Macintosh Powerbook G3 Wallstreet Review

The Macintosh Powerbook G3 Wallstreet ran at a 233 MHz processor. This was the first edition with no backside L2 cache. This made the computer much slower then all the other Powerbooks, but it is still a good computer even today. The Wallstreet can be a computer for a child to use, or somebody that just needs to do basic computing. It can also do some heavy computing as well.

The Wallstreet can go on the web, and it can use AIM. It comes with OS 8.1, but can go all the way up to OS 10.4.11 Tiger using XPACTO and maxing out the ram to 512MB. The computer shipped with 32 MB of ram and a 2 GB hard drive. You can add a bigger hard drive, up to 120 GB in these. These computers can still be serviceable machines in todays world. The only problems you will encounter are running streaming video and copying,transferring,downloading files. This is slower because of the 233 MHz processor, but not deathly slow. Or is it?

If you don't want to upgrade to OS X, then you should just use OS 9.2. OS 9.2 doesn't really have a modern web browser though. Mozilla's WAMCOM 1.3.1 isn't a bad option though, it still opens most sites on today's web. Its pretty much your only option except iCab 3, which isn't as good as WAMCOM 1.3.1. Although neither are really being updated anymore these days. There is still support for iCab 3 though.

These computers had ethernet so networking is simple and fast using apple talk, or a file sharing system. The bays are hot swappable, and can be taken out really easily. You can have
two CD players in there or two batteries at the same time. They come out really easily as well. It is one of my favorite features of these computers, and all G3 Powerbook models.

In conclusion, The Macintosh Powerbook G3 Wallstreet was a game breaking computer for Apple in 1998. It still can be a serviceable unit and do most task new computers can with a few upgrades in 2009. You can probably purchase one of these babies off of Ebay for about $40. Which isn't a bad price, considering it has a 14.1 inch LCD screen and can play DVDs as well. You will have to buy a DVD drive for it though and that could cost about an extra $40 or $50 dollars depending on where you buy it.