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mixtup · May 25, 2003, 02:29 AM

Hi Everyone!

After thinking I lost the opportunity to get a great deal (see here) and desperately signing up for ADC, just to find out that they don�t ship to Puerto Rico, and finally finding out that the deal my new school was offering me was back�

I have my PowerBook!!!!!!!!

I got a 15� Gigabook SD. This machine is INCREDIBLE. The looks, both hardware and software, have absolutely floored me. I�m only now starting to get things set up (it�s slow downloading programs off of dialup). As I do this I�m going to start a new post with my observations of the 1Ghz TiBook and switching to Macs in general.

Thanks for all your advice and help (see here) with my pre-buying questions. I�m absolutely stoked. And the icing on the cake: I was informed that my new 10 gig iPod is on the way!!!

naphtali · May 25, 2003, 03:39 AM

Congrats!

badnewsblair · May 25, 2003, 04:47 AM

Congratulations and your welcome. Welcome to the community!

iWrite · May 25, 2003, 06:06 AM

Congratulations!

I have the same system and I love it. I love Airport also -- do your best to get an Airport Base Station and work wirelessly. Right now I'm in bed and it's 6 o'clock in the morning and I'm online wirelessly and it's VERY nice.

Do yourself a favor, also: When you do your file downloads save each and every one of them to a file. I have a file on my desktop that simply says "Save" and inside is another folder called "Downloads" every download goes in there. I use a program called "Apimac Secret Folder" that makes the "Save" folder on my desktop go invisible until I want or need to see it (free downloadable progam) and what I do periodically is burn a disk of that "Save" file every so often with all of the updates on it so that if something happens I have all of those downloads and never have to download them again.

Anyway, congratulations and enjoy the day with your new Powerbook!

badnewsblair · May 25, 2003, 06:09 AM

Hey! I'm in bed right now typing this at 6 AM! HA! I love wireless!

olli2 · May 25, 2003, 06:29 AM

Hi,

I switched from a Compaq Armada M300 PIII 600 MHz / 320 MB, Ati Rage LT pro 4 Mb. My current machine is an iBook 600 / 384 MB / Ati Radeon 7000 16 MB.

My biggest problem is speed: I find all OS X very sluggish and 'click-and-pause' effect on my iBook, I am very unhappy.

So, I would be interested how you like the speed of OS X in long term on the 1 Ghz machine. I am thinking to get that 1 GHz laptop, move to Linux, or move back to x86 platform, because this GUI is SLOW for me on my iBook.

badnewsblair · May 25, 2003, 06:33 AM

Originally posted by olli2:
Hi,

I switched from a Compaq Armada M300 PIII 600 MHz / 320 MB, Ati Rage LT pro 4 Mb. My current machine is an iBook 600 / 384 MB / Ati Radeon 7000 16 MB.

My biggest problem is speed: I find all OS X very sluggish and 'click-and-pause' effect on my iBook, I am very unhappy.

So, I would be interested how you like the speed of OS X in long term on the 1 Ghz machine. I am thinking to get that 1 GHz laptop, move to Linux, or move back to x86 platform, because this GUI is SLOW for me on my iBook.

How much RAM does you iBook have? OS X is a RAM killer! You will not experience ANY 'click and pausse' syndrome with the Gigabook. I promise! If you have the money now, don't give it a second thought. Get yourself a Gigabook right away. You will NOT be sorry!

Michel_80 · May 25, 2003, 08:35 AM

I think he will be sorry if 15inch albook will start to ship soon.

AssassyN · May 25, 2003, 10:26 AM

I must say: CONGRATS and WELCOME to the LightSide!

And don't worry if the new 15" AlBook are released soon, the fact remains that you still own an incredible machine that'll surely suit your needs. And if we can answer any Q's to help you w/ setup just let us know!

Spheric Harlot · May 25, 2003, 01:36 PM

Welcome to Macintosh.

- - e r i k - - · May 25, 2003, 01:43 PM

Originally posted by Michel_80:
I think he will be sorry if 15inch albook will start to ship soon.

Who cares? He could have a great machine now or still be waiting with his crap pc. He made the right choice.

olli2 · May 25, 2003, 03:19 PM

Originally posted by badnewsblair:
How much RAM does you iBook have? OS X is a RAM killer! You will not experience ANY 'click and pausse' syndrome with the Gigabook. I promise! If you have the money now, don't give it a second thought. Get yourself a Gigabook right away. You will NOT be sorry!

