[WOPR]

Hi. I'm thinking of selling my desktop 400mhz G4 Mac to go mobile. My new job will supply a replacement desktop machine for when I'm at home, so I think I may sell mine and buy a portable.

I mostly just surf but maybe 1 or 2 days a week I'd be working on the iBook - some Quark, some Photoshop and some DreamWeaver. How would the 800 or 900mhz G3 iBook 'feel' compared to my 3 year old G4 400mhz? Anyone got similar experiences?

I think I'll end up with a PB 12" but I do like the ruggedness of the iBooks.

Any comments appreciated!

[OldManMac]

PB 12", if you go mobile. The iBook is nice, but it's a G3, which means you're hampered, especially when Panther comes out.

[-Q-]

Originally posted by KarlG:
PB 12", if you go mobile. The iBook is nice, but it's a G3, which means you're hampered, especially when Panther comes out.

Actually, a lot of the reports I've been reading regarding panther indicate the biggest speed-ups occur when using a G3 chip. That being said, the G3 is slowing being phased out of the Apple line-up and I'd think that a 12" PowerBook would serve you better in the long run, especially for the tasks you list.

[WOPR]

Thanks for confirming my thoughts. I'm going to see what refurbs Apple has tomorrow. I'm also intrigued to know if the new 12" PB will run cooler due to the new chip.

[ebolla]

i own a 400mhz G4 Pm as my desktop computer and a 800Mhz iBook as my Laptop
(both with 32 mb graphics cards)
In day to day usage they feel exactly the same
non G4 programs fell a bit quicker on the iBook but photoshop does feel a bit quicker on the G4(but the difference is so minimal it could all just be in my head)
If your looking for a performance boost with the ibook you wont find one but neither will you loose performance

the iBook is Apple's best selling machine so i see no reason from any economical perspective why they would limit its support in Panther

[buzzedtop]

Panther is very fast on my 600mhz iBook (g3, of course). Much faster than 10.2. Anyone who tells you otherwise hasn't had first-hand experience with a recent build of 10.3 on a g3.

[ryaxnb]

Get the iBook. It's got ruggedness, better batt. life, and it's cheaper. And it includes AppleWorks.

[Cipher13]

I wouldn't touch the PB 12".

It's horrible. It runs incredibly hot, and it can be very, very noisy... not a nice machine to use, in my opinion. I got 900 iBook.

I can't compare the iBook to my G4/400, because the G4 has 640MB RAM, whereas I haven't upgraded the iBook yet.

[WOPR]

Thanks for the help guys. I think I've decided that a refurb Titanium would be the best bet as a 1024x768 screen is going to wind me up before too long. Now I just need to find one...

[JonA572]

As another owner of both a G4/400 Sawtooth and iBook 800 (Nov 02 12" Combo drive), I also find both machines quite close in overall speed. In non-AltiVec applications the iBook seems faster, but doing Photoshop and iTunes the 2 seem fairly close in speed. The iBook runs my Powerpoint presentations very nicely. The better graphics chip in the iBook (32MB Radeon 7500 mobility) gives better video/game performance than the old RagePro128 in the Sawtooth. Although I have bemoaned the fact that I got my iBook just weeks before the 12" TiBook was released, I now appreciate my iBook more than ever. It is rugged and runs cooler sitting on my lap than the G4 PB's I have used. Also- the 12" TiBk turned out to have no L3 cache so it is slower than the 15 & 17" models. Given the lower price of the iBook, I would not hesitate to get one.

Jon

[WOPR]

My indecisiveness gets worse. I'm pretty certain I'm now going to get an iBook!

My wife can get a small discount from Apple, or I could go the ebay router. I don't need a CD writer as I have a firewire one, though of course the DVD option is rather sexy, but I'm not sure if I'd actually use it.

One day I'm going to have to make a decision!

[Luca Rescigno]

I had an iBook. I liked the mobility at first, but it was pretty hot (the left palm rest especially) and the fan ended up coming on fairly often. The fan is very annoying and somewhat high pitched.

Anyway, my iBook was an 800 MHz/Combo with 640 MB of RAM. I'd say it's about comparable to my brother's blue G4/400 with 768 MB of RAM and a Radeon PCI video card. I'd seriously consider the 12" PowerBook instead, it has better video (even on the 867 MHz version) and a G4 which helps immensely.

By the way, my new 1 GHz eMac smokes both of those other computers I listed, even with just 128 MB of RAM. Can't wait for my extra 512 to show up!

[g4baker]

I've got an 800 MHz one for sale if you're interested....let me know.

[WOPR]

Hi. Thanks for the offer but I'm in England and the power supply will have the wrong plug and the keyboard will be slightly different.