12 inch pb

[Bender222]

My sister has requested a laptop for school. we were planning to get a macbook but her budget just cant stretch that far. I would prefer her get an apple product wrather then a windows notebook. I saw a 12 inch powerbook for like 550 us dollars and I was wondering how it would stcck up to the new macbooks. Could i buy it and do a few upgrades and have it perform relatively well? Im not expectinng stellar gaming or anything, just word processing and entertainment

 

[Kmax82]

I have a friend who still uses a Powerbook 12" model, and he only has 512 mb RAM. Everything seems to perform fairly well on his machine. He can use the iLife '06 suite, Office 2004, and Tiger (hasn't upgraded Leopard), and he's content with it.

I would think if you're using it for typical college stuff (word processing, minimal multimedia) that a Powerbook would be fine. I'm sure some other people who have used one primarily can chime in with better input.

Obviously, you're going to want to get the best that you can, and if $550 is your budget, then you are probably stuck with a Powerbook, or possibly a 1st gen Macbook.

 

[TheStu]

I have a 12" PowerBook sitting right next to me at this moment. It used to be a friend of mine's but he broke the power connector off inside the port, and his folks got him a new MacBook.

After fixing it and reinstalling apps and all that, here is what I have to offer
The keyboard is really nice. I stand by any previous statements I have had regarding the quality of Apple's keyboards. They all feel fantastic. I am a little more used to my MacBook's chiclet style, but typing on the PowerBook is not difficult by any stretch of the imagination.

The trackpad is tiny! The best way to compare the two is like this. Do you have an ipod (full ipod, preferably a video)? Set it down in front of you sideways, and now you know how big the MacBook's trackpad is. That is what I have been using for the past 15 months. Now, cut your ipod in half, and re-orient it to the vertical.... that is the size of the PowerBook's trackpad. Also, 2 finger right clicking required third party software, as does 2 finger scrolling (unless you get a last generation 1.5GHz PowerBook)

Compared to my MacBook it is slow, and the processor quickly jumps to 100% load. That doesn't mean it really slows down much, or anything like that, OS X does a magnificent job of handling itself in such an event, but after being on my system where only 720P video, or DVD ripping would spike my CPU meter to max, it is a little disconcerting (so, your sister would never even notice)

It is a PPC, so if you get her a copy of Office 04, it will run quite smoothly on there since it is a PPC app. Leopard runs like a dream on the 1GHz with 768MB RAM and I would expect that it would be ok on 512MB RAM as well.

Upgrades for this thing are expensive though. The older PPC Macs were quite picky about their RAM I am told, and the Apple certified RAM on Newegg is $100 for a 1GB stick (the PowerBook has 256MB onboard and only 1 RAM slot, maximum of 1.25... actually, I think the 1.5GHz model had 512MB onboard, so 1.5GB max) and it uses ATA hard drives. Those aren't that expensive, but replacing the hard drive requires you to remove about 20+ screws, and in the process possibly severely damaging your power button connector. They did not make this thing technician friendly.

Don't let me give you the idea that this would be a bad purchase however! Not in the least. It is plenty powerful in it s own right, has a really nice, easy to read screen (1024*768 resolution), great keyboard, is really small, looks great, and is built solid. Plus with a fresh battery in there, you can expect to get 4 hours or more of battery life.

Oh, and if you do decide to pull the trigger, I have a 512MB stick of Apple-pulled RAM laying around that I could sell you... Heck, I could sell you this PowerBook

 

[MovingTarget]

I'd say go for it, although you might get a pretty good deal looking at the higher end 12" ibooks than powerbooks, especially if it was the last generation (like I have). Runs like a dream still. As far as upgrading the ram goes, it isn't really a big deal as long as you get the specs right. Generally pc3200 ddr notebook ram will do just fine. Just make sure to match whatever is in there. You should be able to find out pretty easily.

 

[secretanchitman]

go for it. 12" powerbooks were great.

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

I really like my old GF's 12" PowerBook. I have a MacBook and think the form factor is perfect, but the PB continues to be a really elegant, well-designed machine, and it runs fine unless you are using very CPU-intensive apps.

 

[LtPage1]

Max the RAM, period. It'll run Leopard quite well, if you're interested.

And because it's a used computer, invest in an external drive. Otherwise, it'll be great for anything but intense HD media or gaming.

 

[BrianH1]

12 inch powerbook is a great machine. I wish my friends wouldnt have shot it in the process of trying to shoot me. (they shot me from behind my back with an air pellet gun)

 

[TheStu]

Originally posted by: BrianH1
12 inch powerbook is a great machine. I wish my friends wouldnt have shot it in the process of trying to shoot me. (they shot me from behind my back with an air pellet gun)

Oh man, that sucks so bad... what part got shot?

 

[BrianH1]

they shot and cracked the screen in the right hand corner. it wasn't pretty. instead of getting it fixed via apple, which in hindsight i wish i would have. I opted instead for a new macbook which has been somewhat of a lemon.

 

[TheStu]

Originally posted by: BrianH1
they shot and cracked the screen in the right hand corner. it wasn't pretty. instead of getting it fixed via apple, which in hindsight i wish i would have. I opted instead for a new macbook which has been somewhat of a lemon.

Ouch... sad panda indeed.

 

[ColdFusion718]

Originally posted by: Bender222
My sister has requested a laptop for school. we were planning to get a macbook but her budget just cant stretch that far. I would prefer her get an apple product wrather then a windows notebook. I saw a 12 inch powerbook for like 550 us dollars and I was wondering how it would stcck up to the new macbooks. Could i buy it and do a few upgrades and have it perform relatively well? Im not expectinng stellar gaming or anything, just word processing and entertainment

My sister uses a 12" powerbook with 1 GB of ram. She uses it for web surfing, advanced word processing (she makes the weekly Sunday programs that they hand out at her church), light photoshop work, chat, and Cisco VPN when working remotely. I think your sister will love it. It's small and very portable.