[charlespsu]

Hello All.
I'm about to purchase a 500mhz ibook, used of course.
I have some questions for fellow owners.
Thanks in advance!
Charles

1. Will Jaguar run on this system, or should I stay with plain 10.1?
2. I'm going to be using this as a portable system. Is this plenty fast enough for basic internet, typing, etc? Is it ok?
3. Can you upgrade the internal HDD? Has anyone ever done it?

[MHerberg]

1. Definately go with Jaguar. 10.2 is FASTER on an 500MHz iBook than 10.1.
2. Yes, it is plenty fast for web browsing and writing. Two tips I have is make sure you have at least 384MB of RAM and turn off quartz text smoothing in Microsoft Word if you think it is slow.
3. I just recently replaced my hard drive myself. You'll need an Apple Service manual (there are less accurate instructions on the internet that you can find with Google), a T8 torx screwdriver, and a #0 Phillips screwdriver. Also, doing so is NOT for the faint of heart. It was a very stressful process and you've got to know your way around delicate computer parts. It takes at least a hour to do, probably two if your extra careful and make sure every screw is correctly replaced.

[Nerozwei]

The 500 is still fast enough for basic tasks (surfing, iTunes, writing, etc.). Just get the minimum 384 of RAM as MHerberg suggested.

Jaguar really makes a difference. But if you can get along with 10.1 for a few months I'd suggest you wait for Panther. If you get a good second-hand deal on Jag I'd get it. I would not pay $129 it any more.

[alien]

The iBook 500 is OK for most basic tasks, at least when your'e not doing too many of them at once. You should have 384MB of RAM or more, this will help performance.

For internet, I find network bandwidth to be the defining factor. On a fast connection, my iBook is doing well on most web pages, except of course some poorly coded ones.

For typing, I think some programs have poorly optimized text engines, but TextEdit, Mail and ProjectBuilder/XCode is doing fine. Typing in Safari can be a pain though.

I usually leave iTunes running at all times, which takes ca 20% cpu time. This doesn't seem to affect noticable performance in other apps. But when I use QuickTime Player or other movie/video apps, to watch .mpg streams etc, it can use 50% cpu time or even more.

I would probably wait for Panther, unless you can find Jaguar real cheap. The last 10.1.x release is a decent OS, but Jaguar and soon Panther are much better and faster in many ways.

Since the computer is 2 years old, the original battery probably is nearly dead by now. You may have to buy another one. Unfortunately, the iBook 500 has poorer battery management than newer models, which means that the battery capacity and life is more dependant on your usage pattern. Apple has some AppleCare documents on best battery usage.

Good luck!

[The Placid Casual]

Charlespsu, an iBook 500 will be fine with OS X... just be sure to get as much RAM as possible.

I am still using an iBook 466 with Jaguar, and it pretty much up to the task! Web, mail, Word, etc all run without hassle.

As for the comments on batteries... I would guess you will be fine, that machine is not that old at all. Use it for a while and see how it goes before you splash out any money for another one... The battery is charged daily on my Clamshell, and is still absolutely fine over 2 years on!

[mark2]

I have a 500 ibook and I love it. It has been amazingly trouble-free and it does everything I ask of it.
I recently went from 384 to 512MB of ram and found it smoothed some things out and some things are a bit faster. It was ok with 384MB, though.
I keep as many apps open as I like, always have, no problem. I also keep it running 24/7, just put it to sleep. I've done this for over a year.
My battery is still holding up well (about 3 hours of use, probably more). I have it on AC most of the time, so the battery gets little use. Use the ibook many, many hours a day.
Surfing with Safari is great. I'm on dialup and it is plenty fast enough for my uses.
I was able to buy Jag with a rebate. Paid $80, got $30 back. If I were you I would just wait for Panther, then keep your eyes peeled for a rebate to bring the price down.

[tikki]

Max out the ram.

Turn your colors down to the thousands

Don't try to do real work with iTunes running. It's painful.

Make sure there's applecare on the system because of the flaky backlight problem with 500s.

[superblue]

Yep, another happy iBook 500 Jag user here - running it on 384MB. If the rumours are correct, Panther should make it that little bit faster too. I find Flash performance very weak, though the root of that problem is Macromedia's poorly written OS X player. Fingers crossed that should be rectified before too long.

[GORDYmac]

Ditto all the remarks here. I do not believe I will be installing Panther on it though.

[Powaqqatsi]

Originally posted by GORDYmac:
Ditto all the remarks here. I do not believe I will be installing Panther on it though.

Why not ?

[GORDYmac]

I'm just feeling that it's a bit sluggish sometimes. I think another update would make it slow.

Oh well, my nephew starts high school soon, he'd love to have it.

[Lateralus]

You do realize that each subsequent release of OS X is faster than the previous release, right?

[GORDYmac]

Yep, faster on the fastest machines that is. Jaguar is slower on my iBook than 10.1, because it doesn't use Quartz Extreme, I guess. I'd imagine that things like iChatAV, the new Finder, iDisk, and that window_management_thingy_whose_name_I_can't_recall _right_now will also be limited. I won't even start on the iApps. Overall, I think Panther will be slower, when you add the sum of its parts--though the OS itself will probably be faster. 384MB RAM by the way.

I'll just buy a new machine, since thats why new software is written, right? I want the 12" PB, but I'm holding out for 1GHz.

[GORDYmac]

Expose.

[Lateralus]

Well, I have run 10.1 and 10.2 on my iBook 500 and my current Pismo PowerBook 400. Each has a Rage 128 card, and Jaguar is considerably faster than 10.1 was on both machine. I also have 10.3 running on the Pismo on its own partition, it is much faster than 10.2.

There is something wrong if 10.2 runs slower than 10.1, you probably need to wipe/zero/low-level-format and do a clean install of the OS.

Also, I dont see why you think Finder would be slower.

[GORDYmac]

Because it's [Panther Finder] supposed to be Cocoa. In my G3 experience, Cocoa = slow. Jaguar's way faster on my G4, I guess.

This is all relative, of course. That's just my experience, no biggie.