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Have birthday money. What should I buy?

unless there is other circumstances, go for powermac, i love mine more than my BMW, and that is saying something
 
anubis said:
I recently turned 21 (yesterday). Aside from the obvious benefits of turning 21, I've amassed a total of $910 in birthday money. I was thinking of buying some computer hardware. Here's a current list of the equipment I'm looking to upgrade/replace:

1. Dual 867mhz Powermac G4, 60gig, 1.25gig, combo, geforce4 mx 32mb

2. Samsung 17-inch flat panel LCD (vga, 1280x1024)

3. Dell Inspiron 8100 laptop 1ghz P3, 30gig, 512meg, dvd, radeon 7500 64mb, 15-inch display

I kind of want to replace my Powermac, because although it is decently fast, I recently had the pleasure of using a dual 2.0ghz powermac g5 at my university's bookstore, and it is REALLY SWEET. It feels like it's at least 5 times faster than my g4. I mainly use my g4 for internet, email, IM, maple, mathematica, matlab, light photoshop, itunes, unreal tournament, civ 3, etc. I can sell my g4 for about 1.1G on ebay and a decently upgraded g5 is $1884 with edu discount.

I really want to upgrade my Samsung 17-inch flat panel. I've been having flat-panel envy these days, as some people I work with recently purchased some beautiful 20.1" Dell Ultrasharp 2001fp's. At the bookstore, they also have on display new 20-inch and 23-inch apple cinema displays. They're both really sweet. I want to get the 20-inch apple cinema display because it looks really cool and has some nice specs. However, the dell ultrasharp has s-video, composit, dvi, and vga input and costs $400 less. It is also standard aspect, which means watching full-screen dvds and more importantly playing video games will use the whole screen. However, lots of games (like UT) can't be configured to use widescreen displays, which means I wouldn't get any more gameplay screen area on a 20-inch cinema display than i arleady get with my 17-inch (standard aspect) display. Which, if either, should I get? The cinema is $1169 with edu discount, dell ultrasharp is $750, and I could possibly sell my samsung for $250-$300.

Finally, I'd like to get a new laptop for one reason: the Inspiron 8100 I have weighs over 8 pounds and it literally hurts my neck and back to carry it in my backpack anywhere. What's the point of having a "portable" computer if it's so heavy I can't/don't feel like taking it anywhere? It i was going to sell my inspiron, I'd have to replace it with another PC laptop because, being an electrical engineering major, I HAVE to run software that's available PC-only (TopSPICE, Pspice, Ansoft Designer, Altera Quartus, Altera Max+II Baseline, MathCAD, Scientific Workplace, SPSS, SAS, etc.). The main consideration would be weight: anything over about 5 pounds would be unacceptable. 4 pounds or lighter would be ideal. I priced some Inspiron 600m and 700m laptops and a decently upgraded model (i.e. non-celeron processor and enough ram to at least boot into XP) is like $1700 - way more than I want to pay to shed a few pounds. The inspiron I have now is fast enough for everything I do. Should I sell it? What other PC manufacturers make light laptops? The powerbook is too expensive for me, and the ibook is far too slow. Suggestions? I could probably sell my inspiron for about $600.

What should I do?
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What I would do, being a Computer Engineering student, would be to sell the Powermac and the Inspiron (which I think you might be able to get a little more than $600 for). That would leave you with 2600 (not counting the 300 you got for the display). Get a 15" PB fully loaded for 2500 (that's what mine was, 200 less if you don't need the SD) and the iPod with cram and jam so you will get another $200 rebate. Sell the iPod. Now you're left with a great machine to both carry around to do school work (5.7 lbs, I carry mine with me every day, not something I did with my dell) as well as game (I have seen benchmarks that show the mobility 9700 performs just under the 9600xt desktop chip). You will still have 300 + 200 - 69 = 431 left for software/display or whatever.

However, if you don't need the laptop, the dual 1.8 with a new CRT might leave you with enough money that you could hang on to the laptop for Windows only programs, namely PSpice so you can get the extra muscle you're hoping for. :) Logically, I can't see spending the money for either the dell or Apple display. That is just too much money.

EDIT: I didn't see the $100 difference earlier so in the first calculation you would actually have 531. But, you do have to subtract the money you spent on getting drunk the other afternoon. :D
 
One thing i want to say is DON'T GET ANYTHIN DELL. WHY? i don't know. i just hate dell.
And another, a suggestion for a peesee laptop. fujitsus are nice, they're light and they're not dell. my uncle just got a 14" and its just under 4 lb.
For the display i say you should go for anything else but a dell. i would keep the samsung or get a nice crt. not a 19" though. i forgot why but just don't get it. go 20" or bigger if your gonna go bigger than 17".
(about the hating dell thing. they just make me mad.)
 
yeah don't get dell guys cuz u know u will be followin the crowd and gotta keep it real and rebel against the norm.. thats what us apple users do best :rolleyes: :p
 
Sounds like you still have usable hardware, so heres what I would do.

Open a Roth IRA account with $910, contribute $1000 annually and watch it grow to more than $410,000 (assuming returns of 8%) when you are 65.

