Thinking about purchasing a PowerBook G4 Aluminum

[NC MacGuy]

My 12" 1.5Ghz PB's run Leopard without any problems. The last gen. G4 products were pretty good and are more competent than some of you guys give them credit for. I've had a myriad of problems w. Gen.1 MBP & MB's and actually would choose a last gen. PB over the first Apple Intel machines.

 

[darngooddesign]

The 1.67 Powerbook runs flash video just fine and they handle Leopard very well. So if the apps you run are universal you should go for it providing the price is right. I would not pay more than 400 for one though, and don't forget to upgrade the RAM to 2GB.

 

[Quu]

The 1.67 Powerbook runs flash video just fine and they handle Leopard very well. So if the apps you run are universal you should go for it providing the price is right. I would not pay more than 400 for one though, and don't forget to upgrade the RAM to 2GB.

I always found the Flash on my PowerBook G4 1.67GHz to be less then adequate. Dropped frames often and I'd need to turn the quality down to Medium or Low on lots of sites that used any Flash for Games or Video content. I don't know how much of that is because of Flash being a piece of **** on the Mac or the G4's slow processor but its been the case for me since forever.

Even on my Core Duo 2.16GHz Flash Games don't run very well (The majority of them anyway) - HD Vimeo stuff sort of runs okey but it maxes my CPU to 100% and will skip some frames now and again, most games are almost unplayable. Again I believe this to be due to the poor flash for Mac as an older 2.4GHz Pentium 4 notebook I had in 2003 ran and continues to run Flash (of all variety) absolutely fine. The difference? Windows XP.

 

[Vulcan]

The OP should look into this. He should find out whether the apps he mostly wants to use are Universal or Intel-only. If they are Universal, I think he would be happier with the PowerBook over a Rev A MacBook.

Also, this is a personal matter but I hate Leopard/Snow Leopard and will resist it as long as possible I'm running Tiger.

How long will the apps stay "universal" and how long can you count on a 4-5 year old computer to keep working?

 

[TSE]

I personally wouldn't buy a non-intel machine unless the price was right or you want something with classic support. Intel is the present and future for what seems to be a long time. I wouldn't, however, recommend a core duo MacBook or MacBook Pro, as both of the first generations which were core duos had numerous problems with overheating, and the MacBook Pro's X1600 that came with it is underclocked. Besides, core duo only supports up to 2 GBs of RAM which is okay for now, but in the future it won't be, especially if you are going to be running virtual machines.

Either get a G4/G5 at the right price ($400 or lower) laptop, or get an early core 2 duo MacBook Pro or MacBook if you are worried about price. If you need a cheap computer with an average graphics card and is intel, the White MacBook is great for only 949 dollars with the education discount, heck, it is better then the AluBooks in some regards. Or, if you do some shopping, you can find the previous Penryn MacBook Pros for around $1200, which is the best bang-for-buck ratio of any Mac laptop out there. It all depends on your needs.

 

[ElectroGhandi]

Or, if you do some shopping, you can find the previous Penryn MacBook Pros for around $1200, which is the best bang-for-buck ratio of any Mac laptop out there.

Maybe, but what about the NVIDIA graphics card thing? If we are talking about longevity, the MacBook Pros with the faulty graphics cards wouldn't be the way to go.

 

[TJRiver]

Go ahead and buy your G4, since that appears to be what you want, and get familiar with lowendmac.com and some other websites that support the older Mac machines. Apple will not continue to support the older stuff, which is its perogative (except in certain states).


I have a Core 2 Duo Macbook and and a G3 iBook. The iBook is a toy for my spare time, the MacBook is the main portable computer in the house. It all depends upon what you want to do w/ your computer. Good luck either way!

 

[TSE]

Maybe, but what about the NVIDIA graphics card thing? If we are talking about longevity, the MacBook Pros with the faulty graphics cards wouldn't be the way to go.

Only about 25% of the cards that were made were defective, so the chances you get a good one are more than getting a bad one. Apple is extending the warranty for the graphics card to 2 years, but getting applecare is always better, and the fact that Apple should be able to fix it doesn't make it that big of a deal.

 

[Davy.Shalom]

Ahh man, I hate to say this because I love PPC and always will. Man, go with the intel. Take a look at the comps in my signature. Yea, I use the PPC G5 for heavy HEAVY video and photo editing, and run about 30 firefox tabs, 7 word documents, and all the other usual goodies. It runs so well. I have to say that PowerMac G5 is the only thing that can keep up with my brother's intel Mac Pro. Haha he worked his ass off for that thing and the G5 still keeps up. You see, the problem is (like many others have mentioned) that apple stops PPC support with Snow Leopard. You don't always need the latest and greatest, but it is important to look toward the future.

Anyway, my advice is do not buy either of the PowerBooks. If you are gonna buy a PPC (and an old G4 at that), make sure it is 300 or under. They will not hold their value for much longer.

What kind of tasks were you thinking of running on it?