12inch PB 867MHz valuation and advice

[Coutsy]

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone could offer a valuation on a PowerBook I have been looking at. Its 12inch G4 867, 40GB HDD and 256MB RAM with combo drive and airport extreme card.

I would just be using the system for basic word processing, net surfing and nothing too intensive.

This machine looks good and I just want to know how much to offer for it.

Also I notice a few comments about the wireless reception in the PowerBooks. Will this laptop also have these problems (or any other problems with this model I should know about). What is the range of the WIFI?

 

[sw1tcher]

Personally, I wouldn't pay more than $750 U.S. for it since you can get a refurb 12" iBook from Apple for $799 (which will also have a 1 year warranty).

 

[QCassidy352]

well, apple hasn't had any $799 refurb ibooks for a while, so I'll go by the $899 brand new ibook you can get from amazon. 466 mhz faster, twice as much built in RAM, much better graphics, lots of other cute features like BT 2.0, faster RAM, scrolling trackpad, etc. etc. And of course it's brand new with a full warranty.

When you make that comparison, I can't see paying more than $650 or $700 at the most for a rev. A 12" PB. That may sound cheap, but isn't the vastly improved performance and warranty of the ibook worth at least $200?

 

[IJ Reilly]

These units are currently going for between $650 and $800 on eBay, depending on condition, RAM and whether it includes an AirPort card.

 

[Coutsy]

so i take it the 867MHz G4 was a first revision then. Where there any common problems that occurred with it?

Do you think it will be ok for my basic needs? If I upped the RAM to the max how would performance compare to my 1.42GHz Mac Mini with 512MB RAM?

 

[MUCKYFINGERS]

so i take it the 867MHz G4 was a first revision then. Where there any common problems that occurred with it?

Do you think it will be ok for my basic needs? If I upped the RAM to the max how would performance compare to my 1.42GHz Mac Mini with 512MB RAM?

867 mhz is like nothing man

i would at least get 1.25 ghz machine... the 1ghz ibooks at my school were already kinda slow for me, you would not want anything lower than 1 ghz imo.

 

[ITASOR]

I wouldn't buy one, the iBook For $900 is a MUCH better idea and will last you loads longer. The 867 is getting kinda of old, I suspect a 1Ghz G4 requirement for a lot of things in the future...I wouldn't waste money on a computer that'll only last a year or two when the current iBook will last a good 6.

 

[Emerson]

My current computer

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone could offer a valuation on a PowerBook I have been looking at. Its 12inch G4 867, 40GB HDD and 256MB RAM with combo drive and airport extreme card.

I would just be using the system for basic word processing, net surfing and nothing too intensive.

This machine looks good and I just want to know how much to offer for it.

Also I notice a few comments about the wireless reception in the PowerBooks. Will this laptop also have these problems (or any other problems with this model I should know about). What is the range of the WIFI?

Coutsy,

I have a 12" powerbook with nearly identical specs for which you are talking about (the only difference is a larger hardrive, more ram, and a superdrive). From my experience with this laptop (I bought it new 2+ years ago) I would say that for the tasks you are plannig to use it for it will work beautifully. The machine does surfing, MS Office, and many other things, basically whatever you need as long as it is not too intense. I would recommend uping the ram to at least 512 though, OS X is a little ram hungry and it just runs smoother with 512 installed. As far as wireless signal/range I find it to be more than acceptable, infact my fiancee's Dell which is about 2 ft away in our apartment usually gets about half the signal I get. I have used it in many WI-FI areas and never had any problems. The problems I have found with this machine is the lack of a DVI port, but then again I use it with a Dell 2005FPW and it drives that display perfectly. As far as price I would say around $600 or so. Maybe a little more. Anways good luck, let me if you have any specific questions.

 

[QCassidy352]

oh yeah, there was also a problem with the rev. A's - they got hot. Really, really hot. Uncomfortably so.

I agree with the others - unless you can get it for really cheap ($600?) I'd go for the ibook from amazon. $899 with no tax or shipping.

 

[Coutsy]

I'm based in the UK so the price for the iBook is £699, which is equivalent to $1100 I think. There are no iBooks in the Refurb store unfortunately at present. There is a PB 1.5GHz for £899 ($1500) but I'm not sure if I want to spend all that because I can see me purchasing a Intel Laptop in near future (probably the second revision of the consumer level one) and view my current laptop purchase kind of a stop gap, hence looking at second hand market.

Ideally I would like new iBooks announced tomorrow (not likely!!) and then pick up a 12 inch iBook at reduced price.

 

[Coutsy]

Thanks for replies. May be a problem if they get hot and also the lack of dvi port. What kind of external display connection does it have?

 

[blackstone]

Thanks for replies. May be a problem if they get hot and also the lack of dvi port. What kind of external display connection does it have?

I've got a Rev. A. 12".

HEAT: I've found that the heat is really not as big a problem as it's chalked up to be -- the main consequence is that the fan turns on a lot, but it's not like the fan is any more annoying than any other laptop fan. The palm rest is pretty warm to the touch but it's not going to burn you or anything.

EXTERNAL DISPLAY: It's got a mini-port (not sure what kind) that fits dongles for D-SUB (standard analog monitor, e.g. VGA, SVGA, etc.) and video connections (there's a standard RCA out as well as an S-Video out on the dongle).

WI FI: I've never had any problems connecting, except when I walk REALLY far from an access point. The Wi Fi reception is going to perfectly fine if you're typing in coffee shops, etc.

One thing -- as another poster stated -- 256 is not enough RAM. I would definitely up the RAM to 512 or 640. Make sure to factor this into your price calculations.

 

[IJ Reilly]

I bought new and still own a 12" revA. Out of the box, it had two problems: RAM (bad) and battery (bad). When both were replaced, the Mac was fine and has run flawlessly since. I don't find that it gets uncomfortably hot. It has enough horsepower to run a projector at XVGA. The only reason I might have preferred a later model is the lack of a DVI connector.