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Last gen g4 12" powerbook-worth $400 usd

last gen 12" pb, max ram, 80 gig hd-worth 400 USD?

  • Yes! Go for it! That's a sweet little machine for the price!

    Votes: 14 63.6%

  • Ehh, I'd get them to come down some more first.

    Votes: 3 13.6%

  • Powerpc is SO three years ago. Find a used macbook!

    Votes: 5 22.7%
  • Total voters
    22
  • Poll closed .
clyde2801

clyde2801

macrumors 601
Original poster
Mar 6, 2008
4,365
54
In the land of no hills and red dirt.
I've found a last gen g4 powerbook 1.5 ghz, 1.25 gigs ram, superdrive, 80 gig hard drive on CL in my area, and I think I can get them down to $400 USD.

I'm looking for the equiavelent of a netbook for browsing, emailing, and word documents. Full sized keyboard is nice, too. Also will have ilife and office 08 installed.

Is it worth $400 for the form factor, etc?
 
Looks like they're going for around $500 on eBay so $400 isn't unreasonable. It's not that far in price from a used macbook, but the 12"ers are commanding a premium for the super-small size. Have you considered hackintoshing? A brand new Wind with a 6-cell battery is (quite literally) going for $300 shipped today.
 
Nah dude, don't go with the Wind or Lenovo. The PowerBook looks way nicer, and I think it's about as a fast as a Wind. I've got the 15" 1.5 with 1.25 GB RAM, and it chugs along just fine. I got iLife '09 and iWork '09 working, there's not much you can't do on these machines. I'd say go for it.
 
on some benchmark testing the G4 is about as fast as an Atom, so yeah. go for it! even though PPCs are outdated!
 
NC MacGuy said:
Buy the PB. The 12" 1.5 PB is one of the best laptops Apple ever made. I have a couple and they still work great.
Click to expand...

+1

I have a 12" 1.33 PB, 1.5 GB RAM, 120 GB hard drive. One of the best laptops. I use it for email, web, presentations, and other processor easy tasks. It's awesome and super portable.
 
If you can get images of the case, then.... based on how clean and dent free it is, $400 is a steal.

If it's not as flawless as we'd all love them to be, then you could attempt a talk down to $370 or $350.
 
update

Went to look at the machine and it is FLAWLESS. Tiny scratch or two on the bottom case, Pinhead chip by the latch. Barely noticeable flexing of the aluminum case, which I was prepared for. Worked as promised. Bought it for $400, this afternoon, typing on it now.

As much as I've been singing the praises of my hacked lenovo netbook, there is no comparison to this puppy. The keyboard is luxurious by comparison, and the internet is pretty snappy, too. Downloading the updates to 10.5.6 and will install the safari beta to speed it up further. Forgot this model had a two fingered scroll, too.

What a well built, solid beauty this is. I'm in love with it. Gorgeous screen on it, too. I'm recommending the powerbook and the 12" ibook to people I know wanting a netbook. Honestly, for my purposes, I would have taken this over a macbook for the same money.

Thanks to everyone for the advice on this thread.
 
They're great machines, but those CCFL back-lit screens pale in comparison to a new LED-backlit netbook screen. The PB's screen does have a higher (i.e., useful) resolution though. ;)
 
IMO, the 12" 1024x768 laptops were a perfect combination of compactness and usability.
 
clyde2801 said:
Went to look at the machine and it is FLAWLESS. Tiny scratch or two on the bottom case, Pinhead chip by the latch. Barely noticeable flexing of the aluminum case, which I was prepared for. Worked as promised. Bought it for $400, this afternoon, typing on it now.

As much as I've been singing the praises of my hacked lenovo netbook, there is no comparison to this puppy. The keyboard is luxurious by comparison, and the internet is pretty snappy, too. Downloading the updates to 10.5.6 and will install the safari beta to speed it up further. Forgot this model had a two fingered scroll, too.

What a well built, solid beauty this is. I'm in love with it. Gorgeous screen on it, too. I'm recommending the powerbook and the 12" ibook to people I know wanting a netbook. Honestly, for my purposes, I would have taken this over a macbook for the same money.

Thanks to everyone for the advice on this thread.
Click to expand...

Please don't rub it in, I miss my 12" PB. But do what I did with mine: upgrade the hard drive. Someone on MR said that now you can get ata hd's that are 320gb. Last year the biggest one made was 250gb and I dropped one into my 12" PB 1.5ghz. Also make sure your ram is maxed to 1.25gbs.

Also disable Dashboard if you don't need it. It really sucks up CPU on the G4s. I disabled it on my G5's as well. Good luck with your PB!

