PB 100 vs. 210 ? (poor student)
Antoine Roquetin
primarily used for remote wordprocessing.
Does a PB 100 FAQ exist?
Will System 7.5 run on a PB 100?
Is the added cost of a floppy drive (over a scsi cable for software
instalation) worth the added gain of a RAM disc? (I!d probably use BBEdit
or something with as small a memory footprint for writing, and Eudora for
email.)
Given the PB 100!s 16 bit data bus, will I, in an emergency, be able to
run the current version of Quark Xpress, or WordPerfect 3.1?
Will MacPPP or InterSLIP run on it?
How badly does the screen ghost? Does the pointer turn into mush when you
move it?
Do screens go bad at a certain age or is that due to use/abuse?
How much does a replacement screen cost?
How much typing time (actual use) can I expect from a good battery?
Does the PB 100 recharge batteries while it!s running from the AC?
Are the advantages of a Duo 210 worth the extra cost? (I estimate for the
same CPU functionality a Duo would need a MiniDock at least, which would
be an extra 400 bucks over the cost of a PB 100)
Ethan Benatan
but it's really hers!). It has 6meg of RAM, a 20meg HD (gotta upgrade
this!) and a Global Village Powerport Mercury. We have a floppy but
haven't got the SCSI cable yet.
In article <4cvqtc$i...@central.server.swt.edu>, Antoine Roquetin
<at2...@swt.edu> wrote:
> Does a PB 100 FAQ exist?
Not that I know of, but see some of the following sites:
<http://flash.lakeheadu.ca/~dmwadson/PB_Home_Pages/PowerBook_Home.html>
<http://www.st.rim.or.jp/~papapa/index.html>
<http://www.cs.brandeis.edu/~xray/mac.html>
<http://www.ultranet.com/~ricford/>
<http://wais.sensei.com.au/>
<http://florey.biosci.uq.edu.au/GraemePt1.html#Mac Sites>
<http://www.macfaq.com/faq/Macintosh.html>
<http://dev.info.apple.com>
<http://www.apple.com/>
Please tell me if you find anything better.
> Will System 7.5 run on a PB 100?
Not sure, but with a maximum of 8 megs of RAM in there, why? 7.1 works
nicely. If you want the whiz-bang features of 7.5, you'll need at least 16
megs of RAM and an 040, preferably a PPC, IMHO. (I have 7.1 on my 100 and
my si, and 7.5 on my 660av w/20 meg physical plus RAMDoubler at work).
You'll probably be happy with a 100 if you use it as a 100; if you try to
get it to jump through PPC hoops, I suspect you'll hate it.
> Is the added cost of a floppy drive (over a scsi cable for software
> instalation) worth the added gain of a RAM disc? (I!d probably use BBEdit
> or something with as small a memory footprint for writing, and Eudora for
> email.)
I'm not sure what the relation is between the RAM disk and the floppy
drive; it would seem to me that they are independent. You can set up a
RAM disk without a floppy. Without a floppy you'll obviously need to move
everything on and off the PB via cable: modem, localtalk, or SCSI.
> Given the PB 100!s 16 bit data bus, will I, in an emergency, be able to
> run the current version of Quark Xpress, or WordPerfect 3.1?
A lot of newer applications require at least an 020; you'll have to check
each one. I use ClarisWorks, great all-rounder, but you have to get an
older version. Get good at file translations....
> Will MacPPP or InterSLIP run on it?
I had some problems getting MacPPP to run, I don't know why (I use it all
the time on my si, and they claim it'll work on the 68000). There are a
lot of versions out there, I must have grabbed the wrong one. So I went
to Interslip which works like a treat. I have written some improved
scripts which I will be happy to share. One day I'll figure out what the
problem was...
> How badly does the screen ghost? Does the pointer turn into mush when you
> move it?
This is very subjective. The screen is quite workable, but not as nice as
an active matrix, or a greyscale. I don't really notice any problem with
it, but I don't expect it to be a Trinitron either! If you move the cursor
fast, it disappears; there are several free cursor enlarging and finding
tools out there.
> Do screens go bad at a certain age or is that due to use/abuse?
As far as I know, they last better than CRTs; I've never seen one dying
due to age. The backlight may go eventually, but it can be replaced for
not too much.
($50ish??? I'm not sure).
> How much does a replacement screen cost?
I seem to recall having seen one for about $100, but as far as I know,
they typically only die due to physical abuse.
> How much typing time (actual use) can I expect from a good battery?
Depends a LOT on your habits. 1.5-3 hours, I'd expect, maybe more if you
are really careful. (or about 15-20 minutes from a BTI battery!)
DON'T BUY THE BTI BATTERIES, they are crappy. Spend a little more and get
an Apple battery, it's available as a service part. There's a trade-in so
keep your old one!
Remeber you can get a spare battery, and swap with the machine asleep.
> Does the PB 100 recharge batteries while it!s running from the AC?
Yes, but not as fast as if you aren't using it.