There's only 384 MB. I have ordered a 512 MB Apple module from Memory X, I hope it will arrrive soon. Unfortunately, my iBook is shipped to the Netherlands for 3 weeks. The Firewire port has died (PHY problem), the screen backlight sometimes turned off, and the battery died with the 10.2.4 update a month ago.

The iBook usually slows down if I open up more apps, like OpenOffice.org, Safari, Mail, OmniDictionary, PathFinder, TextEdit, iPhoto, iTunes - somehow I need more programs when I work, not just one. Then Jaguar is very-very slow.

My problem with a Gigabook is price - it is extremly expensive to my computer budget. It will pay back in only 3-4 years, but I don't want to keep it for so long, I am sure much better machines will roll out during the coming years, IT is changing to quickly to stick to a machine for so long.

I wait for my machine and ram to arrive, I hope it will give a boost to performance. I also consider, that coming from the PC, my expectations for snappyness are much higher compared to the original Mac user. After OS 9 it seems to me that they are first happy to have a stable operating system.

What is the decent vga that makes OS X snappy, what do you think? What is the most important, CPU, Ram or Video? And what do you think is a good spec of these three for a snappy OS X?

mixtup · May 25, 2003, 08:10 PM

Thanks to everyone for the warm welcome. You wouldn't believe how helpful this forum (the community around it) has been. It's made things so much easier. Thanks a bunch!

Originally posted by Michel_80:
I think he will be sorry if 15inch albook will start to ship soon.

I was aware that they might be announced soon. But seeing how long it took to ship the PB 17"s, even if they release them tomorrow it would've been too long. I read somewhere in this forum that if you wait for the latest and greatest you'll never jump in.

Fact is I needed my PB at this moment and I'm glad I bought it. Like others said it was the right thing to do for me. I love my new PB and don't regret it.

BkueKanoodle · May 25, 2003, 09:07 PM

I don't think the ibook 600 supports quartz extreme, (someone correct me if I'm wrong) So that will have a negative effect on speed. Also, maxing the ram and closing Openoffice should help.

Having said that I bought an ibook 700 in december and while I loved the hardware and software, the sluggishness in the gui was kill me. I made the switch to a gigabook in feb, and I'm loving it.

Having left the apple platform in 96 and earning my living off of Microsoft since then, I gotta say OS X is the reason I came back.

Lateralus · May 25, 2003, 09:57 PM

Originally posted by mixtup:
I was aware that they might be announced soon. But seeing how long it took to ship the PB 17"s, even if they release them tomorrow it would've been too long.

That is an excellent point and something that I dont think most people are thinking about when they decide to wait for a new revision.

Anyways, good luck with your new baby. I am very envious.

cube-dude · May 26, 2003, 06:58 AM

Congratulations mixtup, and welcome to the forums too!

To echo the others' comments, once you and your PowerBook go wireless you will never go back. It sounds trite but it's true -- AirPort will change the way you live and work on your computer. Highly recommended.

MusicalTone · May 26, 2003, 09:45 AM

Congrats on your purchase. Go my 15" SD 3 months ago and havnt looked back. You have a great machine that will do everything you want NOW. In 2 or 3 years time when you decide to upgrade you can buy an Albook which will no doubt be the best kit you can get THEN.

mixtup · May 27, 2003, 12:17 AM

Thanks everyone for the welcome!

Originally posted by cube-dude:

To echo the others' comments, once you and your PowerBook go wireless you will never go back. It sounds trite but it's true -- AirPort will change the way you live and work on your computer. Highly recommended.

There are very few hotspots in PR. Once I move to Berkeley, I'm sure I'll have access to plenty of hotspots.

BTW I'm also typing on my bed. I just have a long telephone cable.

olli2 · May 27, 2003, 02:11 AM

Originally posted by BkueKanoodle:
I don't think the ibook 600 supports quartz extreme, (someone correct me if I'm wrong) So that will have a negative effect on speed. Also, maxing the ram and closing Openoffice should help.

Having said that I bought an ibook 700 in december and while I loved the hardware and software, the sluggishness in the gui was kill me. I made the switch to a gigabook in feb, and I'm loving it.

Having left the apple platform in 96 and earning my living off of Microsoft since then, I gotta say OS X is the reason I came back.

