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Which do you use most PowerBook G4 or iBook G4

iModFrenzy

iModFrenzy

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 15, 2015
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Kamino
Got curious on everyone's preferences (if you own them of course).

I own a PowerBook G4 1.25ghz 15in and carrying it around is no problem but I always find my self grabbing my iBook 1.33ghz for many tasks now.

Burning Windows iso? On my PowerBook never! On my iBook no problem all the time!

Movies? iBook seems more efficient.

Games? iBook does have less VRAM but I find games to run really well on it.

List goes on. BitTorrent clients never seem to work on my PowerBook yet my iBook is handles it well.

Not to mention, fans barely kick in which is nice! *turns head to PowerBook G4* meanwhile..

If there's one thing I wish was perfect that would be sound, I feel that sound is much nicer on my PowerBook G4. iBook is good too it's just the PowerBook is much better.

I do want to grab a 12in PowerBook G4 one of these days.
 
I am sorry, but I lack much of an appreciation for iBooks. I traded three away to get a PowerMac and there is only one in our house because it belongs to my daughter.

So…I'd have to say my 17" PowerBook.
 
I'm dedicated to the 12" models ...
Before I got my PB-G4 1.5GHz I started with 2 two iBookG4 1.2GHz.
They are my companions on meetings: one connected to the beamer - the other to steer the beamer-iBook from the distance. My intention was to reduce the risk of USB-viruses.
One (my personal) iBook holds an SSD, the other one the original HDD.
I always wanted such an iBook, the first time I saw one - but that time all my stuff was Window-centric.
It's really a pleasure to work with the iBooks and they do feel robust and handsome.
The PowerBook is a bit more of a special kind:
I like the klicking keyboard - but one needs to get used to the slight smell of it.
The surface carries some bumps - it doesn't forgive any bad treatment at all...
Then, there's a lot of heat coming from CPU/GPU and the mSATA-mod get tempeartur-controll out of balance and needs "G4FanControl" to stop the book's fan to run constantly.
Now you can touch and feel the heat and power, that's under the hood, and temperatur rises up ot 65°/70°C (CPU/GPU) ...
But it's a bit more responsive compared to the iBooks, boots up 10secs faster than the iBook and I didn't encounter tasks, that don't run on the PB compared to the iBooks. Sounds is much better on the PowerBook - I do already regret having them compared side-by-side. ("The better-one is the enemy of the good ones...")
Currently the PB is my personal device at home and the iBooks are assigned to the "beamer-bag".
Compared to the iBook tho PB's inside are a bit more of a hassle due to the separate BT and WLAN antennas compared to the iBooks Airport-card.
Anyway - i like them all!
Aah, and thanks for reminding me... it's time to check the CorePlayer on the iBook tonight ...
Update - about CorePlayer: amazingly when streaming video to the iBook the performance of CorePlayer was as smooth as on the PB :)
 
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iModFrenzy said:
Why is that? I'm not gonna argue that they are better as everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but just curious why
Click to expand...
Preference.

At the time I converted to Mac I had owned my TiBook for about a year or so. Coming from the beige/gunmetal gray plastic world of PC having a metal laptop was very different to me.

The more I used it at work and was able to compare what my boss could and could not do with his iBook it also occured to me that being a graphic designer there really was no reason for me to get an iBook.

Later on when I began to see how my metal laptop held up to time versus the various iBooks I saw out there I decided that metal trumped plastic. I also prefer black over white.

This is not to say there are no well taken care of and beautiful iBooks or any POS looking TiBooks out there after so many years. But generally it's been my experience that the TiBook has worn better over time than the iBook.

That said, I do rather like my daughter's iBook G4, but it's not a Mac I would use regularly on my own.

PS. My disdain for the iBook was reinforced after my TiBook died the first time. Around that time I had jury duty and I wanted to take something with me. My mom had let me borrow one of her old iBooks. In a room full of strong WiFi I had no signal and further I discovered I was trying to use the internet with Mac OS X 10.0.4. My mom had never upgraded the OS (Leopard was current then).

