buying this today, is it worth it?

hi, im planning on getting a 2nd hand powerbook today. as to now, i havent really found a cheap one and the only one i can find is this: its based locally, so can have a look and pick up today. else its ebay, but so far, all on ebay have something wrong with them, though they are a little bit cheaper:

Apple Powerbook G4 Titanium 15inch
550mhz,
DVD/CDRW,
30GB,
1GB ram,
OSX/Classic,
optical wireless mouse,
carry case


thats for 450 euros. (about 700 dollars i think)

is it worth it?nothing on ebay is really in good condition or they are expensive. ones with things wrong with them go around 250 pounds. (500 dollars) (really wrong ones 180-190 pounds). there's also the fact id have to wait for delivery and u never know if ur getting a lemon in the post?

does 550mhz cut it?will i be able to run most applications? quicktime, panther/tiger, skype, msn, watch divx videos on external monitor, burn some cds (connect an external dvdrw to burn dvds?) and maybe sometimes run virtual pc 7 to use activesync or any proprietary small windows app. also run acrobat pro 8 on it..


thanks for helping me as soon as possible, all the best

I think it'd be much safer if you buy a used PowerBook Aluminum (post 2003). The TiBook is very dated by today's standard. Otherwise you could save a lil bit more money and go for a brand new MacBook base model.

I wouldnt buy that. 550mhz and only a 30 g hard drive for 450 euros is not a good deal.

I think it would not be a good idea to buy this. PPCs were good but running OS X today on a PPC is very slow going. The TiBooks are durable and worth collecting but Rosetta makes everything VERY slow. And that may be why the unit is for sale.

Use your 450 euros to get something else that's "up to date".

That doesn't sound like a great deal to me...OS X will be very slow anyway. I would see if you can get a low end macbook for only a few 100$ more.

Rosetta makes everything VERY slow. And that may be why the unit is for sale.

Ummm....no. Don't think you know what Rosetta is Fairly.

Munzab - you would be able to do the things you've said esp with 1 gig of RAM...just not that quickly when compared to more modern machines.

Rosetta is an Emulator that only runs on INTEL Macs. It allows the Intel OSX to run Power PC Applications. No PPC Powerbook runs Rosetta. It's not even part of the PPC versions of OSX.

That said, the price is way too high for a 550Mhz Powerbook. Good machine but not worth that much.

As to whether or not it is a good machine: It is a fine machine and would do you well.

On the price: Not so good. You should be able to find a similar machine in the same condition for much, much less.

an aluminum powerbook g4 15" should be around $700.

you could by the refurbed macbooks for a little bit more on Apple's website in the US, not sure about Europe though

I bought a Powerbook G3 400Mhz, 192Mb RAM..
From ebay for not much more then £100... It's just for my mum 2 surf the net and write letters on.. so i'm very happy with it.. and it runs Panther very smoothly.. and does the job great..

It all depends on what you want yours for.. but i do think it's over priced..

People tend to get old powerbooks and jump the RAM cuz it makes it look good... but it ain't all that great..
If you want a good laptop judge it by it's processor because that and the graphics card r pretty much the only things you cant upgrade...

My advice is save a £100 more or so and get a nice iBook with twice the processing power..

I managed to get a 12" ibook G4 1.2Ghz, 768Mb RAM for about the same as you were about to spend..

Shop around!!! it's worth it!!!!!