Just got an iBook G3 off eBay- First time Mac

Avalanche6890 · Mar 17, 2007

I've seen OS X, a couple of times.. thats about it. The last time I used a Mac was in 2nd grade at school.

After sorta watching a thread on another forum on Macs vs PC I figured it was really worth trying out Mac OS X..

Anyway, I have a couple of questions..

I bought this one here..

http://cgi.ebay.com/Ibook-g3-800-12...091219103QQcategoryZ80050QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

It has pretty much everything so here we go

1. Are Power PC processors really like double their clockspeed? I seen that advertised alot. How fast should I expect it, right now my desktop is a AMD 3000+ (About 2GHZ) will I feel a huge drop off (It's XP home)

2. Very cosmetic thing but does the Apple logo glow on these models?

3. Finally, would you guys suggest a USB wifi adapter or an airport card. 11mbps seems sorta low in comparison to some of the available Mac USB adapters which are at 54mbps, and almost half the going price.

4. Edit- Another question I have is about RAM, what kinda ram does this model have, and whats the max it can handle?

Thanks in advanced, and I can't wait to get going with my Mac!

schweb · Mar 17, 2007

Unless your internet speed is faster than 11mbps then an Airport card is fine. If it doesn't already come with one, you'll find it hard and expensive to locate one (they've been discontinued). You may have no choice but an adaptor.

Apple's website will be able to give you all the tech details on RAM, etc.

D3v1L80Y · Mar 17, 2007

1. Are Power PC processors really like double their clockspeed? I seen that advertised alot. How fast should I expect it, right now my desktop is a AMD 3000+ (About 2GHZ) will I feel a huge drop off (It's XP home)

No. That is an extremely inaccurate way to judge the PowerPC processor.
They simply process data in a different way. There is no fair and accurate way to compare a PPC to an x86 processor.

2. Very cosmetic thing but does the Apple logo glow on these models?The LCD backlight does shine through the logo on the lid. That is how all of the Mac notebooks with a "light up" logo work.

3. Finally, would you guys suggest a USB wifi adapter or an airport card. 11mbps seems sorta low in comparison to some of the available Mac USB adapters which are at 54mbps, and almost half the going price. The USB wifi cards and adapters are sketchy at best. I would recommed finding an AirPort Card (original, NOT Extreme) on eBay or the like for it.

4. Edit- Another question I have is about RAM, what kinda ram does this model have, and whats the max it can handle?PC-100 SDRAM SoDIMMS
The max it can take is 640MB.

You will also want to look for a retail version of the OS. Since that listing doesn't include the discs, you are going to want some sort of restore/install media. You may never need to actually reinstall the OS, but the discs are needed for doing other things. Namely disk repair and other troubleshooting methods that you may need to perform.

ibookclamman300 · Mar 17, 2007

that is a really good deal. i bought my ibook g3 900mhz with no extras for $280. Looks like you are ready to go, you might want to upgrade the ram though, and a usb wireless card as metioned above would be a good idea.

Avalanche6890 · Mar 18, 2007

Thanks for all the help. Gives me a good idea what to expect.

I will end up getting Tiger discs, it's just a bit off (maybe a new battery and an wireless card before) If I say buy an iMac in the next year and get those Tiger Discs would they work with the iBook?

Thanks, ibookclamman300 you got a pretty nice deal too. I was sorta watching this one for a couple of days. I figured look for the ones without a pic in the title.

Yeah thats my entire thing about the USB ones, they just seem sketchy, and I lose a USB port, so i'll probably get an airport card off eBay.

Thanks again everyone!

Stretch · Mar 18, 2007

The restore disks that come with a Mac only work on those machines.

ibookclamman300 · Mar 18, 2007

i my old one was good, but my g4 is really great. I wanted a macbook but it was a bit out of my range. You would be surprised how well g4 machines perform.

yanmared · Mar 18, 2007

hahah I bid on that one!!! you can see my username in the bidders list. I stopped at like 250 though I didnt want to pay that much. good luck with it tho i bought a different one about 4 hours later so Im waiting for that as well

Avalanche6890 · Mar 19, 2007

yanmared said:
hahah I bid on that one!!! you can see my username in the bidders list. I stopped at like 250 though I didnt want to pay that much. good luck with it tho i bought a different one about 4 hours later so Im waiting for that as well

Haha, thats funny! Tons of activity at the end.

Avalanche6890 · Mar 23, 2007

Hey just another question, as it should arrive by about Thursday of next week...

In terms of what I need to do (Web browsing, DVDs, multimedia, maybe a little MS Office/Open Office, thats about it) will this be a good machine? It seems like overall the notion I got was it would be fine, but it is a four year old machine..

And another more complicated question is this (networking, should I make a new thread on it?)

I'm going to be getting a wireless solution soon, but for now I don't have the money.. So as a temp solution is it possible for me to share my XP computer's internet (It's on Wifi) with ethernet to the iBook? I have been getting mixed messages from people about it, like you need two wifi cards.. ect.. so any help would be appreciated!

Thanks a ton!