[jwest]

Currently my laptop is a 2001 dual usb ibook 500. It is becoming increasingly slow as time goes on and is frustrating.

How does the 900mhz model stack up. Is it a worthwhile upgrade or should I wait longer? The powerbooks are out of my price range and the 14" 900mhz is looking appealing.

thanks, Jeff

[BigDaddy]

From the tests on the board posted it seems quite a bit faster than the 800 so I would think it would be a good step up from the 500.

[pat++]

I do have the original 500mhz iBook. My brother has the first 700mhz model with 16mb of VRAM. The 700mhz really flies compared to my iBook. The 900mhz is going to be a huge update compared to your 500mhz. You can go for it. I SOOOO much faster. You won't recognize OS X

[-Q-]

The quadrupiling of your video RAM alone will be worth the upgrade in speed. I dumped my 500 when the 800s came out and haven't regretted it for an instance.

[SupahCoolX]

Besides the extra 400Mhz, the new iBook also has a faster system bus (100mhz vs 66mhz), which gives a big performance boost. Couple that with additional RAM, a better video card, and more video memory, and you'll see quite a difference. The iBook was just updated, so now is as good a time to buy as any.

[SeSawaya]

coming from a 500 to a 700 was a HUGE leap for me. I finally understood what was so great about OSX.

I can only imagine your leap! (BTW, for the love of GOD, get the 60 gig for the extra $50!!!!!)

[Carl Norum]

I noticed a huge difference after OCing my 500 to 600. The jump from the 600 to 700 was not as noticeable, although Quartz Extreme is pretty nice. The new models have yet more Video RAM, which is going to make a bigger difference than the clock speed bump.

[jyvin563]

I have a new 900 MHz iBook coming to me tomorrow. I am anxious to find out the speed difference between it and my Power Mac 867 MHz G4. I know for sure the Photoshops and Final Cut Pros will be faster, but how about just for everyday things like Safari, Word, Entourage, etc? I guess we will see tomorrow.

[dampeoples]

I have the 500 as well, and a 700MHz iMac, which runs circles around this thing. I suspect the new one's with the bus speed equal to the iMac and the larger video card would be really nice.

[yakkiebah]

Originally posted by jyvin563:
I have a new 900 MHz iBook coming to me tomorrow. I am anxious to find out the speed difference between it and my Power Mac 867 MHz G4. I know for sure the Photoshops and Final Cut Pros will be faster, but how about just for everyday things like Safari, Word, Entourage, etc? I guess we will see tomorrow.

i'm pretty sure you'll be pleased with the speeds, i recently bought a new 900 aswell the performance has been great so far, safari flies and even UT2k3 is playable. ram is important, max it out, once all your apps are running it hardly touches the hd. i'm comming from a dual g4 533 with a geforce 3 and this has become my main work machine

[x user]

Buy it, but the 14" won't get you anything. Get the 12" 900mhz and use the money you saved for RAM. Your already used to the form factor, so it'd be perfect for you.

For the record, I have a 500mhz, I overclocked it to 600 (Big performance gain), then bought a 800mhz Combo drive (HUGE performance gain).

So you should be stylin.

[andreas_g4]

No question - it's worth the deal!

Even if you compare a original 500 MHz iBook with an iBook that is Quartz Extreme enabled (16+ Megs of VRAM) and has only 600 or 700 MHz you'll see some huge difference in OS X, for sure.

The 900 MHz iBook is - as all iBooks were before - a sweet deal. Go and get it now, it's such a great machine! I'd buy an 900 MHz myself (600MHz, 16 MB VRAM currently), but I wait 'till the next revision comes out since I start school (again) then and want to have the latest model bossible for school. But as I said - the 900 MHz is sooo sweet...