Is the grim reaper knocking?

[mirorialto]

I have a 400mhz pismo which I love to bits but was thinking of upgrading to a new iBook (1ghz).
I mainly use it for general web browsing and stuff although sometimes I use photoshop pretty heavily and was wondering how much of an improvment I would see. I know my machine has enough power for what I do, but the other day I actually had to wait about 15 seconds for safari to CLOSE! I just sat there watching that stupid beach ball thing, anyway so how much better do you think it would really be?

Miro

 

[MacFan26]

You would definitely benefit from the upgrade. Apps would run quite a bit faster. I had a PB G3 too and when I got my PowerBook, it made my G3 seem painfully slow. Seems like an iBook would be great if you're doing a lot of web browsing, and will work a lot better with Photoshop than a G3.

 

[johnnowak]

To be honest, I wouldn't even consider running OS X on a 400MHz system without a Quartz Extreme compatible card. Your system is probably quite snappy with OS 9 though.

That being said... yes, upgrade. All the graphical stuff will be offloaded to the GPU, so your new system will most likely feel 3x to 4x faster than what you have now.

 

[mirorialto]

Thanks for the replys. I actually run osx as my main system, I orignaly got this computer as a 'hand-me-down' fomr my dad when he needed something speedier. At that point it was running os 9 and was shockingly bad, I then upgraded to osx as soon as it arrived and me dad has forever regretted buying his over-priced vaio! OSX is running pretty well for such an old machine, it's just all the little things that are starting to annoy me now. As I've got better on the computer everything is starting to seem so slow, I've started doing photoshop work more which is painfully slow, I can't even set something to print in text-edit without my music in iTunes skipping, in fact I can't even leave iCal or stickies open because eveything else really suffers.

Wow! This forum is like a psychiatrist's couch and I'm just letting go with all my emotional problems!

Next I'll be telling you about my repressed memories from that time when I... Oh wait, that's a bit intimate!

Anyway cheers guys, it seems like a iBook is in order, by the way is there likley to be any huge upgrade to it within about the next 9 months. Hmmm, oh I could go on like this forever and never end up buying annother computer

Ta

 

[Horrortaxi]

To be honest, I wouldn't even consider running OS X on a 400MHz system without a Quartz Extreme compatible card

Since you won't consider it, let me tell you how it works. It works great. Panther runs fantastic on a non QE Cube, and on a Sawtooth which I think does have QE. I've also used Panther on a 333 iMac--no QE--and it runs acceptably (on 256MB, could use more). I've run Jaguar on a couple of 233 G3s and it runs just fine, even on 256MB (though more is certainly better). I've also used Panther on a Pismo with 256MB. It ran just fine.

 

[matthewr]

Same Boat

Hey there - I'm in the same boat. I'm currently running a 400 Mhz Pismo that I've given up for dead twice now, only to have it come back to life (once was a loose card inside the computer, once was a faulty power cord). Anyway, the new powerbooks are sweet and I'm getting tired of waiting for Photoshop to convert Nikon NEF format pictures (takes many minutes...). I'm thinking about going for the 15 inch PB for the extra screen real estate...

 

[seamuskrat]

To be honest, I wouldn't even consider running OS X on a 400MHz system without a Quartz Extreme compatible card. Your system is probably quite snappy with OS 9 though.

That said, I have two older systems.

tiBook 400 with 384 RAM and Pismo 500 with 512 RAM. Both run 10.3.4

For normal use, like Safari, Office apps, PDF viewing, iTunes listening (not ripping), older games (Diablo II, Age of Empires 2, Starcraft, WC2) it works just fine. I have faster machines, so I know what I am missing.

There are times when I experience BRIEF pauses and beachballs, but they are usually very quick. All in all, I am always amazed that for normal work, these odler Macs hold up well with the latest OS. I also have a 300 MHZ Beige desktop with 10.3. that does just fine.

Especially if you do not o digital video, photoshop with filters or large images, and recent games, the older Macs will do you justice. of course, new Macs will be faster. But for many, the speed you get on an older Mac is more than enough.

Keep in mind the 'average**' PC sold today is still a 1.8 Celeron with 128 to 256 RAm and 60 gig drive and integrated video. Your older G3 is better in terms of video, about the same in CPU and you can add a FW drive for space and yours is older.

** Avergage PC specs sold during July 1 2003 to June 30 2004 ongoing
1.8 Celeron was first then 2.2 P4. 2.6 P4, etc. Surpringly the high end P4 were moderately low on the list.

Bottom line, if the Mac does what you need and its seems fine, keep it, uneless you need more. There will ALWAYS be a afaster one to buy later.

As for YOUR problem with Safari, try repairing permissions and every so often reboot the G3 based Macs to clear Virtual memory and temp files. I bet you are more than 95% filled on drive space and that will lsow you to a crawl.