Can a new ibook replace my pc??

Speedwise, it should feel - on the average - very similar. Snappier in many ways, but the slower hard disk will make its presence known - as it would on most laptops. The graphics card isn't as good, and of course the burner will be slower. UT2K4 will be slower. Half Life... umm.. might have to forget about that. WCIII, however, will play very nicely.

Many of these sacrifices are ones you'd make with any laptop in the iBook price range, so they're to be expected.

On the plus side, the iBook is a fantastic deal when you look at all you get for the price, and I think the communications-oriented stuff you mention will be much more fun on the iBook. Wireless portability, tough case, etc.

Basically, games (aside from WCIII and the like) will suck or not exist. But - in spite of that - you will be amazed by how much you'll love the iBook.

For most uses, it will be fine. If you use the entire drive, you should probably opt for a large external firewire one to go with the iBook, since IIRC it only comes with around a 30GB drive. Games will be adequate (but not as good because of the immense difference in video cards).

If you want to play games at all, you need to get at least a Powerbook with the 128MB 9700 Mobility.

You're Gonna Love It!

My 14" 1GHz iBook has been my only computer for almost a year. It is absolutely the best purchase I have ever made. My recommendations: max-out the memory, get Airport Express, get the Apple Bluetooth mouse & keyboard. I also have an external Firewire HD and an external DVD burner. (I also have a Playstation-2 should I feel the need to play video games.)

You will rapidly get used to checking your email and favorite websites from bed, your patio, or wherever else you are. You will absolutely fall in love with iTunes and iPhoto and all the other iLife software. You will enjoy the raw speed of Safari or Firefox and soon recognize what an inferior product Internet Explorer is. You will forget all about viruses and spyware, because they are virtually nonexistant. You will find yourself showing off to your friends, because your $1300 laptop can do amazing, fun, practical things that their $3000 top-of-the-line Pentium cannot.


You will stop worrying about your computer, and start enjoying it.


You're gonna love it!

CaptainCaveMann said:

I currently am using 28 gigs of my 120 gig hard drive haha! I have about 2000 songs plus albums and lots of pics and about 30 music videos and warcraft 3 and other programs.I forgot to mention im using 512 memory on my pc now and im pretty happy with it it works pretty fast. So i think 512 on the ibook i should be good to go.Sad that i have to kiss the games goodbye though but then again games can be a pretty big waste of time so maybe its for the better haha. Also what about when i visit web sites for school and i need acrobat reader to view things? Does mac support things like this?When im e-mailing people and talking to them online and they have a pc and i have a mac is there anything thats going to be different or look different since im using a mac? Will they be able to recieve mail and instant messeges from me? haha

Click to expand...

if you're using 28 gigs go for the 40gig drive cause it'll obviously grow, and formatted capacities...512 should be plenty obviously don't buy ram from apple unless you're squeamish. i know that warcraft 3 is available for mac but i'm not sure if it's a different cd, macs have preview for pdfs and such, adobe cs on mac has acrobat so i assume reader is available too? emailing and aim are the same across platforms, at least when it comes to actual communication. i hope i helped and enjoy your new mac!

CaptainCaveMann said:

Also what about when i visit web sites for school and i need acrobat reader to view things? Does mac support things like this?When im e-mailing people and talking to them online and they have a pc and i have a mac is there anything thats going to be different or look different since im using a mac? Will they be able to recieve mail and instant messeges from me? haha

Click to expand...

There's Acobat Reader for Mac, but using Preview work just as well.

For e-mail, you can use Mail.app which work just fine, too.

For instant messaging you can use iChat (or Adium if you have friends who don't use AIM).

No need to worry about the basic stuff. Gaming is the only weak point, but I guess you can't have everything. WarCraft III should work, and I believe WarCraft III comes on a hybrid CD with the Mac version included.

check out http://www.adiumx.com

its a multi client instant messenging service, its free, download from the site, and can connect to aim, yahoo, msn, ect easy to set up and everything

CaptainCaveMann said:

What is adium? I use aim messenger and msn messenger and yahoo so i will have no problems? Can i just download the messengers streight from the web sites and just click on the mac version or soemthing?

Click to expand...

Like PlaceofDis said, Adium can do AIM, MSN and Yahoo, so you don't need to download three different messengers. Instead of having seperate lists, they're all in the same list, regardless of whether you friend use AIM, MSN or Yahoo. It's very cool

with adium you can get all your messengers in one app..... much better app...

plus...you cant do the same with all your email accounts with mail.app...

the post by eRondeau said it all really

CaptainCaveMann said:

Can a new ibook replace my pc??

Click to expand...

In a word

NO

J.Allen said:

In a word

NO

Click to expand...

in a word......

explain...

a lot of experienced Mac users have said yes... i agree but you seem to think different but offer no explanation why not

AL-FAMOUS said:

in a word......

explain...

a lot of experienced Mac users have said yes... i agree but you seem to think different but offer no explanation why not

Click to expand...

1: games (especially one as complex as UT2004) will not play well on an iBook
2: Games don't play as well (ha to do with refresh rates and brightness) on LCD's as on CRT's
3: the Athlon 1800+ with AGP graphics card will walk over an iBook in any benchmark.
4: You'd be giving up 80GB in harddrive space
5 I'm not sure how fast the CD burner is on an iBook, but I'm sure it's not as fast as a 52x one you have.
6:Should I stop?

ok 1 more
7: bang in a second optical drive in your current PC (maybe even a Dual layer DVD burner) and copy stuff on the fly, or bur Dual layer DVD's.