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Buying An ibook

J

jer446

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Hey guys.. I think im going to buy my first mac ever.. Im nervous lol.. I will probably by an ibook.. not sure yet of the 12 inch or 14 inch... I need to decide should i get it now, or in a couple weeks because i thought new ibooks were coming out at the mac expo? ALso, should i buy it from mac? I will use the government disount. I will not upgrade the ram from them, i will upgrade it myself to 768. I will also bump the hd up to 60. Id also get bluetooth. Whens the next os coming out? Is there anything else i should no becauyse i have never used a mac before. I do some photoshop and internet.Also can i use the gvt. discount in a physical store?
 
yes, you can use the government discount at a mac store. i've done it.

as for the other questions, try searching the forum a little bit. 12vs14 in ibook has been discussed, so has whether or not there will be updates soon.
 
14"

I can tell you that if you're doing photoshop/graphics work that I've really liked my 14" iBook. I tried the 12" and even though the screen res is the same-I found myself straining to use it. I got the 60 gig hard drive too and that's definitely a plus. Also-shove as much RAM into it as you can. It always helps. You're going to love your iBook. You won't regret buying it!
 
The 12" and the 14" iBooks have the same screen resolution (1024x768) so it is only a difference in how big the pixels are. Both iBooks will be nice.
 
I love the portability on my 12". Having used the 14" G3 PB before that, I can attest that there's big difference in portability. I couldn't go back to a 14" now that I'm used to carrying it around everywhere. But perhaps if you use it primarily in one location the larger may be better for your eyes. Another consideration will be whether or not you need an internal SuperDrive.
 
The only good things about the 14" is the superdrive and if your eyesight isn't good then the 14" screen will help even thought the 12" and 14" use the same resolution.
Personally I like the 12" better and i think its a better value aswell.

Congrats on your purchase...I'm hoping to buy my own 12" very soon.
 
I have used a 12" before and I must say unless it is right in front of you it will be a slight strain to focus in on smaller items (such as photoshop related items). However, the 12" screen is much more crisp than the 14". Both have thier positive and negative traits about them. If you can, try to go look at them in person at an Apple store. I would honestly be surprised to see Apple change the iBook line again so shortly after giving the G4s a kick in the CPU not too long ago. The Powerbooks are more overdue for an upgrade than the iBooks. Go for the HD increase and the RAM and whatever screen you get you will likely be happy. 😎
 
Well, thankfully, whatever you do, you're gonna be happy. The great thing about the 12" is it's low price. This supposedly comes from the so called penalty of the reduced size, but if the previous opinions have swayed you to the 12", you can then use the "free cash" to get some upgrades in there. I'd go straight for the Hard disk, 60 being a minimum. Not sure how it would price up, but you might have room for a RAM upgrade, although that of course can be done at a later date. Don't forget bluetooth as well 🙂

Dave
 
i would definetly upgrade the ram myself, put in anotyher 512. I dont know if i would upgrade the hd myself, although i would be able to save some money and get a bigger hd. Also, how do you go about reformatting a mac, do they give you a cd where you can pop iin and it will load the defaults? What would i do if i replaced the hd?
 
I myself almost bought the 12" iBbook, for reasons of portability. I however wanted to have the bigger hard drive, 512 Ram and all the "bells and whistles" like bluetooth... once it was all customized up the price was approaching that of the 12" Powerbook. Guess which one I got?
 
sry i didnt mean it to be about 12 or 14 inch.. im getting the 12 inch.. i might wait and see what comes out at mac expo because the powerbook updates seem nice 🙂
 
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