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Which Power PC Mac Should I Buy?

J

JamerTheProgram

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 6, 2011
63
0
One Infinite Lo- I've said too much...
I have a bit of spare cash as I got a student reduction on my new MBP. I have about £100 budget. I would love an iBook G3.A Powerbook G4 would be awesome, but there aren't any cheap enough in good enough condition. Like I said, an iBook G3 would be awesome (a 700-800mhz one) but I am worried about it being usable in this day and age! I collect any of the G series macs. Another one I have always wanted is a G4 cube, but again, like the iBook G3 the GPU wouldnt be up to much.
I would like one to add to my collection. I dont mind running Linux on one.
Any ideas?
I was even thinking about a Powermac G4 dual processor.
I would probably do some Mac App programming on them (I would like to do some development for the PowerPC platform)..
Also a light bit of web development along with a copy of Photoshop CS (If I can source a real copy)
 
I would sugest you installing a Linux from that era. If you install current Linux, it will be overwhelming for the computer
 
If you are planning on doing any sort of programming, etc on it, I wouldn't bother with any variety of a G3. Focus your efforts on getting some variety of a G4 if you're going for usability. While I personally do not know what prices in the UK are, you can certainly get a cheaper Sawtooth desktop for well under your budget and they're pretty great machines providing you up them in video memory and general system memory (Although they would still only be PC100 RAM).

Just my two cents.
 
I bought my dual 1.8ghz PowerMac G5 for £110 shipped buy it now.
My old uni 1.6ghz PowerMac G5 cost me £40 shipped (Early 2012)
My 1.67ghz PowerBook G4 cost me £95 shipped.
I've bought a 700mhz iBook G4 for £70 shipped (April 2011).

I think iBook G3's are very overpriced considering how much a PowerBook G4 will cost.

And with your laptop being a brand spanking MBP would you maybe want to get a desktop? A DP MDD will come in well under £100 9 times out of 10, although they don't tend to pop up as much as the G5's.

Search around, take your time and be patience & you'll find an awesome deal.
 
Goftrey said:
I bought my dual 1.8ghz PowerMac G5 for £110 shipped buy it now.
My old uni 1.6ghz PowerMac G5 cost me £40 shipped (Early 2012)
My 1.67ghz PowerBook G4 cost me £95 shipped.
I've bought a 700mhz iBook G4 for £70 shipped (April 2011).

I think iBook G3's are very overpriced considering how much a PowerBook G4 will cost.

And with your laptop being a brand spanking MBP would you maybe want to get a desktop? A DP MDD will come in well under £100 9 times out of 10, although they don't tend to pop up as much as the G5's.

Search around, take your time and be patience & you'll find an awesome deal.
Click to expand...
Where did you get those Macs from? :p
 
JamerTheProgram said:
I think I might get a Powermac G4 Quicksilver.
What do you guys think?
Click to expand...

Quicksilvers are a good choice but you may want to look into the specifications before diving into anything. Keep in mind that with a Quicksilver, if you are expecting to run Leopard, you may have to use a couple of the hacks (For PPC lower than 867Mhz that is, I personally haven't been able to get it working on my dual 800 but I didn't really try) and your CPU is going to chug if you don't have a Core Image compatible video card.

If you're running Tiger you won't hit any of these issues but I would still recommend that you verify that whatever video card comes with it supports Quartz Extreme (It should as most QS machines had 32MB video cards out of the box).

Good luck
 
QuickSilvers are nice, but if your not in a hurry you might want to keep looking for one with an aftermarket CPU (those go to 2x1.8 or 1x2.0GHz) as that will most likely end up being cheaper than buying a stock model and hunting down such a CPU afterwards.

Well atleast if you plan to run anything demanding on it (be it surfing todays web or just Leopard itself).
 
Bug-Creator said:
QuickSilvers are nice, but if your not in a hurry you might want to keep looking for one with an aftermarket CPU (those go to 2x1.8 or 1x2.0GHz) as that will most likely end up being cheaper than buying a stock model and hunting down such a CPU afterwards.

Well atleast if you plan to run anything demanding on it (be it surfing todays web or just Leopard itself).
Click to expand...
I agree with this poster.

