To upgrade or not to upgrade

[mgd]

Hi guys!

An officemate of mine has a clamshell iBook running OS9. She's been complaining that it has gotten slow and can't print to a non-postscript printer over a network. Now slowness is the most vague thing to complain about (printing is pretty straightforward) but it got me wondering if an upgrade to Panther is in order. My first foray into Apple technology was with Jaguar and I am a complete idiot when it comes to any version older than that. Thus, I an unable to aid in speeding up her iBook or getting it to print to one of the windows connected HP Deskjets on the office network. Thanks to Gimp-print, I don't have any printing problems, but this just runs on OSX. I understand that there is a workaround using ghostscript on OS9 but it seems a bit complex.

My first concern is whether or not the hardware can take an upgrade. It's a blue clamshell iBook (machine ID 406) with a G3 366Mhz processor, 192 MB RAM (PC100-333S), 8Mb video memory, and a 10 GB HDD. Not sure if this matters, but it has a Firewire port. Is this sufficient for a Panther upgrade or should extra resources be purchased (RAM, HDD)?

Second, aside from the mentioned problems, she seem happy with the Book's current setup. There seems to be no real need for apps that require OSX. She's not much of a techie and a change in OS might leave her with some downtime as she gets used to a different interface (and possibly apps). Oh yeah, she uses the Book mostly for word processing (reports), spreadsheets, email, and surfing.

So what do you guys think?

[penmanila]

i think she's got what amounts to the bare minimum for an OSX setup. i have 10.3.3 running on a 233 mhz (the very fiirst) imac, with 288 mb of ram. i also upgraded the hard disk to 40 gigs. runs just fine, networking and all.

she should probably consider upgrading comprehensively, all at once--OS, memory, hard drive, and apps. might as well, so her experience will be pleasant, rather than plagued by things like a sudden lack of storage space, this not being compatible with that, etc. or she could sum up those costs and figure that she might be better off selling the ibook as is, and ponying up some extra cash for a newer machine--that would be the best upgrade.

[PatrickGaerlan]

Originally posted by penmanila
i think she's got what amounts to the bare minimum for an OSX setup. i have 10.3.3 running on a 233 mhz (the very fiirst) imac, with 288 mb of ram. i also upgraded the hard disk to 40 gigs. runs just fine, networking and all.

Aequitas has the exact same setup. I've used it quite a bit and it works well enough for basic tasks (MS Office v. X, Internet, iTunes...).

[Edited on 4-12-2004 by PatrickGaerlan]

[extremyks]

My doc tita has a clamshell ibook...with the same amount of ram. She also do the basic word processing and even powerpoint... Before we are using OS 9, until I decided why not install Jaguar. Good thing her OS X runs pretty well for her basic needs including checking mails.

Still installing additional ram plus a bigger HD is the way to go.

[ginoledesma]

I would personally go for tweaking Mac OS 9.x and speed it up rather than going Mac OS X. Since Mac OS 9.x serves all her needs, then the only benefit Mac OS X would really give her is the ability to use new applications, of which she may not have immediate need.

Tweaking the old Mac OS was something everyone would really get into. Its both fun and challenging. The old tricks like setting the disk cache, using a RAM disk, and what not does wonders.

First off, I'd rather that the system be reinstalled from scratch (erasing all the data to get to a clean slate). Once that's done, install the applications she needs and update the system as necessary (e.g. Mac OS 9.2.2, security updates, etc.). Then install the drivers that are needed.

You'd be surprised as to both how easy it is to install Mac OS 9.x and how to get it up to speed. For most tasks, Mac OS 9 can be "snappier" than any iteration of Mac OS X.

The problems I foresee with her using Mac OS X on that iBook is that it will generally be slower than Mac OS 9.x. She'll find herself groping for hard disk space (as Mac OS X can easily eat between 2-3GB), not to mention severe virtual memory use. If you're going to upgrade the memory in the first place, Mac OS 9.x will surely enjoy that even more.

Go for reinstalling her system and setting it up to speed. Usually, the culprits of Mac OS 9.x slowdown are many, including:
- bloated Desktop DB/DF (rebuild the desktop!)
- unnecessary extensions (disable them using Extensions Manager or Conflict Catcher)
- insufficient application memory (use Get Info and allocate more memory)
- insufficient contiguous free space available (use Speed Disk or TechTool Pro to optimize the disk)

The list goes on and on. Ahh... this brings back memories of the old Mac.

[sparklingpink]

Im starting to find my two months old ibook g4 *30gb, 256 a bit sluggish.. What can i do about it? Should i upgrade the memory or the ram? Which would give the best value for my money? The one at powermac, what do they do? and around how much would it cost? Thanks!

[Edited on 4-22-2004 by sparklingpink]

[iVinchy]

Originally posted by sparklingpink
Im starting to find my two months old ibook g4 *30gb, 256 a bit sluggish.. What can i do about it? Should i upgrade the memory or the ram? Which would give the best value for my money? The one at powermac, what do they do? and around how much would it cost? Thanks!

[Edited on 4-22-2004 by sparklingpink]

a bit sluggish, go for the ram/memory upgrade... check out villman stores for cheaper (i guess?) memory modules

[bagwis]

Add RAM.

[Edited on 4-23-2004 by bagwis]