[ChasingApple]

Hello all, I finally found the deal I was looking for and purchased my first iBook. I always loved the clamshell design and always wanted one back in the day. Funny thing is these little beauties still run all the apps I use, and they are all about style. Specs of my book are...

iBook Clamshell 466Mhz / 320MB / 40GB / DVD / Airport
The Book also came with a Case, original box, books, cords. New Battery, and an external HD enclosure with a 3GB drive inside with all cables.

Total Price: $525

I cannot wait for my Book to get here! I will post fresh pics in the iBook pictures thread as soon as it gets here.

Cheers!

Here are some pics...

[molala]

congratulations! i too love the clamshells (except for the weight).

[finboy]

Welcome to the club. There is no school like the old school.

The clamshell's were great computers. I still use mine all the time, and I plan to put a 40G drive it in soon. That one, with all the stuff, is the kind of thing you want. That case is deluxe, too -- I have the blueberry and used to get all kinds of comments when I carried it.

Good luck.

[teknopimp]

congrats!

i love my clamshell.

don't forget to post pics in the ibook pic thread, we need more clamshell owners representin.

[storer]

Hrmn, I always loved the clamshell too. I think they were a lot better for Apple because of the colours... my cousins all wanted pink ones!

[Mallrat]

Awesome! I'm a clamshell lover too and have wanted one too since they 1st came out. I had a few wet dreams about them...

Enjoy it.

[zenwhen]

Pretty nice. Welcome to the club.

[ChasingApple]

I will post pics ASAP when it arrives on Friday. I cannot wait to start using it!!! Sorry about the larger pics, I will have to have preview shrink em down in the future. Clamshells rule

[ChasingApple]

Originally Posted by teknopimp

congrats!

i love my clamshell.

don't forget to post pics in the ibook pic thread, we need more clamshell owners representin.

Nice setup! I will post a pic of my small cramped desk as soon as the iBook gets here.

[Randman]

I had a graphite and it was a great machine (save for the battery). But it's just so underpowered these days and even a 10GB hard drive isn't much.

Also, your sig is way too big. Have to turn the photo sideways to make the 200X50 guidelines set by the mods.

[ender2002]

I had a graphite 466. It was stolen from me.

[ChasingApple]

I just never really did care for the white books that are out today, too plain. I like color in my life. The only other book that Apple made that caught my attention was the Pismo Powerbook, those are sleek! Not so much a fan of the newer shiny ones.

Cheers

[jedi2187]

Still got mine, purring along at 366. Indigo blue, with a DVD drive I took out of a seriously trashed 466 Graphite.

[teknopimp]

Originally Posted by Randman

I had a graphite and it was a great machine (save for the battery). But it's just so underpowered these days and even a 10GB hard drive isn't much.

my battery was dead when i got it. 6G hd won't even fit all my music; i will soon need to reformat and take Panther out and just run 9.2 to create more space. playing music is it's only useful function for now.

[toffe]

Don't get angry,
but When i first saw a clamshell, i thougth it was a bathroom scale.
A friend of mine had it with her to a camp, and had it among her luggage on the floor (i think it was white-ish) and at first (atleast the first 10 ms) i thougth that she brings her scale with her on trips. Then i saw it was a computer. I havent used one though.

[teknopimp]

Originally Posted by toffe

Don't get angry,
but When i first saw a clamshell, i thougth it was a bathroom scale.

ROTFL critics called it a toilet seat!!! clamshell owners now have the last laugh.

[molala]

Originally Posted by toffe

Don't get angry,
but When i first saw a clamshell, i thougth it was a bathroom scale.

good thing you didn't step on it to check your weight!

[ChasingApple]

I think my R2-D2 iMac I have here is the last desktop system I will ever buy, and so far since Feb of 2004 it has been awesome, I dont see it getting slow anytime soon. But I like portability better. I cant wait for my iBook SE to get here, and just cause I want to Im going to go sit at Starbucks all day with it and see how many people come talk to me and ask about it

[BKKloppenborg]

Nice computer dude i plan getting a ibook soon i like them better, better looking imo.. Good luck!

[nickw311]

I used to have the SE version also, I really liked it. It seemed very sturdy and the handle was great. The only problem is the tiny screen resolution of 800x600.... Hardly enough to use OS X.

[Ambassadeur]

I had an indigo clamshell (366 MHz) for almost 4 years and only last fall did I replace it with a new iBook. I loved that thing! And after I replaced the HDD with a fast 40gig drive and upgraded RAM to 576 mb, it purred along nicely and even ran OS X ok. Sad I had to sell it, but it just wasn't up the tasks anymore...

[teknopimp]

Originally Posted by Ambassadeur

I had an indigo clamshell (366 MHz) for almost 4 years and only last fall did I replace it with a new iBook. I loved that thing! ... Sad I had to sell it, but it just wasn't up the tasks anymore...

that's no reason to sell a member of the family!