> Are the advantages of a Duo 210 worth the extra cost? (I estimate for the
> same CPU functionality a Duo would need a MiniDock at least, which would
> be an extra 400 bucks over the cost of a PB 100)
The main advantage is some speed (though the 100 feels remarkably fast for
a 68000) and the fact that you can stick lots more memory in, and run
RAMDoubler. If you can live with the memore constraints, and use
appropriate software (i.e. not MicroSloth Word, but rather ClarisWorks or
Nisus Compact or such), the 100 is a good deal. I am really happy with
mine.
Hope this helps-
Ethan
_____________
Ethan Benatan
eth...@pitt.edu http://www.pitt.edu/~ethan
Kim
(being somewhat pro-Duo)...
> Will System 7.5 run on a PB 100?
Yes. We're running out PB 100 on System 7.5. However, since many of the
new features of System 7.5 are irrelavent to the PB 100, we're keeping a
pretty small system (actually smaller than 7.1, I believe).
> Is the added cost of a floppy drive (over a scsi cable for software
> instalation) worth the added gain of a RAM disc? (I!d probably use
> BBEdit or something with as small a memory footprint for writing, and
> Eudora for email.)
I read this to say that you have a 2nd computer (or access to one).
Getting the floppy is worth it, because you may not always have access to
that other computer, plus some installers don't necessarily take into
consideration that the drive you are installing onto is where all the
system related stuff should go as well....
> Given the PB 100!s 16 bit data bus, will I, in an emergency, be able to
> run the current version of Quark Xpress, or WordPerfect 3.1?
As the other person stated, some newer software requires a 68020 or
higher, so you may have difficulties using the latest versions of Quark,
or whatever....those newer version may ALSO have RAM requirements that the
PB 100 can't accomodate.
> Will MacPPP or InterSLIP run on it?
I can't speak of this authoritatively.
> How badly does the screen ghost? Does the pointer turn into mush when
> you move it?
It's not the screen that is annoying, it's the trackball.
> Do screens go bad at a certain age or is that due to use/abuse?
The backlight fades over time and will need to be replaced. The screen
itself should be highly reliable.
> How much does a replacement screen cost?
Don't even ask. More than the cost of the computer (used.)
> How much typing time (actual use) can I expect from a good battery?
Ah, the big failing point. The PB 100 uses lead-acid batteries. They fail
unfortunately fairly quickly and are a real pain to find replacements. A
couple of hours (without using an internal modem or Appletalk) on a good
battery.
> Does the PB 100 recharge batteries while it!s running from the AC?
Yes. It can also overcharge it's batteries when on AC :(
> Are the advantages of a Duo 210 worth the extra cost? (I estimate for
> the same CPU functionality a Duo would need a MiniDock at least, which
> would be an extra 400 bucks over the cost of a PB 100)
If you can FIND a Minidock, it will give you as much (if not more)
functionality on the Duo as the PB100...with the exception of the static
Ram of the PB100. Apple has discontinued the minidock however, so you'd be
looking for it on the used or reconditioned market. The Duo's have the
advantage over the PB100 in a couple of details. One is that they are MUCH
more expandable (via docks), can have more memory (up to 24 megs on the
210). They are 68030 based, which means that they can run the most recent
versions of most software. They have 32 bit internal data paths. The
trackball is somewhat better, and the keyboard slightly better than the
PB100's. Duo's use NiMH batteries, which are much better than the Nicads
of other 1xx series powerbooks or the lead-acids used the PB100. And
finally Duos are PowerPC upgradable.
The downside is that Duo's only have two internal modems to choose from
the Apple Express and the Global Village Mercury. Over time you will spend
FAR more on a Duo than any other Mac (or pair of Macs) for equivalent
desktop capabilities. The keyboard on the Duo's is no where near as good
as the 500 or 5300 series powerbooks and to use an external you MUST have
some sort of dock attached.The trackball is smaller than any other
powerbook, and you may find it too small.
-----------------------------------------------------------
| Kim Brennan (America Online, Inc.) k...@aol.com |
| [Duo 230 - MiniDock, DuoDock, DuoDock II] |
| [VW Fox GL Wagon, VW Corrado SLC] |
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Joel 007
: > Will System 7.5 run on a PB 100?
It will, but it ain't worth it. The pb100 is a brilliant machine, though,
and with 4mb of ram you will have enough memory to whack your system
folder and your main app in a ram disk and cut out hard disk spinning all
together. Incredibly, you can boot from the ram disk because the pb100
uniquely doesn't kill the disk when it reboots - what a gem. So, not only
will your battery life shit all over these flash new 5300 owners but
you'll start up faster as well. Sorry, forgot to mention, run only system
6.0.8 the system 7 printer-compatible version of system 6. It takes up
hardly any ram-disk space and is downloadable from
ftp.info.euro.apple.com.
BTW, I reccomend ClarisWorks v2 for your main app - does just about
everything.
Regards, Joel.
PS Duo 210 is my second favourite powerbook, ah! the agony of choice.