iBook G3 Performance Question

[originaljohn]

I am interested in purchasing my first Mac notebook. Today I went to the store and tried out the Ti Book G4 500 Mhz (256MB Ram) and the iBook G3 500 Mhz (128MB) on display. Both machines were running OS X 10.1 I had initially decided on the iBook for its size and price, but I noticed that the performing seemed a bit lacking. Specifically, it took a second or two just for the iBook to open a folder that had a lot of folders or files in it. I don't need the fastest machine to do my day-to-day business, but if I am going to have to deal with that kind of lag time opening folders, I will be frustrated. (I am constantly navigating the directories on my computer.)

My question is, is that normal performance for an iBook G3? It had only 128, and I have read that more memory improves that performance of the machine, but surely this cannot be a memory issue can it? The G4 TiBook was MUCH snappier. I know there are a lot of iBook users here, and I would appreciate hearing your opinions. I'm esp. interested in hearing from those who have had an opportunity to compare the iBook and TiBook directly.

Thanks in advance!
John

[themacko]

How many folders inside are you talking about? I think it must have been something to do with that particular iBook. I personally own a iBook 500 and use it as my everyday computer. I do everything on this and I really don't find speed a problem. I went hunting through my system and library folders to try and see if it would lag for me, but it didn't. The slowest folder that opened was my Music folder which has about 600 mp3's in it.

I'm on 10.1 with 640 megs of ram .. which is alot. But even when I had 128 I didn't notice any problems. I also had a Power Mac G4 533 for about 2 months at the same time of my iBook, and in all seriousness I didn't notice much of a difference. That's why I got rid of the 533. I was using my iBook for everything, at school, the library, the internet and I just didn't have much of a need for the G4.

Naturally, if you're going to be doing gaming or work with photoshop, final cut pro, etc. you will probably want the TiBook. Because the main difference the G4 has over the G3 is the AltiVec engine (or whatever) but that really only shines in apps that are written for it. I believe OSX utilizes it as well, but as I said before I really didn't find a noticable difference from my G4 to my iBook's G3.

If you have the $$ though, I would probably suggest going for the Ti only because it's more advanced and will theoretically last you longer as apps become more intensive.

[originaljohn]

Thanks for the prompt reply. I too suspect that the issues has something to do with this particular iBook. It has been on display and is subject to all sorts of random abuse.

The number of folders and files I am talking about is small. For example, when I opened up the Applications folder, there might have been a total of perhaps 20 items contained within it. Also, when I clicked on the hard drive icon on the desktop, it took about 1.5 seconds before i saw a response -- not acceptable in my opinion.

I guess I am going to have to go look at a iBook on display elsewhere just to make sure this problem is specific to the iBook i saw today.

Thanks again,
John

[symphonix]

It might have been that iBook - I just clicked onto the Hard Drive and it popped up instantly, while I'm still running half-a-dozen apps. However, if the hard drive has gone to sleep, it takes a second to spin up.
I've had no performance problems with mine.

[Biff]

I replaced the original Apple 10 GB hard drive with a 20 GB IBM Travelstar HD. I notice a significant increase in performance. The models at the store are base models and they have been used and abused.

[amo]

Biff-

Did you install the HD yourself or did you have someplace else do it?

[Biff]

I paid an authorized service center to do it. You need to take the entire iBook apart to get at it.