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Need to buy Wife new Mac, Powerbook G4 no mas.

D

dsa420

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 23, 2007
440
14
So i have been considering getting my wife a new Macbook or MBA as I gave her my PB G4 1.5Ghz and its not longer getting the job done. Specifically the batter doesnt is dead and the computer wont work unless plugged into power source.

Final straw was tonight she was trying to watch some video via Hulu and it was totally choking (I am assuming cause the card is not wireless N), we have wireless N router at home.

So, all that said, what is best bet on getting her a new laptop? Thanks all in advance.
 
Shopping (ha ha). Honestly, just heavy internet browsing, video streaming (Hulu, YouTube, ETC). That is it...
 
If that is the case, they both have the same Wi-Fi card, so go with the MacBook. It is cheaper, still great and is still powerful for what she is doing.
 
Whats the best machine, price and place to buy at this point? I assume I should probably go with the unibody...

Assuming also that I can use my student discount and not opposed to Refurb from Apple.
 
dsa420 said:
Whats the best machine, price and place to buy at this point? I assume I should probably go with the unibody...

Assuming also that I can use my student discount and not opposed to Refurb from Apple.
Click to expand...

Umm... Perhaps you could look at either refurbs or newer older models from places like MacMall...
 
dsa420 said:
Whats the best machine, price and place to buy at this point? I assume I should probably go with the unibody...

Assuming also that I can use my student discount and not opposed to Refurb from Apple.
Click to expand...

Best Machine: 13" MacBook Pro @ 2.26 GHz
Price: $1,094.00, #1,199.00
Place: MacMall.com, Apple.com
 
Well, I'd go for the MBP 13". The entry-level one should be more than enough. Eventually you'd upgrade the RAM, but because of your wife's use, 2 Gb should be plenty of.

Where to buy: academic discount + back to school promotion = buy with :apple:
 
Also, just FYI, the reason hulu is stuttering on the Powerbook is because of the slow G4 processor, not because the powerbook doesn't support N wireless. Even good ol' 802.11b offers more than enough bandwidth to stream an online video.
 
Sold, appears that if I can sell the iPod touch that comes with the student discount, the cost of a new MBP is $960.67 net. This is less than a refurb MB, you guy are so smart!

Fourth Mac purchased on behalf of a family member in the past 2 months. Hope to keep driving up the value of my miniscule number of AAPL stock shares.
 
How much RAM does the Powerbook have?
I'm using a 1.67Ghz with 1 GB RAM and the only time Hulu noticeably chokes is when the internet is slow. Mostly a problem at school, and that would be campus-wide and an issue on both ethernet & wireless.
 
The Powerbook has 1.5GB of ram, could it also be that the machine is running Leopard that is slowing it down?

Looks like I might get myself a printer as well as I need a scanner/copier and fax, for those who still live in the stone age and fax information.

Considering I would only be using this "printer" for scanning, any reccomendations on the Apple site for the best scanner?

Last question, what to do with the Powerbook G4? It is a 1.5Ghz with 1.5GB of RAM and 160GB HDD. My guess is the most it will fetch on ebay is $200, anyone think differently?

I was thinking I would just keep it as a test box, run the developer Snow Leopard on it...
 
Ram doesn't have much to do with it. Flash is a big resource hog (CPU specifically) on mac. G4's just don't have the chops to handle it, especially if you want hi res or fullscreen (on hulu, for example, I had a upgraded quicksilver and still have a 1.22Ghz ibook and neither could do fullscreen or hi res).

For her uses, anything made in the last 2 or 3 years should be fine. They have a refurb Alu for 950, but the current whitebook will work fine. Just be sure to stick with Intel processors :p

As for selling, I think you could easily get ~$300 for the Powerbook, Even with the bad battery people still buy those things up for ridiculous prices.
 
Everymac.com
for max ram and other info such as estimated computer age.

Flash is poorly made for OSX. Mp4 files play much better.
 
1. Consider going on ebay or scrounging around 3rd party repair shops for another battery. I found a local place that sold me a battery that had been sitting around for powerbook repairs, and bought it for $30. Voila, it had 98% of its original capacity! Also consider the ziplock in the freezer trick for the old battery as a hail mary.

While I normally detest car analogies, replacing a laptop due to a dead battery is like buying a new car because the ashtray is full! If nothing else, you'll get more money for the powerbook with a functioning battery rather than a dead one.

2. There's a couple of good sites online for optimizing an older mac to run tiger and leopard more efficiently. They mostly involve tricks like turning off eye candy applications and other processes that you're unlikely to use.

3. My powerbook can struggle with flash based video, but it handles it just fine if I wait for a minute and let it buffer for a bit.

4. Try craigslist to see what folks around you are trying to get out of their systems.
 
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