Cool Mac Gear

The Sun-Times’ Andy Ihntako wrote this week:

Hmmmm. I live in a different computer orbit than Andy. My 700 MHz iBook is the fastest Mac I’ve ever owned, and I’m still getting along reasonably happily for everyday production work with my 500 MHz Pismo PowerBook. Indeed, these days I’m doing quite a bit of my word processing and editing on an ancient, 117 MHz PowerBook 1400.

While excess power is always nice to have, I certainly couldn’t rationally justify buying anything faster than my iBook right now on the basis of “need.” I’m not a gamer, don’t do any graphics work that seriously challenges my current fleet of G3 and older Macs, and haven't gotten into video editing.

I find that the biggest performance bottleneck for me is not the processor power of my computers, but the fact that I’m stuck on a slow Internet dial-up that connects at 26,400 bps if I’m lucky.

I do use dictation software, which really only runs satisfactorily in OS X on the iBook, but it works fine there. Indeed, I would say that a 700 MHz G3 with a video card that supports Quartz Extreme and 16 MB of VRAM is probably the minimum configuration you need for really satisfactory performance in OS X, although plenty of users, including me, are getting by with a lot less processing muscle than that.

If you’re content running OS 9 or an earlier version of the Mac OS (I’m using OS 8.6 on the 1400), much more modest equipment will be adequate if you don't have a requirement for really processor intensive work. My old UMAX S-900 with a 200 MHz 604e processor surfs the Web (on my dial-up connection) almost as fast and the 700 MHz iBook, and does word processing, email, and light duty graphics very smartly, although I find scrolling a bit sluggish -- possibly due to a not very gutsy video card. OS 9 is very fast on the Pismo -- much faster than OS X on the iBook.

Again, if you;re a serious gamer or do high-end graphics or video work, you probably need all the power that’s available in the fastest G4s, or at least you can use them to their maximum capability. It boils down to, I guess, whether you’re spending a lot of time waiting for the computer to catch up, or whether you’re being shut out of using some piece of software you need or want to use. If so, it’s probably time to think about a system upgrade. If not, be happy!

As Low End Mac’s Adam Robert Guharecently observed, Apple’s solid industrial design design helps older Macs retain their value and usefulness, “because Apple laptops are designed to withstand changes in style better than most PC notebooks. The basic style of the PowerBook G3 was present from 1998 all the way into 2001, when the PowerBook G4 was introduced. The G4 case style has been around for almost two years now and is carried over to the newer 12” and 17” aluminum PowerBooks.... Honestly, the G3 PowerBook still looks modern, even the older 233 MHz model.... Most people don’t even understand that performance in basic tasks (word processing, web browsing, email) doesn’t differ greatly between the 500 MHz and much faster machines. Sure, the 2 GHz will load Windows faster, but your email’s not going to pop up on the screen much more quickly.”

Indeed, I’m continually impressed at just how good even the graybeard PowerBook 1400 is. My daughter has been quite content using a 133 MHz 1400cs as her university machine this year, connected to a broadband Internet hookup.

Of course, with new iBooks selling for $999 with 800MHz G3s and 32 MB of Quartz Extreme-supporting VRAM, and G4 powered desktop eMacs selling for less than that, contemporary performance in OS X is affordable for most users. But if you’re on a tight budget, or just thrifty, there’s still plenty of useful computing left in those older Macs.

Charles W. Moore