ibook G3

[GregRC]

im lookin at buying one of these on ebay. I was just wondering about some stuff. 1st off i was wonderin if these play dvds well. Because i would be using it like on the road and stuff, and mabye some msn and internet at some points. I only want to spend a max of about $600 on one. And i was lookin at probably buyin a 12", around 500-600Mhz, 192-384mb of ram, 10-20gb hd. i just really want to know if someone has one if they have problems with it or if its a good mac laptop at all.

Thanks!

[Redestium]

What speed G3?

[oik]

What speed G3?

584878215[/snapback]

:blink:

it says 500-600mhz...

anyway, it's a good starter laptop, but if you can spare the money, it's definitely better to get the low end ibook g4... panther (and tiger next year) will run much better on the g4.

[vitalflow]

i got me a 500 mhrz gbook off ebay and im waiting for it in the mail... ill let you know once i get it.

[TurkChris]

I got a g3 ibook never had anythink wrong with mine....

[GregRC]

ok cool, ya this would be my 1st mac so i just want to start off with a low end mac laptop.

[dougal.s]

That's what I did to get my first Mac (see sig). Has been a lovely little machine. Was a bit of a fluke cos I got it for ?300, but had to buy Panther afterwards, but that was cheapish due to student pricing.

Dougal

[GregRC]

ok so what ive heard so far its a good little starter mac

[vitalflow]

i just need to slap some more ram into my little beast for it to run OSX nice and toasty. If u look for one try to get the kind with the dvd-cd-r combo so u can watch dvds on the road.

[GregRC]

yes i know, and how much ram u puttin in urs? ya thats kinda why i mostly wanted to get one, for watchin dvd on the road. I used to have a compaq 700 and i had to sell it to build my new pc, now i want one of these macs. Keep me updated one how the mac is for ya.

ohh ya, and how much did u pay for urs?

[muzzle79]

Ram is god. Aside from that

WELCOME TO OUR CULT!!!!

i mean the macside lol

[GregRC]

*update*

Well, i just bought one off ebay, my mom is kinda ****ed cause im still $160 away from having enough money for it:P Well the specs are

500 MHz PowerPC G3 processor; 256k level 2 cache

- 128MB of PC100 SDRAM; supports up to 640MB

- 10GB Ultra ATA hard disk drive

- 8x-speed (maximum) DVD_ROM drive

- 12.1 inch (diagonal) TFT active-matrix XGA color display

- 8MB of SDRAM video memory to accelerate games

- Built-in 10/100BASE-T Ethernet and 56K V.90 modem

- 400-Mbps FireWire port for connecting a digital video camera

- Two 12-Mbps USB ports

- RGB video output for connecting to external display

- AV port for connecting to speakers or compatible TV

- Lithium-ion battery for up to 5 hours of running time

- Included software: Mac OS, QuickTime, AppleWorks, iMovie, iTunes, Palm Desktop, FAXstf, Cro-Mag Rally, Bugdom, Nanosaur

- Meets ENERGY STAR requirements

(also includes a new airport card!!)

Ya and the price!! $490(thats wit shipp.) What a deal eh?

[oik]

as many have already said, just toss in more ram.

[vitalflow]

wow your comp is EXACTLY the same as mine lol... I paid $482 US for mine with shipping and a leather bag :)

[multimediatechy]

Quite low specs to be honest...you'll get sick of it because its not very quick...especially if you have been used to higher specs on a desktop or a PC laptop.

[GregRC]

well, it was $465 but $25 shipp. And yes, i will put some more ram in it. I really dont care about a case at the moment. But the airport card is like $80 or $90 or more. So ya, w/e

[DJP]

I had such a machine and sold it, and bought a faster one again.

The big problem with the 500 MHz one is the videocard. It doesn't support Quartz Extreme which means scrolling the web, scrolling documents in word, the expose effect, everything will be software accelerated and extremely slow.

I bought myself a newer 800 Mhz G3 with a 32 MB Vidcard with support for Quartz Extreme, and the difference is really big.

One other disadvantage of the 500 is that it doesn't support screenspanning only mirroring. There is a patch written for ibooks which will enable screenspanning, but only models with 32 MB vidcards are supported.

Really, quartz extreme is a major difference.

Edit:

Another problem the 500 had, it had a normal dvd drive, no combo, but it didn't have support for DVD+ , only for DVD -. I had to use a special booktype tool on my pc which changed the booktype from a dvd+ to dvd-rom during the burning process.(Lite On provides such a tool) So DVD+ which where already burned and didn't have their booktype changed didn't work with the iBook. The simple reason is, the dvd player of the iBook first checks what the booktype of the DVD is. Because the 500 MHz one was produced before the major breaktrough of DVD+, it only recognized the DVD-ROM and DVD- booktype.

Edited November 10, 2004 by DJP

[multimediatechy]

still don't understand why people would want a 500Mhz machine in the year 2004..crazy!

[Chicane-UK Veteran]

Well.. not everyone can afford to lavish the same kinds of money on their machines that you (and I guess myself) are fortunate enough to be able to do. That and the fact that even old Apple hardware is still very attractive to look at and use - its desirable stuff!

Why do people buy old sports cars? Couldn't afford em new, but perhaps always wanted that certain model? Its the same principal!

[multimediatechy]

hmmm well if people want to use obsolete hardware then thats up to them but its quite amusing that people dont want to save up and buy a decent computer instead...nothing wrong in waiting till you have the money!!

[vitalflow]

well theres nothing wrong with a 500 mhrz machine if all you want to do with it is take notes and surf the web.

[GregRC]

ya, and mabye some dvd watchin, i will be upgrading some ram soon in mine 2. How much should i put in it? 256?

[vitalflow]

i plan on putting 512 into my baby.

[GregRC]

ya thats what i was thinkin. it would run much better

[Gary_Player]

Friend of mine did the same thing, sold it a week or 2 later for $200 more and bought a powerbook :p