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Moving To Mac Completely....

Goftrey

Goftrey

macrumors 68000
Original poster
May 20, 2011
1,853
75
Wales, UK
As you see in my signature I have my main desktop, which is a Mac and my main portable which is a PC...

I used to have an iBook G3 and loved it to do all the simple, non taxing things I need to do on my laptop, but that died. My Dell has been fantastic but I'm really not fussed on Windows...

My budget will be around £145 - £205 ($230 - $325)
***This budget comes from my Xmas money this year and the money from the Dell Laptop***

I've been looking at iBook G3's once again, your 700mhz, 384mb RAM, 20gb, Combo drive are going for between £65 - £75 ($105 - $120)

Or... I've been looking at PowerBook G4's loads recently, the earlier Titanium ones (550mhz G4, 512mb RAM, 40gb, Combo) are going for around £50 - £80 ($80 - $130)

These two are the ones I've narrowed it down to really, and it still will be another 1 1/2 - 2 months before I get one but I just want to see what you guys think is better option.

:apple:
 
Get a top of the line iBook G4 like I did. I only paid 150 for mine and it came in a flawless condition. The iBook does everything I need it to without a problem, and I get 5 hour battery life! See my signature.
 
adcx64 said:
Get a top of the line iBook G4 like I did. I only paid 150 for mine and it came in a flawless condition. The iBook does everything I need it to without a problem, and I get 5 hour battery life! See my signature.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply, I have looked in to them and agreed, they are gorgeous machines, I'd have to give up on the idea of getting myself a new desk then though...
 
As much as I hate to say this, I think it's a bad idea, either one will be a huge downgrade from a 2.3ghz laptop with a gig of ram to one of those ibooks or powerbooks.
 
Des Zac said:
As much as I hate to say this, I think it's a bad idea, either one will be a huge downgrade from a 2.3ghz laptop with a gig of ram to one of those ibooks or powerbooks.
Click to expand...

I could always just keep my Dell and buy the iBook G3/Powerbook G4 Titanium and just wait a while for the desk... ;)
 
I have an old Titanium G4/400. Performed very well. My daughter pretty much killed it sending it flying off our couch (but it was on it's second logic board then). It still functions sporadically.

Anyway, my son has an iBook G3/600 with 384MB and a 110GB hard drive. He's running Tiger. His iBook runs rings around my old PB (even when it was working right) even though the processor is a G3.

Just my two cents.
 
eyoungren said:
I have an old Titanium G4/400. Performed very well. My daughter pretty much killed it sending it flying off our couch (but it was on it's second logic board then). It still functions sporadically.

Anyway, my son has an iBook G3/600 with 384MB and a 110GB hard drive. He's running Tiger. His iBook runs rings around my old PB (even when it was working right) even though the processor is a G3.

Just my two cents.
Click to expand...

Thanks for this, this is the kind of reply I wanted, someone who's had experience with both of them
 
Goftrey said:
My Dell has been fantastic but I'm really not fussed on Windows...
Click to expand...

If you like the hardware, try installing a better operating system on it. There are a lot of Linux distros that allow you to run from a "live CD" to try out before making any changes to your hard drive.

You might start by trying Puppy. The entire OS loads into ram and you never have to change anything on your HD. You can save preferences to a thumb drive. The latest version allows access to Ubuntu software repositories.

You might not find one that you like as much as MacOS, but I bet it won't be difficult to find one that you like better than Windows.
 
I normally hate this idea but.... why not just buy a new netbook and hackintosh it.... its fairy easy and nearly 100% workable on most netbooks these days.

I see no point in paying £150ish for an ancient machine now... might as well just save your money until you can buy a more modern machine but... thats just my thoughts.

----------
ThunderSnake said:
If you like the hardware, try installing a better operating system on it. There are a lot of Linux distros that allow you to run from a "live CD" to try out before making any changes to your hard drive.

You might start by trying Puppy. The entire OS loads into ram and you never have to change anything on your HD. You can save preferences to a thumb drive. The latest version allows access to Ubuntu software repositories.

You might not find one that you like as much as MacOS, but I bet it won't be difficult to find one that you like better than Windows.
Click to expand...

Good idea but he already seems to have done this, check his sig. Ubuntu user. Great OS
 
ri0ku said:
I normally hate this idea but.... why not just buy a new netbook and hackintosh it.... its fairy easy and nearly 100% workable on most netbooks these days.
Click to expand...
That's what I'd do. I've used a N270 netbook w/ 1GB RAM for ~18months exclusively running 10.5.8 and it was really quite usable.

Just a couple of reasons why a (hackintoshed) netbook may be better than an iBook/PowerBook
  • You can update to 10.6.8
  • Most netbooks support 2GB
  • You get a webcam and mic
  • They use SATA hard drives (so you can install a >320GB w/o PATA<->SATA interface)
  • You can dual boot with windows (linux support for netbooks is very good in general)

Though netbooks are missing:
  • Optical drive
  • FireWire
  • A beautiful case, they're all ugly

According to geek bench the CPUs appear to be about on par. I have no idea about the GMA 950 vs iB/PB cards.
 
