After a Mac Notebook for Under $300

[JDogg]

Hey all, I'm the new guy . So I have a question for everyone, I just recently got a new router(With VOIP and all that cool stuff) and it has wireless, now I've always just used the good ol' wire, but now I have a wireless router, I want to buy a laptop, I have a PowerBookG3 333mhz but that old thing has had its run, I want a new one but I only want to spend 300 dollars max, so my question is, what is the best (old) apple powerbook, all I want to do is browse the web and chat, nothing more. Thanks all!.

[leon]

A pismo with the highest specifications/best condition you can get for your budget. If your really lucky, one that has a CPU upgrade.

Has firewire, can take 1.0GB RAM and with the wireless 802.11b card you can get on the web.

[timothy]

Try these dudes in oakliegh...

Good blokes, they will help you out. applebits

ring: 03 9568 6366 they have what you are looking for within your budget.

[JDogg]

Thanks guys, Applebits is a cool site, but I think It's a little out of my price range. The pismo sounds perfect, what is the best Pismo to get?.

EDIT:Is 400mhz enough speed for browsing the web and msn, xfire?. I'm not sure what OS ill be running, most likely Tiger. Should I get a pc laptop instead?.

[decryption]

What's wrong with your current machine? Might be best just to upgrade what you have rather than buying a whole new machine. I don't think you'll get anything significantly faster for $300.

[JDogg]

Originally Posted by decryption

What's wrong with your current machine? Might be best just to upgrade what you have rather than buying a whole new machine. I don't think you'll get anything significantly faster for $300.

Well I have a Powermac G4 dual 1.25 ghz Mirrored door model mac, and a P4 mid range pc. My laptop is a Powerbook G3 333mhz "Wallstreet" version, it's very slow and running OSX is a pain in the ass, switching between msn and firefox takes about 3 seconds.

[Byrd]

I recently built up a "Lombard" 333Mhz Powerbook for a friend (cost: $40, it would have cost $20, but the first one was smashed in the post!), upped to a 40GB HD, 384MB RAM and running 10.4.11 - oh and it's overclocked to 433Mhz For web browsing and Office 2004 it's fine, with your machine being the same some cheap upgrades could get it over the line.

The Pismo isn't going to provide much performance difference, for $300 I think you could easily get a G4 iBook - say 900 - 1Ghz speeds.

JB

[forgie]

I'd go for a G3/G4 12" iBook. You can run Tiger on any of them, although it will be slowish (compared to modern macs) on the G3s. If you can get a ye olde G3 500-600Mhz iBook, and max out the RAM and put in a faster (modern) hard drive, you'll have the machine you're looking for.

[jubilantjeremy]

Shouldn't he be able to get a low-end G4 ibook for around $300?

I had a 800mhz G4 12" which was fantastic. Ran Tiger.

Jeremy

[JDogg]

Thanks for the replies guys, I've been looking on ebay and the prices there aren't all that great, any other places?.

[Byrd]

Here, but you need to be a member for 2 months and 100 posts to view the trading forum. Nothing much there at present though.

eBay is pretty quiet at the moment - give it a month or so and you'll be able to get a G4 iBook for your price. The ones on there at the moment are a rip-off - no way I'd pay $500+ for a 4 - 5 year old Mac when you can get a dual core Intel MB for a grand or less!

JB

[JDogg]

Originally Posted by JDogg

Thanks for the replies guys, I've been looking on ebay and the prices there aren't all that great, any other places?.

Ah ok, yeah I thought something was weird about the ebay prices, I was like, I can't afford a new mac, and now I can't afford a 4 year old mac

[timothy]

Jdogg, Ring those guys up... They don't really care to up date the site and it only has the rip offs, Just ring and tell them Powerbook G3 with Airport for $300.

They have one for $225 and would whack the new Airport and a little jazz for $75 making it $300. They are in a shop but you have to make an appointment to deal with them.

The thing is the late 2005 iBooks were very good machines, 1.42 GHz and 1.5 GB ram easily handles Leopard and very MacBook to look at.

Mine is worth about $700 because people want them. It even has Firewire...

There is no way I would pay that for this machine, but I would never sell at that price either. It is only 3 years old and I paid around $2200 for it brand new so it is all relative.

[JDogg]

Originally Posted by timothy

Jdogg, Ring those guys up... They don't really care to up date the site and it only has the rip offs, Just ring and tell them Powerbook G3 with Airport for $300.

They have one for $225 and would whack the new Airport and a little jazz for $75 making it $300. They are in a shop but you have to make an appointment to deal with them.

The thing is the late 2005 iBooks were very good machines, 1.42 GHz and 1.5 GB ram easily handles Leopard and very MacBook to look at.

Mine is worth about $700 because people want them. It even has Firewire...

There is no way I would pay that for this machine, but I would never sell at that price either. It is only 3 years old and I paid around $2200 for it brand new so it is all relative.

Ah ok thanks mate, I'll give them a call and see what deal I can get.

[Byrd]

Good luck - the thing about Applebits is that every time I've called them for parts, their prices have been bordering on the insane.

JB

[arkenstone]

Their system prices don't look bad. Those 17" G4's are kinda tempting.

Still on the lookout for a 17" G5 iMac for $400. We're starting to get close now.

[forgie]

Originally Posted by timothy

The thing is the late 2005 iBooks were very good machines, 1.42 GHz and 1.5 GB ram easily handles Leopard and very MacBook to look at.

Mine is worth about $700 because people want them. It even has Firewire...

There is no way I would pay that for this machine, but I would never sell at that price either. It is only 3 years old and I paid around $2200 for it brand new so it is all relative.

I have the last model 12" iBook G4, with 1.5GB RAM and a 5400RPM 80GB HDD. I could not honestly say that it "easily handles" Leopard - it will run it, but things were slow and laggy for me, even with a completely fresh install. As soon as you have a couple of apps open, things got way too slow for my liking. I went back to Tiger, which runs like a charm on it.