I am happy to see someone comes from the same origin. So you say iBook was slow for you, and the Gigabook is fine! Well, then I'll give a new try in the few Apple stores around us an see how it performs.

The iBook 600 with Ati Radeo 7000 and 16 MB ram is the lowest spec that supports Quartz Extreme.

Appleman · May 27, 2003, 05:13 AM

Welcome to the enlighted side!

1. Waiting for the 15" AlBook indeed will take time, as you said even if announced today it will ship weeks later.

2. Airport is so great, you hardly wonder how you did without it once you have it! Sitting in the garden (under a parasol since daylight really makes the screen unreadable), wake up and greet your Mac and the internet, read a bit before sleeping, being connected erveywhere in and around the house, it's marvelous. Do it yesterday!

3. 666 comes from here? :
"...Jobs and Wozniak put together their first computer, called the Apple I. They marketed it in 1976 at a price of $666..."
http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~history/Jobs.html

4. iBooks really come shipped often with way too low amount of RAM. 500 MB should be minimum I guess. When having money, stuff it to the max!

5. If you can, buy a new Mac every two-three years, that way you have some time to really have an considerable upgrade, instead of going from 500 MHz to 667 MHz.
Waiting for the dual 970 PowerPC Powerbook 19" is an option for someone who is very patient

6. Have fun with your beautiful PowerBook, and come back here with any questions!

DekuDekuplex · May 27, 2003, 04:02 PM

Originally posted by olli2:
I am happy to see someone comes from the same origin. So you say iBook was slow for you, and the Gigabook is fine! Well, then I'll give a new try in the few Apple stores around us an see how it performs.

The iBook 600 with Ati Radeo 7000 and 16 MB ram is the lowest spec that supports Quartz Extreme.

Welcome to Macintosh, too!

Actually, I'm also from the same origin

.

I used to use Mac's almost every day in college from 1989 to 1994 (including my Leave of Absence), but later was forced to make a living off $-Bill's Micro$oft Windoze

when I got laid off a Mac-based systems engineering job in November 1996.

Then in December 1997, my company gave to me for free a PC that I had built while teaching a PC-building class. Just for reference, its spec's were the following: generic self-built Wintel desktop / 32-bit Pentium MMX 200 MHz CPU / 16 MB RAM (later expanded to 80 MB RAM) / no special graphics card / 2 GB HD (later expanded to 10 GB HD) / Windows 95 OS (later augmented with the following multi-boot OS's: Windows NT 4.0 Server trial version, Windows NT 4.0 Workstation trial version, Windows 2000 Professional, and, eventually, Red Hat Linux 7.2).

I was on my way to becoming Oracle-certified (and thus unleashed from Micro$oft) when I heard last year that Oracle 9i (the database) could now run on the Mac. Hurrah! Now I could use a Mac and, after becoming certified, make a living, too!

So finally, this April, I Switched back and purchased a Mac (with the following spec's: 17-inch PowerBook G4 / 128-bit PowerPC G4 CPU with Velocity Engine / 512 MB RAM / nVIDIA GeForce4 440 Go graphics processor / 60 GB HD / MacOS X 10.2 Jaguar).

(But who cares about the spec's? What really matters is that it's a Mac

.)

DekuDekuplex

Lateralus · May 27, 2003, 06:15 PM

Originally posted by olli2:
The iBook 600 with Ati Radeo 7000 and 16 MB ram is the lowest spec that supports Quartz Extreme.

There was never an iBook with a Radeon 7000. Just Radeon, and Radeon 7500 so far.

olli2 · May 28, 2003, 02:01 AM

Originally posted by PowerMacMan:
There was never an iBook with a Radeon 7000. Just Radeon, and Radeon 7500 so far.

The ATi Radeon = Ati Radeon 7000, in case of the iBooks, if I know well.

Hornet · May 28, 2003, 02:30 AM

Originally posted by olli2:
The ATi Radeon = Ati Radeon 7000, in case of the iBooks, if I know well.

Ati radeon 7000 = lower clocked radeon.
Ati radeon 7500 = higher clocked radeon (more ram etc too in some cases)

thus
Radeon 7500 > Radeon > Radeon 7000

And I believe there never was a radeon 7000 in an ibook, only the original and the 7500.

Oh, and gigabooks ROCK

Loving mine

Welcome to the group!