Later on I discovered that this iBook had a much larger hard drive than 10.0.4 reported but it's airport antenna was completely non-working. But the experience I had with it that day still stuck with me.
 
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Personally, I have all 3 sizes of PowerBook G4s (Ti included), as well as two iBooks (600MHz G3, 1.33GHz G4) and I like to grab my PowerBooks more than the iBooks. I find that it's a more sturdy build than the plastic iBook and the keyboard is heads over heels better on the PowerBooks than iBook. I find my iBooks to be good "just toss it in a bag and forget about it" laptops since they are pretty durable. Comparing between 12ins, I still like the PowerBook even though it has less RAM and lesser graphics. In addition to reasons stated above, I like that the keyboard is edge to edge (much like a new 12in Apple laptop)
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Also, on the repairability front, the PowerBooks once again take the cake since I can actually open them with somewhat ease (I've become pretty quick at opening the 12 and 15in models).
 
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I have both, although I don't use them much these days. From all the Macs I have, the iBook has the most reliable optical drive. Many times when I had a CD or a DVD which were unreadable on other computers, that iBook saved the day.
 
Powerbooks all the way. Easier to work on plus better screens and keyboards.

The low resolution 4x3 screens on iBooks are, IMO, painful in today's world
 
PowerBooks, for the WIN! The iBook that I have feels VERY slow, even though its a higher-end 14" model. My 867Mhz TiBook feels MUCH snappier.
 
Those sculpted keys on the PowerBook was the pinnacle of luxurious ergonomics.
 
i liked my powerbook 12" G4, until the macbook air was released.
the key were okay, i did use an external use keyboard while at the desk.
that latch (forgot of what that latched) some keys and power chord had to be replaced 2 times.
 
I've got several iBooks and plenty of PowerBooks. I don't dislike the iBooks, but I don't ever really use them (talking whitebooks, not clamshells) but the G4 PowerBooks of all speeds still find some use for me. I've always liked the high-end stuff, and the PowerBook design has grown old more gracefully than the iBook with its chubbier width, additional weight, and 4:3 display.
 
Ive got both too, and NEVER use the ibook anymore. At the moment deciding what to do with the 15" PB. in regards to what OS to run on it.
 
17” powerbook for sure. I’m not a fan of the ibook at all really. They’re not bad, just not my preferred cup of apple cider.
 
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i for one love iBooks :D
My 15" PB is my portable mac due to its better form factor for transportation and wider screen, but my iBooks are my favourite "home macs". I like the screen ratio as well as the outstanding keyboard a lot! Very important for a "laptop": I need to be able to put the device on my lap. No chance with a PB, whereas my iBooks stay cool and quiet. My family would kill me if I brought a PowerBook in the living room :D they can't stand the noise
 
I'm typing this from the PBG4 12" 1.5Ghz with 1.5GB RAM, two good condition batteries and a 64GB SSD. It has been my solo daily driver for the past month or so and hasn't skipped a beat. I've gone full retro with my current workload and found I can perform the majority of tasks with Xcode (v2.5), Photoshop (v7.0), Coda (1.7.5), MAMP (1.9.6.1) and TenFourFox (FPR18) all in Tiger.

Most days I will get a full day's work done without needing to reach for the charger.

From my experience, both the iBooks and PowerBooks can run cool. I am very happy with the thermal performance of my PowerBooks since giving them some deserving attention.

Any complaints of noise from an AlBook should be easy to remedy with fresh thermal paste. I have SSDs in my 12", 15" and 17" Aluminum PB G4s. My TiBook 867 also runs with an SSD, but still has a bit of a noisy fan even after a repaste.

