo was how heavy and thick it is.

Do get more RAM for the iBook--it makes a huge difference.

Best,

Bob
 
The iBook is faster, lighter and neater. The Pismo is stylish but definitely Apple 90s now 21st Century Apple :p I'd get the iBook because of the Warranty, Airport Extreme opt, bluetooth opt, fast CPU, big hard disk, etc

The iBook's max ram can also be upgrades to slightly over 1gb.

I won't go on, get the iBook 800 G4 :p 12" and cheap!
 
snooka said:
I've just been given an iBook G4 800 as a replacement for one of the disasterous G3 iBooks and I find it a great disappointment. It "hesitates" on every other action. Even "page downing" in a list of e-mails can cause the machine to pause for several seconds! I've run the xBench test and everything is supposedly running well. It's a machine that is seriously behind the competition. My advice is to rethink your plans completely.
Click to expand...

I've got the same machine and it's smooth now, but when I first got it, it was really squirelly. I had plenty of memory (added a 512meg stick from Crucial), but it would hang and lock up nearly constantly. I did a fresh install of Panther, restored only the apps I needed from the restore CD and it hasn't hiccuped since. I think there is something wrong with the drive image they ship from the factory. I've chatted with a few other ibook owners who had the same results.

Good luck.
 
Thank you all for your excellent feedback...

My dear Mac colleagues,

Thank you so much to all of you who took the time to make their opinions known. It looks like the G4 iBook is the way to go. I will have to wait a little longer to save up for it, but it definitely seems well worth it. I'm certainly glad I came to the Mac Rumors forum and registered.

Thank you all so much once again, and do take good care of yourselves,

Matt
 
as a last minute chime in...

i just got a new ibook (see sig) to replace an aging 400MHz iMac DV. I am a graphic design major and (with ram upgrade) this machine suits my needs. you will be very happy with it. since october (original release date) apple has ironed out ALL the glitches. the one that i recieved a week ago is absolutely PERFECT. it has zero flaws. my guess is that they are all good now.

you will not regret the purchase of this machine. and if you do get it. get the 12in and upgrade. it just makes the most sense. let us know!
 
Hello evryone!

I do hope you're right about the RAM! Yes it is 256 at the moment and an extra 512 MB is on order but is yet to arrive. When fitted, I hope that I experience the same performance boost as several of you have indicated. Cheers.
 
snooka said:
I do hope you're right about the RAM! Yes it is 256 at the moment and an extra 512 MB is on order but is yet to arrive. When fitted, I hope that I experience the same performance boost as several of you have indicated. Cheers.
Click to expand...


you will have to swap out 128 for the 512 stick. unless your 256 is 1 chip. either way you will have at least 640 MB and thats just peachy for osx.
 
michaelrjohnson said:
as a last minute chime in...

i just got a new ibook (see sig) to replace an aging 400MHz iMac DV. I am a graphic design major and (with ram upgrade) this machine suits my needs. you will be very happy with it. since october (original release date) apple has ironed out ALL the glitches. the one that i recieved a week ago is absolutely PERFECT. it has zero flaws. my guess is that they are all good now.

you will not regret the purchase of this machine. and if you do get it. get the 12in and upgrade. it just makes the most sense. let us know!
Click to expand...


Will do, Michael...thanks also for the great confidence boost!

Matt
 
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