[Kyros]

I love the clamshells, but unfortunately, being a high school student and going to college soon I can't really justify paying that much money for a machine that is slower than my current desktop (cube). If they were to go for under 200 bucks, then I might go for it, but unfortunately, that's not going to happen any time soon.

[Ambassadeur]

Originally Posted by teknopimp

that's no reason to sell a member of the family!

You couldn't imagine how much I mourned over it... now, thinking about it, the tears come back... *snivel* ...the way it looked when I put it down to it's last rest (for me) in the coffin-like box... *sob* ...I'm bad, it's my fault... *WEEP* ...IT'S ALL MY FAULT!!!

But hey, I was young, I needed the money!

[ChasingApple]

Like I said it was something I just had to own in life, always wanted one and now Im getting it! It has a high speed 40GB drive in it and I can easily max the ram to 576MB, Im sure it will suit my needs for a portable

[ChasingApple]

The iBook has arrived and I could not be happier!!! It is so dang fast compared to what I was expecting. I loaded Tiger right up on it and iLife '04, I am in love!!! Pictures coming soon and will be added to the official iBook pictures thread.

I love this keyboard!

[Abit667]

I'm probably going to get a graphite clamshell 466 for my next year of college. I think it will greatly improve my grades having just a basic older computer, plus they look awesome.

[teknopimp]

Originally Posted by ChasingApple

The iBook has arrived and I could not be happier!!! It is so dang fast compared to what I was expecting. I loaded Tiger right up on it and iLife '04, I am in love!!! Pictures coming soon and will be added to the official iBook pictures thread.

congrats!!!

[Mallrat]

That's true. I started college in 1997, and ethernet was a word I never knew before I started. I knew it had something to do with begin online all the time without dialing up. Now I can't live without it.

My brother went to school in 1988 without a computer. I think he had a typewriter and they had something called "computer labs".

It's just so funny how things change. I was on the 1st way of college kids who came with computers and right during the Internet revolution. It for sure distracts us and makes us think we have 24/7 to do everything. well that's pretty much true.

Who hasn't stayed up all night at college to write a paper and although libraries close at midnight, the superhighway is open all night.

My friend has an ibook and disabled airport so he won't be tempted to go online when he's on the go. He wants to concentrate on writing. Me, I should be writing something right now, but I'm on a message board.

I would greatly benefit from an older computer with no Internet or other things to distract me.

[MrEUser]

I was a HARD CORE windows user for 15 years. I was perusing Ebay when I noticed an ibook dual USB for $345 (US) (10G/192M/CD). I thought for a minute about all of the repair jobs I had over the years (help desk, AOL, wireless networking, etc..). I quickly computed that between 1 in 10 and 1 in 15 calls were related to problems with the mac. I then remembered that the most common solutions were things like rebuild the desktop/zap the PRam in the old days, and currently is shut down and restart. With that in mind I clicked buy it now. I maxed out the memory, got and 80 gig 5400 RPM HD, and a Toshiba DVD/CD-RW. I even found a doc that talks about overclocking to 600 MHz. I might as well while I have it open... Now for the punchline.. I will never volutarily go back to Wintel platform. I have a little 700Mhz WinXP machine that I use via the Remote Desktop Client (get it from Microsoft for OSX). It's my sacrificial lamb (proxy server, firewall) on my home network. Anytime I HAVE to have Wintel, it's there (Ultimate bet poker . I just find it easier to work with Mac's. Hope someday to know as much about them as I've forgotten about Dos, Win3.11, Win95...

[ChasingApple]

I just saw something interesting, while checking my performance in Activity Monitor I saw that each widget in Tiger uses roughly around 20-25MB of ram. That is insane! I had 3 of them things going to around 70MB of ram being sucked up for stuff I rarely use "yet". So I closed them out and now the clamshell is even speedier! I will one day max out the ram on this sucker to 576MB but for now 320MB is doing the trick.

Awesome little book, and did I mention the keyboard is the best notebook keyboard ever?

[Randman]

Keyboard doesn't do much good if you don't have the ram to run things.

[ChasingApple]

Originally Posted by Randman

Keyboard doesn't do much good if you don't have the ram to run things.

Perhaps you didnt understand me, everything ran great even with the widgets going, 320MB of ram is nice and speedy in Tiger, I can see it being too low for Jaguar and Panther, but in Tiger it is fast! But apps were even speedier when I turned off the widgets I was not using. I think Tiger is very very optimized with memory, more so then Panther.

I currently have 8 apps open and the system is still more then responsive, so no worries. And the keyboard rocks dude.

