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My 600Mhz G3 iBook does have a fan, but it has never turned on in the two years I've been using this machine, and I work it pretty hard.

According to IBM's figures, the chip I have draws 6 watts at 600Mhz, a power figure they've managed to beat in the newest version - 5.9W at 1Ghz. The 900Mhz G3 (the last G3 used in the iBook range) draws 6W at that clock speed.

It's not mounted near the CPU though - it's near the back of the iBook to the left and slightly forward of the hinge and vent. There's a thermocouple and heat sink assemby there too.

The CPU itself is passively cooled. I think the hottest thing inside the case is the HD when it's been accessed heavily for a while.

You can see a shot of the inside of my iBook here (taken when I upgraded the hard drive - it's missing from the shot, it goes in the bottom left hand corner).

I love my ultra-quiet laptop with extremely long battery life!

heh, indeed.

You can see a few more and a short description of my upgrade on my journal here.

Hope you have many productive years with your iBook.

I'm glad you're having good experience with yours.

Whoever came up with those problems was talking bullshit:

1) the video chip is on the underside of the logic board - pressing down on the case next to the trackpad would just push down on the section enclosing the hard drive, which is mounted slightly proud of the logic board with rubber grommets - there would be no way to affect the logic board by pressing on the case from the top.

2) the logic board couldn't electrify the screws - the whole laptop uses DC, so while it's possible to have the screws at a higher PD than some other component in the computer, you'd have to close the circuit to get current to flow - ie, connect it to the negative terminal of the battery. So, you'd have to touch the screw, then touch the battery's negative terminal to feel any shock, and that's assuming the screw is somehow connected to the battery.

2b) DC very rarely arcs at such low voltages (12 to 24 volts at 1.8 amps in an iBook) over the sort of distance it would have to in order to go from logic board to frame. His claim of arcing between the logic board and the frame is silly - where was the frame earthed? The board is already connected to the negative battery terminal by design, so there's no way to force a path from positive to negative battery terminals via the logic board and a spark to the case. It's also very hard to get a low current to arc - it's why arc welders use such high currents (50 to 200 amps or more).

3) While the power cable has been seen to spark at the plug, this is due to the fine copper cables touching together and coming apart as the cord is moved. It's not dangerous, but it does mean your power supply is borked.

4) sometimes the power and video cables to the display get pinched in the display hinge, causing them to break, this is correct. However, there is space for them if they're fitted properly.

Here's a picture of the inside of my iBook (taken when I upgraded her hard drive with a more spacious model). As you can see, pretty much all of the metal parts inside there are already attached to the logic board - nowhere for this mysterious electrical arc to go to!

Safari on OS X (v 1.1) does pass those CSS tests in full though. I didn't see a ref image for that in your directory. I can send a screenshot if you like.

In fact, screenshot here.

Obviously, the aesthetics of cars is a very subjective thing, but I think it can be universally agreed that if Microsoft made a car it would look like this one. Warning: only look at that link if you're sure you can bear to look at a car far worse than the Honda Element. It's no concept, you can buy one of those from a UK showroom for just shy of 15 grand.

It's harder to pick a good looking car to represent my OS of choice (Mac OS X), but I think this one is pretty good. 225bhp from 4 cylinders, 30 miles to the gallon, 154mph on the flat.

Saying all that, the Windows UI isn't all that bad, it's just unintuitive. If you take the time to learn it and deal with its weird actions sometimes you can get by.

Obviously, the aesthetics of cars is a very subjective thing, but I think it can be universally agreed that if Microsoft made a car it would look like this one. Warning: only look at that link if you're sure you can bear to look at a car far worse than the Honda Element. It's no concept, you can buy one of those from a UK showroom for just shy of 15 grand.

It's harder to pick a good looking car to represent my OS of choice (Mac OS X), but I think this one is pretty good. 225bhp from 4 cylinders, 30 miles to the gallon, 154mph on the flat.

Saying all that, the Windows UI isn't all that bad, it's just unintuitive. If you take the time to learn it and deal with its weird actions sometimes you can get by.

Yeah, but I can frag for longer than you can in Quake III Arena if the power goes out.

Plus, my laptop attracts girls. I have to fend them off before my girlfriend notices.

Plus, how often can you take photos like this with your Dell laptop?