Pismo and os X - Good or sucky?

ti fighterti fighter
Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
i was talking about this in a earlier thread but..I am thinking of buying a 400 pismo with 320 ram, dvd, zip drive, 6 gig HD for $800 from my friend, and will prob add a firewire 60 gig HD and a 512 chip. I'm thinking of doing this cuz I'm waiting for the new towers to come out and i want a laptop and i can't really afford two new comps at the same time. So my question is it gonna suck in osX? I also want to run final cut pro 2 or 3, will it be useable on the g3 400. Or should i just get a 667 ti book <img src="graemlins/smokin.gif" border="0" alt="[Chilling]" /> and wait to get a tower when MWNY (G5?) comes around.



I need help, I am so clueless what to do right now!



btw: Im a designer and electronic musician by trade (Just so you have an idea what programs I'm gonna use. Plus most of the main appz i use are optimized for Velocity Engine )



thanks,

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 19
    cosmonutcosmonut Posts: 4,872member
    I haven't had OS X on my machine since 10.0.1, but I can tell you about FCP 2.



    I have 192MB RAM on my 400Mhz Pismo, and it runs very well. I usually don't have any problems with it. It could be faster, yes, with a G4, but if you need it to run decently it will.
  • Reply 2 of 19
    scadboyscadboy Posts: 189member
    [quote]Originally posted by Ti Fighter:

    <strong>i was talking about this in a earlier thread but..I am thinking of buying a 400 pismo with 320 ram, dvd, zip drive, 6 gig HD for $800 from my friend, and will prob add a firewire 60 gig HD and a 512 chip. I'm thinking of doing this cuz I'm waiting for the new towers to come out and i want a laptop and i can't really afford two new comps at the same time. So my question is it gonna suck in osX? I also want to run final cut pro 2 or 3, will it be useable on the g3 400. Or should i just get a 667 ti book <img src="graemlins/smokin.gif" border="0" alt="[Chilling]" /> and wait to get a tower when MWNY (G5?) comes around.

    </strong><hr></blockquote>



    I've had a pismo for a little over a year now, and it rawks! Yes, even with Mac OS X, but I did upgrade my ram to a cool 1GB and am in the process of upping my internal drive to 30GB, which can't hurt.



    Yes, there are hiccups, it is a G3, but there is upgrade potential there. A G4 upgrade just came out from PowerLogix for WallStreets and Lombards, so Pismo's can't be all that far behind... right?



    All in all, that sounds like a pretty good deal, so I'd definitely snatch it up. I'm hoping to get about $800-900 from my setup when I finally decide to upgrade... which should be soon. a system like that goes on ebay for around $1000 give or take, so it sounds pretty good.



    ciao,



    michael
  • Reply 3 of 19
    cdhostagecdhostage Posts: 1,038member
    I',m gonna install OS X on myu Dad's Pismo this weekend. It's got similar specsto yours, but I'm not gonna upgrade it beyond the 192 MB of RAM it already has. Gonna run Ubero on it all the time/
  • Reply 4 of 19
    tonyibooktonyibook Posts: 3member
    The Pismo is a great machine. I owned two iBooks before, the original and the DVD SE. I was about to buy the latest iBook when I realised how good the spec. on the Pismo was and got one second hand. The Pismo seems the most well thought out Apple portable with the best expansion capability.



    I have upgraded my 400MHz Pismo to 768MB of RAM and have fitted a Fujitsu 20GB drive. The machine ran perfectly on 384MB of RAM but I use mine for editing digital pictures and decided the extra RAM may help.



    I have run OS X since the beta and have never seen a kernel panic. The machine is 100% reliable, with a wake up time of less than a second. The DVD playback is superb, as is the sound quality from the stereo speakers.



    If you do buy one, get the AirPort as well. Nothing is better than being able to browse the internet anywhere in the house, including the garden.
  • Reply 5 of 19
    sockboysockboy Posts: 29member
    [quote]Originally posted by tonyibook:

    <strong> The DVD playback is superb, as is the sound quality from the stereo speakers.



    If you do buy one, get the AirPort as well. Nothing is better than being able to browse the internet anywhere in the house, including the garden.</strong><hr></blockquote>





    I have a 400 Pismo with only 192mb RAM and I run OS X without any problems (though I must admit I'm not a totally demanding user). But I have to disagree about those speakers!! They are awful and tinny I don't know why they even bothered making them stereo. If you want to listen to music or watch a DVD you have to plug in headphones or external speakers for decent sound! I would love airport though. Just a bit too expensive to justify, I have a really long ethernet cord!
  • Reply 6 of 19
    emaneman Posts: 7,204member
    At least give it a try. See for yourself if you like how OS X runs on the Pismo.
  • Reply 7 of 19
    ti fighterti fighter Posts: 863member
    Cool thanks for the info. Right now im using a PC, p3 450 384 ram 3dlabz graphics card (no this wont be my first mac i've owned and used them all my life). Do you guys think the pismo will run faster than this computer? esp if i add more ram like a gig or 768.



    god the ti books eating away at my soul more and more every day, I've wanted one ever since they came out. Anybody think the G4 is worth it to get a Ti.



    sorry I'm being a whinney bitch, but I'm really bad at making decesions with money, I have the part of me that wants a deal, but the other part cant stand anything but the best.



    thanks
  • Reply 8 of 19
    corvettecorvette Posts: 561member
    [quote]Originally posted by Ti Fighter:

    <strong>Cool thanks for the info. Right now im using a PC, p3 450 384 ram 3dlabz graphics card (no this wont be my first mac i've owned and used them all my life). Do you guys think the pismo will run faster than this computer? esp if i add more ram like a gig or 768.