P.S. I was very spoiled and thinking my hardware on my iMac was just leap years ahead of anything older, until I installed Tiger on an older Clamshell, now I realize that Apple just makes perfect software that truely will run on all their hardware. I think everyone should step back from the high end for a sec and check out the latest OS on something older, you WILL be impressed

[Mallrat]

I love your posts. How sweet is the keyboard? I mean, I love using it. Always have. That is why I always wanted to buy one to write the next great american novel with. Or to write a porno screenplay. Whichever.

[ChasingApple]

Originally Posted by Mallrat

I love your posts. How sweet is the keyboard? I mean, I love using it. Always have. That is why I always wanted to buy one to write the next great american novel with. Or to write a porno screenplay. Whichever.

The most comfy keyboard I have ever used on a notebook, the keys just feel right, I dont know how to describe it more. I have used my wifes iBook G4, I have used a Powermac Pismo, I have used a number of PC notebooks, but this one just feels solid and has the perfect amount of tactile type feedback.

It is also a full sized keyboard which is very nice, and because of the style of the book (clamshell design) it has tons of palm rest. It has become my favorite computer I have ever owned. I tested out my new battery and got around 6:21 minutes on it fully used in all apps, quicktimes, web surfing, airport on the entire time, it is just slick.

Bravo Apple for making such a wonderful machine that to this day is still fully useable and enjoyable. Really I could not be happier for my spent money.

[Gamoe]

Congrats, ChasingApple. I, too will be an old gen. iBook user soon, though my iBook sports the post-clamshell design. Pictures coming, soon as finish upgrading and setting up the iBook!

[Randman]

While not a perfect measurement, run some XBench scores on it with Tiger. Be interesting to see how a low-end G3 handles things.

[ChasingApple]

Originally Posted by Randman

While not a perfect measurement, run some XBench scores on it with Tiger. Be interesting to see how a low-end G3 handles things.

I left the benchmarking world long ago when I dropped PC's from my home. I prefer to see how the system works with my day to day apps, not how fast a benchmark can crunch all my devices.

[Gamoe]

Hey, I got my iBook! :-)

Originally Posted by ChasingApple

I left the benchmarking world long ago when I dropped PC's from my home. I prefer to see how the system works with my day to day apps, not how fast a benchmark can crunch all my devices.

I tend to agree with you, ChAp, but for Randman's (and anyone else interested) enjoyment, you can read the results of the tests below:

Results 35.96

System Info
Xbench Version 1.1.3
System Version 10.4.1 (8B15)
Physical RAM 576 MB
Model PowerBook4,1

Processor PowerPC G3 @ 500 MHz
Version Goldfinger v3.1
L1 Cache 32K (instruction), 32K (data)
L2 Cache 256K @ 500 MHz
Bus Frequency 67 MHz

Video Card ATY,RageM3

Drive Type TOSHIBA MK1017GAP

CPU Test 31.83
GCD Loop 51.42 2.01 Mops/sec
Floating Point Basic 47.58 172.07 Mflop/sec
vecLib FFT 13.81 214.40 Mflop/sec
Floating Point Library 78.16 3.13 Mops/sec

Thread Test 42.77
Computation 29.82 402.56 Kops/sec, 4 threads
Lock Contention 75.62 949.37 Klocks/sec, 4 threads

Memory Test 18.09

System 22.83
Allocate 258.14 168.38 Kalloc/sec
Fill 34.91 277.88 MB/sec
Copy 10.11 50.55 MB/sec

Stream 14.98
Copy 13.80 100.85 MB/sec
Scale 13.66 100.78 MB/sec
Add 16.12 103.18 MB/sec
Triad 16.88 103.13 MB/sec

Quartz Graphics Test 52.62
Line 40.32 1.03 Klines/sec [50% alpha]
Rectangle 52.05 3.66 Krects/sec [50% alpha]
Circle 51.01 1.18 Kcircles/sec [50% alpha]
Bezier 50.29 546.47 beziers/sec [50% alpha]
Text 86.77 1.41 Kchars/sec

OpenGL Graphics Test 61.46
Spinning Squares 61.46 43.01 frames/sec

User Interface Test 68.33
Elements 68.33 21.98 refresh/sec

Disk Test 28.82

Sequential 27.49
Uncached Write 15.96 6.65 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 31.41 12.86 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 50.50 7.99 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 32.06 12.95 MB/sec [256K blocks]

Random 30.29
Uncached Write 18.71 0.28 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 33.15 7.48 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 44.82 0.30 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 38.27 7.88 MB/sec [256K blocks]

[joltguy]

Congrats on your purchase! Looks like you got a very complete and well-preserved kit.

I've still got my clamshell Blueberry iBook 300 (rev b) and I find it's keyboard much more solid than the one on my 12" iBook 600MHz. The only thing that killed me with that system is the screen resolution... 800x600 is just too cramped! Ditto for the 6GB hard drive, but that could be fixed.