X killing iBook- replacemnet ?

[fudgey]

I am a switcher - picked up a G3 300Mhz iBook in mint condition about 6 months before MacOS X came on the market after being forced to endure Windoze for too many years.

I have been using MacOS X since 10.0 on my G3 300Mhz iBook because 9.x was just too fragile for me after using Win9x for years (that say's alot considering what crap Win9x series was).

I just love the design of this little iBook machine.
Even though each iteration of X is getting a little better, I find that all the font smoothing, transparency & animations just *kills* it.

I am one of those folks who went travelling on the road & never stopped - I use the iBook *heavily* whilst travelling on the road all year round to store and manipulate *a lot* of images amongst other things.

I am not disposed to buy a new Mac laptop (much as i would like to!) because here in Oz we pay exorbitanat prices for them so the stagnating hardware platform is overpriced at present IMHO.

Looking on the secondhand market for a replacement Mac Laptop what should I go for to see a real, tangible boost in performance as against a fractional increase a'la wintel?

 

[benixau]

look for a 15" pbook when they get updated soon. alot of people even now are trying to get rid of them because of the new pbooks.

if you dont need airport Xtreme or blootooth or the massive screen than a second hand 15" would be worth it.

other than that get another ibook. the new ones have a lot more speed ehich is good in os x especially if you kill all the pixar stuff ..... err i mean SFX like you do now.

 

[datalok]

use a utility called Shadowkiller to remove shadows in osx (a real hog)and Themer to use a theme that doesn't need Quartz Extreme - you will be amazed at the speed increases - and they are both free

 

[benixau]

especially on a new ibook.

you run @ 300
they run @ 700/800

@ 700 that equals 2 1/3 increase in Mhz or about a real increase of about 100%.

the other 1/3 is lost in other little things that never ever give you the full increase.

if you can afford it. get it. if you cant. use the apps suggeested above.

look on either versiontracker.com or Mac Google. you should find something on them there.

 

[fudgey]

Originally posted by datalok
use a utility called Shadowkiller to remove shadows in osx (a real hog)and Themer to use a theme that doesn't need Quartz Extreme - you will be amazed at the speed increases - and they are both free

Thank you for your help.
I'm looking at the themes on the Themer website, Question : How do I identify the themes that don't use Quartz? There is no info about this that I can see.

 

[j763]

I'd grab a new iBook, if you can afford it. When you translate the US Dollars into Aussie dollars, they actually come out *GASP* at a reasonable price.

If you are considering getting a new one and are in Melbourne, I'd really strongly recommend purchasing it from Metek Interstahl. Fantastic Apple dealer -- much better than NextByte et al (as if it's hard to beat them).

 

[datalok]

as far as i know non of them use quartz

 

[fudgey]

Originally posted by j763
I'd grab a new iBook, if you can afford it. When you translate the US Dollars into Aussie dollars, they actually come out *GASP* at a reasonable price.

If you are considering getting a new one and are in Melbourne, I'd really strongly recommend purchasing it from Metek Interstahl. Fantastic Apple dealer -- much better than NextByte et al (as if it's hard to beat them).

Ta mate, checkin 'em now.

 

[benixau]

Originally posted by j763
I'd grab a new iBook, if you can afford it. When you translate the US Dollars into Aussie dollars, they actually come out *GASP* at a reasonable price.

If you are considering getting a new one and are in Melbourne, I'd really strongly recommend purchasing it from Metek Interstahl. Fantastic Apple dealer -- much better than NextByte et al (as if it's hard to beat them).

no they dont. now whilst i am saving for a AlumiBook, the iboks are overpriced and need to come down by about AUD 200. then not only will apple ahve a chance they might get some *GASP* market share over here.

 

[fudgey]

Originally posted by benixau


no they dont. now whilst i am saving for a AlumiBook, the iboks are overpriced and need to come down by about AUD 200. then not only will apple ahve a chance they might get some *GASP* market share over here.

Agreed. I really would like to upgrade to a newer laptop but no matter how I slice/dice & compare the price/specs here in Oz, they appear poor value for money. Working with images needs grunt.

I probably will want to play with DVD's in the near future so a G3 (correct me if I'm wrong) is out.

Some folks say 'oh yes, but the *quality*...' to which I say bull****! The hardware comes from the same Asian factories that other laptops come from! (google it if u need proof).

What I find most attractive is Apples' increasing move toward co-operating with open source movement. Best hope of beating the Borg IMHO.

I would not mind paying a price premium for better deisgned Apple hardware with comparable performance to a WinTel laptop but they falling behind for Chripes Sake!

So I will look for a keenly priced secondhand TiBook perhaps.

 

[FattyMembrane]

Originally posted by fudgey

How do I identify the themes that don't use Quartz? There is no info about this that I can see.

all themes use quartz. datalok's statement was a bit erroneous. quartz is the graphics system that osx uses to draw things on screen (the windowserver uses quartz to draw all windows, menus, toolbars, etc.) because quartz has very advanced features like variable translucency, real-time beizer curve calculation, real-time scaling, etc. it eats up a lot of processor time. a computer with 10.2 and an agp radeon or geforce card will use the graphics card to do the on-screen drawing, taking the stress off of the processor (your current computer is doing all of the translucency, smoothing, scaling, etc. with the processor alone). some themes use less translucency and fewer colors than apple's default aqua theme, which is why they will be faster on a non hardware-accelerated computer. if you can find a very simple theme for osx, it will improve the speed of window drawing, but with a computer like the new ibooks, the graphics card will do all of the drawing, meaning that the processor is free and choosing a simpler theme will not make much difference.

 

[fudgey]

Originally posted by FattyMembrane

all themes use quartz... a computer with 10.2 and an agp radeon or geforce card will use the graphics card to do the on-screen drawing, taking the stress off of the processor... some themes use less translucency and fewer colors than apple's default aqua theme, which is why they will be faster on a non hardware-accelerated computer... if you can find a very simple theme for osx, it will improve the speed of window drawing, but with a computer like the new ibooks, the graphics card will do all of the drawing, meaning that the processor is free and choosing a simpler theme will not make much difference.

ok,thx! anything thats saves cpu cycles is appreciated.