'book dilemma

[vniow]

As most of you probably know, I recently bought a 300Mhz Blueberry iBook to use as my only computer when I move out since my PC and 17" monitor will likely take up too much space wherever I'm going. (probably a small apartment or a trailer or whatever I can afford, definately going to be small)

While I like my iBook, I'm wondering if it'll be enough for what I do or want to do (hopefully some Photoshop, light to medium multimedia stuff) and I've been thinking about selling it in the near future and getting either a brand new iBook or a refurbished Ti.

I've seen refurbished 667 DVI Powerbooks for $1699 at the special deal section of the Apple store and sometimes cheaper elseware and that's about the limit of my budget.

If I got a new iBook, it would be a 12" combo, coming out to about $1399, a $300 difference, but either one would be on a loan anywayz, so it's monthly payments that I'm most concerned about.

The iBook's newer, more portable and cheaper, and the Ti has similar specs (save for the screen and the G4) for $300 extra, is the 15.2" screen and Altivec'ed G4 worth the extra money or am I better off sticking with a faster G3?
Portability isn't my main concern, this isn't going to be a second computer that I can take anywhere, it's going to be my only one. The Ti is no doubt a sexier machine than the iBook, but it does have that 'steal me' factor.

So which one would suit my needs better, a cheaper newer smaller iBook or an older more expensive bigger, more powerful Ti?

Or should I just stick with the Blueberry?

This isn't something I'm going to be doing right now, possibly a month at the least so I have plenty of time to decide.

 

[Megaquad]

You should apsolutely get titanium
few reasons:
-667 MHz will kick iBooks ass in anything, especially os x performance (i think someone said powerbook 500 mhz was faster then this ibook 800)
-bigger screen and resolution, 1280x864 widescreen vs. 1024x768
-you can connect external display
-games will run a lot better
-its so much cooler then little small ibook

why are you even thinking? if you can get that titanium get it!

 

[springscansing]

Photoshop is G4 optimized six ways to sunday. If you wanna run it, get the Ti. It'al be twice as fast as a same speed ibook at least. And .. the blueberry is proally a little pokey for photoshop. Sorry. :-(

 

[vniow]

I can hook an external display to a new iBook too with an open firmware hack but that's not my biggest concern right now. And I could care less about games.

What I want to know is the older Ti worth the extra $300 or am I better off going with a new iBook.

Any pro-iBook people here?

Edit: whoops, I didn't see your post spring

 

[Megaquad]

Originally posted by edvniow
I can hook an external display to a new iBook too with an open firmware hack but that's not my biggest concern right now. And I could care less about games.

What I want to know is the older Ti worth the extra $300 or am I better off going with a new iBook.

Any pro-iBook people here?

Edit: whoops, I didn't see your post spring

watch out with that firmware hack, i heard somebody damaged ibook with that

 

[Thirteenva]

tibooks also tend to be more fragile so if you plan on knockin it around get an ibook, they're built like tanks.

 

[laubennd]

Well . . . the Ti will be a bit faster; although for light to medium Photoshop work it's not all that much faster if you bump the iBook up to 640 Megs. However, it will be faster; and also has the larger screen.

The drawbacks are the relative fragility of the Ti compared to the iBook and the steal me factor.

I have an 800 MHz Ti with 1 Gig RAM and my wife has one of the new 700 MHz base model iBooks with 640 Meg RAM. For most things . . . the Ti is faster but not dramatically so. If you are going to use Airport . . the Ti is actually a worse performer due to the poor signal strength with the metal case.

Is it worth it? Depends on how much pain the extra $300 gives you and how much you value a full warranty instead of a refurb warranty. I would personally discount the steal me factor since either can be stolen and the Ti is only slightly more subject to this. How much do you value the ruggedness of the iBook vs the Ti . . . that and how much you feel the $300 would decide it for me. Personally I would probably get a new anything over a refurb anything . . . but that's just me.

You might also consider Photoshop Elements instead of the full blown Photoshop . . . if you don't need to be able to do CMYK then Elements has most of the features of the full package. Elements runs nicely on either the Ti or the iBook . . .

 

[Gus]

The "broken" iBook was caused by someone trying that hack on a pre-Radeon iBook, which the author of the hack expressly warned against.

Man, I was in the same exact position about 2 weeks ago. "Used Ti or New iBook?". I went with the iBook, an I am glad I did. I think the size and ruggedness of the iBook are strong points to make, and you never hear about iBook users having "flaking paint" like with the TiBook. I also know that the G4 will definitely like Photoshop better, but for everyday stuff like browsing and e-mail, I'll bet dimes to dollars that the iBook is every bit as fast or faster. The screen may be smaller on the iBook, but it is so clear and bright-I love it.

I am hard to please when it comes to computers and performance, but I am 100% satisfied with the new iBook. Got it for $1299 with free RAM too from Backtothemac at General Cybernetics.

Regards,
Gus

P.S. Didn't mean to echo the previous post-we posted at the same time!

 

[vniow]

Well P-shop isn't the only thing I'm going to be doing on it, hopefully some video editing too but that'll probably be later and Altivec is supposed to help a lot with that sort of stuff.

I've usually had good luck with used or refurbished machines, most of my stuff is hand-me-down, very little of it is actually brand new so I'm used to used stuff though it would be nice to have new things at least sometimes.....

I don't plan on having this in a rugged environment either, it's going to sit on my desk most of the time, portability is one of those would-be-nice-but-not-really-a-requirement-but-get-it-if-I-can type of things, that's why I'm looking at a laptop over an iMac.

Whichever I get, it's going to be more of a 'desktop-replacement' than an actual notebook, although I do plan on using it as an actual notebook from time to time.


Also I just heard that Apple's 180 days same-as-cash loan ends on Jan 6 which I'm sorta depending on so I better decide sooner than I thought although I still have a lot of time.

 

[Thirteenva]

Well if you don't need a portable computer then you could pick up a dual 867 power mac for 1600 new and 1400 refurbed. If you already have a monitor then your set. The dual 867 will out perform both the 667 tibook and the new ibook

 

[vniow]

Well I don't need a portable and like you said, I could get a better performing desktop for less,
but a laptop would be a huge advantage in my case, even if I have to pay a bit more.
If portability wasn't a factor, I'd consider an iMac before a tower though just for space considerations.

But now that I've used them a bit, I really really like laptops.

Edit: what was that piece of software that was sorta hidden on a laptop and was only activated if it was stolen and then connected to the internet?