Hello all! I am an soon to be mac owner, and was hoping to get some informed opinions on the type of mac to buy. I am really looking for an affordable laptop ($500-$700), and think that it puts me in the 1.33 ghz ibook/powerbook range. I don't really do a whole lot video editting, although I would have a bunch of DVD's that I have backed up that I would like to burn at a later time. Would 1.33 ghz and 512mb of RAM be sufficient? The computer would be mainly used for email/internet/movie watching on vacations. Maybe some basic photo editting. Basically, I just want to make sure that it will not be completely obsolete and that I will be able to use it for maybe 1-2 years before I upgrade to a faster version. Thanks and any tips/places to buy would be appreciated!
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Should I buy an iBook/PowerBook?
- Thread starter fudrummer
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go intel if you can
You should be just fine doing what you are doing on a powerbook/ibook, but I personally would recommend if AT ALL POSSIBLE to wait and save a lil money and get an intel based mac. referb macbooks are pretty cheap.
Like i said, you will be able to do all of that including minor video editing with those older models, but for longevity sake, I would try to get a intel based Mac if financially possible.
You should be just fine doing what you are doing on a powerbook/ibook, but I personally would recommend if AT ALL POSSIBLE to wait and save a lil money and get an intel based mac. referb macbooks are pretty cheap.
Like i said, you will be able to do all of that including minor video editing with those older models, but for longevity sake, I would try to get a intel based Mac if financially possible.
Please take the advice above and don't short change yourself. Even the absolute cheapest Macbook you could find would rape any iBook/Powerbook (G4). Cheers!
I totally agree with the above. Go for an Intel MacBook, preferably a C2D. But you're looking at $949 from the Apple Store's refurb section, somewhat higher than you were hoping to spend. Can't see anything much cheaper on eBay, especially once you include shipping. And Apple has announced that the refurbs will be eligible for the Leopard Up to Date program. So you would have to get a MacBook on eBay for less than $800 plus shipping for it to be cheaper.
Forget the iBook route, it just doesn't stack up. If you gan get a 15" or even 17" Powerbook 1.33Ghz + for that money then you should. If you can find one of the last Powerbooks with the hi-res screen, then that has to be the route to take for the sort of stuff you want to do. The only time you will miss not having the Intel inside is when you want to play with video files, it will do it just slooowly.
You might want to up the ram a bit (which is cheap), but besides that... YES. I'm running a 1.5GHZ powerbook, and I've honestly never felt that I NEEDED to upgrade.
Sure, I'd want an intel mac just because it is the 'new and cool' thing. I'd also like boot camp, for the odd assembly programming I sometimes need to do. But ever time I put my powerbook up for sell (in the $700 range BTW), I end up taking it down... It is still as useful as the day I bought it. I also prefer the 12'' form factor
BTW, I do not do much video editting... but I do heavy audio recording/editting, edit photos, rip and burn DVDs, and run a server (not a real intensive one though) with this machine.
hope that helps,
Corey
I just upgraded my 12" PB to 1.25 GB RAM and a 120 GB hard drive, so I know what you mean. But...
If I was shelling out for a new computer, and could swing $700, I would definitely, absolutely get an $800 1.83 GHz CD MacBook from the refurb store (or a 2.0 GHz CD MacBook with SuperDrive for $850). They're there every Tuesday and Friday morning.
Think about it. Even if it's in great shape, it will probably have a very used battery and a very dim screen. It won't have Leopard on it (not for free, anyway). You won't be able to bump it to 2 GB RAM for $70 like you can for a MacBook. It won't have a good-as-new one year warranty. And forget about encoding/decoding HD video, ever.
For me, it was worth upgrading... $200 for RAM, hard drive, and leopard is a lot easier to swing than $1100 for a MacBook with AppleCare. But you're dropping $700, so you should really get a used or refurbed Intel machine.
I mean, this opinion is unanimous, right?
Intel
Considering the trends, I would mostly recomment an intel based machine. Notice some of the system requirements for some of leopards feature:
"Photobooth backdrop effects require Intel Core Duo or faster, Boot Camp requires Intel Mac, DVD Player requires 1.6 GHz processor for improved de-interlacing" and consider within the next yr eveyone would be running leopard and u dont want to be the only one with an old os, it would be a wise move to even just get a 1st macbook version over the old G processors.
Considering the trends, I would mostly recomment an intel based machine. Notice some of the system requirements for some of leopards feature:
"Photobooth backdrop effects require Intel Core Duo or faster, Boot Camp requires Intel Mac, DVD Player requires 1.6 GHz processor for improved de-interlacing" and consider within the next yr eveyone would be running leopard and u dont want to be the only one with an old os, it would be a wise move to even just get a 1st macbook version over the old G processors.