Laptop

rothai

http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/powerbook_g4/stats/powerbook_g4_1.0_12.html

Would this be any good for surfing the net, word and simple tasks?

GreenWolfe

You'd have a very difficult time getting recent software for a PowerPC Mac. You'd be much better off with a basic Core i3 Windows laptop imo. (Unless you really need to run old Mac software.)

EDIT: Something like this would be fairly good for the money - http://www.dabs.ie/products/lenovo-g570-i3-2330m-4gb-500gb-dvdrw-15-6--w7hp-7R4Q.html?q=lenovo%20g570&src=16

johneire31

Yes, it will surf the net and do the office stuff, the memory in this is upgradable to 1.25 GB so perhaps that would be the first investment after the purchases price. You could just get one stick of pc2100 ddr it seems.

Its not the same to compare the specs on this to a PC notebook of similar values as they work quite differently. These have benefited from a upped processor and a better graphics scenario (NVIDIA GeForce FX Go5200).

Is it any good? well, yes it is, its still an Apple so your getting good build quality, its made out of aluminium and looks quite good. Online reviews show it being responsive and fast so it seems to do the business.

As your question asks is it any good for surfing, again yes it is. My concern would be if your surfing included a lot of video streaming, which this will do, however, the earlier versions of this model tended to get quite hot when used like this.

Perhaps another question would be is it worth it? its a big price for what you are getting.

j

GreenWolfe

johneire31 wrote: »

Yes, it will surf the net and do the office stuff, the memory in this is upgradable to 1.25 GB so perhaps that would be the first investment after the purchases price. You could just get one stick of pc2100 ddr it seems.
Its not the same to compare the specs on this to a PC notebook of similar values as they work quite differently. These have benefited from a upped processor and a better graphics scenario (NVIDIA GeForce FX Go5200).

Is it any good? well, yes it is, its still an Apple so your getting good build quality, its made out of aluminium and looks quite good. Online reviews show it being responsive and fast so it seems to do the business.

As your question asks is it any good for surfing, again yes it is. My concern would be if your surfing included a lot of video streaming, which this will do, however, the earlier versions of this model tended to get quite hot when used like this.

Perhaps another question would be is it worth it? its a big price for what you are getting.

j

From how long ago exactly? It's almost a decade old at this stage and isn't supported by Apple any longer. What if the OP needed a printer or scanner? I'd imagine drivers for old Mac OSX versions may not always be available.

Also, 1024x768 is somewhat low-res and the latest Intel integrated graphics should be a match for such an old GPU. Adobe also dropped flash support for PPC Macs at 10.2 iirc.

If I wanted to use something that low-spec I'd just get a netbook.

johneire31

EarthlyPangaea wrote: »

From how long ago exactly? It's almost a decade old at this stage and isn't supported by Apple any longer. What if the OP needed a printer or scanner? I'd imagine drivers for old Mac OSX versions may not always be available.

Also, 1024x768 is somewhat low-res and the latest Intel integrated graphics should be a match for such an old GPU. Adobe also dropped flash support for PPC Macs at 10.2 iirc.

If I wanted to use something that low-spec I'd just get a netbook.

I was presuming he was getting it second hand for little, or even given to him. Hence a memory upgrade puts it near or abouts a netbooks spec, which tend to come with 1GB standard, 1.6 Processor. On an average netbook for 250 - 300 euros you get a rubbish version of Win 7 that doesn't do a lot, void guarantee if you downgrade it to xp and no support from microsoft.

I would take the apple choice for sure, put a snappy Linux on it and its it would be fairly good.

Bearing in mind, the question, use for web? use for office stuff? yap, it would work.

j