Powerbook G4 1.25GHz, 1.25GB ram, and Leopard

[Nero9171]

I checked the battery, its good.

I am very torn between keeping it and selling it for a Macbook. Could I get a few personal opinions? I dont care that the Macbook is considered lower end to the average person. I just want the best performance

 

[thegord]

im using the same machine right now with leopard, dashboard lags a bit but everthing works pretty much fine photoshop etc on this one.. my ram is maxed at 2 gigs. i just bought a mac pro so this is just for net stuff basically

 

[CanadaRAM]

Hang on before buying eBay RAM -- Your 1.25 GHz AlBook uses processor-slewing, and most PC2700 SODIMMs will crash and burn as soon as the machine goes into power save mode because almost all SODIMMs are not processor slewing compatible.

For that machine I highly recommend that you purchase from a knowlegeable dealer who knows the difference between these machines and other PBG4's, and guarantees compatibility.

If you are selecting your own RAM, then only choose Samsung original modules (not Samsung chips on someone else's board), these will have a white sticker with the blue Samsung oval logo on it.

 

[latestmonkey]

Hang on before buying eBay RAM -- Your 1.25 GHz AlBook uses processor-slewing, and most PC2700 SODIMMs will crash and burn as soon as the machine goes into power save mode because almost all SODIMMs are not processor slewing compatible.

For that machine I highly recommend that you purchase from a knowlegeable dealer who knows the difference between these machines and other PBG4's, and guarantees compatibility.

If you are selecting your own RAM, then only choose Samsung original modules (not Samsung chips on someone else's board), these will have a white sticker with the blue Samsung oval logo on it.

YES YES YES! Be VERY CAREFUL with the ram. I have this exact same powerbook and I bought the ram recommended by Crucial and it still crapped out. Gotta get the original stuff.

 

[lord patton]

Can you ever see yourself doing video in the next 2 years? Anything such as:

ripping and converting DVD.
downloading and converting youTube videos.
Uploading from a camera or DVcam and cutting short clips.
Scoring audio for an video for fun.

When it comes to an processor intensive video tasks, the intels make the G4s look a horse and buggy at the indy 500.

 

[Nero9171]

Can you ever see yourself doing video in the next 2 years? Anything such as:

ripping and converting DVD.
downloading and converting youTube videos.
Uploading from a camera or DVcam and cutting short clips.
Scoring audio for an video for fun.

When it comes to an processor intensive video tasks, the intels make the G4s look a horse and buggy at the indy 500.

I rip/convert all my DVD's that I purchase. An AVI backup, and MP4 for my touch. I dont really see myself doing much of that on any notebook, as I keep them on my desktop until I want them. No need wasting my notebooks HD space.


But I may want to start cutting and making video's. Is that totally not doable on the G4 I have?

 

[latestmonkey]

I rip/convert all my DVD's that I purchase. An AVI backup, and MP4 for my touch. I dont really see myself doing much of that on any notebook, as I keep them on my desktop until I want them. No need wasting my notebooks HD space.


But I may want to start cutting and making video's. Is that totally not doable on the G4 I have?

not unless you want to pull your hair out.

 

[Nero9171]

not unless you want to pull your hair out.

Is Garageband going to be the same? Or will I be able to do that?

 

[latestmonkey]

Is Garageband going to be the same? Or will I be able to do that?

I never used garageband. I did do some audio editing with audacity.

Video is what is just unbearable. Still, I could rip DVDs, DVD2ONE, etc no problem. You just dont want to be doing anything more than LIGHT video editing.

 

[foeniox]

hey, exactly the same machine as you
with:
ram at 2gb
hd at 7200rpm

i totally agree with the poster above about not wanting to do anything other than light video editing on this machine, its not bad and it will just about get you through the next 2 years, but i would highly suggest getting a macbook if you possibly possibly can. saying that, i've maxed everything out and overclocked the gpu a little, and if i really had no other choice it might take me through the next 2 years, its just compared to even the previous gen macbooks there really is no contest. This powerbook's geekbench score is around 600 (670max), whereas macbooks were around 2000 on their 1st generation, now theyre around 2500/2600. it is an absolutely massive difference.



in answer to your garageband requests, currently i have the latest webkit build(think safari) with 5 tabs, mail, itunes and a pdf open.
garageband took 31 secs to launch.

when using it its fine, i've never have many issues, but the beachball will become your friend, also spaces and elements of the gui hang at time while its crunching.

there is one other thing i will say, youtube destroys this computer, adobe really need to sort out their flash player.


shout if you want to know anything else

b

 

[joeybagadonutz]

Benchmark comparison in article: http://www.macworld.com/article/132407/2008/03/macbookprocore2duo.html

 

[Squonk]

Hang on before buying eBay RAM -- Your 1.25 GHz AlBook uses processor-slewing, and most PC2700 SODIMMs will crash and burn as soon as the machine goes into power save mode because almost all SODIMMs are not processor slewing compatible.

For that machine I highly recommend that you purchase from a knowlegeable dealer who knows the difference between these machines and other PBG4's, and guarantees compatibility.

If you are selecting your own RAM, then only choose Samsung original modules (not Samsung chips on someone else's board), these will have a white sticker with the blue Samsung oval logo on it.

YES YES YES! Be VERY CAREFUL with the ram. I have this exact same powerbook and I bought the ram recommended by Crucial and it still crapped out. Gotta get the original stuff.

Please heed this warning! I have a 1.25GHz and went through the educational process on this as well.

I have a Seagate 5400.3 (5400rpm perpendicular drive) in mine, and it made a huge difference over the the stock 4200rpm drive.

That all being said, I'm getting set to sell mine to buy that $849 refurb MacBook to replace it. If I didn't have the MacPro with a 20" screen, I'd probably just keep the 15" until I could replace it with a MBP. I'm hoping to get as much as $600 for my machine based on what I've seen on eBay based on the condition of mine, big hard drive, all original packaging, etc.

If you are keeping the PB, here is the order I would do the upgrades:
1) faster, bigger hard drive
2) Leopard
3) RAM if you find that you are paging out based on how you use the system