[jhunt5247]

Greetings,

I really want to buy a powerbook, but I want to wait until a new version comes out (hopefully correct some of the problems with it), and honestly, I just don't have the money for a powerbook at this time.

Anyway. I was hopping to find a good deal on eBay for most likely a 500mhz machine. If I can find faster for a good deal, that might be a possibility as well. For this question though, lets assume I get a 500.

Ok, here is my question/statement. I am looking to do the following. Buy a 500, stick a IBM Travelstar 40GNX 40GB 5400 RPM drive in it ($158 on googlegear.com), figuring this drives new cache should be pretty speedy. Also add about 512 megs of RAM (pricewatch.com lists 512 for the ibook at 76 dollars).

So my question is, running OS/X 10.2, should this system be fairly fast? Most of the stuff I will be doing is web based. Really I just need a command line and ssh to get to other machines. I do however use Fireworks MX a lot and as well Dreamweaver MX. I was wondering how sluggish this system would be for those 2 programs.

I just want something to hold me over until January or so, and I thought this would be a good idea to get me into the mac world and finally my hands on OS/X.

Does anyone have any comments on this, or any possible problems with the above hardware I want to add? Thanks and as always, and help is appreciated.

[DrSpookles]

I think that with your machine specs, you will most likely be disappointed with the performance of 10.2 with the G3 processor.

I recently bought a new iBook 700 w/ 640 MB RAM, and I found it to be unacceptable under Jaguar using utilities such as Dreamweaver MX, and Photoshop 7.0.

While it is very stable, it was not fast enough to provide an efficient means of creating and publishing my work.

It is actually my first ever mac, and after moving over to os9.2.2 primarily, I have been extremely happy with it. I'm actually starting to like 9.2 better, and this is coming from one who had zero experience on both OS9 and OSX.

[PCTek]

I have a 12.1" 700MHz iBook with 256mb RAM.

I don't use intensive applications like Photoshop, etc, but I do use my machine *heavily*. I am *always* surfing the internet, checking eMail, doing Terminal stuff (nmap, wget, top, ftp, fink), chatting on IRC, iCal, Stickies, Sherlock, Adium, iSync, BBEdit.

My iBook has never failed me. It has always kept up with everything i've needed to do. If you're doing intensive stuff, get a G4. If you're doing stuff similar to what i'm doing, get an iBook.

[iCol]

My iBook 600 with 384 MB of RAM running Mac OS X 10.2.1 is plenty fast enough for all the apps I use often. Photoshop for photo editing, Dreamweaver 4 in classic for my website, Adobe GoLive for some other web stuff, Microsoft Office 2001, etc etc etc

Yea, it wont run as fast as a top of the line dual 1.25 gig PM, but my iBook is nippy enough for my needs!

Col

[damosan]

Originally posted by jhunt5247:

Does anyone have any comments on this, or any possible problems with the above hardware I want to add? Thanks and as always, and help is appreciated.

I have a 700 iBook (running 10.2.1) and I would NEVER even want to pretend what it would be like on a 500mhz model.

I'd say wait until January.

Damo

[dvd]

hey if i used my 120mhz mac for photoshop then you problay will be able to use your ibook for photoshop. But anyways, broswing is slow on my ibook. If i have about 384mb of ram and the 700mhz combo. Its not all that great. i run IE, snak(irc), aduim, and audion(is this better than itunes?) and it seems soooo slow. You'll problay get faster speeds with os 9. Get a powerbook if u got the cash. i know i would have.

[ringo]

Your best bet would be to find one and try it out...what is slow to one person may feel fast to another.

I have a 500Mhz model w/ 256 RAM and 10.1.5 (Better battery life than 10.2)...it is powerful enough to do web development and photo manipulation without feeling "slow".

The only time it feels sluggish is if I try to run a vcd in one window while trying to do other intensive tasks in another.

[dvd]

u just got have sit down for about 10 minutes or more with a powerbook and a ibook.

[ShotgunEd]

I have an iBook 2001 500Mhz and am planning upgrading the stock HD to the IBM 40GNX you talked about, I'm also going to up the RAM from 384MB to 640MB. In its current incarnation, with just an extra 256MB chip, the iBook is fast enough for most of my needs, Dreamweaver MX and OfficeX are nippy, OS 10.2 is fast (considerably moreso than 10.1.5) and general internet use (browsing, chattting etc) is perfectly adequate. The only thing that the iBook is bad for is compiling the source for unix apps i've been getting through fink, xchat took nearly 12 hours to compile. But this is a minor quibble, i don't do it every day and besides i shouldn't be asking an iBook to compile source and expecting it to perform brilliantly. The 15Gb HD that came as standard is just too small and too slow for a lot of things, the IBM drive should help me there. Also i think adding more RAM will boost things generally. I'm also going to get an external firewire case for my existing HDD so i can use the 15GB for backup.
Bit of a rant, but basically, if you can get a good condition 500Mhz 2001 model off ebay for cheap it should be more than adequate for you, but if you have the cash, or even the patience, a Ti or an upcoming model might perform better.

