so i know this has been discussed and discussed, but i'm getting a notebook and had been leaning towards the powerbook.. but the fact that i'm living in a house with 8 guys for the next 3 years and would like some extra battery life along with durability i'm now thinking BTO ibook.. the lab in my graphics building are all emacs.. how would a 12" ibook compare to them? i know the resolution would be lower but i can deal with that.. there aren't enough emacs so we have to wait a lot, which is why i'm getting one.. so i'm not looking for huge performance, the emacs i've been using are plenty of power.. i'll be using quark, photoshop and illustator and dabbling perhaps in imovie.. but thats it.. ibook should handle this and riding in my backpack on the bike ride to campus everyday?
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ibook capability
- Thread starter ry4n
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The iBook should keep up nicely with the eMac considering they are very similar. The iBook will not be quite as fast because of the slower hd and FSB. Very similar overall.
Good choice! Go for the BTO iB, especially since you're gonna get a Educational discount because your a student.
Go for the 80 HD, and get your RAM from Crucial or OWC.
Pass on BlueTooth, and don't forget AppleCare.
You'll get better AirPort reception with an iB than a PB, so that'll be good for you in Wifi HotSpots. Plus, better battery life.
Good Luck!
Go for the 80 HD, and get your RAM from Crucial or OWC.
Pass on BlueTooth, and don't forget AppleCare.
You'll get better AirPort reception with an iB than a PB, so that'll be good for you in Wifi HotSpots. Plus, better battery life.
Good Luck!
Do the iBook! Especially living with a bunch of guys. I lived with 7 guys in college and trust me-things get damaged. At least if the iBook gets messed up you're out less money.
I agree get an iBook. It's a sturdy machine. I would wait until Tiger is announced, because it should be any day now and I bet they will announce new iBooks. And if they don't at least you get Tiger for free.
I have a 14" iBook, and it's great!
Definitely recommend iBook. Battery life is amazing. If you dim the screen, turn off Bluetooth and AirPort, you can easily pull 7.5 hours.
Since you will be carrying it around a lot, I support your decision for a 12".
Have fun.
Definitely recommend iBook. Battery life is amazing. If you dim the screen, turn off Bluetooth and AirPort, you can easily pull 7.5 hours.
Since you will be carrying it around a lot, I support your decision for a 12".
Have fun.
The iBook is a perfect choice. I do recommend getting Bluetooth. It is only $45 edu price and you can't add it later. It's worth it just for a Bluetooth mouse. Upgrade your hard drive, I think the 60 gigs makes the most financial sense. Buy a 512MB RAM aftermarket when you got the cash. You can get Applecare anytime during your first year, so pick the up if you want when you have the cash. The iBook is a great machine.
lasuther
lasuther
If you feel comfortable, go for it.
Yesterday i put an order in for the 12" ibook, Ive wanted one for a year and my savings had reached the amount needed. However, after Id placed in the order, all of the subconscious worries i had began to surface, especially the lurking upgrade. I flogged this off initially by thinking that updating the ibooks would make them far too similar to the PowerBooks.
However, i realised that things like lowering the price, adding 512 ram etc could be done without bringing the two machines too close together...
This morning i changed my order, Im now going for the 12" powerbook, its pushing the boat out a bit, but here in England its 230 quid more ($432) with educational discount and i honestly feel its worth that extra bit more for peace of mind. The PowerBooks have only just been upgraded, the ibooks beyond average update now, and Id feel sick if they updated in April after a purchase...
If you feel happy about getting the ibook before its next update, go for it, it sounds ideal for your purposes... Its all down to whether you want to wait for the upgrade, or save slightly longer and get peace of mind with the powerbook... but everyone has different opinions, do what you thinks best for you.
Yesterday i put an order in for the 12" ibook, Ive wanted one for a year and my savings had reached the amount needed. However, after Id placed in the order, all of the subconscious worries i had began to surface, especially the lurking upgrade. I flogged this off initially by thinking that updating the ibooks would make them far too similar to the PowerBooks.
However, i realised that things like lowering the price, adding 512 ram etc could be done without bringing the two machines too close together...
This morning i changed my order, Im now going for the 12" powerbook, its pushing the boat out a bit, but here in England its 230 quid more ($432) with educational discount and i honestly feel its worth that extra bit more for peace of mind. The PowerBooks have only just been upgraded, the ibooks beyond average update now, and Id feel sick if they updated in April after a purchase...
If you feel happy about getting the ibook before its next update, go for it, it sounds ideal for your purposes... Its all down to whether you want to wait for the upgrade, or save slightly longer and get peace of mind with the powerbook... but everyone has different opinions, do what you thinks best for you.
I also would recommend getting an iBook, eventhough your brain is telling you to go for the powerbook because it's more powerfull and has better features and can outplay an iBook any day. But go for the iBook because you really want that durability.
Id definately recomend an ibook. Especially right now. The prices are awesome. Go for the bto and get a bigger hd. Its worth it in the long run. A 30 gig is just way to small. Also they are shipping them pretty quickly right now. My estimate was 4 days untill shipped and it shipped today, a full day early! 
I'll just add my little commendation to the growing list: grab one, they're brilliant! I swear they were designed for students.
If you can wait, there are rumored updates possibly towards late spring. It would be worth it.
lasuther
lasuther
It really depends on how much ur willing to spend. If you have enough money buy the powerbook. The iBook is good, but it has a little less features compared to the Powerbook. If ur using gfx intensive applications like Photoshop, illustrator, Quark and iMovie the powerbook has a better gfx card and is slightly more expandable e.g. with RAM and GFX cards (depending on model). Finally they have been recently updated so it will be a while untill there is a major update, also its quite robust i take mine everywhere and its been knocked about and it still looks and functions like the day i got it.
Whatever you do just get as much RAM as you can afford, for either the iBook or PB.
Hope this helps
Whatever you do just get as much RAM as you can afford, for either the iBook or PB.
Hope this helps
eleveneastgate said:
Agree 100% with above.
Yeah, since Uni is almost up in the UK this year, you can probably wait. I'd wait to see what happens to the graphics card, but I'll echo what everyone has said and get the iBook.
If you need to use an external monitor and want higher resolution, just use the monitor hack that even bother Apple too much. That way, you can have an external monitor with a resolution greater than 1024 x 768.
While I'm a happy PB owner, the iBook is perfect for what you do. And with the specs it has now, and the coming update to the iBook line that will make it even better, I'd get an iBook as well if I were going for a Mac laptop.
thanks for all the advice everyone.. just pulled the trigger on a 12" ibook w/60 gig and 768 ram.. shipped same day as well, i'm pretty impressed..
i would like to have been able to wait for the updates, but i'll be leaving my job april 22 and they are giving me software if i have it while i'm still here, so its a good tradeoff..
looks like i'm a switcher now..
i would like to have been able to wait for the updates, but i'll be leaving my job april 22 and they are giving me software if i have it while i'm still here, so its a good tradeoff..
looks like i'm a switcher now..
