[rescue] WTB/Advice: Mac iBook/PowerBook

[Andrew Weiss]

On Friday, April 5, 2002, at 02:44 PM, Big Endian wrote:

>>    I used to support Macs, but I never got to use "consumer" OS X, 
>> only OS X
>> Server on a B&W G3 tower. I'm currently working on convincing my wife 
>> to buy
>> a Mac but it will be *minimal* spending. So again I ask, given that any
>> Apple portable is too expensive (and fragile, with a 3 year-old and 
>> another
>> on the way), is a cheap iMac acceptable for OS X stuff?
>
> If it has the Rage128 graphics on it it should work ok as they tend to 
> have 100mhz bus on the Rage128 based systems, but again.. I don't know 
> and I don't WANT to know about the innards of iMacs...
>
> daniel
> -- -----------------------------------------------------------------
> "Fragile. Do not drop." -- Posted on a Boeing 757.
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>
The newer iMacs are fine.  Anything from 333 onward should do ok with 
plenty of RAM.  The ones with self-installable RAM are much better than 
the first candy-colored iMacs... i.e. Anything in Indigo, Ruby, Sage, 
Snow, or Graphite with the transparent case and shorter CRT depth 
[fanless].  These are excellent machines in general.  The only problem 
with iMacs is some of the earlier ones had bad video boards (the portion 
connected to the CRT ... deflection?.) I used to service them all the 
time.  The other iMac problem was the Conexant soft-modem.  Those 
buggers were incredibly static sensitive.  The newer firewire imacs 
don't seem to have any of these problems.

I'd recommend 256MB minimum for OS X.

I have a Blue G3 / 400 with 256 MB and it runs fine on that. (Bought in 
Mar 1999).

Andrew