Went nuts and left the PC dark side!
Hi guys,
I'm a Mac noob who just bought an Apple iBook G4 A1055 sight unseen from an auction. I asked my Silicon Valley compi expert relative if this was stupid. He said it depends. I don't want to keep bugging him since he and his wife just had a new baby, so I wonder if anybody here can help me figure out my next moves. Such as: what do I need and where should I get it, and is used/refurb/eBay OK?
This is an experiment in terror for me, but I wanted to try something new, and I figured I'd learn about Macs on a cheap machine.
Here are the specs:
Processor: Unknown
CPU Speed:933Mhz (I know, you're yawning)
Hard Drive: 40GB (probably laughable, but I mostly want it for web/word processing)
RAM:256MB (also a throwback, I gather)
Drives: CD-Rom
Battery: Yes
Dimensions: 13"x 10..25" x 1.5"
Screen Size:14.1"
No webcam, no power adapter, no accessories included.
Cosmetically, some exterior scratches, but it cleaned up pretty well. I used a clean pencil eraser and it took off a ton of gunk.
When it was tested, it powered on and retrieved specs through BIOS.
Condition's good, although the battery hasn't been tested and may not hold a charge. It was shipped minus software, including operating system software.
Any ideas much appreciated!
rog
I'm a Mac noob who just bought an Apple iBook G4 A1055 sight unseen from an auction. I asked my Silicon Valley compi expert relative if this was stupid. He said it depends. I don't want to keep bugging him since he and his wife just had a new baby, so I wonder if anybody here can help me figure out my next moves. Such as: what do I need and where should I get it, and is used/refurb/eBay OK?
This is an experiment in terror for me, but I wanted to try something new, and I figured I'd learn about Macs on a cheap machine.
Here are the specs:
Processor: Unknown
CPU Speed:933Mhz (I know, you're yawning)
Hard Drive: 40GB (probably laughable, but I mostly want it for web/word processing)
RAM:256MB (also a throwback, I gather)
Drives: CD-Rom
Battery: Yes
Dimensions: 13"x 10..25" x 1.5"
Screen Size:14.1"
No webcam, no power adapter, no accessories included.
Cosmetically, some exterior scratches, but it cleaned up pretty well. I used a clean pencil eraser and it took off a ton of gunk.
When it was tested, it powered on and retrieved specs through BIOS.
Condition's good, although the battery hasn't been tested and may not hold a charge. It was shipped minus software, including operating system software.
Any ideas much appreciated!
rog
0
Comments
I would recommend starting with RAM upgrade. You can install 1GB DDR SDRAM (PC2100 or PC2700) on that iBook although Apple says it is upgradable to 512MB. This is is the best upgrade you can do. Here is a compatible SODIMM. And if you read the reviews, you can see that several people successfully used this with iBooks. Then, replacing the old harddisk with a new one would be good for reliability and maybe some performance gain. You can install either Mac OS 10.4 or 10.5. 10.4 will probably run smoother (it is less hardware demanding) but 10.5 will give you better compatibility with the latest software and will look better.
That is all I can think of right now.
Edit:
By the way, I have done something similar. If you want, you can read about it here. But I have no intention to leave one side for the other. I like both.