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Zim · Mar 26, 2004, 08:34 AM

This could be new or used.. I'm looking for something that I can roam around the house with, into the back yard, etc, that would be good enough for web surfing, and nothing much tougher.

It would be "nice" if it had a combo drive so that it would double as a portable DVD player on trips, but I suspect that would limit my choices of machines.

If I were buying new, I'd just get a 12" to keep the size down. Not sure how far back (for used machines) the 12" goes.

And being clue-free about laptops, would the wireless need to be pre-installed inside the machine, or can I just add on an 802.11 PCMCIA card?

So what would be my "minimum" machine? (and rough cost estimate) (please list Powerbook possibilities too).

Thanks!
Mike

Eug Wanker · Mar 26, 2004, 08:59 AM

iBook 700 G3 (although I'd recommend an 800 G4). The iBook 700 has a Radeon by the way. I definitely wouldn't consider anything without a Radeon or better.

Actually it'd work with even slower machines, but I find them too slow personally.

andreas_g4 · Mar 26, 2004, 09:41 AM

MY 600 MHz G3 iBook served me quite well. It had a 16 MB Radeon Card, hence it was capable of Quartz Extreme. QE makes every Mac feel snappier and it's a lot more fun to use. I would consider QE more important than MHz, especially for the tasks you want to throw at your machine.

wataru · Mar 26, 2004, 10:08 AM

Originally posted by Zim:
And being clue-free about laptops, would the wireless need to be pre-installed inside the machine, or can I just add on an 802.11 PCMCIA card?

You can add an Airport card after-market. No 3rd party PC cards will work, though.

dreilly1 · Mar 26, 2004, 10:09 AM

An early dual-USB iBook may be your best bet, but be careful: the first crop of dual-USB iBooks only had a 66 MHz memory bus and a 8 MB video card, which made 10.2 pretty darn slow. I sold mine a year and a half ago and bought a new iBook, and have no complaints (except for the logic board, but that's a different post...) My new 800 MHZ iBook (with 100 MHz bus and 32(?)MB video) is more than twice as fast as the old 500MHz one!

If you really are just going to use it for web surfing and don't mind your computer being pokey, you might be able to get your hands on one of these for less than a model with a 100 MHz bus and better video. But make sure you test-drive it before you buy or you might be disappointed at the speed.

And all the dual-USB iBooks have an internal slot for a AirPort card. The older ones that you will likely be looking at take a normal (non-extreme) AirPort card, which are cheaper than their newer counterpart. Installing these cards after the fact is simple.

As for cost estimates, given the knowledge you will gain from this thread I'd poke around eBay. lowendmac.com is a good place to go to get full specs.

Zim · Mar 26, 2004, 10:23 AM

Originally posted by wataru:
You can add an Airport card after-market. No 3rd party PC cards will work, though.

Incredible... any short explanation of why not?

Thanks,
Mike

Luca Rescigno · Mar 26, 2004, 11:08 AM

The iBook doesn't have a PC card slot. It only has an Airport card slot. It may sound like a bad thing because you're forced into buying Apple's card... but it's actually good because there's a built-in antenna hookup in the Airport card slot that gives you great reception. PC cards, however, either use the little nub for reception, or require a big external antenna.

I'd say get a 700 MHz or faster. If you want to go really cheap, look for a 600/CD-ROM. Watch out though - the 600/Combo is actually SLOWER than the 600/CD because the 600/CD has a much better video card. A 700 or 800 MHz one would be a bit better anyway, and you'd be able to get the faster video card AND a Combo drive.

discotronic · Mar 26, 2004, 03:23 PM

Cheapest that I can think of is the original 300 MHz clamshell iBook.

amazing · Mar 27, 2004, 10:40 AM

Check the Special Deals section of the Apple Store for prices on refurbs.

A good thing to keep in mind is that refurbs come with the one-year Applecare, which you can extend. I'd hesitate to buy an iBook without the possibility of Applecare--logic boards and video problems are very costly. You can get discounted applecare at smalldog.com, expercom.com, and LA Computer Store

http://www.lacocostore.com/cgi-local...?group=appcare

blackbird_1.0 · May 20, 2004, 04:09 PM

Originally posted by Luca Rescigno:
The iBook doesn't have a PC card slot. It only has an Airport card slot. It may sound like a bad thing because you're forced into buying Apple's card... but it's actually good because there's a built-in antenna hookup in the Airport card slot that gives you great reception. PC cards, however, either use the little nub for reception, or require a big external antenna.

I'd say get a 700 MHz or faster. If you want to go really cheap, look for a 600/CD-ROM. Watch out though - the 600/Combo is actually SLOWER than the 600/CD because the 600/CD has a much better video card. A 700 or 800 MHz one would be a bit better anyway, and you'd be able to get the faster video card AND a Combo drive.

I was asking this in a thread I started. I remember someone saying that there was a way to use pc wireless nics in the older iBooks.

ccsccs7 · May 20, 2004, 06:23 PM

Originally posted by blackbird_1.0:
�
I remember someone saying that there was a way to use pc wireless nics in the older iBooks.

It was a hack. Unless you know what you're doing, you could wreck something. Now, if you considered an older Powerbook, they have real PC card slots which you can use wireless PC cards with. If you did go this route, you should make sure that there are Mac compatible drivers for the card you get (before you get it

).

I suppose it also depends on whether or not you want to run Mac OS X.

nesuser2 · May 30, 2004, 04:31 AM

That's crazy, get an airport...they run so much smoother. Also, I have a g3 900 right now and it's more than what I really need it for, which sounds like what the original poster is looking for. I also had a 500mhz dual usb that just didn't cut it. I was only running on 384 though and I was also running Jaguar. I was actually more than disappointed with my first Apple product. So...I would recommend:

Dual USB 500
640 mb ram
Panther
DVD drive

The laptop ran fine for everything I wanted it to do and I knew little about macs at the time. If i had maxed the ram and realized that these machines are meant to be up all the time, I would have been better off. Make sure you either get one with a good battery or replace the junk one...it's well worth it. One of my biggest haggles with the 500 was load time which has lead me to the belief to stop shutting it down all the time. Actually, I've been up 12 days right now and I don't see a reason to stop going. I've also installed roughly 10 programs since then and it hasn't bucked once. The only time I've actually shut it down during ownership was when iTunes locked up when I put in a "wonder what's on this" CD.

So, finally, hopefully somebody can elaborate or fix some points I made. I'm very very far from an expert on Apple products but I'm picking it up.