iBook, maybe Clamshell for my sister

[kevin.rivers]

Hey, I am looking at getting an iBook for my sister. She is 14. Do you think a g3 is too slow for tiger? What is the cut off point, for usability with modern apps? She will just browse the web, listen to music and that sort of thing.

 

[shodekiagari]

I'm posting this from a dual usb 500 mhz G3 with 384 megs of ram and I've got to say, it's kind of painful. I'm running Panther, and it's just... slow. I definitely wouldn't want to run Camino + iTunes + Word. As it is, I don't even run Camino and iTunes. I'd say 800 mhz and 512 ram is where your computer starts to be usable. And, honestly, it's not that much more expensive.

Good luck. Better your sister have good experiences with macs, if she doesn't... well you don't want to be taking care of her new dell. 😉

 

[kevin.rivers]

I'm posting this from a dual usb 500 mhz G3 with 384 megs of ram and I've got to say, it's kind of painful. I'm running Panther, and it's just... slow. I definitely wouldn't want to run Camino + iTunes + Word. As it is, I don't even run Camino and iTunes. I'd say 800 mhz and 512 ram is where your computer starts to be usable. And, honestly, it's not that much more expensive.

Good luck. Better your sister have good experiences with macs, if she doesn't... well you don't want to be taking care of her new dell. 😉

Exactly. This won't be til November. I wonder how much the G4's will come down from now until November. I don't want to spend too much. Just enough so that she enjoys it and will last her a few years.

 

[zap2]

Wait, because if Merom MacBook(or even MacBook Pro) come out, used laptop prices will drive.. which is a good thing for you. I'd try and go G4 as it would just feel al around better.. don't put Tiger on a Clamshell, that just pushing the poor Mac. My brother's G4 1.25 had Tiger with 256Mbs og RAM and it was slow, with the Max RAM on a ClamShell being 320Mbs, it will crawl along. Get a G4 with the highest RAM it can hold... but really you can't tell were the used Mac market will go after Core 2 come to the MacBook line

 

[WannabeMacUser]

Hey, I am looking at getting an iBook for my sister. She is 14. Do you think a g3 is too slow for tiger? What is the cut off point, for usability with modern apps? She will just browse the web, listen to music and that sort of thing.

G3 is a really good iBook. I was once working with one connected to a surround sound stereo with my iPod plugged in with iTunes on and like, 9 internet tabs open. In about 3 hours it got rather uncomfortable with the heat but still toreable. It had upgraded Ram to 1.25gb and 40 gb hard drive and it ran quite fast. I think it had... Panther on it.

 

[kmarketing]

It had upgraded Ram to 1.25gb and 40 gb hard drive and it ran quite fast.

Are you sure you were using a g3 ibook? Only the g4 ones (and the later revisions at that) could hold that much memory.

 

[GimmeSlack12]

I think a clamshell is just too dated for today's OS X.

I'd try to find a 800mhz or so white iBook. A G3 is fine but you're gonna need over 600 MHz and a lot of RAM.

 

[KingYaba]

I don't know, I have found the Pismo to be very useful under Panther. Just the usb 1.1 is hella slow. (Could always use the firewire) I bet you could find an upgrade pismo (From g3 to g4) for cheap on ebay.

 

[Willis]

G4 laptops go for a fair price. thsi 800mhz G4 runs Tiger perfectly. not as quick as the powerbook, but i think 1Gb of Ram has kept it going without too much bother. Only after playing with the Intels have i realised how old it is.