Front-side bus on ibook vs powerbook??

Hey alll,

Newbie here. I'm wondering how much of a performance issue having only a 266mhz FSB on the G4 ibook will have compared to the powerbook's 333 FSB? In my experience with PC hardware, a faster FSB can make a HUUUGE difference in performance. I have a very fast PC for gaming and anything cpu-intensive (AthlonXP @ 2.42ghz w/ a 440mhz FSB, 1gb RAM, GeforceFX 5950 Ultra). I want an apple laptop, but I'm concerned that the lesser cpu and fsb on the ibook will shorten its lifespan in terms of being able to use an apple OS or other software in 2-3 years. Mostly I'd just be using the web, playing mp3's, watching some movies, using office, etc. Any thoughts would be great. Thanks

Contrary to your previous experience, FSB speed does not make a "huge" difference in performance. You can try the experiment by reducing the FSB speed on your PC, and increase the multiplier so the CPU speed remains the same. It's important you keep the other setting the same, including the CPU speed, AGP setting, etc. Then you can compare the performance with your current setting.

The current iBook design is getting old. Apple will probably release a new iBook within next year. If that concerns you, you should probably get a PowerBook, or wait until they release a new iBook. Keep in mind that the computers are becoming (somewhat expensive) disposable commodity these days. Two to three years in computer technology is a VERY long time. You can't expect the current hardware to run newly developed applications, especially games, smoothly three years from now. Just look back three years. The best CPU you could get was 1.5GHz Pentium III with GeForce 2.

OTOH, Apple computers hold value better than PCs. Two years old iBook and PowerBook retain more than 50% of the value. But with PC first 50% depreciate within one year.