New Purchase.

[Jamiet361]

For those that care, I have managed to bag a 1GHz Tibook for £45 on eBay . The machine came with 1GB Ram and a 250GB HDD, meaning that it is essentially maxed out. I have already installed Leopard, which runs quite well considering the reputation it has gained for being a bit of a resource hog. I also managed to install OS 9 on a separate partition, which is great for running a few classic games!

Cosmetically, the machine is in almost perfect condition despite being 12 years old. The line running down the screen is a shame, but I guess you get used to it as you use it.

I do have a couple of questions however.

1) USB 1.1 is killing me. I understand that you can add USB 2.0 through the PC Card bus, but are there any specific brands to buy from that support OS X? Or do most generic ones from eBay work?

2) The AirPort card in the laptop hardly supports any modern wireless networks, meaning I have yet to actually surf the web on this thing. If I buy a cheap USB Wifi adapter and place it in the USB 1.1 hub, how much of a bottleneck am I going to get? Will range be compromised as well as speed?

Thanks guys.

 

[eyoungren]

For those that care, I have managed to bag a 1GHz Tibook for £45 on eBay . The machine came with 1GB Ram and a 250GB HDD, meaning that it is essentially maxed out. I have already installed Leopard, which runs quite well considering the reputation it has gained for being a bit of a resource hog. I also managed to install OS 9 on a separate partition, which is great for running a few classic games!

Cosmetically, the machine is in almost perfect condition despite being 12 years old. The line running down the screen is a shame, but I guess you get used to it as you use it.

I do have a couple of questions however.

1) USB 1.1 is killing me. I understand that you can add USB 2.0 through the PC Card bus, but are there any specific brands to buy from that support OS X? Or do most generic ones from eBay work?

2) The AirPort card in the laptop hardly supports any modern wireless networks, meaning I have yet to actually surf the web on this thing. If I buy a cheap USB Wifi adapter and place it in the USB 1.1 hub, how much of a bottleneck am I going to get? Will range be compromised as well as speed?

Thanks guys.

These Macs are rockets! My son has your Mac, although his case is more worn.

I bought a USB 2.0 card off eBay some time ago for my AlBook. When I get the time I will look it up and post back here for you. Works well in my Albook so it should be ok in your TiBook.

As to Airport, I don't really have any recommendations. My son's TiBook is the slowest one on our home network so my network is geared to include his Mac. I've yet to try any other solution.

 

[Hrududu]

If you use USB 1.1 for your faster WiFi adapter, it will just end up slower than your AirPort card. 802.11b transmits at 11 Mbp/s and USB 1.1 maximum throughput is 12 Mbp/s. The problem is USB speed is effected by CPU usage and other USB devices, so it won't really hit that top speed. What I would probably do is buy a G PCMCIA card and use that if you really can't deal with the old AirPort card and then just suck it up on the slow USB. The USB ports will give you far less compatibility problems than the old AirPort card.

 

[Altemose]

For those that care, I have managed to bag a 1GHz Tibook for £45 on eBay . The machine came with 1GB Ram and a 250GB HDD, meaning that it is essentially maxed out. I have already installed Leopard, which runs quite well considering the reputation it has gained for being a bit of a resource hog. I also managed to install OS 9 on a separate partition, which is great for running a few classic games!

Cosmetically, the machine is in almost perfect condition despite being 12 years old. The line running down the screen is a shame, but I guess you get used to it as you use it.

I do have a couple of questions however.

1) USB 1.1 is killing me. I understand that you can add USB 2.0 through the PC Card bus, but are there any specific brands to buy from that support OS X? Or do most generic ones from eBay work?

2) The AirPort card in the laptop hardly supports any modern wireless networks, meaning I have yet to actually surf the web on this thing. If I buy a cheap USB Wifi adapter and place it in the USB 1.1 hub, how much of a bottleneck am I going to get? Will range be compromised as well as speed?

Thanks guys.

This thread may help you with the wireless adapter!

Personally, I know that it is best to use a small dongle rather than a large USB adapter. I recommend the Netgear WNA1000m. It works well under Leopard (Never tried under Tiger) and is small and sleek. Check it out. It wasn't an expensive adapter at all and actually works pretty good.