AdrianK said:
That's what I'd do. I've used a N270 netbook w/ 1GB RAM for ~18months exclusively running 10.5.8 and it was really quite usable.

Just a couple of reasons why a (hackintoshed) netbook may be better than an iBook/PowerBook
  • You can update to 10.6.8
  • Most netbooks support 2GB
  • You get a webcam and mic
  • They use SATA hard drives (so you can install a >320GB w/o PATA<->SATA interface)
  • You can dual boot with windows (linux support for netbooks is very good in general)

Though netbooks are missing:
  • Optical drive
  • FireWire
  • A beautiful case, they're all ugly

According to geek bench the CPUs appear to be about on par. I have no idea about the GMA 950 vs iB/PB cards.
Click to expand...

I used to have a compaq (HP) mini 331 that worked fantastic good screen size 11.6" good graphics nvidia ION better than the intel 950 etc, had 3 GB of ram too and some games were quite playable. Hackintosh worked great too although I only did it to see if I could do it. (Had a macbook pro)

Sold the mini 331 though in time for the iPad when it first launched.


mini-331-1002tu.jpg


They look great too.

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ri0ku said:
I used to have a compaq (HP) mini 331 that worked fantastic good screen size 11.6" good graphics nvidia ION better than the intel 950 etc, had 3 GB of ram too and some games were quite playable. Hackintosh worked great too although I only did it to see if I could do it. (Had a macbook pro)

Sold the mini 331 though in time for the iPad when it first launched.


Image

They look great too.
Click to expand...

Oh and it easily overclocked to 2.0 ghz using an overclock app (Cant remember its name but the whole netbook has a great hobbiest forum dedicated to modding it etc)
 
How to you Hackintosh a netbook?
Can someone give me a list of netbooks that work under OSX?
How easy is it to do?
Can someone give me a step by step guide on how to do it?

Thanks :D :apple:
 
Goftrey said:
How to you Hackintosh a netbook?
Can someone give me a list of netbooks that work under OSX?
How easy is it to do?
Can someone give me a step by step guide on how to do it?

Thanks :D :apple:
Click to expand...

Google it, theres hundreds of netbooks that work with it nearly all of them do it. Can't discuss it in these forums though. Its fairly straight forward to do and theres many places that tell you what you need if you google it.

Basically its at the point now where its as easy as putting the dvd disc of your software and running it... its no where near as complicated as doing it on the PC. Only up to snow leopard works on netbooks though and only up to a certain update (cant remember which) because Apple dropped atom support in one of the updates which stopped the development for netbooks from that update.

Its worth doing if you want the osx experience and cant afford it. However its pretty much illegal to do it although its always been argued that if you own the software you can do what you want with it. (Still its illegal even if you own the original OSX disc)

The best netbook to do it with is the MSI Wind (or advent 4211 which I still have hiding around somewhere in the house) that worked the most succesfull of any hackintosh everything worked perfectly... everything... they even had a snow leopard pre made hackintosh disc with everything you needed on it which would let you basically click install and within 30 mins it would be up and running.

Again though I must stress its not legal... people think that by buying the OSX disc will make up for doing hackintosh... well its still illegal to do... but thousands of people do it. I had it running on the advent 4211 for abouts 2 months then after making sure that this was the OS for me I went out and bought a £1500 macbook pro. Never regretted it.

----------
ri0ku said:
Google it, theres hundreds of netbooks that work with it nearly all of them do it. Can't discuss it in these forums though. Its fairly straight forward to do and theres many places that tell you what you need if you google it.

Basically its at the point now where its as easy as putting the dvd disc of your software and running it... its no where near as complicated as doing it on the PC. Only up to snow leopard works on netbooks though and only up to a certain update (cant remember which) because Apple dropped atom support in one of the updates which stopped the development for netbooks from that update.

Its worth doing if you want the osx experience and cant afford it. However its pretty much illegal to do it although its always been argued that if you own the software you can do what you want with it. (Still its illegal even if you own the original OSX disc)

The best netbook to do it with is the MSI Wind (or advent 4211 which I still have hiding around somewhere in the house) that worked the most succesfull of any hackintosh everything worked perfectly... everything... they even had a snow leopard pre made hackintosh disc with everything you needed on it which would let you basically click install and within 30 mins it would be up and running.

Again though I must stress its not legal... people think that by buying the OSX disc will make up for doing hackintosh... well its still illegal to do... but thousands of people do it. I had it running on the advent 4211 for abouts 2 months then after making sure that this was the OS for me I went out and bought a £1500 macbook pro. Never regretted it.
Click to expand...

