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Voxorion · Jan 26, 2004, 09:13 AM

Greetings all.

I noticed that "new in box" G3 12" iBook's are showing with a decent discount now that the G4's are out.

I've seen prices from $725-$799, with varying options and configurations (more or less ram, with or without Airport).

I'm new to Mac's (have a PB Rev A. 17", but came to realize it's just not portable) and I'm interested in picking up one of these guys for doing e-mail/internet/writing - nothing special.

Anyway, I'm curious if anyone has any experience with these "left over" sales.

Can I expect the prices to go down much if I wait 30 days (at least one of the places shows they have close to 300 still in stock) - or does a point come when Apple either buys the back, or they all end up donated to high schools/NPO's?

Honestly, if I miss my window, it wasn't meant to be - I'm not 'burning' here - I'm just wondering if anyone has experience with additional price drops....

TIA

loco · Jan 30, 2004, 01:58 PM

I've made 'old iBook' purchases from MicroCenter twice, and got a great deal both times.

Small Dog also has some great deals regularly, and they're also great supporters of Mac web sites (i.e. macintouch, etc.).

Good luck-I don't see how you can go wrong with one of those little guys at $725.
-dan

bartman00 · Jan 30, 2004, 10:46 PM

the Microcenter in Columbus Ohio has 12" G3-900 ibooks, 256mb ram, 60gig HD, combo drive, and airport for $799, and if you sign up for there Microcenter credit card you get a $100 mail in rebate.. so the final price is $699!!! They still have them in stock. I believe this config is only at the Bethal store.

I couldn't pass it up, I picked one up the other night. Nice upgrade from my overclocked 500@600mhz ibook! It's also the fastest ibook that uses pc-100 ram so that 512meg stick I had in my old ibook just keeps on going!

After I sell my old ibook the upgrade will be really cheep!

Bart

nredman · Jan 31, 2004, 07:52 PM

small dog offer

i am seriously considering this deal, which expires tomorrow the 1st.

iBook G3/800 12 inch 640/30/CDROM/56K/Airport with refurbished Apple Airport Extreme Base station with modem & antenna port

new ibook. refurbed airport extreme 640 ram for $929. pretty sweet deal i think. just get an airport extreme card and your set. very tempting...don't know if i should though since i'd have to charge it

rjenkinson · Jan 31, 2004, 07:57 PM

Originally posted by nredman:
iBook G3/800 12 inch 640/30/CDROM/56K/Airport with refurbished Apple Airport Extreme Base station with modem & antenna port

for me, the deal-breaking would be the CD-ROM drive... can't watch movies or use DVD-R backups.

-r.

nredman · Jan 31, 2004, 08:02 PM

Originally posted by rjenkinson:
for me, the deal-breaking would be the CD-ROM drive... can't watch movies or use DVD-R backups.

-r.

yeah i have a superdrive right now and its nice to be able to save to dvd and cd...i'd really like to go wireless though...i am trying to figure out the best deal with smalldog...they have so many different deals going

Lateralus · Jan 31, 2004, 10:15 PM

Agreed.

IMHO, the optical drive in a portable is more important than the processor. No point in having a fast processor if your optical drive's limitations prevent you from doing anything that stresses the CPU other than gaming.

selowitch · Feb 1, 2004, 11:31 AM

Originally posted by loco:
Good luck-I don't see how you can go wrong with one of those little guys at $725

It is a good deal, but you should consider that a mere $300 additional investment gets you a G4 iBook that is AirPort Extreme compatible.

Starry Night · Feb 1, 2004, 11:37 PM

Originally posted by loco:
I've made 'old iBook' purchases from MicroCenter twice, and got a great deal both times.

Small Dog also has some great deals regularly, and they're also great supporters of Mac web sites (i.e. macintouch, etc.).

Good luck-I don't see how you can go wrong with one of those little guys at $725.
-dan

Logic board fiasco, logic board fiasco, logic board fiasco

Spend a little more and get the G4 ibook which uses the PB logic board. A good deal on faulty hardware is not really a good deal......

Lateralus · Feb 2, 2004, 01:46 AM

Originally posted by selowitch:
It is a good deal, but you should consider that a mere $300 additional investment gets you a G4 iBook that is AirPort Extreme compatible.

