Should I buy an iBook 500 MHz?
It is the first generation of iBooks with only 64 MB of ram, CD-Rom and measly 8 MB VRAM.
The iBook is in mint condition but sadly don?t include any software except what was in the box originally. The OS is 9.1 and OS 10.1.
The seller would like 500- for it but I think that is a bit steep, especially considering that I have to buy a new OS and 512 MB of ram for it, to have it useable. I also fear the battery is busted; she used it as a stationary but never removed the battery. If I upgrade it I?m getting near the price for a brand new one.
I know that the later versions of OS 10 demand at least 16 MB of VRAM and here is the iBook is sadly lacking, how would this affect performance?
The iBook primary use would be as a typewriter and a bit of web surfing.
The iBook is in mint condition but sadly don?t include any software except what was in the box originally. The OS is 9.1 and OS 10.1.
The seller would like 500- for it but I think that is a bit steep, especially considering that I have to buy a new OS and 512 MB of ram for it, to have it useable. I also fear the battery is busted; she used it as a stationary but never removed the battery. If I upgrade it I?m getting near the price for a brand new one.
I know that the later versions of OS 10 demand at least 16 MB of VRAM and here is the iBook is sadly lacking, how would this affect performance?
The iBook primary use would be as a typewriter and a bit of web surfing.
Comments
Originally posted by -@-
My thoughts exactly, I was thinking 300,- but now I think I maybe should go lower. How do you think the iBook will perform with OS 10.3 with 574 MB RAM?
I've got an 350 mhz G3 iMac (at my parent's house) running 10.3 very well. The problem isn't the speed, it's the hard drive space. That iBook probably only has a 10gig drive and they are a *bitch* to upgrade yourself. Add about $200 to get it professionally done and you've got the price of something much better. You're better off passing on it, honestly, if you want to go to 10.3. Between the costs of getting it upgraded (RAM, HD, OS), I don't think it's worth it. If you want to keep it where it is, it's not a bad computer.
Originally posted by EmAn
My mom
And once more EmAn drags his mom into the AI forums
j/k
Since it already includes an OS 9.1 CD, all you gotta do is install that and get going. You could update to 9.2.2 but it's actually not a big deal if you don't - OS 9.2 and onward is basically just updates to support for Classic mode, and many people find it buggy compared to 9.1.
You could always try OS X but I don't think it's worth buying 10.3 for that machine. You say that later versions of OS X demand 16 MB of VRAM... that's somewhat true. They'll be faster than 10.1 on your machine even though it's not compatible with Quartz Extreme (which requires 16 MB and a Radeon or GeForce 2MX), but machines that are QE compatible will show a much larger performance gain than yours.
Anyway, $300 sounds like a fair price. It depends on the condition of the battery of course. But the iBook's power adapter is pretty portable, so if you want to use it in coffee shops or something you shouldn't have a problem there, even if the battery is dead. Getting a dead battery would really suck though.
If the battery was still in good condition I'd probably pay no more than $400-450. I'd agree that $300's a reasonable price.