From: keith (keith_at_vortex.co.uk)
Date: Tue Sep 21 2004 - 14:35:22 PDT
Sometime around 21/9/04 (at 10:45 pm +0200) DJ Vollkasko said:
>Dear all,
>
>I've been offered above mentioned 2001 Apple PowerBook (MacOS 9.x, OS X,
>large Display, 512 MB RAM, 20 GB HD, USB 1, Firewire, only 1 PC-Card Slot,
>IrDa, cool looks...)
>- What's a fair price?
Hard to say. It is getting long in the tooth in one sense, but it is
a superb machine which should last for years. Macs do generally last
ages. For example, I'm using a 500MHz G3 Pismo PowerBook with an
upgraded hard drive and 512MB of RAM, running OS X 10.3 and, er,
higher. It is noticably not quick when I run Photoshop CS or InDesign
CS, but it is perfectly acceptable for light-to-middling use.
But price...? I'll leave that to others to chip in. If you want to
fill me in off-list I'd be happy to give you a knee-jerk reaction.
>- Is it good?
The Titanium PowerBook G4 is an excellent machine. When it was
current, it was regarded as the best of the Macintosh laptops of its
time. Even when the first aliminium PowerBook G4s shipped, when the
15in model was still titanium, I gave that one the top spot in the
MacUser portables labs. (And afterwards a very senior Apple UK guy
told me he agreed completely with that decision.)
The 500MHz processor speed you mentioned isn't that fast, but it is a
G4 (which makes it noticably more efficient than my 500MHz G3), and
it is still very capable. It *should* go on and on and on. And yes,
you can run today's publishing and graphics software on it perfectly
well.
>- What can I expect from the rechargeables, and how expensive is the
>replacement? Is a DIY hack possible to recell the pack?
Basically, don't. It is *much* better to buy a new battery pack when
it gets too old. The batteries will last a few hours between charges
when new. Yours probably has its original one, so it won't be as
good. It depends on how its been used in the past, but it isn't
*that* old, so it could still go 1.5 hours without trouble.
>- What do I need to check this machine for, what's the usual traps, bugs
>and caveats of that series?
Check the edges of the case for tell-tale distortions in the metal
shell, particularly where the edges of the shell come together.
Slight distortions indicate just knocks, but anything more could well
be because of being dropped.
(Speaking of which, get yourself a good bag if you get the PowerBook,
one designed for laptops, and ideally specifically for PowerBooks.
This is an area where people tend to play favourites, but I have to
say the Axio Hardpack bags are seriously hardcore when it comes to
protecting your kit - see http://www.comuta.co.uk/.)
Check the screen hinge. Make sure the movement feels fairly solid,
without too much 'play'. There will be a bit, but move it open and
closed and think about how it feels in the hand.
Check that it loads and ejects CDs cleanly and without snagging or dragging.
Look in the USB ports to make sure the inner plastic 'tabs' haven't
been snapped. This isn't common, but I have seen it before.
Check the screen using a white backdrop and a black one. Set the
desktop picture if you can, or open a new text document and drag it
full-screen to get white over 95% of the screen. Look for tell-tale
dead or stuck pixels. It isn't the end of the world if you find a
few... depending on where they are.
Regular smudges on the screen will be from finger grease on the keys
transferring across when the screen is closed. That's easy enough to
take off with a *good* screen cleaner designed for laptop screens.
Nothing too harsh!
(Use a bit of thin felt or flannel over the keys when you close the
laptop to avoid this happening in the future - or just live with it!)
>- What would be needed to make it talk Bluetooth?
A USB Bluetooth dongle. There's no way to install Bluetooth internally.
Mac OS X supports Bluetooth directly, so all you need to do is plug
in the dongle - it'll be recognised. (Note: this may require Mac OS X
10.3 rather than 10.2 or older Mac OS versions...)
>- Can I upgrade to modern OS X releases w/o losing the option to boot into
>MacOS 9.x?
Absolutely. The hardware is able to run OS 9, and I seriously doubt
that Apple will release firmware upgrades which change that. They'd
be in serious legal trouble if they did, for one thing! It is one
thing moving new hardware releases on so they don't have to support
booting into older OS versions, but altering existing hardware to
block older booting for any reason is likely to land them in court.
>- Can this machine run GarageBand?
Yep.
The 512MB of RAM will help there, but if you want to use many tracks
with effects and other stuff you really need to consider a 1GHz or
faster machine with *lots* of RAM.
But yep, that caveat aside, you'll be able to use GarageBand quite
happily with that.
k
--
+++++++++++++++++ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Keith Martin Technical Editor, MacUser magazine
MacUser Help mailto:help_at_macuser.co.uk
direct (work) +44 (0)20 7907 6360
mobile 0790 954 1365
--
This is the NewtonTalk list - http://www.newtontalk.net/ for all inquiries
Official Newton FAQ: http://www.chuma.org/newton/faq/
WikiWikiNewt for all kinds of articles: http://tools.unna.org/wikiwikinewt/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Tue Sep 21 2004 - 15:30:03 PDT