...and loses you 100MHz, 256k of L2 cache (very important), 10GBs of hard drive space, and OS 9 booting.

finboy · Feb 2, 2004, 12:45 PM

Originally posted by PowerMacMan:
...and loses you 100MHz, 256k of L2 cache (very important), 10GBs of hard drive space, and OS 9 booting.

yup. I got a dual boot 900/combo back in December for a song. I essentially upgraded to a newer Pismo with a smaller footprint and 4 times the VRAM. Runs like a champ now that I've reinstalled everything from the ground up. But the serial number isn't in the extended warranty range (it's 340xxx). Yet.

andreas_g4 · Feb 2, 2004, 04:28 PM

I got a 900 MHz in November 2003 and I absolutely love it. Sure, a G4 is nice, but the G3 fits my needs absolutely and I don't miss any of the G4 iBook specs.
The G3 iBooks are - especially for the current prices - quite decent machines.

discotronic · Feb 4, 2004, 09:10 AM

I just purchased a G3 900 for $799 with education discount from the special deals section on Apple's site. The serial # falls out of the range for the logic board extension. I still purchased Applecare like I did with my iBook 700. I consider Applecare one of the smartest investestments you can get for a laptop.

I got an extra 10 Gig of HD space, 100 MHz more clock speed and used the 512MB memory and Airport card from my 700. The total new investment for a new iBook is $982. The G4 iBook with the same options would have cost $1428. I saved $446.

Since I don't need a portable powerhouse the G3 will be perfect. I would have kept my 700 but my mothers PB 3400C finally died. That was a good excuse to upgrade.

Skaar · Feb 4, 2004, 02:22 PM

I ordered a 12" iBook G3 900MHz Combo from Microcenter on Monday for $799, it just arrived this afternoon, and much to my surprise it was loaded with 640MB and an Airport card. Sweet! On the website it was just listed as 256MB and no airport. this should tide me over until G5 PB's come out.

Lateralus · Feb 4, 2004, 02:48 PM

Originally posted by Skaar:
I ordered a 12" iBook G3 900MHz Combo from Microcenter on Monday for $799, it just arrived this afternoon, and much to my surprise it was loaded with 640MB and an Airport card. Sweet! On the website it was just listed as 256MB and no airport. this should tide me over until G5 PB's come out.

Damn, that is a great deal!

discotronic · Feb 5, 2004, 12:17 AM

Received the iBook 900 today. Not bad. Ordered on Sunday received on Wednesday. I opted for Fed-Ex ground which was free.

The battery fits perfect unlike my iBook 700. No dead pixels. It came with Panther which I was expecting and with the new version of iLife which includes GarageBand. I wasn't expecting that one. Nice little treat.

macwayne · Feb 8, 2004, 09:36 PM

I got an unexpected surprise with the ibook I ordeed from MicroCenter. The website advertised the configuration at 900Mhz G3, 128Ram, 40GHD, (no airport) for $799. I placed the order Monday and got it yesterday (Saturday). It came with 384Ram with an airport card installed and Panther disks! I figure I saved over $200 on the extras that came with this machine. Sweeet deal!

RBM · Feb 10, 2004, 03:11 AM

I bought an 800Mhz G3 last week to server as the throbbing heart of my media center (MP3, Divx-to-TV, etc.). Even after maxing the RAM to 640, I found it shockingly slow (I'm spoiled after working Powerbooks too long I guess... ;-)) - movies skipping, beachballs in iTunes (2000+ album library).

I sold it after a few days & bought the G4 800 - a night and day difference, even in the stock 256Mb config. Movies are smooth and no more beachballs in iTunes.

Light office & internet work on the G3 was fine though, so I guess milage will vary with intended use...

radarbob · 09:33 PM

Congratulations on all the great deals y'all got.

I think it underscores the point that buying leading edge comes with a premium and for most of us that leading edge just buys short-lived bragging rights, until the next bestest thing comes out.

These deals are very tempting, but I'm just gonna have to keep crusin' on my RevA iBook. Given my hard drive, memory, airport, and 2 OS upgrades it's still pulling it's weight.

finboy · Feb 11, 2004, 03:48 PM

Originally posted by RBM:
I bought an 800Mhz G3 last week to server as the throbbing heart of my media center (MP3, Divx-to-TV, etc.). Even after maxing the RAM to 640, I found it shockingly slow (I'm spoiled after working Powerbooks too long I guess... ;-)) - movies skipping, beachballs in iTunes (2000+ album library).

I sold it after a few days & bought the G4 800 - a night and day difference, even in the stock 256Mb config. Movies are smooth and no more beachballs in iTunes.

Light office & internet work on the G3 was fine though, so I guess milage will vary with intended use...

I don't have a faster Mac to compare with, but my iBook 900 G3 (640M RAM) is as fast as my wife's 2.2Ghz bare-bones WinXP (1G RAM) machine. Even with software and other configurations, the iBook screams. It's actually faster in OS X than in OS 9.