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drloomis · Sep 26, 2003, 10:15 PM

I'm looking into buying the clamshell ibook. I currenlty have an icebook, but I feel it's time for a change.

that change is going to be an iMac right now... but I dont' won't to lose the fun of typing on a laptop and the clamshell was great to type on if I remember correctly.

My main questions is I want to use Mac OS X, Final Draft, Appleworks, Entourage, Word on this computer. No need for anything else.... iTunes with some key songs would be nice, but I know it won't fit much.

Just wondering will i have enough room. on my current ibook with a 10 drive, i have about 6.84 available... i don't know what else I could get rid off.. not sure if the 3.2 harddrive will make it.

any thoughts?

I know I could upgrade the HD, but I could always just bid on one with a bigger HD.

Luca Rescigno · Sep 26, 2003, 10:38 PM

I don't completely understand your situation... could you tell me if this is correct?

You have an iceBook as your primary machine right now, and you've decided to switch to an iMac as your primary machine with a cheaper clamshell iBook as a secondary one?

That sounds like an okay idea if you want to save some money. Clamshells are cool looking (in my opinion at least), and apparently their keyboards are nicer than the iceBooks although I haven't really used them much. They're also quite cheap so you'll have a couple hundred more than if you had kept the iceBook.

But I'd definitely say to pick up one with a 6 GB drive or larger. 3 GB just isn't enough. Upgrading the hard drive is an option, although it's quite difficult on all iBooks. And if you just want enough space to hold whatever files you'll need to keep with you, I don't think it's worth the time to upgrade. Just go for an iBook with a larger internal hard drive.

drloomis · Sep 26, 2003, 11:39 PM

"You have an iceBook as your primary machine right now, and you've decided to switch to an iMac as your primary machine with a cheaper clamshell iBook as a secondary one?"

Yes, exactly.

But the weird thing is the clamshells seem to be going for just as much as an icebook.... because people like me love the design.

What i love, or remember loving, is the keyboard.

So you think the 3GB is too small? I think it might make it.

I can't decide between tangerine, blueberry or indigo.

sniffer · Sep 27, 2003, 09:52 AM

How much battery life do you actually get in the old clamshells now? Can you get new batteries?

I am not interested in one, but if I was, mobility would've been something I would take into consideration. Good luck, anyhow.

rjenkinson · Sep 27, 2003, 10:03 AM

yes, 3 GB is enough for OS X and the applications you mentioned.

-r.

SupahCoolX · Sep 27, 2003, 06:41 PM

The 3GB should be enough... for now.
If you plan on keeping this iBook for more than a year or two, though, I would look into one of the later models with the 6GB drive.
History has shown us that RAM and HD requirements only grow larger as time goes on.

Kenneth · Sep 27, 2003, 09:59 PM

I have the same iBook and hard disk storage as you do..
after a complete installation of jaguar.. I have ~1.4GB left.. so I suggest you to get a bigger HD.. meanwhile.. changing the HD on the old iBook is rocket science...

drloomis · Sep 28, 2003, 12:14 AM

Originally posted by Kenneth:
I have the same iBook and hard disk storage as you do..
after a complete installation of jaguar.. I have ~1.4GB left.. so I suggest you to get a bigger HD.. meanwhile.. changing the HD on the old iBook is rocket science...

1.4 seems like enough

NYCFarmboy · Sep 29, 2003, 10:09 AM

I have an orange clamshell ibook with a 3 gig drive.

It runs fine on jaguar..not very spritely..but is just fine for web/email.

With the small hard drive I'd not want to use it for doing digital photography work etc. (Also the screen is much smaller than the icebooks..keep that in mind).

But for web/email/word processing it will be just fine.

If you do a lot of MP3's or anything that requires larger file sizes though the small hard drive would be a severe limitation.

SciFrog · Oct 6, 2003, 12:08 AM

I think the killer is the 800x600 screen. Not enough for OS X...

