best way to spend

Not a bad idea.

Although, for $1250 at the education store you can get an superdrive emac along with a $370 10 GB ipod. The question is are you willing to sacrifice portability for a Superdrive and a faster bus?

Update... that Superdrive emac is $1100 referbished. 10 GB ipod is $330.

Wait on the iPod. $400 is a waste of your money for what is essentially a toy. The money is better spent on a better computer that will be of more use to you for a longer period of time. G4 eMac will be a better machine 3 years from now (think OS XI or whatever... may not run on a G3) than the iBook will be. Not to mention the physical durability factor of a desktop vs notebook.

Don't forget about sales tax and shipping costs too

If you are set on a notebook, get either the iBook (they're great machines!) or a refurb PowerBook. Then you will have cash to spend on enhancements, such as a scanner, printer, or even a descent digital camera. If portable music is a must, invest in high-end headphones.

iPod is a luxury I do without by playing tunes through my iBook. This may or may not suit you.

Dan

If I had that kind of money for a mac I would get a dual 1.25 GHZ powermac for 1899 (education store). You would need about 150 for a monitor from walmart so its a little more then you want to pay, but this is in my opinion the best priced powermac to date (with there normal prices it would be 500 bucks more!)

If you need portability get an ibook and save your money untill the next set of ipods

Call and talk to BacktotheMac from http://www.generalcybernetics.com .

Tell him you are from the MR board and that you are looking for a good deal on an iBook. I have seen some great deals on them. From what I hear, nothing beats their sales team.