[jhunt5247]

Originally posted by ShotgunEd:
I have an iBook 2001 500Mhz and am planning upgrading the stock HD to the IBM 40GNX you talked about, I'm also going to up the RAM from 384MB to 640MB. In its current incarnation, with just an extra 256MB chip, the iBook is fast enough for most of my needs, Dreamweaver MX and OfficeX are nippy, OS 10.2 is fast (considerably moreso than 10.1.5) and general internet use (browsing, chattting etc) is perfectly adequate. The only thing that the iBook is bad for is compiling the source for unix apps i've been getting through fink, xchat took nearly 12 hours to compile. But this is a minor quibble, i don't do it every day and besides i shouldn't be asking an iBook to compile source and expecting it to perform brilliantly. The 15Gb HD that came as standard is just too small and too slow for a lot of things, the IBM drive should help me there. Also i think adding more RAM will boost things generally. I'm also going to get an external firewire case for my existing HDD so i can use the 15GB for backup.
Bit of a rant, but basically, if you can get a good condition 500Mhz 2001 model off ebay for cheap it should be more than adequate for you, but if you have the cash, or even the patience, a Ti or an upcoming model might perform better.

Thanks for the comment. 12 hours to compile xchat huh? Sweet jesus, I can only image how long it would take to compile XFree86. Yeah, my needs are email, browsing, fireworks, and a lot of command line work. I wonder if OS/X will adopt the ports collections that OpenBSD/FreeBSD/NetBSD use - That would be really cool. make install ; make clean

Basically I like the look of the iBook better than the Powerbook. However, at this time (even though I want to so badly) I can not go out and buy a new iBook or Powerbook, when I know they are going to be updated atleast by January - just not the logical thing to do. I believe I am going to look for an iBook 500 or so on eBay, and then buy a new Powerbook/iBook after they are both updated.

That should keep my happy for a few months. I just learned today, they are giving 10.2 to teachers for free, so that will save me 129 dollars. Just need to get my wife to the website and complete the form.

[dewhastme]

I use my iBook 700 to master audio that I sequence on a Power Mac 1 Ghz DP. I run Digital Performer and Waves in OS 9.22 without problems. The G3 processor doesn't have the go of the G4 for audio, especially without Altivec, but with 640 Megs of RAM it does alright. I also do most of my buisness on the iBook and I find it fast in OS X 10.21 for internet, email, office and watching dvd's. I wouldn't use the stock 20 GB hard drive for audio or video because it only runs at 4600 RPM and has very slow seek times. Firewire drive by Glyph works great however.

[Justin W. Williams]

Originally posted by ShotgunEd:

Bit of a rant, but basically, if you can get a good condition 500Mhz 2001 model off ebay for cheap it should be more than adequate for you, but if you have the cash, or even the patience, a Ti or an upcoming model might perform better.

Do not get a 500MHz iBook. The 66MHz bus will drive you nuts. I just maxed out my RAM to 640mb today, and it is faster, but not nearly fast enough. My next task will be overclocking this sumbitch to 600Mhz w/ a 100Mhz bus

[jhunt5247]

Originally posted by Justin W. Williams:


My next task will be overclocking this sumbitch to 600Mhz w/ a 100Mhz bus

hehe.. Let me know how that goes. I use to overclock all the time with PC's. The best overall intel processor that could be overclocked in my opinion was the 300A.

So, the 600mhz iBook has a 100 FSB? I guess I will go look at the specs on Apple's page. Yeah, your right the 66mhz FSB would drive me crazy, just like all those celerons use to do.

[macwalk]

I use to overclock my PC's all the time (Athlon's were my favorite) but i had no idea you could do the same with an ibook?

[Justin W. Williams]

Originally posted by macwalk:
I use to overclock my PC's all the time (Athlon's were my favorite) but i had no idea you could do the same with an ibook?

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/systems/i...overclock.html

[proux]

You have to try for yourself.
I am very happy with an old 600mhz and a new 700mhz (probably 20% faster, hardly noticable in everyday use).

[biscuit]

As other people have said, you really need to see for yourself, but I'll add my findings if it helps.

My 600 MHz iBook with 640 Mb RAM is fast enough for general stuff like surfing and typing. I tried to use it for some molecular graphics once and if lagged a fair bit but thats expected really. RAM helped a lot compared to the stock 128 (duh!)

I think the 66 MHz bus will be a BIG problem for you, although it seems you wouldn't be too afraid of overclocking seeing as this is only for a few months. The HD is apparently a big slowdown for OSX so if you're brave enough for that then you could be OK. The lack of a Radeon chip (hence no QE) is a constant annoyance for me, but seeing as you're only going to have it for a month or three...

Er, yeah. There you go. Depends how disposable your cash is too...

biscuit

[kdixey]

I use a 466 ibook clamshell with 576mb RAM and a 40gb Toshiba HD for school and Dreamweaver and Fireworks can be pretty sluggish, but even in the best of situations the MX suite can be sluggish (their sluggish on my tibook as well).

If you think you'll be using the MX products or big processor intensive apps like Photoshop regularly you might consider looking for a used or refurb tibook.