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

Thinking of purchasing a new G4 Ibook, need help

K

kinsella93

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 12, 2005
47
0
St. John's, Newfoundland
I am really considering buying the new G4 14" ibook with a superdrive, but im having some trouble getting some questions i have answer. I also should say that im a long time PC user that has is taking the plung into Mac land.

Anyways, I need to know if i can hook up my Ibook to my tv and if so what is the quality going to look like on a 32" non-HD tv. Also when i get the money is it possible to upgrade the video card to a 64mb? or even 128 mb? I am a student that is a simi-gamer and i know 32mb isn't alot but i like old school games like Starcraft and the such.

Finally, do u think it would be worht my while spending the extra 500$ to get the 12" PB with a superdrive? 500$ is ALOT of money to me on my buget as a student and i need to know forsure if it truely is worth it. I apprecatie all replies and hope to become a regular in these forums. Thanks
 
i can;t stand double posters but i would love a response becuase im ordering within the hour to have it by the end of this week, i cannot wait till next to get this because of school work i need to be doing on it. please any help would be greatly apprecaited
 
kinsella93 said:
I am really considering buying the new G4 14" ibook with a superdrive, but im having some trouble getting some questions i have answer. I also should say that im a long time PC user that has is taking the plung into Mac land.

Anyways, I need to know if i can hook up my Ibook to my tv and if so what is the quality going to look like on a 32" non-HD tv. Also when i get the money is it possible to upgrade the video card to a 64mb? or even 128 mb? I am a student that is a simi-gamer and i know 32mb isn't alot but i like old school games like Starcraft and the such.

Finally, do u think it would be worht my while spending the extra 500$ to get the 12" PB with a superdrive? 500$ is ALOT of money to me on my buget as a student and i need to know forsure if it truely is worth it. I apprecatie all replies and hope to become a regular in these forums. Thanks
Click to expand...

cant hook it up to a tv. cant upgrade the video card, it is built into the motherboard, if you need these capabilities then splurge for the 12in PB
 
kinsella93 said:
thank you very much, i thought i read somewhere that the IB could hook up to a tv with an adapter? maybe i was wrong
Click to expand...

im not really too sure, but i dont think it can, i know apple makes an adapter for the PB, i have a 14in ibook and the video card sucks.
 
The ibook doesn't have a digital out so any decent resolution is off limits.

I'v just bought a 12 ibook, because i had to really. I was expecting it to be really slow, but in actual fact its not too bad. The VGA out is a little annoying, but the real dissapointment is the dull screen. I've got it set up next to a run of the mill LG 17 tft, and it makes the ibook look so crap. But everything else is quite nice, and for 600 quid i cant really complain. Lets just say that there is a lot of scope for the new laptops on the horizon.

The 32 meg graphics card is not really enough to drive the ibooks screen and the 17 i've got plugged into it. Shame really. :rolleyes:

If i was in your position i would buy a pc laptop, and put os x on it when those naughty geeks have cracked it. Lets face it the powerbooks are very overpriced, so they are hardly an option...
 
derboy i would do that but i need the portablilty for school/home and i want to play a few games on it, also hook it up to my tv in my room (32") to watch movies, so maybe spendng the extra 350 for the power isn;'t bad im a student and can get the 12" powerbook for $2100, or ibook 14" for $1750, ( i live in canda and this is tax and shipping included)
 
You CAN plug your iBook into a TV, Not sure why others said that you cannot??(and yes you will need an extra cable, it is like 15-20$) It will look great on the TV (as good as any DVD player, I assume this is why you want it to hook up to the TV) Anyways 32MB video card will not be great for gaming but I don't do alot of it so I am not sure what is "needed" nowadays.
The 12" PB is probably not worth it for you and from what you are saying it does not look like the 15" is in your price range. Anyways, the iBook will be a great little computer. Enjoy!
 
Finally a poster who knows what he is talking about... Yes you can hook your ibook to a tv. No, there is no way a 12 Pb is worth it right now for the money. You cannot get a better deal than the ibooks right now. I just bought a 12 ibook for college about a month ago, 1.33 ghz, 1 gig RAM, and i have not been disappointed with the speed at all. Everyday activities, it screams, the video card (while a crappy 32 MB) is actually faster than the powerbooks as far as videogames are concerned. (Check this out https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/144416/ ), For what you are doing, an ibook will be your best bet and the most bang for your buck. Plus as a fellow college student: durability, wifi reception, battery life, and MONEY are all necessities. Go with the ibook, wait for the intel PB's when hopefully the 12 incher will finally warrant its price tag.
 
It makes sense to buy one of the last PowerPC 'books since they will likely give the most reliable and most powerful perfomance for existing software even after the switch to Intel. Future software may run a bit faster on Intel but will still run decently well on PowerPC.

The new iBooks are really pretty nice. I bought two of them myself to use until the next Powerbook revision. I have played Rainbow Six and Rise of Nations at native resolution without any problems. I also tried Star Trek: Elite Force II but it gets a bit choppy at high res when there is a lot of action. Overall I was pleasantly surprised at how capable the new iBook is at playing games. Not bad at all for a sub $1000 notebook with an entry level graphics chipset (32 MB Ati 9550).
 
godbout said:
It will look great on the TV (as good as any DVD player, I assume this is why you want it to hook up to the TV)
Click to expand...

LOL the iBook TV out looks no where as good as a progressive scan DVD player hooked up to a TV via component video. The TV adapter has S-Video so you can expect a reasonable picture at best.
 
risc said:
LOL the iBook TV out looks no where as good as a progressive scan DVD player hooked up to a TV via component video. The TV adapter has S-Video so you can expect a reasonable picture at best.
Click to expand...

It is just an opinion,

But in TV's I looked at, some systems with S-video input looked way better then others that had component. It all depends on the TV, and what you expect from it.
 
840quadra said:
It is just an opinion,

But in TV's I looked at, some systems with S-video input looked way better then others that had component. It all depends on the TV, and what you expect from it.
Click to expand...

They must of been $h1tty TVs :)
 
risc said:
They must of been $h1tty TVs :)
Click to expand...

Possibly, but I was dissapointed by one that caught me off guard. A Sony!

I usually like their TV's over all others, but for some reason, this one failed the S-video / component test.

All I was doing was bringing my PS2 from TV to TV and watching the Startup movie on GT 4. connected first with S-Video, then with component compared the 2, then compared with other TV's.

I still haven't purchased one yet, I think I may go Plasma, but it is hard to justify the cost!.. Shopping sucks!! :(
 
Sorry for hi-jacking the thread to recommend a TV, but I recently upgraded my Sony Wega CRT to a Sony KLV series LCD Wega HD TV, if you've got the money for one of these I can't recommend them highly enough. I'm in Australia and my KLV retails for AUD$4K but it's got an amazing picture, and was well worth the cash imo (not that anyone pays retail, I looked around and picked one up for under $3K).

In Plasmas I really love the current Pioneer 43"/50"s.
 
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