How much of a performance difference are we talking? is it worth $300?? EmAn you have a 600MHz one right? does the 66MHz Bus really make THAT much of a difference? How hard would it be to overclock the bus?
I have the 600. My bro got the 500 and there is a noticeable difference. He overclocked his to 600 with 100 bus and it seems to be taking it just fine. Instructions were found at <a href="http://www.xlr8yourmac.com"; target="_blank">www.xlr8yourmac.com</a>
If you go with the 500, last I checked there were several being sold on eBay. Never bought anything through that myself, but you may luck out and get a 500 for considerably cheaper.
The faster bus and the extra Mhz on the 600 model might be good for MacOSX that likes to eat much memory and is quite demanding when it comes to how fast your computer is (especialy when its not a G4).
i test drove the 500 before i got this one (and i owned a 500 mhz bronze powerbook before, too) ....because i was planning to buy that 500mhz ibook. originally. fortunately for me, the 600 came along.
yes..there IS a noticable difference for photoshop, quake 3 and os x. BUT...is it worth 300 bucks?
it depends....what will you use your comp for mostly? for my daily usage, my ibook is almost always on "slower processor speed" mode just so that it won't heat up so much. i tested it and got 279 megaflops vs the 419 i achieve with faster processor setting. but for normal web surfing and icq....i don't notice it.
so if you're not using uber processor demanding software, get the burner
<strong>How much of a performance difference are we talking? is it worth $300?? EmAn you have a 600MHz one right? does the 66MHz Bus really make THAT much of a difference? How hard would it be to overclock the bus?
TIA
-Paul</strong><hr></blockquote>
I think you meant 500MHz since you mentioned the 66MHz system bus. I've got the 500 and speed is great for me. I'm sure if I used apps like Photoshop I'd notice a difference, but it's pretty fast even in OS X.
When I said noticeable, I meant in all sorts of things. How quickly a new window comes up in an app, etc. So I'd say noticeable even when doing small stuff like browsing and such.
I just got mine a few weeks ago, but looking back I think I may have been better off getting the slower cheaper iBook and over-clocking it. My bro and his friends have overclocked a half dozen of them and no problems on any of them so far. Could have saved myself lots of cash that could have gone towards a basestation (or equivalent).
5 hours isn't even close to what I get for battery life. Of course, I'm compiling, and running an app that uses 500+ MB of RAM.
I too have an iBook 600 combo, and have used it enough to get a feel for how fast it does certain things. One of my friends has an iBook 500 combo (same amount of RAM) and I can tell you that it definitely is slower. The difference can be felt right away, not just in GUI tinkering, but opening programs, etc.
At the same time, if I had never used the 600 and ended up buying the 500, would I feel that I had a "slow" computer? No, not at all. The iBook 500 will use OSX just fine.
You might be surprised. I read some comparisons (I think it was on xlr8yourmac.com) comparing the iBook 600 when it came out, against the Ti 550, and the iBook beat the Ti in as many cases as the reverse. That was what convinced me to buy the iBook instead of the Ti -- if the Ti wasn't CLEARLY faster (and it wasn't despite the fact that it SEEMS like it should be) I didn't think it was worth the extra money.
Without actually having tested the two setups you're talking about, I would guess that they were about even, possibly even the iBook getting the edge due to the RAM. Different tasks will yield different results, too.
I finally received my iBook 600 from work and I can't tell the difference in speed between it and my PowerBook G3 500 at home. The iBook has 640Mb RAM and the PowerBook has 1Gb. I don't know if the RAM helps, but the iBook pretty much feels as fast as the Pismo. I love 'em both!
Comments
If you go with the 500, last I checked there were several being sold on eBay. Never bought anything through that myself, but you may luck out and get a 500 for considerably cheaper.
But as rrabu told you, you can overclock the 500.
i test drove the 500 before i got this one (and i owned a 500 mhz bronze powerbook before, too) ....because i was planning to buy that 500mhz ibook. originally. fortunately for me, the 600 came along.
yes..there IS a noticable difference for photoshop, quake 3 and os x. BUT...is it worth 300 bucks?
it depends....what will you use your comp for mostly? for my daily usage, my ibook is almost always on "slower processor speed" mode just so that it won't heat up so much. i tested it and got 279 megaflops vs the 419 i achieve with faster processor setting. but for normal web surfing and icq....i don't notice it.
so if you're not using uber processor demanding software, get the burner
[ 02-07-2002: Message edited by: pismeov ]</p>
<strong>How much of a performance difference are we talking? is it worth $300?? EmAn you have a 600MHz one right? does the 66MHz Bus really make THAT much of a difference? How hard would it be to overclock the bus?
TIA
-Paul</strong><hr></blockquote>
I think you meant 500MHz since you mentioned the 66MHz system bus. I've got the 500 and speed is great for me. I'm sure if I used apps like Photoshop I'd notice a difference, but it's pretty fast even in OS X.
I just got mine a few weeks ago, but looking back I think I may have been better off getting the slower cheaper iBook and over-clocking it. My bro and his friends have overclocked a half dozen of them and no problems on any of them so far. Could have saved myself lots of cash that could have gone towards a basestation (or equivalent).
5 hours isn't even close to what I get for battery life. Of course, I'm compiling, and running an app that uses 500+ MB of RAM.
At the same time, if I had never used the 600 and ended up buying the 500, would I feel that I had a "slow" computer? No, not at all. The iBook 500 will use OSX just fine.
What about the difference between a 600 Mhz iBook with 640 Mb of RAM and a 550 MHz Powerbook with 256 Mb of RAM?
Noticeable difference in OS X? Is RAM or the G4 a more important factor?
<strong>Not to intrude on this thread but I have a similar question:
What about the difference between a 600 Mhz iBook with 640 Mb of RAM and a 550 MHz Powerbook with 256 Mb of RAM?
Noticeable difference in OS X? Is RAM or the G4 a more important factor?</strong><hr></blockquote>
The G4.
Without actually having tested the two setups you're talking about, I would guess that they were about even, possibly even the iBook getting the edge due to the RAM. Different tasks will yield different results, too.