Re: Mac OS X 10.5/Leopard on an old PowerBook (PPC) G4 1 Ghz with 512 MB of RAM & 60 GB HDD?

On 10/22/2007 6:19 AM PT, David Empson typed:

I have an old PowerBook G4 (PPC) with 1 Ghz CPU speed, 512 MB of RAM,
and 60 GB of HDD. If I were to do a fresh clean install of Mac OS X 10.5/Leopard on it (still have 10.2.8 on it and seems fine, just old),
then how will it perform? Will it be slower?

If you only install Leopard and don't do any hardware changes, it will
probably be slower, due to Leopard's increased memory requirements. If
you also install more RAM, it will be faster than 10.2.8.

Yes, no changes. Not even memory upgrade. I have to remove the old 512 MB and buy 1 GB or whatever.


A 1 GHz PowerBook G4 can be taken up to 1, 1.25 or 2 GB of RAM,
depending on which model you have. Even 1 GB will be a big improvement
over 512 MB.

I think mine can go only up to 1 GB maximum. RAM is expensive too and probably hard to find these days!


My experience with later updates of Tiger (10.4) is that it tended to
bog down with 768 MB of RAM on my 667 MHz PowerBook G4, not running
anything heavy duty. The only way to avoid this was to not run too many
applications at the same time, and keep an eye on runaway memory usage
by some applications (particularly Safari) by regularly quitting them. I
expect Leopard will be even hungrier.

True. I am a heavy mutltiasker. I even use a virtual desktop manager. I know the newer OS X versions have its own (Space).


768 MB was plenty while I was running Panther (10.3) and in the early
updates of Tiger.

Hmm, maybe I should get 10.3/10.4 after Leopard is released (probably cheaper)?


A 60 GB hard drive shouldn't be a problem, but Leopard will take a fair
amount more space than 10.2, so make sure you have plenty of free space
prior to the installation, and keep at least 5 GB free at all times, in
case it is needed for virtual memory or temporary storage.

Yeah, but this is a clean install (no upgrade).


Or should I just wait until I get a new Apple notebook/laptop (e.g.,
MacBook)?

If you are thinking of getting a new laptop, then buying Leopard now
will let you get a head start to becoming familiar with it, but I would
recommend getting more RAM as well. It will also let you run a lot of
newer software that isn't compatible with 10.2.8.

If you are expecting to buy a new laptop soon, the cost of buying
Leopard and RAM may not be worth it: the money would be put to better
use saving up for the new laptop.

Not that soon. Maybe in a year or more.


Your experience of Leopard will be vastly different between a new laptop
and your old one. I was stunned at how much faster my new MacBook Pro is
compared to my old PowerBook G4.

Nice.


I am a heavy user who likes to run Fink stuff for X11, play hungry power
games (e.g., MacMAME, Quake 3 Arena and its mods), Neo/OpenOffice, etc.

You might not be able to use a MacBook for some of those. A MacBook Pro
is likely to be a better choice if you are doing anything involving
heavy duty graphics.

Thanks for the insights. I think I will just wait since MacBooks will come with Leopard preinstalled.
--
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