[kmarketing]

Hi,

Just for fun I got myself a Pismo 500mhz with 20gb Hard Drive, 256mb Memory, Airport, DVD for $400. Is that a decent deal?

Will this be a comparable machine to my ibook 600? The ibook has 16mb Video Ram, but besides that they seem to be pretty similar.

Which would you keep?

I appreciate your comments!
Thanks!!

[Lateralus]

You got a fantastic deal.

And I would take the Pismo over the iBook, zero question about it.

Sell the iBook for a pretty penny, and pick up a 1GHz G3 750GX processor upgrade from PowerLogix for that Pismo for under $400.

[kmarketing]

Hi,

I'm not really a gamer, but will the 8mb Video Memory be a major hindrance?

I notice that this model has 1mb L2 cache - will this be a good boost?
Is this L2 cache similar to that of the newer systems?

Thanks!!

[kmarketing]

By the way, you seem so definite of the powerbook over the ibook.

Can you give me some of your reasons?

Thanks!

[pete]

It's a great deal and it will be much better than the ibook for several reasons:

1. Aestetically
2.better ergonomics
3. bays for dual battery if you need that
4. All the ports in the world and very expandable
5. Better keyboard by far
6, Larger and probably brighter LCD

BUT, do yourself a favour and get yourself a 512mb chip to put in it. That will give you a big performance boost.

Congratulations...

[RooneyX]

It's lovely and velvety. I wish the Powerbook G5 has the same finish.

[zos]

That's an amazing deal, the 500mhz Pismo still sells for twice that at least. Just watch out for hardware failures. I just had to buy mine a new sound/AC board, but I still love it.

[kmarketing]

Hi,

Since I am new to the Pismo world, I have been really impressed by it. It has a leather look to it, so even some of the light scratches seem to be fine with the type of casing - and I am pretty crazy about scratches.

To emphasize one of the earlier points - upgradeability seems to be a breeze. I will be taking the 40gb 5400 Hard Drive, and DVD-RW drive that I put into the ibook, and put it into the powerbook.

My main thing has been to get the cheapest system possible - and hopefully be able to do most of what I want, and then get ready for the g5 powerbooks a year or two down the road. Do you think this will last?

I haven't tried out too many applications yet, but do you think I will be able to run most of them? Will the 8mb Video memory be a major problem?

That 1mb L2 cache is interesting, since not too many systems have that. Is that the same L2 cache as in centrino processors? Does that greatly improve performance in applications?

Thanks for all your opinions!!

[RooneyX]

All Powerbooks since then had 1MB cache. The last one was the Alubook 1Ghz I'm using now. Yes, it's great but some say 512k integrated on chip cache is just as good.

8MBs VRAM means you won't get to play many games and Quartz will be a bit slow, but with a CPU upgrade to 1Ghz that shouldn't matter much.

I wouldn't bother with the internal DVDRW because encoding to DVD using a G3 is just too slow anyway. For back ups it's OK.

But get a CPU and HD upgrade and the value of the machine will shoot up and you'll make a profit if you sell it within a year.

[xfesty]

With 10.3, and 512MB RAM, it'll be a speedy little thing; definitely, go for it over the iBook.

If your games need 3D acceleration, forget it; the graphics chip in it sucks. You could probably get away with running Quake3-era games at low resolutions, but you wont get anything modern on it.

If your games are 2D, or don't require 3D acceleration, you'll be fine. It'll run virtually all modern applications you throw at it, however, and run pretty snappy, too.

[kmarketing]

Hi,

I notice that powerbooks since the pismo had either 1mb L3 cache or 512mb L2 cache. Is there a big improvement with the 1mb L2 cache? And where would I see it?

Thanks!!

[bmhome1]

The Pismo has 1MB L2 off-chip die which is slower than 512k L2 on-chip die.

[kmarketing]

Thanks to all of you for helping me make another tough decision.

here's what I've done since I've joined MacNN - this is all in regards to which powerbook/ibook to keep as my laptop. I am looking to a g5 to take care of any big time application needs.

1. Had a 17" Powerbook 1ghz, and a 1.25 15" Powerbook (How happy I was!!).
2. Sold the 15", made about $400 (and have another battery and 1gb memory to sell)
3. Sold the 17", made another $400 (and have another battery and 512 memory to sell)
4. Bought an Ibook 600 (rev. 2 - 16mb Video, 512 L2 cache), for the same price after I sold an Ibook 500
5. Upgraded the Ibook 600 to 40gb 5400rpm ($60), and toshiba DVD-RW drive ($75)
6. Bought the Pismo for $400, and pulled the drives out of the ibook, and installed them into the pismo (I am deifinitely a pro now in taking apart the ibooks)
7. Will hopefully be making a little on the ibook 600.

I think the pismo will be the machine for me until the g5 powerbooks. You all convinced me with its upgradeability and since I love taking these things apart, I think this will be a better fit than the ibook. For my laptop needs, the pismo seems to be great!!!

As a non-gamer, I'm hoping the pitiful video card won't be that bad. I already notice that I am flying on the internet - I wonder if the L2 cache is helping with that. For my laptop, surfing, documents, music, photos, and maybe some light photoshop will be what I will need. It looks like the pismo will do it for me.

And it's all thanks to you!!