Used Apple Laptop

harry_the_spider

Hello everybody and this is my first post.
A friend of mine is flogging his Apple Power book G4. Heres the spec:

Apple PowerBook G4 800Mhz DVI 256k L2 Cache 1Mb DDR L3 Cache, Fitted with brand new slot loading 8X DVD±RW Dual Layer Superdrive, 15.2" TFT Widescreen high-res display (1280x854), DVI/S-Video Out, 4X AGP ATI Mobility Radeon 7500 graphics card + 32MB of DDR VRAM, 25mm thick Titanium case, PC Card Slot, Audio Out, Modem, 2X USB, Firewire, DVI, Aiport Ready, 10/100/1000 Base-T Ethernet Two Batteries, one new, AC adapter/Charger included

Installed software:- Mac OS X Tiger 10.4.9 up to date,Microsoft Word, excel, PowerPoint, Adobe Acrobat 6 Professional, Adobe Photoshop CS, Adobe Illustrator CS, Adobe Indesign CS, Quark Xpress 6 Passport, Macromedia Studio MX, Microsoft Office X, Toast Titanium 6. All the above software he has on disc.

Its about 3 1/2 yrs old and hes after 400 quid. Is this a decent price or is he asking too much?

Thanks

jaybee

I have recently 'converted' to Apple and love it - it is just like their adverts say 'it just works'!

Although I'm not a techie person I would say that the software alone on your friend's computer is worth his price alone! I guess it really depends if you are going to use all of that software though.

I would question why he has had a new DVD drive fitted.

Apples generally last for ages - far longer than your average PC.

I'm sure that someone will come along soon who will be able to comment on the technical bits.

harry_the_spider

He told me he had the dvd writer fitted because before it just had an ordinary combo drive which could only read and not write. The new drive is also dual layer. I've always used pcs, so lappys are new to me. I dont like vista and this has come up. Its got 1gb of ram but the cpu is only 800mhz. Do you think that will give a pretty good speed? I've heard Apples are faster.

thanks for your reply BTW.

barrymoney

Hi-
I had a quick look on ebay, G4 powerbooks around 1Ghz go for around 350-450 depending on details (RAM, disk, airport, superdrive etc). I suppose the G4s begin to look a little old compared to the newer Intel-based macbooks etc, but such is life.

As jaybee says, the software package is top notch, assuming he includes the original discs... However, its only worth something if you use them, I suppose!

AFAIK, 'Airport ready' means that isn't wireless enabled, but is compatible with the airport extreme card, about 30 quid. Maybe it has the card installed?

The spec is fine. You can't compare G4 cpu speeds to others. 1Gb ram is good, will help a lot.
OS X is awesome, it will run absolutely fine on that machine (I've run it OK on really ancient macs). You could check the battery life is still OK [ah, just spotted it says 2 batteries, even better].

harry_the_spider

Thanks again. To be honest I'm not too bothered about some of the software apart from the OS and Office and iLife. Just found out there is no card for wi-fi on it. Had a look on e-bay and these cards are around 20quid. Assuming I'm looking at the right ones. The G4's I've found on there are around 500 quid. Just want a decent laptop so that I can do my trading outside in the garden when the weather is nice. I don't want a PC BTW and a new Mac is just silly money I think no matter how good they are.

thanks again

barrymoney

They are VERY nice laptops (titanium case etc), and the fact its coming from your mate is a bonus.
Sounds like you're looking at the right card, or go to Apple uk store, see 'Airport extreme card' for G4.

harry_the_spider

Just had a quick word with him and he said the titanium case on the older models is stronger than on the new ones. Still not too sure about the 800mhz cpu. Thats whats stalling me.

barrymoney

Yeah, the design was very slick, maybe the best apple laptop design. I've owned a previous powerbook, an early imac, a low-end ibook, and now a Mac mini. The ibook was 1Gz, and was fine, it was hindered by 512MB ram. Any 3 year old computer will be a bit behind the curve, but Macs stay useful for quite a long time. With laptops (windows or Mac) I always feel the speed of other components like the hard disk are holding it all back.

Yes, I think apple ditched titanium models for aluminium later, dunno why (me, reading Wikipedia for that one...).

Millionaire

barrymoney wrote: »

With laptops (windows or Mac) I always feel the speed of other components like the hard disk are holding it all back.

What speed do mac harddrives run at?

barrymoney wrote: »

Yes, I think apple ditched titanium models for aluminium later, dunno why (me, reading Wikipedia for that one...).

Titanium is quite expensive so they must of dumped it for the cheaper to manufacture aluminium.

tr3mor

harry_the_spider wrote: »

Just want a decent laptop so that I can do my trading outside in the garden when the weather is nice.

Good luck on being able to read any laptop screen in direct sunlight!

harry_the_spider

Its gone. He had it on e-bay and never told me. So much for mates. Off to e-bay to see whats on there. Decided now I want a mac. Not the flasher sort BTW.

thanks for your replies.