I went out my way to research netbooks at the time as well (this was like 2 years ago) to make sure I would pick the best one for the hackintosh. That was my only real purpose of owning the netbook. I couldnt afford a real mac at the time and I was starting University then. I wanted a decent OS with some cool apps that I could use to help with some work.

After having it all up and running (perfectly) like I said, I had saved up a bit of cash and just went for it and got the macbook pro. The netbook hasnt been used since.

(Grr this is the 2nd time I have clicked the edit button to add to my post and its quoting me each time... sory about that guys...)

By the way the MSI wind is the american model, since your UK like me you want to look for the Advent 4211. Just checked ebay they are seriously cheap now... you can grab them for like £100... fantastic price for what it can do. I had OSX, Windows 7 and Ubuntu running on it.
 
I would either go with a hackint0sh, if you can figure it out, or the cheapest (working) Intel MacBook you can find. My main machine has been for the last 5 years has been a MacBook 2006 and it still runs pretty well. Prior to that it was a PowerBook G4 which I had for 4-5 years as well. I'd still be running the PowerBook as it works fine (despite the hard drive crash, but that is typical for older machines), but lots of new software is not compatible with it.
 
Yeah, I've heard and seen about the peeling Powerbook G4 Titanium peeling paint.

Overall though I think for web surfing, Youtube (Via Youview), emails, design and portability the iBook G3 is the best option as I know I can get a 900mhz, 640mb RAM, 40gb HDD, Mac OS X Tiger 10.4.11 for £70-£80...

Just my opinion...

BTW, just out of interest, aimed at the people's posts regarding Linux, I'm currently typing this on my Dell laptop with Ubuntu 11.10, I'm not fussed TBH, to me it feels like a cheap rip off of Mac OS X Leopard
 
johnhw said:
And also the infamous peeling paint.
Click to expand...

I had that with my TiBook/400. But it took about 7 years to show up and the only place I have it is around the hinges. I've also not ever had the reported issue with the hinges being faulty. Mine are still tight to the point that because my case is cracked (which happened first, around the audio out port) it bends the case around the hinges. Airport reception though sucked.

It still alive enough to serve up a game for my three year old daughter though.
 
Goftrey said:
Overall though I think for web surfing, Youtube (Via Youview), emails, design and portability the iBook G3 is the best option as I know I can get a 900mhz, 640mb RAM, 40gb HDD, Mac OS X Tiger 10.4.11 for £70-£80...
Click to expand...
That PowerBook you mentioned was much, much better value than that; considering you get a G4, the option to use 10.5 and the ability to use more RAM than 640mb.
 
i agree to sell the dell , and get a iBook G4 and netbook ideally one suitable to hackintosh , on some its a pain to get everything going and on some things cant be made going to due unsupported hardware

but here is a list of suitable netbooks for hackintoshing
http://www.mymacnetbook.com/compatibility-chart/

i had a MSI wind U100 and everything really worked out if the box , its available in white too
type in ebay "Hackintosh" and tick the box" include description" there are always some who sell their hackintoshed/hackintoshable netbooks , some come even with warranty

there are even some chinese netbook clones of iBook /MacBook with apple logo already working , only need to find out about the used hardware to hackintosh them , some come already hackintoshed out of the box
 
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MacHamster68 said:
i agree to sell the dell , and get a iBook G4 and netbook ideally one suitable to hackintosh , on some its a pain to get everything going and on some things cant be made going to due unsupported hardware

but here is a list of suitable netbooks for hackintoshing
http://www.mymacnetbook.com/compatibility-chart/

i had a MSI wind U100 and everything really worked out if the box , its available in white too
type in ebay "Hackintosh" and tick the box" include description" there are always some who sell their hackintoshed/hackintoshable netbooks , some come even with warranty

there are even some chinese netbook clones of iBook /MacBook with apple logo already working , only need to find out about the used hardware to hackintosh them , some come already hackintoshed out of the box
Click to expand...

Our family PC tower is an old thing an it's on it's way out, so my family will probably buy the Dell off me, which is easier than eBay :rolleyes:

And I have looked at Hackinoshes and the Dell Mini's tend to be the most popular on there, Intel atom 1.66ghz, 1gb RAM, 160gb HDD etc.. and they sell for around £100-£150 which is probably the way I would go if I wanted a hackintosh as I'm too lazy to hackintosh my Dell :p

Thanks for the reply
 
I had a Dell Mini 9 netbook in 2009 that I ran Leopard on. The needed BIOS and other tweaks only added 10-15 min to the install time.

If you buy a Dell just go to MyDellMini and you will find all the info and answers you need there. We have probably said all we are allowed to about it here.
 
and another tip if you choose any Mac , now is the worst time to buy Mac's 1-3 month before Christmas sellers try toget double the actual value and buyers bid like those are the last Mac's on the planet available .
Best time to buy is mid summer, then the prices are at the realistic value and sellers even accepting low offers , and buyers are in mid summer much more sensible when bidding .
 
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