Macopinion

A Year With Big Al

This time last year found me on the horns of a dilemma common to, I suspect, many Mac 'Book users, to wit: whether to take a chance on one of the just-released Inter-based MacBook Pro, wait for the anticipated MacBook, or go with one more PowerPC system upgrade.

Up to January, 2006, I had been reasonably content with the service I was getting from my old G3 iBook and G4-upgraded Pismo PowerBook, despite their increasingly evident limitations. They were and still are wonderful tools - the two best Macs I had ever owned by a considerable margin. However, the Pismo was going on six years old, and the iBook into its fourth year, and it wasn't exactly cutting-edge performance-wise when it was new, being the slowest Mac that Apple sold at the time.

Finally in February, I made my decision. My "never buy Version 1/Revision A of anything conviction won out, and I ordered a refurbished 1.33 GHz 17-inch PowerBook from TechRestore.

I had admired the Big Al PowerBook from the day Steve Jobs unveiled it at MacWorld Expo, 2004. I have the same slightly schizoid taste in computers as I do in automobiles - I like them either really small or really big. "Mid-size" in either usually doesn't grab me, although these categories tend to be somewhat relative and arbitrary. Anyway, if I was going to opt for another PowerPC book, I pretty well had it shortlisted to either a 17-inch Big Al or a 12-inch Little Al, and since I already had a 12-inch iBook, I figured I might as well exit the the PPC era in style with one of the big 'uns.

A final factor tipping the scale in favor of the 17-incher was Daystar's announcement last winter of 1.92 and 2.0 GHz G4 processor upgrades for most 17-inch and 15-inch aluminum PowerBook models, but not for the 12-incher (or for the original 1.0 GHz Big Al), which would provide a fallback if the stock, 1.33 GHz processor proved a bit too lazy for my needs. In practical terms, it represented a quantum leap forward in performance from a 700 MHz G3, and one year on I am still vary satisfied with the level of performance it offers. While more speed is always nice to have, I don't find myself waiting for the BigAl very often. My main computing speed bottleneck is my Internet connection - which provides 26,400 bps connections on good days. The latest word is that broadband should reach us here by sometime in 2009, but that's another movie.

The still impressive roster of standard features on the 1.33 GHz Big Al has proved more than adequate for my needs, and then some although I did get TechRestore to install a 1 GB RAM expansion stick, bringing the total memory up to 1.5 gigabytes, and if I were doing it today, I think I would go for the full 2 GB that can be accommodated. I still find the 'Book slowing down due to pageouts after two or three days of uptime. I wish OS X had some provision for flushing the swapfile cache and clearing the memory without having to logout or reboot.

However, aside from the modest 512 megabytes of RAM soldered to the motherboard, the Big Al came pretty sumptuously equipped, with a RADEON 9600 graphics processor and 64 megabytes of video RAM, a 60 gigabyte hard drive (50 percent larger than the highest capacity one I have now), a SuperDrive, gigabit Ethernet, built-in Bluetooth, 802.11g wireless, FireWire 400 and 800, and USB 2.0. Worthy of mention these days is the 56k modem, and of course there is that glorious, 1440-by-900 display.

This computer I got from TechRestore was an Apple Certified Refurbished unit (note: not all TechRestore refurbs are ACR units), complete with a new serial number, and it looked like a brand new machine, with no evident wear or cosmetic flaws. Indeed when I ran a battery check, it only showed a couple of charge cycles logged, so I guess it was essentially brand new.

I liked the feel of the glossy-finished anodized aluminum Palm rests better than I thought I would, and this 'Book looks spectacular. The wide, 1440-by-900 display was quite a change from the 1024 x 768 screens I'm used to working with in the Pismo and iBook, and I've gotten used to having the extra space, but I have to say that it's the need for less scrolling rather than the width that appeals to me most. All that extra screen real-estate requires a fair bit of body English to navigate around. On any Mac laptop I routinely turn the trackpad tracking speed up to the maximum, and I've installed the third-party MouseZoom utility up to about 3x OS X's maximum mouse tracking speed, which helps.

The keyboard is very nice, although not quite as good as the superb one in my old PowerBook G3 Series WallStreet, and I'm not sure I even like it better than the keyboard in the Pismo. I was pleased that the trackpad button has a fairly light and positive action, compared with the heavy-effort ones in the WallStreet and Pismo , but the trackpad itself is not that great. Again, the WallStreet's is the best, and the Pismo and Big Al's a tossup.

I like having all of the I/0 ports on the sides of the computer, which I had already gotten used to with the iBook. The Big Al has them split up between opposite sides of the machine, and having a USB port on the right-hand side makes connecting short-corded mice less of a problem for right-handers. I prefer a side-loading optical drives as well, as the front-loader in 15-inch and 17-inch PowerBooks get some struck get obstructed by some laptop stands, such as my beloved Laptop Laidback, but in practice that hasn't been really much of an issue. I don't use optical disks that much, and the Pismo has an 8x SuperDrive expansion bay module, so I do most of my disk-burning on it anyway.

