500mhz iBook

J

j1001n

Guest
I was thinking of getting a 500mhz ibook from ebay. What do you guys think? I don't need to do much. All I need to do is surf the web and type up some papers on it. Would this be a good laptop for those kinds of things? Is it slow while doing these things?
Also, will using it be hard, I am currently a windows user, the only other experience I have with apple computers are the iMacs at school.
Thanks
 
OP
B

ByHisGrace

Guest
I just got one for 300 bucks on ebay. I'm happy with it cause i'll be using it for the same things as you. I just bumped up the ram on it to 384 instead of 128 and am upgrading the os to 10.3 and now its perfect so if you could find a 500 mhz model with a couple ad ons like what i mentioned you should be fine.
 

rman


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My wife has one, and uses it for just what you want to do. She has the 500Mhz with 384Mb and running 10.3.9. It does everything she needs it to do with no problems. Now the printer is another story.
 
OP
D

DigitalN.

Guest
I had a 700MHz one that I used for typing papers and surfing the web through AirPort, it was sweet. although I was running 10.4.3 which was a bad idea, was very slow.
 
OP
R

radarbob

Guest
It's a matter of arithmetic, mostly. Go to apple.com , support tab , specifications and read all about the different models. An informed consumer is a happy consumer.

http://www.info.apple.com/support/applespec.html

IMHO you *need* 512MB RAM and OS 10.2 (aka Jaguar) and you *want* OS 10.3 (aka Panther). No iBook (yet) came with / comes with 512MB built in. And OS 10.3 has "expose" which is a fabulous feature that helps you manage all your open windows.

If you're perfectly happy w/ it's configuration as paid for then OK. But if you have to spend $100 for airport card, $100+for memory, $125 for OS upgrade, want to replace the HD... then you might as well buy a newer computer.

Other than pure MHz, I think there is no practical difference between the guts of the 500 - 900 MHz (all G3 CPUs) models. But I think video memory went from 16MB to 32MB on the 800 MHz model, and Main ram went from 64 to 128 in the 700 MHz model.

$300 is pretty cheap. I bought a 900MHz iBook just two weeks ago for about $550 + $90 for memory upgrade + shipping at www.techrestore.com Came with a no questions asked refund policy and a 6 month guarantee.

Keep in mind that about Jan 16th the current iBook model will most likely be out of date too.
 

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