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advice for college freshman

P

pkghost

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 15, 2003
7
0
let me first say that whatever i end up getting, it will be a mac.

apple has converted yet another. ive been a pc user all my life, but since OS X is unix based... well it just pushed me over the edge

secondly, id like to ask for advice on powerbooks. i want to have the latest and greatest for freshman year, but i dont want to wait past the end of summer to get a laptop. should i just go ahead and get a kickass g4? or should i wait for some future g4 upgrade? i dont need the laptop for the summer, but if there arent going to be any serious changes to the powerbook g4 between now and fall term, id rather have it to play with for a few months. any suggestions?

thanks
 
Well, WWDC will be next week so you might be wise to wait and see if there are any product announcements. I don't expect any Powerbook updates to be announced but you never know what Apple might introduce.

Make sure you take advantage of Apple's education pricing and their $100 additional rebate.

Congrats on the decision to Switch To A Mac.
 
If there aren't any updates at WWDC next week, then there probably won't be any until Aug/Sept. 2005 at the earliest. So, I'd say wait til next week and see if Jobs announces anything. If nothing new, buy and enjoy. Plus, you might be able to take advantage of their $100 spring promo
 
My advice would be to party and imbibe as much alcohol as possible in as short a time as possible!
Best years of your life, enjoy them. Don't worry too much about computers, I hardly used mine in my first year. (I think things are a bit different in the UK though!)
You'll have plenty of time to be a geek later in life!
 
James Philp said:
My advice would be to party and imbibe as much alcohol as possible in as short a time as possible!
Best years of your life, enjoy them. Don't worry too much about computers, I hardly used mine in my first year. (I think things are a bit different in the UK though!)
You'll have plenty of time to be a geek later in life!
Click to expand...

No way, I used my pbook all the time. what do you think was acting as the juke box at the keggers i had? and, you can organize parties on thefacebook.com for your school. maybe things are a lot different in the UK :D

also, like the sig
 
Apple's probably not going to update the PB until just after school starts - basically to get a few more bucks from people like you. I'd wait until WWDC, just to be on the safe side, but buy right after that.
 
pkghost said:
i want to have the latest and greatest for freshman year, but i dont want to wait past the end of summer to get a laptop.
Click to expand...
Don't know if plunking down $2400 for a PB right now is a good question. I'd wait, as long as you can hold out. In fact, I'd get a cheap-ass iBook to hold you over for a year or so. The PB, in its current incarnation, is definitely on its last legs. I'd bet on a new PB coming out at MWSF 2006 or WWDC 2006. You can sell your iBook then and get yourself the G5 HD PB of your dreams.
 
Like someone already said, "Cram and Jam." Normally between mid July and October (I think) runs a deal that if you buy a laptop and an iPod at the same time, you can get a $200 rebate. If you can, wait until late July. I purchased my PB at the end of June last year for college and I was kicking my self for not waiting longer. I did have the patience to wait until after WWDC though.
 
TDM21 said:
Like someone already said, "Cram and Jam." Normally between mid July and October (I think) runs a deal that if you buy a laptop and an iPod at the same time, you can get a $200 rebate. If you can, wait until late July. I purchased my PB at the end of June last year for college and I was kicking my self for not waiting longer. I did have the patience to wait until after WWDC though.
Click to expand...

Holy ****. Seriously?

*stares at you happily*

Does it only apply to the Apple Store? Or could I do it off Amazon or something?
 
Tamer Brad said:
Holy ****. Seriously?

*stares at you happily*

Does it only apply to the Apple Store? Or could I do it off Amazon or something?
Click to expand...

Pretty sure it's the Apple Store, but you should order off of there anyways - EDU discounts. Unless Amazon offers those too?
 
dongmin said:
Don't know if plunking down $2400 for a PB right now is a good question. I'd wait, as long as you can hold out.
Click to expand...

But I want it noowwwwwwwwwwwwww :eek:

Would the apple store be the best place to get one or should i grab a used one or a deal on some online store (ebay, amazon, et cetera)?
 
dongmin said:
Don't know if plunking down $2400 for a PB right now is a good question. I'd wait, as long as you can hold out. In fact, I'd get a cheap-ass iBook to hold you over for a year or so. The PB, in its current incarnation, is definitely on its last legs. I'd bet on a new PB coming out at MWSF 2006 or WWDC 2006. You can sell your iBook then and get yourself the G5 HD PB of your dreams.
Click to expand...

I agree it's near the end of it's life in the current iteration, but I don't think that's a bad thing. The current Rev D's hardware is pretty flawless as such and you can nearly gaurantee that any major change in architecture will bring a new crop of flaws and bugs. I personally will be getting a G4 PB within the month, upgrade or not. I am wary of any major changes though.
 
James Philp said:
My advice would be to party and imbibe as much alcohol as possible in as short a time as possible!
Best years of your life, enjoy them. Don't worry too much about computers, I hardly used mine in my first year. (I think things are a bit different in the UK though!)
You'll have plenty of time to be a geek later in life!
Click to expand...