P.S. I owned both the combo drive 1.5ghz PB 12" 1.5ghz and the superdrive models. The first only had a 60gb oem hard drive, the superdrive and last revision model of it had an 80gb. If you are really really brave, you can take the whole thing apart and put a dual layer superdrive in it. HD and Superdrive and ram are really the only upgrades available, tho Daystar had a CPU upgrade for it a while back to 2.0 ghz I believe -- but it was like 500 dollars and made the machines run very hot.
 
When I travel out of town, I bring my trusty 12" PB. My 15" or 17" MBPs are too heavy and large to carry it along with me. I like the fact that I can use the iSkin and the Radtech screen protector at the same time when I close my 12" PB (less hassle as I don't need to put away the iSkin every time I close it).
 
California said:
Please don't rub it in, I miss my 12" PB. But do what I did with mine: upgrade the hard drive. Someone on MR said that now you can get ata hd's that are 320gb. Last year the biggest one made was 250gb and I dropped one into my 12" PB 1.5ghz. Also make sure your ram is maxed to 1.25gbs.

Also disable Dashboard if you don't need it. It really sucks up CPU on the G4s. I disabled it on my G5's as well. Good luck with your PB!

P.S. I owned both the combo drive 1.5ghz PB 12" 1.5ghz and the superdrive models. The first only had a 60gb oem hard drive, the superdrive and last revision model of it had an 80gb. If you are really really brave, you can take the whole thing apart and put a dual layer superdrive in it. HD and Superdrive and ram are really the only upgrades available, tho Daystar had a CPU upgrade for it a while back to 2.0 ghz I believe -- but it was like 500 dollars and made the machines run very hot.
Click to expand...

I saw a 320 gig at BB online, and I thought about it, but I've still got almost 50 gigs on the 80 gig hard drive that's in it. (If the HD replacement didn't look like a total PITA I would have done it already, though.) For the same reason, I'm opting to stay with the original superdrive it came with. Keep in mind I'm using this in the same capacity as a netbook: blogging, browsing, word processing, email, etc. I had keyboard and jumping cursor issues with my hackbook air. And the machine is already maxed out on ram, thankfully (wish it could go higher than 1.25 gigs...).

Thanks for the tip on disabling dashboard. I'll try it and see how it works.
 
Abstract said:
They're great machines, but those CCFL back-lit screens pale in comparison to a new LED-backlit netbook screen. The PB's screen does have a higher (i.e., useful) resolution though. ;)
Click to expand...

I liked the brightness of the uni MB's screen, but I personally thought it was crap otherwise. I'm perfectly content with my mini PB's display. Maybe the fact that I spent a third on it compared to the MB (less including tax) factors into it.
 
Everytime more and more these threads pop up makes me want to sell my Aspire One:rolleyes: and get a PowerBook / iBook.
 
clyde2801 said:
I saw a 320 gig at BB online, and I thought about it, but I've still got almost 50 gigs on the 80 gig hard drive that's in it. (If the HD replacement didn't look like a total PITA I would have done it already, though.) For the same reason, I'm opting to stay with the original superdrive it came with. Keep in mind I'm using this in the same capacity as a netbook: blogging, browsing, word processing, email, etc. I had keyboard and jumping cursor issues with my hackbook air. And the machine is already maxed out on ram, thankfully (wish it could go higher than 1.25 gigs...).

Thanks for the tip on disabling dashboard. I'll try it and see how it works.
Click to expand...


It's not as hard as it seems to replace the hard drive and you would be very surprised to see how much that new 320gig speeds up your Powerbook.

The hard thing replacing on a PB 12" is the optical drive. But I've done it. The hard drive is much easier going, really, just requires you keep track of your screws in right order. Egg cartons are perfect for the job.
 
California said:
It's not as hard as it seems to replace the hard drive and you would be very surprised to see how much that new 320gig speeds up your Powerbook.

The hard thing replacing on a PB 12" is the optical drive. But I've done it. The hard drive is much easier going, really, just requires you keep track of your screws in right order. Egg cartons are perfect for the job.
Click to expand...

I'm tempted, thanks for the tip about the egg carton. What I think I may do is buy the 2nd drive, clone my existing setup to it and keep it in a drawer for when my drive finally does go out...
 
All this talk of 12 inch Powerbooks is making me tear up over getting rid of mine. :(

I sold my baby at the height of it's popularity when the 13 inch MacBook came out and there was no 12 inch replacement in sight. I nearly traded my new Blackbook strait up for the Powerbook in terms of price, so I guess I can't complain.:D

I do miss it's portability but don't miss the slower G4 processor.
 
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