Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

PowerBook G4 12" x 2

M

Mark-Mac-Attack

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 6, 2007
249
0
England
Hi everyone.

I've just picked up two 12" PowerBook G4s that were on eBay (£60 & £70).
I used to have a 1Ghz 12" a while back the I sold but fancied something round the house to use other than the MBA.

I was going to keep one and sell one.

Specs:

(Left)
G4 867 Mhz
384 MB RAM
160 GB 5,400 RPM HDD
10.4.11

(Right)
G4 1.5 Ghz
1.25 GB Ram
80GB 5,400 RPM HDD
10.3.9!

The MBA is a i7 1.8 (256GB) 13" for comparison.

The Panther PowerBook feels considerably faster in general use than the Tiger PowerBook. Obviously one is a faster system, but I'm presuming this is primarily down to a lack of RAM. Anyway, enjoy!

612f6874.jpg

0efae043.jpg

97f7fc31.jpg

a2cfe0ba.jpg

5f8a4a0f.jpg


Xbench results:

MBA (no thread test) = 219
PB 867 Mhz (with thread test) = 15
PB 1.5 Ghz (with thread test) = 44
 
Last edited:
Why not just swap the RAM from the lower mhz one to the newer one? Can't imagine you would dump the faster processor one just because of a little RAM (which can be purchased for about $20).
 
Curious why you are not running Tiger or Leopard on both of those. I run Leo on my 12" 1.25Ghz G4 iBook, and it works solid.
 
Mark-Mac-Attack said:
They both just arrived today. I could do with a cheap way of obtaining Tiger. Not too bothered about Leopard.
Click to expand...

Good luck finding those discs. Such a pain in the ass to restore (or update) older Macs that 'going another way' is pretty much a requirement. Leopard itself goes for about $100 on eBay.

Some day, my 5 copies of Snow Leopard will buy me a car...
 
I'd 100% keep the 1.5ghz, I used to have a 12" 867mhz w/ 640mb RAM and even under Tiger it was pretty sluggish. I now have a 1.67ghz 15" running Leopard & the speed is just worlds apart. Selling the 867mhz (IMO) would be a better option as the price range between all 12"s are relatively close.
 
I guess I am just lucky in that respect, I have my retail tiger box, and my leopard upgrade disk. The down side is I gotta install tiger first, but I put it at the end of the disk, and just delete it and extend the leo partition after it is installed.
 

Attachments

  • DSCF6942.JPG
    DSCF6942.JPG
    1.8 MB · Views: 185
Zeke D said:
I guess I am just lucky in that respect, I have my retail tiger box, and my leopard upgrade disk. The down side is I gotta install tiger first, but I put it at the end of the disk, and just delete it and extend the leo partition after it is installed.
Click to expand...

Still better than having to use Carbon Copy Cloner every time you need a machine running Leopard. I just cannot justify paying £££'s for a disc of an outdated OS. I do however have retail tiger, jaguar & OS 9 discs which is pretty sweet.
 
Goftrey said:
Still better than having to use Carbon Copy Cloner every time you need a machine running Leopard. I just cannot justify paying £££'s for a disc of an outdated OS. I do however have retail tiger, jaguar & OS 9 discs which is pretty sweet.
Click to expand...
Honestly, if you're cloning partitions in order to install Leopard then you may as well just pirate it. I mean, you're using it either way, at least that way you have a clean install.
 
AdrianK said:
Honestly, if you're cloning partitions in order to install Leopard then you may as well just pirate it. I mean, you're using it either way, at least that way you have a clean install.
Click to expand...

I would if I had a DLSD to hand. I don't see the point in buying one specifically for just one burn though, I've got a pretty nice drive in my G5 that's doing everything I want it to do so maybe in the future.

PS. I could try this method however, http://web.mac.com/owenmcgarry/Downloads/Leopard_on_a_single_layer_DVD.html
 
Good find with the Powerbooks. A 1.5Ghz G4 is a good speed for a machine to still be usable. This is what my Cube and eMac run at. I'm very happy with the performance of both of those machines.