To the original OP; good luck with the purchase! :) :apple:
 
I have a SP Quicksilver and a DP MDD, both are great machines. Although my Quicksilver has a busted PSU. But if you're buying a G4 and you're buying it for normal use, you either need a high clocked SP or a DP.
 
OP, take a deeper look at this forum. There are a lot of threads like this. One even few threads below: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1421278/ Filter obvious BS and off-topic posts and you should find an answer to your dilemma.

You love G3s and collecting "G" Macs? Great. Buy Clamshell 466. It's beautiful and functional - if you know its limitations ofc. Mine does what I need from it. I've paid for it equivalent of 100 quid including second one for parts (466 had broken hinges), Airport card, 512MB SODIMM and SSD. And it had almost new battery.
But will it suite your needs? Only you do know that ;)
 
Goftrey said:
I think iBook G3's are very overpriced considering how much a PowerBook G4 will cost.
Click to expand...

I agree. Also, the iBook G3's your are looking at (the 700MHz or 800MHz) have the worst reliability & failure rates ever (see the old Macintouch powerbook survey).

I owned an iBook G3 800MHz, and it was a lemon...I'll leave out the details, but I would suggest you look at a G4 ibook or PowerBook, and stick with 1GHz or above.
 
If you are looking for portability, I would look for an iBook G4 or PowerBook G4. Steer clear from iBook G3's as they have high failure rate with the logic board. Some iBook G4's suffer from this as well, but I haven't had any problems with any above 1.25GHz. (note that the G3 clamshells are unaffected by the logic board plague)

As far as usability, I have an iBook G4 (1.33GHz model listed in signature) which I just upgraded to Leopard and plan on using for school. It will slow down on some websites but I haven't had any problems with it. I also have an iBook G3 and it is pretty much useless when it comes to the internet. It will load websites but you'll be better off saving a little more money and getting a G4. I couldn't even imagine doing any intensive work on it.

If you are looking at desktops, G4 towers are pretty cool. You can upgrade them nicely and they are reliable from what I've experienced. Just know that some of the later models are rather loud and it can get distracting if you are used to quiet computers. While I don't own one personally, I have an iMac G4. It's been a great machine and I have used it as a secondary computer up until this summer.

Good luck! :)
 
Goftrey said:
I bought my dual 1.8ghz PowerMac G5 for shipped buy it now.
My old uni 1.6ghz PowerMac G5 cost me shipped (Early 2012)
My 1.67ghz PowerBook G4 cost me shipped.
I've bought a 700mhz iBook G4 for shipped (April 2011).

I think iBook G3's are very overpriced considering how much a PowerBook G4 will cost.

And with your laptop being a brand spanking MBP would you maybe want to get a desktop? A DP MDD will come in well under 9 times out of 10, although they don't tend to pop up as much as the G5's.

Search around, take your time and be patience & you'll find an awesome deal.
Click to expand...

Put those prices all together, add a bit more, and you have a Mac Mini that is much more powerful than all of those combined.
 
Blackberryroid said:
Put those prices all together, add a bit more, and you have a Mac Mini that is much more powerful than all of those combined.
Click to expand...

Mac Mini's are the least powerful G4 computer in the G4 lineup. They're limited to 1GB of ram, have a slow laptop hard drive, and have a non-CoreImage capable GPU. The eMac, PowerMac G4, iBook G4, Powerbook G4, and even the iMac G4 are more powerful in almost every way.
 
Intell said:
Mac Mini's are the least powerful G4 computer in the G4 lineup. They're limited to 1GB of ram, have a slow laptop hard drive, and have a non-CoreImage capable GPU. The eMac, PowerMac G4, iBook G4, Powerbook G4, and even the iMac G4 are more powerful in almost every way.
Click to expand...

Silly. I was talking about a brand new Intel Core i5 Mac Mini, not Power PC.
 
Because we don't get it, Intel Macs are the best by far...He's helping we sinners see the light. Apple is struggling don't ya know and needs us to buy their new (18 month old processors and graphics) computers.
 
Intell said:
Then why are you posting about Mac Mini's in a thread who's title is asking about buying a PowerPC Mac?
Click to expand...

I'm just saying that he could have something better while looking for something worse. I'm not saying that PowerPCs are bad, though. But no one could deny that the Intel ones are way better.
 
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