Desperate need for upgrades - YES / NO - ??

Question

Hello Everyone,..
I ahve the following product:
- STOCK -
iBook G3 (A.K.A. iCeBook)
2 USB Ports
1 FireWire Port
1 Internal Modem
1 Ethernet Port
1 Mini DVI Port
500 MHz
128 MB RAM
10 GB HDD (like 4 GB Left)
DVD/CD Player (Not slot loading, it's a sort of tray that comes out.)
NO AirPort Card
Mac OS X Panther (10.3.9)
ALL SOFTWARE UP TO DATE
OK, So you get an idea of what kind of computer i have..
Now this afternoon I went out shopping and I stopped at a Future Shop..
There, I tried an iMac like the 23 iNch one.. JEEZ.. it was soo fast.
On my iBook, if like i start the computer and the only thing running in the dock is the Finder, Then I click on Safari to start it, and it takes about 5 bounces before the little arrow under appears. and like for Photoshop it takes like 50 bounces.
So, when I tried the iMac at future shop. it took like half a bounce for safari to start.
So, should I pay for Memory upgrades, like i would add 512MB so that would give me 640 MB of RAM, and i would upgarde the HDD to something like 80 GB or more and maybe buy a AirPort card. So my question being;is it woth spending money on that?
ThankYou, Martin
And also.. im a 13 year old student so i have a limited budget*

Answer 1

Martin,
In my opinion, no.
What you saw with the new iMac is performance that can't be matched with a five-year-old iBook, no matter what you do with it.
If you spend as much money as you're contemplating, you would be well on your way to a new entry-level MacBook.
The entry-level MacBook has a 1.83 GHz processor. That's more than 3 times as fast as your 500 MHz iBook, even if you don't take into account the Intel Core Duo processor. Apple says that the Core Duo 2.0 GHz processor is over 5 times faster than the 1.42 GHz iBook G4, which is way faster than your little iBook G3 500 MHz, so you can kind of see what kind of performance boost you would see.
The cheapest new MacBook costs $1099. It has 512 MB of RAM (I would recommend upgrading that to at least 1 GB), a 60 GB hard drive, built-in AirPort and Bluetooth, Combo drive (reads CD's and DVD's, writes CD's) a built-in iSight camera and the latest operating system, Tiger.
My recommendation to you would be to try to get along with your iBook for right now, and save your money until the MacBooks start shipping with OS X 10.5 (Leopard) sometime next spring. If you really don't think you can stand it that long, probably the best thing would be to upgrade the RAM with a 512 MB module.
http://ramseeker.com/scripts/sortModelDetails.php?modelId=1&sortSize=512mb
You can often find a good deal here on Apple's website on refurbished Macs. Right now, there is a 1.83 GHz MacBook for $949, and a 2.0 GHz MacBook (my choice - it has the DVD burner) for $1099. (Apple Store > Special Deals > Refurbished Mac)
I recommend buying AppleCare on a portable computer.
Whatever you eventually decide, good luck!