AdrianK said:
Honestly, if you're cloning partitions in order to install Leopard then you may as well just pirate it. I mean, you're using it either way, at least that way you have a clean install.
Click to expand...

I'd still rather clone my pre-setup/customized/up to date Leopard image onto a machine, particularly an older one, then install it and wait for all of the updates to complete.
 
Intell said:
Good find with the Powerbooks. A 1.5Ghz G4 is a good speed for a machine to still be usable. This is what my Cube and eMac run at. I'm very happy with the performance of both of those machines.
Click to expand...
I would like to get better than my eMac, 1.5 would probably be an improvement over the 1ghz in there, but I out it would improve much the iBook at 1.somethingGhz.
 
Goftrey said:
I would if I had a DLSD to hand. I don't see the point in buying one specifically for just one burn though, I've got a pretty nice drive in my G5 that's doing everything I want it to do so maybe in the future.

PS. I could try this method however, http://web.mac.com/owenmcgarry/Downloads/Leopard_on_a_single_layer_DVD.html
Click to expand...

I know I probably shouldn't be talking about this but I have seen premade images that fit on single layer DVDs. I even saw a working image that already had the intel code removed from it through xslimmer. I tried it by booting my leopard DVD and then using it to restore the dmg stored on an external drive. It works much better. I would recommend using xslimmer regardless of which path you choose. I don't know if it's a placebo effect but my 1 ghz felt much faster than stock leopard, just as fast as tiger.
 
crewkid89 said:
I know I probably shouldn't be talking about this but I have seen premade images that fit on single layer DVDs..
Click to expand...

So long as a person has a legitimate copy of a Leopard disk, I don't see anything wrong with it.

Section 2-C of Leopard's EULA states:

"You may make one copy of the Apple Software (excluding the Boot ROM code and other Apple firmware that is embedded or otherwise contained in Apple-labeled hardware) in machine-readable form for backup purposes only; provided that the backup copy must include all copyright or other proprietary notices contained on the original. Apple Boot ROM code and firmware is provided only for use on Apple-labeled hardware and you may not copy, modify or redistribute the Apple Boot ROM code or firmware, or any portions thereof."

So long as you have a legitimate copy of Leopard, you are allowed to make one backup of Leopard for personal use. You're also allowed to remove Intel code because you aren't "modifying" any code...you're simply removing it entirely. I guess some people would argue that removing Intel code is technically "modifying," but I highly doubt you'd ever receive any grief from Apple over it.
 
tayloralmond said:
So long as a person has a legitimate copy of a Leopard disk, I don't see anything wrong with it.

Section 2-C of Leopard's EULA states:

"You may make one copy of the Apple Software (excluding the Boot ROM code and other Apple firmware that is embedded or otherwise contained in Apple-labeled hardware) in machine-readable form for backup purposes only; provided that the backup copy must include all copyright or other proprietary notices contained on the original. Apple Boot ROM code and firmware is provided only for use on Apple-labeled hardware and you may not copy, modify or redistribute the Apple Boot ROM code or firmware, or any portions thereof."

So long as you have a legitimate copy of Leopard, you are allowed to make one backup of Leopard for personal use. You're also allowed to remove Intel code because you aren't "modifying" any code...you're simply removing it entirely. I guess some people would argue that removing Intel code is technically "modifying," but I highly doubt you'd ever receive any grief from Apple over it.
Click to expand...

This topic has come up loads of times but I honestly cannot justify paying £100+ for a used disc of an outdated OS to run on an unsupported architecture, especially considering the Macs I own aren't worth much more than that anyway. If Apple were to sell Leopard at say, £50 then I would 100% go off an buy a copy.
 
Okay I will preface this post with the following statement: I own legally obtained installation media of panther through lion. As well as 10.1 and os8 & 9 media.

apple has abandoned everything before leopard. No support, no updates, no java updates, etc. they don't care about them. I see no reason I should give them money for a product they do not sell or support. I have no qualms obtaining OSX tiger via torrent or other locations.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back