As the owner of a 500 MHz model iBook, a slight emendation to what Mike wrote: I write, indeed, but I also do desktop publishing, and graphics, in Photoshop, do artwork with a Wacom pad in Painter, make animations with Poser's moving models, download video from my Canon into iMovie (with no dropped frames), etc. and it seems fine. Haven't hit a "wall" yet... -don Mike Beede wrote: > ... > > A computer buyer should consider what they want the > machine to do and what price they can get it for. If all > you want to do is listen to music, read email, browse the > web, edit text, and for that matter develop software, the > 500MHz G3 is probably entirely acceptable. *Especially* if > you cram in as much memory as you can--the disk is tens > of thousands of times slower than the processor. It > may be enough of a savings to pay for Apple Care, which would > be a Good Thing for a laptop (though the iBook is tough--I've > never had a problem even after a two foot drop onto a wood > floor). > > If you want to do rendering, make DVDs, do a lot of > Photoshopping, and similar CPU-intensive stuff, then look > for a faster machine (in fact, look for a G4 or even a > dual G4 desktop--there are some refurbs available). > >