ibook or imac

[Angelus]

Hey my mums pc is a real pain in the ass(has been since she got it five years ago). Its constantly crashing on her and i hate her having to use it when im on my oh so stable powerbook.I want to help her get a new computer,a new mac hopefully.
If we combine our finances i figure the most we'll spend is ?1900.
Now comes the big decision,do we get a 12" ibook 900Mhz or a 15" imac 800Mhz?
It will be used for surfing,email,word processing,listening to music and maybe light web design,and i emphasise light, should my sister get hold of it.
Is there much of a speed difference between the ibook and the imac?
Will the ibook being a G3 be outdated very quickly?
Would the 15" screen be easier for her eyes(her eyesights not perfect)?
How does the G3 handle osx?
I want to get her a good computer and more importantly i want her to be happy with its performance(shouldnt be too hard when shes moving up from a Pentium 166 with 128MB RAM and 2GB hard drive on Win 95).
The ibook would most likely have 348MB of RAM while i'd probably give the imac 512MB.

Thanks in advance to all who reply,
Angelus

 

[MacFan25]

The screen size would be up to her. How big is her current monitor? If her eyesight isn't very good, then she may have trouble seeing things on the 12" iBook.

Have you looked at the eMac?

 

[Angelus]

her current monitor is 15" crt but i think she uses it at 800x600 or even 640 x480.
I thought about an emac,they are very good for the price but having experienced lcds and the lack of headaches i think she would prefer lcd displays.
What about performance?

 

[MacFan25]

A 900mhz iBook will run OS 10.2 fine, but you might want to max out the ram, since OS X loves ram. For what she will be doing with it, the iBook would probably fit her needs perfectly.

But, the 15" iMac would also probably fit her needs, plus the screen could help. She might also like the coolness factor of the iMac.

 

[Angelus]

That 15" floating screen is to die for alright.the more i think about it she would love the imac but im still not sure.
Just out of curiosity,if you were given a choice between the imac or the ibook which would you choose?

 

[maracz]

A iBook 900 will be faster than a iMac 800 for anything that your mother would need to use it for. Providing of course that they both have equal ram.

The iMac 15" seems horribly overpriced to me, it doesn't have any of the featres that the iMac 17" has to make it good, or better over the iBook. They both have SDram, standard airport, and the ibook has a better graphics card too.

The iBook runs OS X fine even with 128 MB Ram. As for being outdated I think that it will handle the next few os' fine. OS 11 is a definate. In fact it may run faster (providing the next OS is not filled with altivec apps).

The screen however is a problem, the iBook doesn't look nice working on low resolution. It have hurt her eyes a bit, my eyes are fine and sometimes it's still a bit annoying to me. Perhaps you should invest in an external LCD (used are cheaper) or getting a 14" screen for the iBook since you're already in the 900 range. At the very least get her an iCurve, those things are nice on your eyes since you can bend back the screen fully and it looks really sharp like that.

 

[Angelus]

I may be able to work it so that she can get an ibook 900mhz with 14.1" lcd and 348MB RAM.
Now the only question i have when i look at things again is will the speed gains from the ibook warrant the extra ?250 euro when she can get a G4 with more RAM and a bigger screen.Actually come to think of it the imac may be a better deal?

 

[maracz]

iMac over the iBook:
Lower Cost
G4 Processor
Bigger HD
1" Bigger Screen

iBook over the iMac:
Better graphics card
100 MHZ Faster
Mobility
Higher Resale Value

That's basically a summary. But as has been mentioned before your mother will encounter virtualy zero difference between a G3 and a G4.

 

[Angelus]

Ok thanks for the help.
Im off to sleep on it for a while,
Angelus