    </strong><hr></blockquote>



    It should be for most everything, except for web browsing.
  • Reply 9 of 19
    ti fighterti fighter Posts: 863member
    Hey corvette I'm Armenian too, 100%
  • Reply 10 of 19
    bogiebogie Posts: 407member
    I have run 10.1 on my Pismo since its release full time, works great.



    G3 400/320/10GB



    And thing is, if you are getting it that cheap, you are getting an incredible deal. Normally they sell for up to double that from dealers.
  • Reply 11 of 19
    ti fighterti fighter Posts: 863member
    Thanks guys for all your help, looking foward to my reentry into the apple cult
  • Reply 12 of 19
    emaneman Posts: 7,204member
    Ti Fighter, it'll definately run faster than your PC.
  • Reply 13 of 19
    ti fighterti fighter Posts: 863member
    what would the g3 400 be comparable to in the pc world, like a p3 800 more or less
  • Reply 14 of 19
    leonisleonis Posts: 3,427member
    It's my turn to chime in



    Actaully I don't recommend people buying second hand laptop unless it still has warranty



    The reason is simple. Those laptop parts are f*cking expensive. Motherboard - $2300, LCD - $1800! :eek: Ough!



    Yeah those figures are in CDN but still very expensive.



    Warranty aside. Laptop will never be as fast as desktop due to the slower bus and especially the Hard Disk.



    I remember when I still had the Pismo Photoshop did choke a lot even it had 512MB of RAM. That choke was caused by the slow HD.



    Therefore if you are doing a lot of super heavy stuff go for the desktop.



    If you can afford to wait. Wait for G5



    The current PowerMac line up is know as one of the biggest jokes in the entire Apple product history
  • Reply 15 of 19
    ti fighterti fighter Posts: 863member
    Well Thats my problem, i had the money ready to buy a new power mac right after mac world, but no new towers, god damn apple. So for now i figure I will just get this Pismo from my freind for $800(i could deff use a laptop anyway) and then get a g5 when they come out. I could get the low end ibook but the pismo would be more powerfull and have more features (big screen) for a cheaper price i think. Am i wrong in thinking this, does the ibook have some magic qualitys that would make it alot faster(besides the diff in mhz speed)



    plus im gonna get a 60 gig 7200rpm external firewire hard drive. Yes I am a very heavy user but i checked the laptop out and I have to say i wouldnt call it slow at all. but if you think it would be too slow from experience let me know.
  • Reply 16 of 19
    rontekrontek Posts: 6member
    to cdhostage:



    What are those "Cornholii", you want to die for?







    [ 01-18-2002: Message edited by: RonTek ]</p>
  • Reply 17 of 19
    bogiebogie Posts: 407member
    To be honest I don't think you can make the comparison.



    I have played with XP on an Athalon 1.2GHz with 256MB and a 7200rpm drive and what I find is that for all that hardware it doesn't seem very snappy.



    Now I will not claim that Mac OS X is as fast on my Pismo as on an 800MHz G4. But I will tell you that as far as GUI response it is on par with XP on that system I described, which shouldn't be the case in my mind.
  • Reply 18 of 19
    bubbub Posts: 8member
    I have a pismo 400 w/ 320 ram & I edit digital audio, as well as all other general uses, & it works great.
  • Reply 19 of 19
    evil edevil ed Posts: 106member
    [quote]Originally posted by Ti Fighter:

    <strong>i was talking about this in a earlier thread but..I am thinking of buying a 400 pismo with 320 ram, dvd, zip drive, 6 gig HD for $800 from my friend, and will prob add a firewire 60 gig HD and a 512 chip. I'm thinking of doing this cuz I'm waiting for the new towers to come out and i want a laptop and i can't really afford two new comps at the same time. So my question is it gonna suck in osX? I also want to run final cut pro 2 or 3, will it be useable on the g3 400. Or should i just get a 667 ti book <img src="graemlins/smokin.gif" border="0" alt="[Chilling]" /> and wait to get a tower when MWNY (G5?) comes around.



    I need help, I am so clueless what to do right now!



    btw: Im a designer and electronic musician by trade (Just so you have an idea what programs I'm gonna use. Plus most of the main appz i use are optimized for Velocity Engine )



    thanks,</strong><hr></blockquote>



    Hi Tifighter,



    My previous PowerBook was exactly the same as the Pismo 400 you just described. I found it an incredible machine for it's time and I'm sure it's still good now (I was so pleased with it I went and bought a Pismo 500 with a gig RAM, 5400rpm HDD, etc.). As mentioned before by someone else it is a really well thought out machine. It runs OS X as well as most machines I've seen, but I find it sucks when running classic. I'm sure once programs are optimized for OS X it'll be my platform of choice. I couldn't tell you about how it handles music apps but that's an area which I'm just getting into.



    All I can say is- it's a damn good machine.
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