G4 i book

[bigfatfish]

Hi guys, my laptop just died after 3 years of hard working. was looking for a replacement? anyone can shed some light on the specs of this ibook g4? Just want to use it for editing photos and net surfing.

the specs:
iBooks G4 (with Airport Extreme Card)

iBook G4/1.33GHz; (Level 2 cache; 512KB at 1.2GHz; System Bus: 133MHz); 12.1" TFT XGA; 40GB HDD (ATA/100 4200rpm); 1GB DDR PC2700 (333MHz) memory (after free upgrade); Slot loading Combo (DVD-ROM/CD-RW) Drive; ATI Mobility RADEON 9550 with 32MB of DDR SDRAM (New); One 400-Mbps FireWire (IEEE 1394) port; Two USB 2.0 ports (480Mbps each); One VGA, S-Video and composite video output; (video mirroring supports VGA video out to an external display or projector (requires included Apple VGA Video Adapter) and S-video and composite video out to a TV or VCR (require optional Apple Video Adapter, sold separately); Built-in 56K V.92 modem (RJ-11); Built-in 10/100BaseT Ethernet (RJ-45); Airport Extreme Ready, with Airport Extreme Card included, and Built-in Bluetooth 2.0+EDR; Carrying Case; 3 years International Warranty

Price is about 1.7 k

Thanks in advance!

 

[skinnylatte]

More than good enough!

Look at http://www.macusersg.org/forums/index.php for more info — very helpful community. =)

Lots more I can say about it.. but if you have any specific question.. just shoot.

 

[bigfatfish]

actually i am more concerned about the durability.

fujitsu which is quite a reputable brand died on me twice. first time had to replace motherboard, now after warranty expire some months ago, the computer died again.

for Mac, i was looking at the Imac g5 or the Ibook g4.

any mac users out there experienced reliability issues?

 

[Castlesinthesky]

get a pbook if you can.

a mac definitely has great value. even for its software.;p

 

[skinnylatte]

actually i am more concerned about the durability.

fujitsu which is quite a reputable brand died on me twice. first time had to replace motherboard, now after warranty expire some months ago, the computer died again.

for Mac, i was looking at the Imac g5 or the Ibook g4.

any mac users out there experienced reliability issues?

if you look at the buy/sell forum on the MUGs forum, you see lots of people selling / buying old macs. even powerbooks/ibooks from 5 years ago are still in active use.

i won't pretend that there are NO reliability issues, but as a general rule, they do tend to hold out longer.

i made the switch one year ago... am hopping happy, whole household switched to mac already. =) we've had nothing but good luck with it so far, even after warranty ran out.

 

[kex]

i will choose the latest Imac G5 if u dun mind to sacrifice mobility for better screen,G5 processor and better graphic card.

Comes with Built in isight and remote control as well !!

the ibook screen is nothing to shout about..

 

[sky888]

I own a iBook G4.. the specs you have mention are good enough for any hobbyist photograhper.. spec wise, there is no need to go for powerbook (although they are good in their own class and for more professional use)

the only complanint I have for my 14" iBook is that it is damn heavy, when compared to my previous sony vios.. feels like over 3kg on my hands (but I could be wrong)

 

[NMSS_2]

will the system be sufficient to process more than 5gb of images for montage? in less than 30 mins? i am assuming that montage requires compiling into a video format. :dunno:

 

[Moonstone]

One thing I like about Apple notebook is the graphic colour. I find it much better than those S$2,000 notebook & it's priced at S$1800! Compatibility is not a problem & is easy to use.

 

[espn]

The colour is better only on the powerbooks, if you meant the iBooks, frankly, the contrast just seems better on the iBooks. The colours & contrast is much better on the powerbooks.

 

[pokiemon]

i am also looking for a notebook. haven't explored the ibook though. have been checking out dell. models like inspirion 6000 and 700m. not impressed with their call center service. they don't seem interested in closing a sale. that kinda put me off so i have moved on to hp/compaq. the pavillion series or the nc series.

