[volcano]

I have the opportunity to buy a dual-USB iBook from someone for $280. It has a 500MHz G3 processor, 192MB RAM, 10GB HDD, and a Combo drive (which was the high-end BTO option back in the day). Anyway, since it's relatively cheap, and one of my close friends has been dying to purchase a laptop but can't really afford one, I was thinking of buying it for her as a starter Mac. I've let her use my iBook dozens of times and after she's done I always catch her mumbling "I want one of these" or something along that line. Do you think this will work out alright? She would love it for all of her school-related documents (as do I) - for typing essays, reports, and the like while not being restricted to home use. She might put a tad bit of music on it (since it only has a 10GB HDD, you can't put too much on there) and she will also use it for browsing the web, checking her email... that sort of thing.

It has Tiger already installed, and I just mailed the owner to ask how much space is actually left on the computer - since Tiger installation on my 1.33GHz 12" iBook with a 60GB HDD ate up 13GB of space and dropped it down to 47GB afterward (with a custom installation, mind you).

It doesn't have an Airport Card installed, so I'd have to purchase that, along with the maximum amount of RAM (which I believe is 640mb) - and perhaps a case as well. That's not too big of a deal. My last question though - would it be hard to replace and install a newer, larger hard-drive? If I could, I'd like to at least throw a 20GB HDD in there - 10 seems so tiny to me. I've never done anything to a computer of this magnitude, though - the farthest I've gone with internal components is installing my own RAM modules. Would it be hard?

If I'm going to throw a completely different OS at someone I want to be sure it's a capable machine that will serve them well. I was able to convince my brother's girlfriend to purchase an iBook instead of a crappy Dell laptop in September (my brother adores Dell computers and is actually obtaining a bachelor's in Computer Science, so this was a big deal) - and of all things her logic board has failed twice on her! I feel horrible to this day, but she still loves her Mac and OS X.

[Cucucachoo]

That is what i did with my iBook. I purchaced this 600mhz G3 off my work for $250. It had only a 20gb HD, and a measly cd-rom drive. So i purchaced it and replaced both the cd-rom with a combo/dvd, and the harddrive with a 60gb. Both bought from ebay. And upgraded the memory to the max 640.

Upgrading the parts are not an easy thing. But as long as you get a copy of the service manual, which details the correct way to dissassemble the book you will be ok. I did the internal upgrades when i got them so it took 2 times to install both components and the 2nd time was much easier then the first.

As long as she isn't wanting to render movies or do major graphics on it she should be able to get a few years of use out of it.

[Dork.]

The old G3 iBooks have better logic boards in them. I used to have one (bought brand new), then sold it to a friend a year later and bought a G3 800 MHz. My G3 800's logic board has died twice now (luckily I bought the AppleCare), while the G3 500 MHz has been rock solid. The only problem it has is one channel of the headphone output is blown.

Replacing the HD is not overly difficult, it just involves a lot of patience, and a lot of meticulous cataloging of screws. You pretty much need to take the entire thing apart, and then put it back together again. Unhooking the bottom of the case from the case body can be a pain as well. You basically need to slip something in the crack and try to force some plastic tabbies open. I used a cheap 1" plastic thingy that you use to apply spackle that you can buy at any home improvement store. (1/2" would probably be better, if you can find it...)

You should also buy a Firewire or USB case to put the old drive in. (I like getting mine from www.geeks.com , they might have good prices on drives as well). Then, use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the 10GB drive onto the larger drive before replacing it. If all goes well (and the new System folder is blessed properly), the thing will boot up immediately after replacing the drive!

And absolutely, positively, max out the RAM. OS X likes lots and lots of RAM.

[mduell]

An Airport card and 512MB PC133 SODIMM will be at least $200 worth of upgrades... I'd look for a $500 iBook that already has both installed.

[volcano]

I decided not to purchase it after I discovered how much time and money this would require to upgrade. Thanks for the help everyone.