Powerbook G4

[Agentbolt]

I've come across a pretty nice seeming off-lease Powerbook for 400 bucks. Stats are:

OSX 10.4
1 GB RAM
1.67 GHZ G4
80 GB HDD
SuperDrive

Seems like a decent deal, I was looking at a Macbook (older Core Duo model maybe) but I can't find anything even in the same league price-wise. Is this old powerbook a decent machine still? I'm sure speed-wise it'll run what I need it to (Watching DVDs, web browsing, Itunes, whatever) but I'm concerned about finding software that'll still run on a G4 six months from now. If Itunes and Firefox aren't being made G4 compatible any longer, that's going to kind of kill this thing's usefulness.

 

[nervegrind3r]

Thats a good price for that unit. Most software is universal (runs ppc and intel) so I wouldnt worry too much about your software crapping out in 6 months. However, I would definitely go with the newer intel offerings.I personally have never liked buying older mac technology, and at this point, would not invest in something ppc based.

 

[Gravity]

I think it's viable. I might try to get it for a bit less, say 275 but yea, viable.

Best,

Gravity

 

[Tyranicus]

Apple will most likely not be dropping PPC support til 10.6, and maybe not even then. Virtually all Mac apps are Universal Binaries at this point, and that's not likely to change soon either. I would recommend installing Leopard on it though.

 

[Agentbolt]

Originally posted by: Tyranicus
Apple will most likely not be dropping PPC support til 10.6, and maybe not even then. Virtually all Mac apps are Universal Binaries at this point, and that's not likely to change soon either. I would recommend installing Leopard on it though.

Cool, thanks.

Gravity, where do YOU shop that you can find the late model Powerbooks for 275 bucks? You can't get a G3 Ibook for that price, dude.

 

[manly]

$400 is a great price for a late model PowerBook. Just don't plan on doing anything CPU-intensive such as playing HD video. Transcoding AVIs to iPod-compatible MP4s is a PITA on my original Mac mini.

 

[umrigar]

I'd buy that, I have a friend who needs just such a laptop.

 

[MovingTarget]

I'd say so. Those stats are slightly better than the machine I've been posting on. I wouldn't worry about it not being viable for at least 2 years. Once 10.6 takes hold, it will still see support in Tiger/Leopard, but will be slowly phased out. Besides, the binaries will still be available. If you are still scared about it, you could switch it to linux by then. That is a good price though.

 

[umrigar]

any more of them available for us?

 

[Ultima200]

Even at $400 you will still have a great computer that will last you a while. I would try to knock the price down a bit further tho. Just remember that this will NOT run Bootcamp, will not run any games released in the past 1-2 years and will all around be an average is not slow machine. The thing i would be most weary about is how well the machine hods up in the future. From my experience, Powerbooks are not able to withstand years of hardcore use without showing serious wear (physical). With that in mind, you probably should know that apple will only help you out in times of need for a cost.

 

[MiataPaul]

I know my brother is still using his G4 12 inch laptop for travel. He is a professional photographer, so he does do some photo editing on it, but just light stuff. He really likes it because it is so small and when you are carrying 3 camera bodies, and lots of lenses, and what not size does matter. I think $400 is a bit high, since you can find new ones for around a $1000 and they will duel boot into Windows if you have to, and are a LOT faster. Not going by market price, just what I would pay. I had an older G3 and it was ok for web browsing, and word processing, but that was it, but it was also FREE!

Remember Itunes and Firefox work on it now, so it will continue to work on it as long as it will boot! You may not get the latest and greatest, but it will still work.

One other thing that kills most lap tops is how much are batteries? I know I have an IBM 600X that I love the form factor of and it runs Linux well, but the battery is more expensive than the thing is worth.

 

[Fox5]

I think it's expensive in comparison to how much you could get a new macbook for, but it's probably about going price for a used g4 powerbook.

 

[scootermaster]

I have a last-model G4 that I'm going to sell when the new Macbook Pros come out, and I think $450-$500 is about right. The machine does everything you could want it to do, except run windows and, as mentioned, things like hard-core video transcoding.

That's one great thing about Apples. They retain their resale value!

 

[Agentbolt]

Originally posted by: scootermaster
I have a last-model G4 that I'm going to sell when the new Macbook Pros come out, and I think $450-$500 is about right. The machine does everything you could want it to do, except run windows and, as mentioned, things like hard-core video transcoding.

That's one great thing about Apples. They retain their resale value!

I ended up selling it. Went for 600 bucks, thanks to the sheer idiocy of your average E-bayer

I had to get rid of it, because in the end it couldn't do what I wanted it to. One thing I want this laptop for is to be able to watch Lost, House, or my other shows in HD over the internet. I was surprised to see this, but the G4 simply CANNOT play back 720P content. I tried downloading a few 720P Quicktime videos, like the Duke Nukem forever trailer, same deal, it choked. There wasn't anything else really wrong with it, but that processor is apparently just not up to the task for some fairly basic tasks.

In the end it was worth it though, sold it for 600 bucks, and picked up a Core 2 Duo Macbook at 2.16 GHZ for 780. I haven't gotten the Macbook in the mail yet, but I can only assume I just about doubled my performance in a lot of tasks for a measly 180 bucks.