[macandcheese]

Which is the better purchase? Looking at two used Apple laptops, priced similarly, with similar ram configurations:

2002 15 inch Powerbook G4 (titanium) 867ghz-- In good condition, though battery does not hold charge.

2004(?) 12 inch Powerbook G4 1ghz -- in good condition, though needs a new hard drive.

Let me know your thoughts. The TiBook might actually be a 1ghz model, though I haven't heard back from the seller yet to confirm this. Would that change the comparison much?

THANK YOU!!

[mduell]

For what?

[macandcheese]

Ah yes. I should have anticipated that sort of response to my post.

Mainly a word-processing/editing machine, but I'd like it to handle some miscellaneous tasks too. I understand that the question of "better" always depends on the intended use, but, is it especially hard to answer this question generally for these two machines? I'm hoping someone who has experience with both can give some insight. Not just on performance (which is important), but reliability, sturdiness, and other general quality issues I should be aware of.

But yes, thank you mduell for at least beginning to engage the question. If you have anything else to share I would greatly appreciate it.

[Eug]

You said PowerBook G4 and iBook G4. Which one?

Anyways, neither the iBook G4 nor the PowerBook G4 have a user-replaceable hard drive.

The iBook G4 is a faster machine than the PowerBook 867 Ti, and also includes USB 2. The PowerBook 867 Ti has a bigger screen (obviously).

[hemant]

Keep in mind that the Titanium machines had problems with their hinges and the 12 inch iBooks had issues with their logic boards. Look for these before you make your purchase.

[amazing]

The portability of the 12" iBook is a major plus, and also its wifi range. The Ti has extremely poor wireless range, unless you get a PMCIA wireless card. I had a Ti/400 which had abysmal wireless range, and things didn't improve much until much later revs. I got a natively supported wireless card, and the difference was night and day. Problem was that the antenna sticks out of the side and is fragile--ejecting the card before moving around is time-consuming but very necessary.

How have you verified that the iBook's problem is the HD rather than the logic board?

[imitchellg5]

If the TiBook was taken care of pretty well, I'd go for that. They can be very nice machines. Although the wifi range does suck a lot. The screen is so much nicer though.

[ChrisB]

I'd say for a slim word processor, the 12 inch, if taken care of is the way to go. Make sure there weren't any outstanding repair issues.

[calverson]

Originally Posted by ChrisB 

I'd say for a slim word processor, the 12 inch, if taken care of is the way to go. Make sure there weren't any outstanding repair issues.

I concur. I just picked up a 12" iBook, and I love it. I have a MacBook Pro as my main machine, and I must say that I am really happy with the iBook. They are very nice machines, and I get about 3 hours wireless productivity*.

*wifi on, itunes and word open.

[gooser]

the tibooks should (could) have been great machines. unfortunately they weren't. too many issues. go for the ibook.

[homgran]

I have been using a 1GHz TiBook as my primary machine since it was introduced in late-2002. If well looked after, the machine can be incredibly durable. Here are my main issues with it:

• Loud fan-noise -- the one thing that's really annoyed me over the years is the fan noise. It's excessively loud. Like a hairdryer! You should definitely ask about fan-noise under heavy-load. Once the fans switch on, they stay on until I either put the computer to sleep or I place it on a slab of ice! The iBook, on the other hand, is virtually silent, making it far "nicer" to work on.
• SuperDrive issues -- my model has an internal SuperDrive. Now maybe I was just unlucky, but about two years ago the SuperDrive became less... super. It can still read CDs and DVDs, but it can no longer burn any type of optical media (I receive drive errors when attempting to burn a CD or a DVD). To be honest, this hasn't really bothered me since I haven't needed to burn any CDs or DVDs in a long time.
• USB -- the TiBook only has standard USB, it does not have any USB2 ports. In general, USB2 drives will still work but they will operate at the slow speeds associated with USB1. However, this is not really a "fault" of the machine.. when the TiBook was produced, USB2 was not standard. The 1GHz iBook, on the other hand, should have USB2 ports as standard. Bear in mind that USB2 is required for devices such as the current generation of iPods and the iPhone (so if you want to use either of those, you should definitely not buy the TiBook!).

Other than those issues (the worst of which is, without question, the fan noise) I can highly recommend the TiBook. It's fast enough for just about anything I need it to do (web, email, VLC, Illustrator, LaTeX, fortran programming, VNC, ... just about anything other than high-definition video or gaming). I would imagine that, in terms of performance, both machines will be similarly-matched.

You just need to ask yourself which is more important:

1. a larger screen, loud fan-noise and no USB2 (TiBook), or
2. a smaller screen, quiet fans and USB2 (iBook).

Personally, if I was buying now and both were being sold at an identical price, I would go for the iBook (due to the quieter fans and the inclusion of USB2).

Hope this helps!

[PwrMac.com]

I read your usage needs. I think the 1Ghz machine is a better choice. If you read my blog about HD upgrades:

http://www.pwrmac.com/2008/10/01/rea...d-speed-freak/

A replacing the hard drive could be a good thing. Additionally, the graphics processor in the 12" (a geforce go 5200) is superior to the radeon 9000 found in the Ti. As Mac OS X is so Core image dependent, I'd take the 1 Ghz machine for this reason alone.

[nickw311]

I had a 15" TiBook and I found it to be quite flimsy and had problems with the screen hinges, but if it was taken care of well then go for it.

[blackaltis07]

I traded an 867MHz TiBook for a 1.2 GHz iBook, the USB 2.0 and much cheaper RAM along were enough to justify the trade for me.

[applesbiggestfan]

I would definitely get the Powerbook 867Ghz.. thats a break-through!!

lol

It's 867Mhz megahertz