A big 10-4 on that James...college is the best years of your life...thats why i'm going back...will be a little different this time around though...live it up...
 
Rocksaurus said:
Pretty sure it's the Apple Store, but you should order off of there anyways - EDU discounts. Unless Amazon offers those too?
Click to expand...

The tax pretty much negates the edu discount :)
 
Would apple not update the powerbook because of the edu rebate, or is $100 small fry to the huge company anyway. And another thing...I know someone already said that if PB's not updated at WWDC, then there probably won't be an update till august/september. Does anyone else have a second opinion on that? If it's not updated at WWDC, is it worth it to wait as long as i possibly can for an update before school, or should I take advantage of the edu rebate and get it right after WWDC.
 
in the case that apple does update the g4 at wwdc, what do you think the earliest would be that they would release the g5 pb? (i understand that there have been multiple threads devoted to speculating about the g5 release, but i trust this thread more :D )
 
Don't bother waiting for vaporware G5 Powerbooks. The G4's will be more than enough to take notes, do homework, and still have fun (Call of Duty, for example :cool: ). The Cram-and-Jam is an awesome promotion, I drove up to Salem, NH to get my Powerbook and iPod tax free :D .

Enjoy college, its awesome :-D. As a student, I say have fun, enjoy the parties, but as a soon-to-be R.A., I gotta say, be careful. ;)
 
Apple is going to update the Powerbook first chance they can. Apple wants nothing more than to announce their updated Powerbook before school starts, so they don’t lose a lot of those "potential switch" students who are mad that Apple cannot give them an updated Powerbook.
If Apple is able to announce a minor update at WWDC to the Powerbook line, then it shows that the next major update (dual-core or G5 or whatever) will not happen until next year, and you may be better off buying a Rev. D model once the next minor update comes to save some money.
However, if Apple doesn't announce anything at WWDC or during the summer regarding the Powerbook lineup, then try and wait until September because Apple would need to do some major announcements. I don’t think Apple can seriously give the Powerbook lineup one full year (if they updated in January) to remain stagnate without losing thousands of potential customers.
My suggestion wait till after WWDC to see what Apple does: if they do nothing to the Powerbook lineup (even more so if neither laptop line is updated) then wait till the end of the summer. If they give us a minor update, either buy the update or save some money and get the really nice Rev. D lineup. That is may plan, anyway.
 
I'll be heading off to college as well

I too am headed off to college in the fall (UC Berkeley) but I plan to take an iBook with me. Given that the iBook has maybe 85% of the performace of a pb and better battery life AND is only 50-75% as costly, I think I'm gonna go with the "wimpy" ibook. I'm just hoping they update them before the end of summer cause its been a LONG time since their last update.
 
From a guy who's been there done that (and now in grad school). I would suggest something different.

Look on craigslist or look to buy a USED powerbook. Not necessarily refurb because students usually get the same prices are refurb. Yes, I know it'll be shinier and more pristine if you get it new from Apple BUT for example:

I just bought a well maintained 15 inch pb for $1275. Granted its an older 1.25ghz, it has no hardware flaws and minor cosmetic flaws. The same system would have cost me almost $2k new (neglecting the increase in proc speed). And sometimes they'll even be applecareable still - which is probably important if you're a freshman putting it through rough use (you think nobody's going to want to play with itunes during the party?) Anyway, go see the laptop, do your research on known flaws and scrutinize when you're there.

Trust me, a difference from 1.25ghz or better yet 1.33ghz to 1.5 or 1.66666 repeating isn't much of a difference (big caveat - if you're an art/architecture student, you might want to get the most juice but maybe you should just go for a desktop too/instead). You want it to be speedier, upgrade your RAM or even your HD. Regardless, Mac isn't known for speed, its known for the integration and fluidity of use.

Take your $500+ savings (so we're talking nearly 33% savings) and use it on the textbooks you will buy - but more realistically on the boozin and wining and dining you'll be doing.
 
I forgot to mention another big point.

Get this laptop used now because I do believe that the G4 is on its last legs. In 2-2.5 years, when your applecare runs out and/or when your powerbook starts feeling too sluggish (maybe last even longer than that!), you can get a brand new spanking quad-core g-15 AT 3.0GHZ! rev B!
 
I've got the same thoughts...

... and I'm really fighting hard with myself to not run to the next apple dialer and get my self one. The reason, why I am still waiting, is because I actually need it from octobre on... this gives Apple A BIG LOT of time to make me happy and update at least one of their portables. My biggest fear is just that I buy myself a book and the tuesday afterwards there's a new one out :eek:
 
thanks for the advice gang.

hey mottpees i'll be at santa clara university (basically in san jose), so we'll be like an hour from each other. small fricken world. im psyched for the internships... yay for silicon valley!

about processing power... i do a fair amount of design work, and i dabble in the occasional 3dsmax render, so its certainly a selling point for me. but i think you have persuaded me to get an iBook (unless, of course, apple vamps up the pb at wwdc), or at least a used mac, and then upgrade to a g5 at the appropriate time.

thanks again
 
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