Think long term...
 
$910? one word: hooker.

ok, maybe not. my best advice would be to turn 21 a couple more times. damn. i think i got maybe $50 and a few rounds of drinks for my 21st...

anyhow, it sounds like you've got that G4 fairly tricked out, a decent but not great monitor and a cinder block of a laptop.

that's a tough call. i have a dual 1.25GHz G4 at home right now and would LOVE to have a G5, but alas i just bought a loft, so all $$ is flowing into that. i think that CPU should last you a little while longer, right? maybe??

the monitor could use some upgrading. i have an old 22" Cinema and i guard it w/ my life (b/c i can't do w/o it and i can't afford to replace it!) i know CRTs are MUCH cheaper for the amount of pixels, but 4:3 is SOOooo last century. you said you watch stuff full screen, but it seems like most DVDs, even TV shows are widescreen thesedays. i know i just watched the Futurama vol4 on my widescreen Sony VVega last week, looks great.

also, you may have more pixels on your screen, but it's more about screen real estate. you said you do light photoshop work, but how many of those math programs have tons of toolbars? (seriously, i don't know, i hate math). the 16:9 flatscreens give you more space to throw all those toolbars & palletes so you have the middle of your screen for work. this is a HUGE factor for me (graphic design), but may not be as big of an issue for you. i HATE this crappy 19" CRT that i'm using right now b/c my toolbars are always in my way.

the laptop? PC laptops are so cheap right now. if you REALLY need one, go for it, but i would consider a really trick Powerbook running Virtual PC to replace both your PC laptop AND your G4. hell, get the little bitty powerbook and a big CRT to hook it up to at home. THAT'S my advice...
 
geez! where the hell do you people get this much money? personlly, i'd sell everything, get a cheap computer for $200-$400, and put the rest in a dividend paying stock.
 
Just thought I'd let everyone know what I decided

I decided to make a trip to best buy because they have lots of flat panel monitors on display in the store. So i parked myself in front of one of the demo 20.1" monitors and stared at it for a looooooong time, and then finally decided that an extra 3 inches of screen space isn't worth the money it costs. So i'm keeping the 17" display i currently have.

Also, I've decided to stick with the Dell laptop I currently have. It weighs a ton, but I can continue to live with that. It's a good computer.

So, I decided to sell my Powermac G4 to buy a Powermac G5. I went to my university's bookstore and ordered it this afternoon. Buying it through my bookstore I don't have to pay shipping or tax. The bookstore Mac guy and I both agree: Powermac updates are still a ways down the road, since Apple can barely ship the 2.5ghz. Here are the specs:

Dual 1.8GHZ G5
512MB RAM (will upgrade this soon - apple store's ram prices are ridiculous)
80Gig HD
No Modem
Combo Drive (am waiting for dual-layer superdrive support)
Bluetooth plus wireless keyboard and mouse
Radeon 9600XT 64MB

Total: $1884.

Figure I can unload my G4 for about $1100. It's nicely upgraded and has lots of software on it. In fact, I think I shall list it here on the forum before I list it on ebay to see if I can get what i want for it.

Thanks everyone for your input. Look for the listing for my G4 soon if you're interested.
 
no tax? :eek: I wish I had known that. I ordered through the apple store using my edu discount so I wouldn't have to deal with going to the bookstore and everything. I didn't know you didn't have to pay taxes by going through the bookstore. I wish I could have saved that $200+. Did anyone else not know about this?
 
The guy who runs the computer area of my university's bookstore is cool, it's uber-obsessed with macs. He has some kind of deal set up with the university so that students don't have to pay sales tax on any CPUs. He figured out some kind of fancy, loop-hole-filled paperwork to avoid the sales tax. It has something to do with the fact that when you go to pick up and pay for your CPU, you have to go to this dark warehouse out in the boonies of campus to get it, you can't actually pick up the CPU from the bookstore itself.

I have no idea what this guy actually does. I think otherwise you'd have to pay sales tax though.
 
anubis said:
The guy who runs the computer area of my university's bookstore is cool, it's uber-obsessed with macs. He has some kind of deal set up with the university so that students don't have to pay sales tax on any CPUs. He figured out some kind of fancy, loop-hole-filled paperwork to avoid the sales tax. It has something to do with the fact that when you go to pick up and pay for your CPU, you have to go to this dark warehouse out in the boonies of campus to get it, you can't actually pick up the CPU from the bookstore itself.

I have no idea what this guy actually does. I think otherwise you'd have to pay sales tax though.
Click to expand...
bahahaha
does he offer heroin with no sales tax?

actually, here in ga, we have a tax-free holiday before school starts so poor students can get a good deal on stuff.
my mom took me out for like 6 hours to buy clothes
we only saved like 40$ in that push+shove, not worth it.
computer=worth it.
 
Daveman Deluxe said:
I second the $910 of beer. That or $910 of ice cream.
Click to expand...

or $910 of tacos.

i'd save it, your well enough equipped for now, if anything sell you pc laptop and get a pentium m thin and light thing run linux and wine on it
 
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