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If you insist on going PPC, invest $100 (btw, I dont think ANY PPC macs are worth more than $200) in an IDE SSD. You should be able to find a 32GB SSD for less than $100. The SSD, even with IDE, will conceal a lot of the sluggishness of PPC. Leopard on my 1.33 12" PBG4 actually felt "snappy" (as expected, it still can't handle h264 and HD videos) , and I'm sure Tiger will be even faster. Office 2004&2008, which takes notoriously long to load even on C2D Macs, starts up in an instant.
 
If you insist on going PPC, invest $100 (btw, I dont think ANY PPC macs are worth more than $200) in an IDE SSD. You should be able to find a 32GB SSD for less than $100. The SSD, even with IDE, will conceal a lot of the sluggishness of PPC. Leopard on my 1.33 12" PBG4 actually felt "snappy" (as expected, it still can't handle h264 and HD videos) , and I'm sure Tiger will be even faster. Office 2004&2008, which takes notoriously long to load even on C2D Macs, starts up in an instant.

good to know, i was looking a SSDs for christmas, hopefully that should breathe some new life into my powerbook.
 
If you insist on going PPC, invest $100 (btw, I dont think ANY PPC macs are worth more than $200) in an IDE SSD. You should be able to find a 32GB SSD for less than $100. The SSD, even with IDE, will conceal a lot of the sluggishness of PPC. Leopard on my 1.33 12" PBG4 actually felt "snappy" (as expected, it still can't handle h264 and HD videos) , and I'm sure Tiger will be even faster. Office 2004&2008, which takes notoriously long to load even on C2D Macs, starts up in an instant.

That really won't work unfortunately. I keep a lot of iTunes music and video on my laptop. I would need at least 100GB. If he will give me that MacBook for $500, I'll take that
 
I am running my 1.5ghz 12" Powerbook with a 320gb hard drive and maxed 1.25gb ram.

It plays videos great, due to the 64mb vram video card, and the large fast hard drive speeds it up immensely.


If and when large SSDs come down in price, it is going into this machine for speed reasons.
 
Hi again,

If you can get a Core 2 Duo Macbook for $500, that's a smoking price and you should probably go that route. These machines go for as much as $800 used on Ebay.

And if you can get a 17" Powerbook 1.67Ghz for $200, that's arguably an even better deal. These machines go for as much as $500 or more on Ebay.

You do want to be sure that this Macbook is completely healthy though. The early Macbooks are known to have power related problems, bad batteries, bad battery connectors, inner magsafes, etc. Do make sure that the battery is in good shape and is actually charged properly by the Magsafe power adapter before purchase.

To see the cycle count of the battery, go to --> :apple: --> About this Mac --> More Info --> Power. Anything over 250 cycles is getting old and will not perform well.
 
I am running my 1.5ghz 12" Powerbook with a 320gb hard drive and maxed 1.25gb ram.

It plays videos great, due to the 64mb vram video card, and the large fast hard drive speeds it up immensely.


If and when large SSDs come down in price, it is going into this machine for speed reasons.

Hi, I am new of the forum. I have the same laptop as you have but I see that you have put a 320gb hard drive...
Is the temperature ok? Or the fan is driving you crazy? I am interested in this kind of upgrade...
 
OP did you end up purchasing something?

I had a 12" PB 1.5ghz with 1.25GB, and upgraded to a 120GB HD. Now I have a 13" MacBook Pro...I would never go back to that PB. It sucked for browsing the web, Youtube and various other video sites. Hulu especially sucked, and I rely on that to catch up on TV shows.

Get the Macbook, deals can be found. Especially here in a couple of weeks. This is assuming you haven't purchased anything yet.


My 2 cents.

Forgot to add, ever thought about using your student discount and getting a brand new Mini for $50 more than you're trying to get the Macbook price to? I had a 2 ghz Mini before this MBP and loved it.
 
OP did you end up purchasing something?

Yes. A week and a half ago I went to my local Apple Store and picked up a new Mac mini. It is the hi-end model with 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM, NVIDIA 9400M graphics, and 320GB hard drive. I absolutely love it. My Dell Latitiude is a pain to use compared to it. I bought a desktop since I was planning on getting a new MacBook Pro in a year and a half, and the mini was more powerful than the MacBooks I was looking at. But the guy at the store didn't give me the student discount since I am just in my county's selective vocational school, not a college (even though my friends got their MacBooks and MacBook Pros with the discount and they're in the same grade as me :mad:). Now I just need an Apple Mouse, a new display, and a webcam and my workstation is complete. :apple:
 
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