The 80 GB, 4,200 RPM hard drive, a Toshiba unit, is reasonably quiet, although louder than the all-but inaudible IBM drive in the iBook, and has proved plenty commodious for my present needs and well into the future. I still have about 30 GB free.

The 17-inch PowerBook's size is both a strength and a shortcoming. It of course facilitates the big display, but also makes the package a bit bulky and heavy for serious road warrioring duty. I prefer the 12-inch iBook or PowerBook form factor in that context. The one inch thick dimension does make the 17-incher less cumbersome than it might otherwise be, and since this one is mostly used in desktop substitute mode, the scale tips toward having the extra screen real estate and less cramped confines for the Internal bits which theoretically at least should let them run cooler.

Over the past 12 months, the 17" PowerBook has been virtually flawless in performance, with zero problems to report. If a computer ever epitomized the old Apple "It just works!" slogan, this is it. Upgrading through several versions of OS 10.4 Tiger to the current OS 10.4.8 has been painless with no issues or problems encountered. This experience vindicates my decision to go with another PPC 'Book. I have little patience with or time for dealing with bugs and hardware problems, and this 'Book hasn't presented me with any.

My main, and virtually only complaint is heat, which of course is not a unique issue to this machine. the Big Al runs a lot hotter that I was used to with the Pismo and iBook, and the cooling fan cuts in fairly frequently, especially after a couple of days or more of uptime without a restart. The swapfile activity seems to heat up the internals. Objectively, at least in comparison with temperatures in the Intel books, this 1.33 GHz G4 unit doesn't run all that hot - usually in the low-mid 50s Celsius. The cooling fan cuts in at 58.5° and switches back off at about 54°. The temperature comes down quite quickly once the fan is blowing, but it's a constant cycling routine that I find annoying. I hate fan noise. I keep the AlBook on a Road Tools Podium CoolPad most of the time, which I assume helps. A Targus Chillmat, which has its own (much quieter) cooling fans definitely makes the PowerBook run cooler, but I can't usually spare a USB port to plug it in (yes, I have a hub).

The only other issue is that recently I've noticed a strange "busy-noise" - sort of a crackling/rustling sound that seems to be coming from the area under the right-hand back of the keyboard. At first I thought this might be Spotlight indexing going on in the background, but it's not the HD, and it is only there when the AC adapter is plugged in, going silent when running on the battery.

I was beginning to wonder whether I should be worried or not. There was no indication of malfunction, but was buffaloed as to what would make a sound like this. Perhaps something in the power management circuitry? Anyway, I keep two OS X systems installed on two of my hard drive's three partitions, which among other things makes it possible to try out system updates without burning bridges with the older version. On the weekend, I finally got around to updating the second installation to OS 10.4.8, which I have been running on from the other partition since last fall, and which has proved unproblematical on both this machine and my G3 iBook. Booted from the second (actually the top) partition, the noise, whatever it was, has disappeared. Go figure.

So, any regrets that I didn't go with an Intel 'Book last year? None at all. My next system upgrade will be MacIntel, but the early-production issues many early-adopters experienced with the first generation MacBooks and MacBook Pros would drive me nuts, and I'm still not ready to give up on Classic Mode for a couple of utilities for which I haven't found satisfactory OS X native equivalents. I really needed a faster computer by last February, and the refurbished Big Al has filled the bill nicely and economically, without the necessity of a cold-turkey shift to MacIntel and having to kiss Classic Mode abruptly goodbye, and with the welcome bonus of all those top-of-the-line PowerBook features. If I hadn't been running such aged hardware, I probably would have continued to ride it out until the Revision B MacBook Pros and MacBooks were available, refurbished (which they are now) but the timing of the MacIntel revolution caught me a bit flat-footed.

The BigAl has also convinced me that refurbished computers can be an excellent value for the money.

My advice a year later? There are still some pretty attractive deals available on refurbished PPC 'Books. For example, at this writing, http://www.powermax.com/PowerMax is offering Apple Certified Refurbished 17" Aluminum PowerBook G4s - 1.67 GHz 512 MB of RAM, 100 GB internal drive, internal SuperDrive, internal 56k modem, Airport Extreme, Sudden Motion Sensor (SMS) and Scrolling Trackpad for $1299.00

On the other hand, for someone contemplating the purchase of their first Apple laptop, the equation is more complicated. If you have no substantial investment in Power PC software, my recommendation would be to go MacIntel, which is the future, and it won't be long before PowerPC holdouts begin to be shut out of cool new software developments, something that has to be balanced against being shut out of cool older software that hasn't been taken universal binary or Intel-native. Everyone will have to make their own determination about that.

Meanwhile, I am now convinced that the 17-inch PowerBook is unquestionably one of the greatest Apple portables ever. I was skeptical that anything could top the dependable, trouble-free performance I've had from my Pismo PowerBook and the G3 iBook over the past six years, but if big AlBook can sustain the sterling standard of service it's given me over the past 12 months, it's on track to be my "best ever" Mac so far. It's everything I had dared hope for and more, and it could be this time next year before I make another move. We'll see how Leopard leaps on the old BigAL.

And my dream machine is now a 17" MacBook Pro.



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Charles W. Moore

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