need serious iBook advice please.

macanoid(tm)macanoid(tm)
Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
I can get a 500 MHz iBook for a very resonable price, and think of using it at work. I need to have the following programs open at the same time: OS X 10.2, Office, Acrobat, Mozilla, CelView 3, Lotus Notes, VPC NT4 workstation running a windows only administration program.



What I'd like to know is, if I put enough ram in it, will it still run at a decent enough speed?? I'm particularly interested in VPC's performance.



I can't afford a Titanium, and my only other option is to give up the Mac and make do with an IBM ThinkPad. Everyone at my company gets these, but I don't want 'm for obvious reasons.



Thanks!

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 7
    newnew Posts: 3,244member
    It will work, but you'll grow really tired of waiting for VPC ... Maybe controlling a pc through remote desktop is a better option?
  • Reply 2 of 7
    defiantdefiant Posts: 4,876member
    <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/mac/DOWNLOAD/MISC/RDC.asp"; target="_blank">Remote Desktop from Microsoft</a>
  • Reply 3 of 7
    newnew Posts: 3,244member
    I just tested out remote desktop myself, and the program is amazing! I logged on and started surfing on my girlfriends HP in seconds... great for testing windoze only stuff, like HTML rendering etc...
  • Reply 4 of 7
    matsumatsu Posts: 6,558member
    I can't see what obvious reasons for not wanting an IBM thinkpad could be. You're going to work primarily with Windows, by the sounds of it, and your company is going to give you a free laptop. It's a better choice than some hacked up option to run windows by emulation or proxy. Why spend the money on a used notebook when you can get a free new one? Mac isn't worth it unless your actually going to use Mac
  • Reply 5 of 7
    brianmacosbrianmacos Posts: 548member
    What exactly will you be running in VPC??? I've run Office XP and Gamespy, plus Exam Essenstials 5.5. They all run well enough but they are slow. Overall you will probably get done what needs to get done.
  • Reply 6 of 7
    kingofsomewherehotkingofsomewherehot Posts: 4,180member
    I'm using a 466mhx iBook .... although I THINK the 500 has a faster frontside bus.



    Any native mac programs will run great given plenty of RAM (I happen to be using X.2 now, but X.1 was good also)



    Unfortunately, VPC is very slow... so much so that I bought an eMachine for the 2 windows progs I must use at home. I doubt that your the slightly faster bus speed on the 500 iBook would be enough to make VPC respectable, but otherwise I can't blame you for trying to talk yourself into the mac !!!
  • Reply 7 of 7
    lucaluca Posts: 3,833member
    Frontside bus on 466 and 500 MHz iBooks (and 300 and 366 MHz ones for that matter) are all the same - 66 MHz. The 600 and 700 MHz iBooks all have a 100MHz bus.



    The main advantage of the iBook 500 over the iBook 466 is the much smaller, lighter form factor, higher resolution screen, and stereo speakers instead of just one. The speed should be about the same.



    But back to the topic at hand - I agree with Matsu. If your company offers you an IBM Thinkpad for free, why not use it? It's obviously the kind that they would prefer you to use, but I do sympathise.
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