cheap ibook--advice needed

[typewriterchimp]

my university store now sells 12" ibooks (1.33 ghz models, all the fixins, new in box) for 780 dollars. To those of you who keep seeing my name pop up with purchase questions, my apologies. I don't buy that often and when I do, well, some of you out there know how elaborate a process buying a new computer can be.

anyhow, the current ibook runs all the software I need at a snappy speed. office, endnote, filemaker, and maybe a little wc3. Am I really missing out by not waiting for intel and saving 300 bucks (new ibook would cost around 1000 plus at least another 100 for ram to feed the rosetta monster)? If office runs at the speed of a g4, and endnote (if it runs at all) will run at the speed of a g4, well, why not buy a cheap g4? Added bonuses like isight and front row not only do not interest me, but they flat out annoy me, so no problem there.

but I'm sure I haven't considered everything. Am I really missing out by not waiting?

thanks everyone for your help here.

-c

 

[randas]

I would wait for intel all the way

 

[danny_w]

I would much rather have a stable, mature G4 than have a first generation intel. Let somebody else be the early adopter.

 

[revfife]

I would go for it. Sounds like a sweet deal and any intel ibook is going to be awhile coming out anyway (not right around the corner as some say). If my university store had them for that much, I would buy!

 

[WillMak]

I would get the G4 if I was a freshman and then upgrade for grad school. By then, the macbook should be in it's C revision with a lot more native software.

 

[Chrispy]

I would go for the G4 since it is compatible with all of today's software... but I use Adobe CS2 so I'm biased in that regard. Regardless, that is still a great price. I'm considering getting the old G4 powerbook for $1200. Best of luck in whatever you do.

 

[typewriterchimp]

I would get the G4 if I was a freshman and then upgrade for grad school. By then, the macbook should be in it's C revision with a lot more native software.

hahaha. I am in grad school, but then again, I didn't mention that, did I? Sorry bout that. thanks for the help so far. maybe when I get a job I will upgrade to the more "professional" macbookpro. the only reason I'm upgrading from my 500mhz pismo is because it is falling apart. but again, I appreciate any input from all perspectives.

-c

 

[sw1tcher]

If your Pismo is falling apart on you, then it sounds like you could really use a new computer. If that's the case, I say get the G4 iBook and then upgrade to an Intel iBook in a couple of years. My school's selling them for $799 and the 14" iBooks for $1099. Tempting prices.

As far as waiting for the Intel iBooks, they probably won't get announced/shipped until late March/early April. If you can wait until then, then that might be better. Why? They might get a 13.3" widescreen, a higher res and brighter LCD (like the MacBook Pros did), better GPU, 5400rpm HDD, etc.

I think that's worth an extra $200 since Apple will probably price the Intel iBooks at about $999.

 

[Matt Phoenix]

Wow, that's a pretty good price! Being in the market for one myself, if I were in your shows, I'd probably snatch one up at that price.

My college has a contract with Dell, so I know something like that would never happen here.

 

[calebjohnston]

With a price like that, I'd go for the ibook in a heartbeat. The Intel machines are somwhat buggy being in revision A and all. There's also the issue of programs not running natively, and that can be a bigger issue than you may think. I just bought a PPC ibook 12" g4, and i love it. I'll switch to intel after this computer, definitely. But I'm letting everyone else work out the problems for me .

 

[typewriterchimp]

thanks for the tips, everyone!

yes, the updated stuff sounds tempting indeed. but believe it or not, even the faded old pismo is too bright for me sometimes! (eyes are sensitive). The higher rpm drive and better video would surely offer better performance and a longer upgrade path. They are writing apps for intel in the future, after all.

but after all things considered, I think I'm going to have to spring for the g4. I dont' think I could find 5 pounds and 5 hours of battery life at that level of speed for that price anytime soon. I will cringe in pain when the new ibooks ship, and it will suck as I watch all the new cool stuff for intel emerge. but this is the life of the low end user. I have to save my money to buy other stuff to satisfy my craving for random junk. Plus, I'll just stop visiting these forums after I buy

thanks again for everyone's help. chrispy, I say if you can manage not to dent the powerbook, then go for it. I would go for the superdrive model, because that's the cheapest you'll ever get a superdrive and 20 more gigs of harddrive space. plus, all of that will be inside your computer! If I could manage not to drop my stuff so often, I would be getting one of those.

-c

 

[OldCorpse]

I think I'm going to have to spring for the g4.

Good move. Plus consider this: many, many apps will NOT run natively on macintels for a very long time yet... f.ex., Photoshop may not transition until sometime in 2007. The same is even more true of some niche programs (f.ex. audio), so depending on your interests, you may find macintels worse and less useful than the G4 wrt. app availability. By the time most important apps transition you can be quite confident the maintels will be on a 3rd or 4th chip revision (things move fast in the intel world!). At that point, you may justify a buy of a macintel... so even if you would want to buy a macintel for the sake of running intel-native apps, why on earth would you want to do it on an old macintel (i.e. current macintels will be old by then)?

 

[revfife]

Plus everyone with this intel lust still forgets the ibook g4 is still a very very snappy machine. With 1.5 of ram you can pound out everything that most people can do. I estimate that many people overbuy for what their needs are. I talked to a seminary student the other day that just spent over 2300 on the new macbook pro for what? He is going to be a pastor, couldn't you write your sermon just as good on an ibook? The G4 will be a good machine for the forseeable future (remember universal also runs on powerpc).