Luca Rescigno · Oct 6, 2003, 02:05 AM

Another issue is that even if the 3 GB hard drive technically is enough, it would be JUST enough, and that's fine except I bet one with a 6 GB hard drive wouldn't really be much more expensive. Maybe even the same price, in which case it would be silly to take the 3 GB instead.

Cipher13 · Oct 6, 2003, 03:17 AM

3GB? Damn. With a few apps, and the system (with dev tools), you'll burn through that in no time. Keep the IceBook.

radarbob · Oct 6, 2003, 10:30 AM

When I decided to upgrade my 300MHz iBook to OS X (note signature below) the first thing I did was replace my 3.2GB hard drive. Sure, theoretically it's big enough. But only if I threw away half of what I had - I was down to about 0.4GB as it was.

A new 40GB drive was like a rejunvination of my iBook. W/out it I could not: Have both OS X and OS 9 installed, X11 (a UNIX GUI - it's a free download), any apps I might get for X11, the OS X developer tools, my CD collection in iTunes, all my old apps and files, all the other nifty apps & utilities for OS X that I might find. And the OS 10.1.2 install took about 1.1GB as I recall.

Another thing I wonder about is virtual memory. That takes disk space to act as "real" memory. In OS 7 - 9 the OS took an amount of disk space equal to the total physical RAM & VM (it was user settable) + some. What does this imply for new iBooks w/ 600+MB of physical RAM? I don't know but I strongly expect a mere 3.2 GB drive to adversely affect performance.

Next, max out memory. Having more than 1 or 2 apps open in OS X is a practical impossibility w/out all the RAM you can cram.

P.S. In the "been there, done that Dept.", replacing the hard drive on the clamshell iBook is not hard (no pun intended

) but it I guess it can be scary. Just keep track of all the screws - and where they go!!!

Read all about my ClamShell OS X conversion adventures here:

http://www.macdebate.com/6/ubb.x?q=Y...m=68960147&p=1

http://www.macdebate.com/6/ubb.x?a=t...9841#171609841

jedi2187 · Oct 7, 2003, 07:54 PM

for those of you who want to attempt to upgrade the hard drive yourself, here's a good site:
http://caslis.com/mac/ibook/

suprz's ghost · Oct 16, 2003, 07:17 AM

the biggest problem with any stock laptop and OSX is not enough ram and the stock HD is only 4200RPM. if you load that clamshell up with max ram and get a larger and faster HD you'll be just fine. and yes, the clamshell is much nicer to type on than the icebook. (i had a 700mhz icebook and i like the clamshell much better)

d4nth3m4n · Oct 18, 2003, 06:42 PM

yes, 3 GB is enough for OS X and the applications you mentioned.

-r. [/B]

um, i dont know if this matters to you, but the panther upgrade takes roughly 2gb to install

hmm

wataru · Oct 19, 2003, 02:43 AM

3GB? You guys are nuts! That's barely enough for 10.2 itself to run, much less any app heftier than Clock.app.

Do yourself a favor and DON'T try to run OS X with anything less than 2GB available. You'll get better performance, and you won't risk losing all your prefs when you accidentally use up all your space.

Powaqqatsi · Oct 19, 2003, 07:13 AM

Originally posted by wataru:
3GB? You guys are nuts! That's barely enough for 10.2 itself to run, much less any app heftier than Clock.app.

Do yourself a favor and DON'T try to run OS X with anything less than 2GB available. You'll get better performance, and you won't risk losing all your prefs when you accidentally use up all your space.

exactly

ryaxnb · Oct 19, 2003, 12:31 PM

I'd recommend the extreme. A Firewire iBook. Eithier the 366 or 466, but firewire. Why?
*DVD on high-end model - gotta love it!
*Firewire is great for attaching important devices such as second HDs (especially since it's hard to replace a notebook's HD,) camcorders (not important, but cool,) and fast (higher then 4x) CD burners.
*Faster.
*Up to 10GB HD - more then 3x larger then original model.