What exactly can I do with my iBook?

[makwanad]

Hi my specs are listed in my sig and I was wondering what exactly my ibook would be capable of doing, can i do any sort of media work at all on it that would be close enough to be up to date? So far I'm running logic 7, I have iWorks 05, Final Cut Pro 5 and a few other pretty cool pieces of software, although I just haven't put em to the test yet. Any ideas people?

 

[kaidomac]

Hi my specs are listed in my sig and I was wondering what exactly my ibook would be capable of doing, can i do any sort of media work at all on it that would be close enough to be up to date? So far I'm running logic 7, I have iWorks 05, Final Cut Pro 5 and a few other pretty cool pieces of software, although I just haven't put em to the test yet. Any ideas people?

It can do just about anything you want, it's more of a question of how fast you want to do it. I did 3D graphics for a loooong time on my old AMD K2/300mhz system and it worked just fine. I'm currently running a 2ghz Athlon 64 as my main rig and it's a bit of a nicer work environment to say the least My G4 Cube is still a work in progress (OS X and iLife are pretty much all I have right now).

 

[makwanad]

Yeah but thats PC isn't it? I need mac details!

 

[radarbob]

Up until last month I was using my 300MHz iBook... What I used it for

• surfing internet. Safari was fast enough. Broadband makes a big difference vice dial up! OH, and I was doing it wirelessly - sweet.
• Email using Eudroa OS 9 version. The OS X email client was way, way too slow.
• MS Office, OS 9 version in Classic mode.
• BBEdit, both OS 9 and OS X versions
• iTunes
• Quicken, an older version, in classic mode
• MacinTax (later TurboTax) every year
• Palm Pilot desktop app, palm pilot synchronization
• logging onto my work Outlook email account remotely
• transfering files to PC via USB thumb drive.

What I didn't use it for: (NOTE: none of the hardware limitations mentioned are on the "icebooks" (500MHz and later)).
* burning CDs - was a read only CD player
* iPod - I knew sync would be too slow w/ only US 1.1
* iPhoto - I figured it would be too slow, and I couldn't burn CDs of my photos anyway
* logging onto my actual PC at work- w/ only a 800x600 on my iBook, the PC desktop was "cutoff" at the bottom.

 

[macEfan]

your ibook can run just about anything, as long as it has enough ram.( some programs will run slowly). However, do not even attempt to install Motion or Soundtrack pro.. they require alot more CPU processing power as well as hard disk space.

You could install photoshop elements, or other similar programs and they will work well.

 

[PowerBookG4]

motion won't install on it even if you wanted to.. it will look at your graphics card and tell you that it is not a good enough card and won't let you install it.

 

[macEfan]

motion won't install on it even if you wanted to.. it will look at your graphics card and tell you that it is not a good enough card and won't let you install it.

yes, i wouldn't do any video editing on a computer with 8mb vram.. I think motion requires a g4 procssor also...

 

[makwanad]

Is there a way to change the video card at all? Also I'm thinking about overclocking the processor to 1ghz and using the ibreeze (wether you have heard of it or not) to cool it down, would this be ok?

 

[rman]

You can not change the video card, I believe it is part of the mother board (logic board). As for over clocking your system. I don't think it is worth the effort.

 

[D3v1L80Y]

Yeah, the video card is part of the logic board, so no upgrading there is possible.
As far as the overclocking, it is not that easy to do. Plus, from my experiences, there is a MUCH greater chance of burning out the CPU with Macs. Even if it does run stable for a while, it will burn out quicker. You are talking about doubling the speed of your proc, not a very wise idea. If you are really lacking in performance, then your best upgrade would be to add more RAM.

 

[makwanad]

Problem is I have maximum ram I can get going further would be a stupid thing to do as it won't work, oh well so far my mac has been holding on, I'm hoping it is gonna last me two years and see me through out my course which of course I will then get a powerbook/macbook pro or an iMac