 

[bigfatfish]

i will choose the latest Imac G5 if u dun mind to sacrifice mobility for better screen,G5 processor and better graphic card.

Comes with Built in isight and remote control as well !!

the ibook screen is nothing to shout about..

yeah after thinking about it. I thought G5 was a good idea. But i heard issues of it being noisy due to the fan, and very hot temperature. Any probs with your g5 so far?

 

[caseytan]

saw in the newspaper today, UOB Cashplus iBook package, 12" ibook + additional 512MB RAM + 4GB ipod nano for ~ 2K. Good deal.

 

[KCLow]

I have been running the G5 for 1 year now (My 6th Mac). Everything works fine. The fan is not really that noticable, in fact, my 5.24" external harddisk's casing fan is many times louder! OS X is certainly more stable than Windows! I also happen to have an iBook, but I feel that if you try running Photoshop CS2, you will find the G4 struggling a little with larger images. Reliability is generally very good with Macs.

 

[KCLow]

The only major hesitation to get into the Power PC based Macs are the pending migration by Apple to Intel CPUs. In fact, one of my collegues is running OS X on his Intel notebook dual-booting into windows as well. Only problem is applications for Intel for OS X still not available.

 

[bigfatfish]

actually i heard from a friend who works in funan that Imac g5 is going undergo another revision and will be out in 2 months time. Anyone like can verify this? I really want to put my money on it but, scared later the new revision comes up and I dont get alot of new features.

 

[caseytan]

actually i heard from a friend who works in funan that Imac g5 is going undergo another revision and will be out in 2 months time. Anyone like can verify this? I really want to put my money on it but, scared later the new revision comes up and I dont get alot of new features.

imac g5 just got updated last week. The next update would probably be the switch to intel cpus.

 

[bigfatfish]

pardon my ignorance, but the switch to intel CPUs means that its going to be a bad thing or is that a good thing?

 

[skinnylatte]

pardon my ignorance, but the switch to intel CPUs means that its going to be a bad thing or is that a good thing?

It's an issue that will take days to debate.. but in brief:

Apple has been insisting against going with Intel for a long time — its recent about turn came as a shock to many, some loyal Mac users even felt betrayal and disgust (for entirely emotional reasons).

But the overall picture is: as we move to Intel chips, we expect to reap from Intel what IBM was unable to do for us previously — provide us with blazingly fast chips that won't burn our laptops or pockets (the G5 chips couldn't make it into a production laptop because they were too hot). Apple expects that with Intel's lead in this area, on existing and upcoming chips (we're not sure which ones exactly yet), we can do even better than we already have.

So for the end consumer: good.

The dilemma now is — do you buy an Apple computer now, or wait until the intel ones come out? If you buy now, you risk it being obsolete: but then again all computers are obsolete the moment you buy them. There will be no transition problems because 1. Apple cannot afford to ignore its PowerPC Macs, there are too many of them 2. So to do so, Apple has made the transition as seamless as possible. Most software will run easily on PowerPC and Intel Macs as all the developers need to do is recompile, not rewrite code — and continue offering software in binaries for PowerPC AND Intel. Some older software that isn't ported will continue to run on the Intel Macs because of Apple's "Rosetta" technology. So the bottomline is: there is nothing to fear buying what you need today.

There will be some people who will want to wait for the newer models to come out. Sure, but we don't have a clue when they will be here; we only know they will come out next year, but no clue which machine will go first. Even if you successfully wait for it, it is always advisable to wait until Revision B of a product, after all the kinks have been sorted out. Waiting for first revision (1 year) + waiting for next revision (... 0.5yr?).. can be a long process. Some people have been holding back their powerbook purchases cos they wanted a next gen G5 powerbook. They waited years. Now there will be no G5 chip in next gen powerbook, but an intel one.

So you just have to ask yourself what you need now; can you wait? Do you need it now? The switch to Intel will not affect the consumer adversely, because no matter what chip we run on, it's what's above — Mac OS X — that's important.

 

[bigfatfish]

wow thanks skinny latte...reading your reply was like reading a page off a PC magazine