[Koralatov]

Earlier today, I managed to get my hands on a clamshell iBook SE, which runs at 466MHz and has 128MB of RAM for the bargain price of £100. I don't really think the guy selling it (on behalf of Cash Converters) knew quite what he was selling, and thus wasn't sure how much it was worth. (From what I've seen, this model of iBook is quite rare in the UK and has a correspondingly higher price-tag.)

My question is, Which version of OSX should I use on it--Panther or Tiger? It comes with 9.something, but I really don't think I can bring myself to use it with that; I recently got to know OSX Tiger and love it.

The thrust of my question is whether Tiger will run acceptably on it or not? I plan to throw a 512MB SODIMM in there in the near future, but will the processor leave it running at a crawl, or will it be reasonably nippy?

Thanks in advance.

[macintologist]

Tiger will run but I recommend Panther.

[gooser]

x2!

[rjt1000]

Tiger runs fine on my G3 500 (Pismo) with 768 mb RAM. Probably will be similar with your 466 if you max the RAM to 576, as long as you don't run too many things at once.

Useful info here:
Apple iBook G3/466 SE (Firewire/Clamshell) Specs (iBook - Firewire/Clamshell - M7720LL/A*) @ EveryMac.com
iBook SE G3/466 (FireWire)

Enjoy your new clamshell--is it the grey or lime green?

[Big Mac]

Panther is the best OS. The CPU is slow by contemporary standards and the screen resolution is low, but it was a great Mac.

[Koralatov]

Originally Posted by rjt1000 

Enjoy your new clamshell--is it the grey or lime green?

Thanks for the links--they were good reading, and I think I've decided to go with Tiger, once I upgrade the RAM. Until then, I think I'll just play with OS9.

The clamshell is the grey one, sadly. I really would have liked to get the lime, but it seems they're much rarer (I read somewhere that they were only available driectly from Apple), and the price was too good to pass up in hopes of someday seeing a lime model.

Thanks to everyone else for the advice--much appreciated!

[rach]

You got a good deal there the grey 466 models sell for about £200-250 on ebay. They lime 466 models go for a little bit higher but it seems as of late that the prices of these Clamshells have come down a little.

I used to own one and i used Panther on that.

[Koralatov]

Originally Posted by rach 

You got a good deal there the grey 466 models sell for about £200-250 on ebay. They lime 466 models go for a little bit higher but it seems as of late that the prices of these Clamshells have come down a little.

Maybe their age has caught up with them? Whilst they are undoubtably beautifully designed and quite competent machines, their age and performance will begin to affect their desirability eventually. I would have been even more thrilled if it had been the key lime model, but the graphite is fine.

Perhaps the imminent Leopard, and its incompatibility with these machines, is influencing their value negatively?

Also, I have a question someone may be able to answer. On Other World Computing's site, they have some new batteries for this iBook, with 50% larger capacity than the one it originally shipped with. I'm very tempted by it, but it does raise one issue: will a US battery work fine in a UK machine, or will the voltage be all wrong?