[wschultz]

At MicroCenter for 799$...
My question is: is there a noticeable difference between the 12" G3 and the new 12" G4? Is the extra 300$ for the G4 worth it?
Any other comments/opinions?
Thanks.

[webcookie]

The G4 has a much nicer keyboard, in my opinion. Not to mention the slot-loading combo drive. But I haven't had much experience with the G3 iBooks.

[discotronic]

You can get a refurb G4 800 on Apple's site in the Special Deals section for $949.

I bought one of the G3 900 new when Apple had them a couple months back. If they would have had the G4 refurbs I would have got one of them instead.

[Detrius]

The G4 has AltiVec which makes many things significantly faster. I'd definitely go for the G4.


W. H. Schultz

[Lateralus]

Get the G3. The iBook 800 G4 is not exactly a great performer, as it is cache starved. It is definately not worth the $300 premium.

[nredman]

Originally posted by PowerMacMan:
Get the G3. The iBook 800 G4 is not exactly a great performer, as it is cache starved. It is definately not worth the $300 premium.

performs fine for me, depends on what you use it for.

[teknopimp]

i thought all the microcenter $799 ibooks were gone. got mine in january. get one while (if) you still can. works great for everyday use. don't bother with the G4 ibook, not worth the extra cost and it's soon to be replaced anyway.

[rytc]

Originally posted by teknopimp:
i thought all the microcenter $799 ibooks were gone. got mine in january. get one while (if) you still can. works great for everyday use. don't bother with the G4 ibook, not worth the extra cost and it's soon to be replaced anyway.

So you're saying that because a higher speced laptop is about to be updated and hence made outdated, a currrently outdated laptop soon to be made even more outdated is a better buy?
Weird argument IMHO, however, I'd go with the G3 if that's all you want to spend, it's a great little laptop and is certainly a lot better than the 466 clamshell that's still my main machine.

[freakboy2]

g3

i think those g3s have a big cache running at 1:1 with the proc. makes them quite snappy.

just missing altivec which would help you w/ photoshop and some other stuff. for surfing the g3 is good.

does anyone know about the power saving stuff with the g4? does the g4 ibook have better battery life?

fb

[vickster]

I just upgraded my iBook 700 to the 900. Damn, it's a nice little lappy. If you can find one at a really good deal, it's still a fine computer, espcially if you're not utilizing a bunch of Altivec-enhanced apps. And actually, compared to my 700, the 900's keyboard is much tighter, less spongy.

Just my $.02...

vickster

[discotronic]

Originally posted by vickster:
I just upgraded my iBook 700 to the 900. Damn, it's a nice little lappy. If you can find one at a really good deal, it's still a fine computer, espcially if you're not utilizing a bunch of Altivec-enhanced apps. And actually, compared to my 700, the 900's keyboard is much tighter, less spongy.

Just my $.02...

vickster

I upgraded from a 700 to the 900 also. I think I saved myself a bit of money. I kept my memory and Airport so no need to spend extra money with the upgrade. For everything I do it is perfect. You will hear people say that the G3's are slow. I just can't see the reasoning.

If I would have had the money I would have went with the G4. I don't regret my purchase though.

[Graymalkin]

My girlfriend just bought a 900MHz G3 iBook from Apple and she loves it. She was upgrading from a 333MHz Lombard so there was a huge speed increase. For the money the G3 iBooks are pretty good deals. My friend bought one last summer and is able to play Neverwinter Nights as well as I can on my 12" Powerbook. While a G4 is going to give a nice boost in some applications there's quite a few that will never get any sort of benefit from running on a G4. For general purpose tasks and some light gaming the G3 iBooks are really nice machines.

If you're saving $300 on the iBook you can put that into some RAM and an iPod mini and still save over the cost of a G4 iBook. I'd save the money on the G3 iBook as it will very likely do everything you want for quite a while yet.

[Superchicken]

Don't buy the 900 I had four logic boards go on mine... now I have a 12 inch powerbook

[teknopimp]

Originally posted by rytc:
So you're saying that because a higher speced laptop is about to be updated and hence made outdated, a currrently outdated laptop soon to be made even more outdated is a better buy?
Weird argument IMHO...

it is a better buy when the newer model performs only marginally better but costs hundreds more. a fast G3 still fits the needs of most users. it doesn't take much to figure those things out, especially when cost is a main factor.

[The Placid Casual]

If you don't use Altivec apps, the 900 could be a good deal. Although I use a G4 and G5 machine most of the time, I sometimes fire up my G3 450 clamshell iBook, and it does a good effort of running 10.3 well. I suspect it would run very well in deed on a G3 900.

If you plan on using PS, I would go for the G4, if you are just using it for surfing and word processing, the G3 would do a fine job, and you could buy some decent accessories for $300!

Just be sure it comes with 10.3 install and restore CDs as well as iLife '04. if you need to buy them individually, that is $150 of your saving lost right there...

[Morpheus X]

The G4! G3s are old CPUs and even Apple has started to ignore them. Try to run Soundtrack. Good luck! And even OS X supports Altivec. Why buy an iBook with G3 knowing that Apple already started to develope software that doesnt run on an G3s anymore. Better pay the extra money and be sure you can run the latest softwar without any trouble.

Morpheus

[webb3201]

It depends on your needs. If you are running the basics (email,web,word processing,itunes), I recommend a good G3 machine at that price. You can then put the extra 300.00 into accessories or in a new laptop fund. Apple is starting to keep make drastic changes in the laptop line for the first time in years. I typically need a laptop to last only a year at the most, so I tend to buy behind the technology curve.

BTW, I bought a 14" G3 900 and find it to be the equal to my sold 12" Powerbook (revA). The good news is memory and airport cards are cheap. The one thing I really like is battery life. My Powerbook rarely beat 2.5 hours, but my G3 is easily four hours. Also, I dont have to worry about burning my legs. This machine will last me until the G5 Powerbooks roll out next year.

[finboy]

Originally posted by webb3201:
Also, I dont have to worry about burning my legs.

Not me. My 900 is red hot, and I wish I knew why.