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Uses for a iBook G4?

M

macdatadrive

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 25, 2011
126
0
The city of Macintosh :)
Ok, so I have a wonderful iBook G4.
It's a 1.2Ghz with 256mbs of RAM (yes, I'm putting a 1gb stick in soon) and it works perfectly expect for the Internet, which for some reason can't connect to WPA2 (off the topic though)
Its running Tiger 10.4.0 and I really adore this machine, but I have no use for it at the moment. I have a C2D late 2009 MacBook and a C2D iMac so its not my main computer, but it's really quite snappy in Tiger and I'd love to use it more.

I was thinking I could maybe use it as music storage server as it only has a 30gb HDD but then I realised I have 15gbs of music and no idea how to make it a server...

What could I use a internetless iBook G4 for?
Help is appreciated!
 
Depends what you want to do with it, throw in the gig of ram, downgrade what your router transmits, upgrade to 10.5, and throw an SSD in it.

You'll have a totally useable computer.
 
I didn't know you could bump the iBook to Leopard.

Max that RAM, and slap in that SSD. It will probably out perform your C2D! :D
 
TheUI said:
I didn't know you could bump the iBook to Leopard.

Max that RAM, and slap in that SSD. It will probably out perform your C2D! :D
Click to expand...

LOL, not likely. Out perform a Pentium 4 maybe. That being said, update to 10.5 and install tenfourfox and you've got yourself a nice little facebook/stumbleupon/iTunes machine. It can be as useful now as it was in 2005 if not even more-so. I'd highly recommend that SSD, if you can find one cheap. I read a thread of cheap 32GB ones. If you have a NAS this would be an excellent choice IMO.
 
Dustman said:
LOL, not likely. Out perform a Pentium 4 maybe. That being said, update to 10.5 and install tenfourfox and you've got yourself a nice little facebook/stumbleupon/iTunes machine. It can be as useful now as it was in 2005 if not even more-so. I'd highly recommend that SSD, if you can find one cheap. I read a thread of cheap 32GB ones. If you have a NAS this would be an excellent choice IMO.
Click to expand...


Haha, yeah. I get excited and hyperbolic sometimes. Plus I'm new to both Mac and this forum.

Some people suggest outperforming in reference exclusively to benchmarks, I usually lean towards the real world usage side of things. And in that I can say that in my home right now is a celeron machine that "outperforms" my 9 month old i5 machine. There isn't one statiscal category in which that seems feasible either.
 
TheUI said:
Haha, yeah. I get excited and hyperbolic sometimes. Plus I'm new to both Mac and this forum.

Some people suggest outperforming in reference exclusively to benchmarks, I usually lean towards the real world usage side of things. And in that I can say that in my home right now is a celeron machine that "outperforms" my 9 month old i5 machine. There isn't one statiscal category in which that seems feasible either.
Click to expand...

I gotcha.
 
My iBook (1.25Ghz 1.25GB RAMM 40GB HDD) is used every day. I don't do facebook and only do youtube occasionally. I mostly play games, office 2004, iWork 09, iLife '09, Adobe CS1 & 3 (for Photoshop and Dreamweaver)

Mine connects just fine with my Time Capsule, but I am using WPA-TKIP.
 
Update to 10.4.11 via software update (ethernet) and you will be able to connect to WPA2.

As for what to do with you ibook G4: Tonight I am in Mexico, I checked email, surfed youtube, read the bbc and nytimes and now am posting this, all on my ibook G4. I also skyped with they wife back home. On a machine that set me back less than 100 bucks.

The secret to not being a wage slave (jobs, bosses) is this: Live frugally, and you don't need a lot of money. Many people have figured this out, but most of humanity mindlessly commutes to jobs they hate, and buys gadgets to fill their void of a life. So....uses for an ibook G4? How about getting off the birth school work death plan, for starters.
 
Agreed. There is still a lot of life in those iBooks!

I still use my PB 1.5 daily, often times more than my i7 mini. It does damn near everything I want out my computer on any given day. The only time I go upstairs is for more screen room, or to get my netflix/hulu fix while working. A gig of ram will do wonders. I know Tiger is getting a bit long in the tooth, but there is still quite a bit of software still around that works just fine if you are willing to dig a bit. I upgraded to 10.5 on my PB and I can honestly say most programs run faster, but boot time is a lot longer than with Tiger.
 
I literally just bought one almost identical to what you specified on eBay yesterday! Just over 100 quid (but has 768mb RAM 512module 256 built in). Sold a load of old PC stuff on gumtree and thought, what better way to spend some time.

I love my Mac Mini (hooked up to an led 22" monitor) , and my iPhone is capable of a lot of things! But needed some mac in my life and between the two! Couldn't justify iPad cost, so bought this!!! Read a lot of posts about Leopard slowing it down though, but not sure what OS it's coming with. Obv I'll max out Memory, but how else can I speed it up? Obviously a faster hard drive is one option but if I don't need the storage is it worth it?

Already did a similar upgrade jobby with an iMac g3 that i got for a tenner. Was great fun (although it sits there, occasionally used as backup storage)
 
Hmm...an Ibook G4 might make a good frisbee... ; )

But man, I HATED those things. I worked at a school where we had hundreds of them. They were nothing but trouble!
 
As everyone else says, update it to 10.4.11 and with he extra ram your gonna add you will have a perfectly useable machine, heck i used to use my 400mhz powermac g4 every day (with my server software running in the background, which at this time was http, ftp and wired) and it was fine (ok a little slow at times, but useable)
 
macdatadrive said:
It works perfectly expect for the Internet, which for some reason can't connect to WPA2
Click to expand...
So it's not just my iBook G4. I was having issues connecting my iBook G4 to my WPA2 Encrypted WLAN. Also, what version of Mac OS is your iBook running? Mine is running 10.2.8 (Panther). It has something like 512MB of RAM and a 30GB Internal HD. It has Office 2003, so I guess there is some use in it, although it does not support most External HDs & USB flash sticks, so I would have to use wireless file sharing to transfer the files from Mac to Mac (My main Mac is a 2006 13" White MacBook w/ 2GB RAM, 250GB Internal HD, 1.83GHz ICD, running 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard) by creating a computer to computer network.
 
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MoonlightSonata said:
So it's not just my iBook G4. I was having issues connecting my iBook G4 to my WPA2 Encrypted WLAN. Also, what version of Mac OS is your iBook running? Mine is running 10.2.8 (Panther). It has something like 512MB of RAM and a 30GB Internal HD. It has Office 2003, so I guess there is some use in it, although it does not support most External HDs & USB flash sticks, so I would have to use wireless file sharing to transfer the files from Mac to Mac (My main Mac is a 2006 13" White MacBook w/ 2GB RAM, 250GB Internal HD, 1.83GHz ICD, running 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard) by creating a computer to computer network.
Click to expand...

Mac OS X 10.2.8 doesn't support WPA. For that, I'd recommend upgrading to Leopard/Tiger. Also to the OP, try replacing your MacBook with your iBook for a couple of days. You can find plenty of uses that way.
 
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