Macopinion

My Big Al PowerBook At 18 Months

The Apple Certified Refurbished 17" PowerBook G4 1.33 MHz I bought in February, 2006 is now 18 months old (in its service life); half-life for the average computer as a front-line machine, and historically, I've found that the 18 month mark tends to be about when the itch to upgrade systems begins to set in. However, not this time.

As regular readers know, I love my Pismo PowerBooks, of which I now own two, but I have to say that this big 17" machine is simply the best computer I've ever owned. I only which everything in life worked this well and was as trouble-free, and so far the upgrade itch is staying dormant. I'm in no hurry to move on.

I'm certainly more than happy and content with my decision 18 months ago to buy one more PowerPC 'Book rather than taking the plunge with a then just-introduced MacBook Pro, consistent with my "never buy Version 1/Revision A of anything conviction, and I ended up ordering 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, and indeed currently the Intel 'Book that tempts me the most is the 17" MacBook Pro, but this 1.33 MHz PPC machine has not disappointed, and has been a more satisfactory ride than I had dared hope when I bought it.

At the time, another factor tipping the scales in favor of the 17-incher was Daystar's announcement of 1.92 and 2.0 GHz G4 processor upgrades for most 17-inch and 15-inch aluminum PowerBook models, which would provide a fallback if the stock, 1.33 GHz processor proved too lazy for my needs, but in service it hasn't. It's of course partly relative to what you're used to, and even a 1.33 GHz G4 represented a quantum leap forward in performance from the 700 MHz G3 iBook that preceded the BigAl as my production workhorse, and 18 months on I am still quite 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.

Actually, the PowerBook's internal modem was another reason I chose it instead of a modemless MacBook Pro. While a USB modem dongle is available for the MBP, it adds another CAN$70 to the purchase price and hogs a precious USB port, as well as being much less elegant than a built-in modem for folks like me who remain stuck in the dial-up slow lane of the information highway.

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 is supported. 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.

Speaking of uptime, I'm currently running OS X 10.4.10 on the PowerBook, and I went for nearly three weeks of production work on the initial 10.4.10 bootup without a restart. This version of Tiger has proved troublesome for some users (mainly on MacIntels) but it's the smoothest Tiger version yet on my BigAl.

Aside from the modest 512 megabytes of RAM soldered to its motherboard, the 1.33 GHz Big Al came pretty sumptuously equipped, with a RADEON 9600 graphics processor and 64 megabytes of video RAM, an 80 gigabyte hard drive, a SuperDrive, gigabit Ethernet, built-in Bluetooth, 802.11g wireless, FireWire 400 and 800, and USB 2.0. And of course there is that glorious, 1440-by-900 display. That resolution is nothing to get up in the night and write home about these days, and is now standard on the 15" MacBook Pro, but I've found it luxuriously expansive after years of working with 1024 x 768 and 800 x 600 Apple laptop displays.

This computer I got from TechRestore last year was an Apple Certified Refurbished unit in Apple's excellent ACR packaging (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 unused.

I liked the feel of the glossy-finished anodized aluminum Palm rests better than I thought I would, and this 'Book looks spectacular. I've gotten used to having the extra display 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 edges the Big Als in this department as well.

I like having all of the I/0 ports on the sides of the computer, which I had already gotten used to with my 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 do prefer a side-loading optical drives, and the front-loader in 15-inch and 17-inch PowerBooks gets 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 Pismos have an 8x and 4x SuperDrive expansion bay modules respectively, so I do most of my disk-burning on them 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 the also quiet 100 GB Seagate unit in my "newest" Pismo, 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. I have been able to use the BigAl reasonably comfortably in the car with it perched on the Waterfield Racer X case I carry it in, but the iBook is much better suited to literal on-the-road road warrioring

Over 18 months, the 17" PowerBook has been virtually flawless in performance, with still 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 10.4.10 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 simply 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. This area is one that hasn't improved with the most recent Tiger builds, and I daresay the fan runs a bit more frequently since about version 10.4.9. 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 powered hub).

The issue I noted in my 12-month BigAl report, 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, seems to have been addressed by the OSD 10.4.10 update.

So, any regrets that I didn't go with an Intel 'Book last year? None at all. My next system upgrade will almost certainly a MacIntel, although if I didn't already have this unit, I would find the 1.67GHz 17-inch PowerBooks TechRestore currently has posted at $1,399.99 very tempting. 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 18 months later? There are still some pretty attractive deals available on refurbished PPC 'Books, and I've seen Apple Certified Refurbished 1.67 GHz 17" PowerBooks offered as cheaply as $1,299.00.

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 seven years, but if this big AlBook can sustain the sterling standard of service it's given me over the past 18 months, it's on track to be my "best ever" Mac. 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. If and when I get one, I can only hope that it's as good as this PowerBook.


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cmoore@macopinion.com


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