I put a 32GB SSD in my iBook 12" 1.33Ghz after replacing the logic board and renewing the thermal paste and pads. It runs well enough and I like the 12" iBook design very much, but in all honesty, can't look past my 12" PowerBook G4 as the prefered portable PowerPC Mac.
 
amagichnich said:
i for one love iBooks :D
My 15" PB is my portable mac due to its better form factor for transportation and wider screen, but my iBooks are my favourite "home macs". I like the screen ratio as well as the outstanding keyboard a lot! Very important for a "laptop": I need to be able to put the device on my lap. No chance with a PB, whereas my iBooks stay cool and quiet. My family would kill me if I brought a PowerBook in the living room :D they can't stand the noise
Click to expand...

Did you try G4FanControl to raise the temperature-threshold for the fans?

With my 12" 1.5GHz G4-PB the fans were always on after swapping the spinning-drive for an mSATA-IDE-converter-combo since that combination gets warmer (60°C) than the spinning-drives (factory settings for the drives temp-threshold about 40°C).With a temp-threshold of about 65°C for drive/CPU/GPU temperature is on a steady-state without starting the fans.
The 12" PB has a lot of hot stuff crammed together in a small space, whereas the 15"PB has more space for spreading heat but the faster CPU gets much warmer than the iBooks.
The fans of my 1.0GHz TiBook are always busy too. Didn't try to figure out, how to solve that - maybe repasting, but that didn't solve my problem with the 12" PB a year ago ...

@AphoticD: Your 12" PB runs at 1.0, dosn't it? Maybe the temperature is a bit lower and Tiger isn't straining the system as much as Leopard does.

Anyway, even if I alway wanted a white iBook years ago, I'm now more fond of the aluminium-books.
 
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bobesch said:
@AphoticD: Your 12" PB runs at 1.0, dosn't it? Maybe the temperature is a bit lower and Tiger isn't straining the system as much as Leopard does.

Anyway, even if I alway wanted a white iBook years ago, I'm now more fond of the aluminium-books.
Click to expand...

It's a 1.5GHz model. I have at least one of each of the four revisions of 12" PowerBook G4 and they all run cool after repasting and renewing the pads (in both HDD or SSD configurations). The original 867MHz model is possibly a little hotter than the 1.0 - 1.5GHz. I believe that has been well documented already. I find the 1.33GHz model to be the absolute coolest operator in the range.

For some reason I love the look and feel of the final G3 variant of the white 12" iBook more than the G4. They are very similar, but the G3 feels better in my hands. Unfortunately the internal design of the later G3 iBooks is so unreliable that I haven't been able to enjoy using them for very long.

I have been frequently reminded of how rubbish the solder on the GPUs were during the era of the Radeon Mobility 7500. I believe this is why there are so few of the 700 to 900Mhz G3 iBooks models still in circulation. The same GPU in the Titanium PowerBook G4 (667 and 800Mhz "DVI" model) didn't have the same failure rate though, so it was hardly ATI's fault.

Apple must have scrimped a few cents by using cheap solder balls for the iBooks. It must add up to be substantially worth their while when multiplied by 25,000,000 units (or however many they manufactured), which are now only being used as landfill or at the bottom of the ocean somewhere.
 
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AphoticD said:
Apple must have scrimped a few cents by using cheap solder balls for the iBooks. It must add up to be substantially worth their while when multiplied by 25,000,000 units (or however many they manufactured), which are now only being used as landfill or at the bottom of the ocean somewhere.
Click to expand...

Hence why I rarely boot my 800mhz iBook G3. I've had two of them, both 800mhz models, previously fail on me, and I wish to keep this one running. Catch 22, really...
 
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I only have a ibook g4 never had a powerbook.

The ibook is what made me leave windows.
mine still works but has not been turned on for a while as it cannot cope with same the tasks I require today.

I may use it as a media machine in my workshop but then again I bought a cheap g4 imac for that!
So still my ibook has no real use now that it got me on the apple platform it's work is done.
 
I use my iBook over my TiBook because the iBook has a faster CPU and built in wi-fi and Bluetooth. The TiBook has a better screen though. My TiBook's palmrests are still in very good condition that I want to save, so it doesn't get out much.
 
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