[Question] Buying a faulty iBook G3

I've wanted to buy a mac for ages, but right now I onyl have about $100 AUD to buy one with.

Do you think this is a good buy?

# a crisp 12.1-inch (diagonal) active-matrix 1024-by-768 resolution TFT XGA display

# 600MHz PowerPC G3 processor with 256K level 2 cache

# 384MB SDRAM with expansion up to 640MB

# ATI Rage Mobility 128 graphics controller with 8MB RAM and AGP 2X

# 20.0GB hard drive

# USB and FireWire® ports

# VGA video out and composite video out with optional Apple AV cable

# built-in 56K modem and 10/100BASE-T Ethernet

# built-in microphone and stereo speakers

It has a fauly CD-ROM drive, Faulty Trackpad and a faulty battery.

Would it be worth buying if I just always have it plugged into the wall, using a USB mouse and an external CD drive and hard drive?

Also, what is the speed of a G3 iBook 600MHz compared to a desktop (such as an iMac G3 600MHz)

~Wuzzie

#330443

I think the HD is almost worth that much. I would snap it up I think, can you use it like a PC? (ie hook up a monitor etc)?

#330453

what version of osx does it come with?

#330455

Buy it - I'd say it's worth AUS$450 - less ~200 for the damaged bits... so $200-300.

Make sure it comes with an iBook VGA adapter (iBook mini-VGA to regular dsub).

Install the screen-spanning hack and use it to drive an external display.

It should be able to handle 1024x768(int.) + 1280x1024(ext.) - some visual effects may be disabled.

I do this with my iBook G3 800 - it makes an excellent dual screen machine.

It's also good as a quiet download box that you can leave on without worrying about excessive power consumption. The screen-spanning hack will let you run it with the iBook closed too - you can wake it from sleep using an USB keyboard + mouse.

Speed shouldn't be too bad - you may want to upgrade the HDD to something faster at a later stage. Use an ext. firewire drive for any jobs that need faster disk access.

That and extra RAM will speed bootup.

OSX 10.3.x (panther) should run fine. Probably not worth the money to move up to Tiger.

#330482

Okay. From what I have heard I might buy it. I'll check if it has the monitor adapter.

Also, would an external CD Drive work to install the OS? I don't think it comes with OS X, but i also think it may have the old user's configuration. You can use darwin to change the password can't you?

I have a copy of Panther but not Tiger, If I think Tiger will work well, I'll get a copy of that.

Thanks for teh help guys

~Wuzzie

#330596

Go for it! If it doesn't come with Tiger at least you saved some money so you can buy it.

#330612