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Looking For A Recommendation

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urth

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 24, 2005
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I'm going to be attending a university in August. I'm thinking about making the switch over to a mac, but I want to make sure I'm getting what I need. I'm interested in a laptop and have been looking into the iBook. My main uses are internet/email, aim, office applications, and some light audio and video editing.I also use my computer as my main source of listening to my music. I own an ipod, but I also use lossless audio files (shn/flac) and play them through my PC (audio out to shelf stero system).

I'm looking at getting a 14" iBook with super drive and upgrading to 512mb of ram. Would this fit my need, and is there any other software or hardware I should look into?
 
urth said:
I'm going to be attending a university in August. I'm thinking about making the switch over to a mac, but I want to make sure I'm getting what I need. I'm interested in a laptop and have been looking into the iBook. My main uses are internet/email, aim, office applications, and some light audio and video editing.I also use my computer as my main source of listening to my music. I own an ipod, but I also use lossless audio files (shn/flac) and play them through my PC (audio out to shelf stero system).

I'm looking at getting a 14" iBook with super drive and upgrading to 512mb of ram. Would this fit my need, and is there any other software or hardware I should look into?
Click to expand...

There's a good chance the iBooks will be updated by August, and that 512MB RAM will be standard. I'm not saying you should wait-- that's up to you-- but if you don't need it until August, that's something to consider. I usually don't advise people to wait, since there's always something better coming, but you mentioned August, which is a ways off. So while the model you suggest may indeed serve your needs well, if you are not buying anytime soon, what comes next should serve them even better.
 
an iBook would suit your needs very well

im just not sure if there is a Flac player for mac out there, and if they are in a lossless format they would take up quite a bit of space on your laptop's hard drive, maybe pick up an external drive too for backups and your music?
 
iBook with 768 MB of RAM.

768 is just the right amount. 512 is, IMO, fine, but 768 is quite a bit nicer when you realize that you can run about 11 applications at a time while burning a CD.

:D Beat that, Windows!
 
I say don't wait if you want to play with it now. Even if the newest iBook 14" comes with a slightly faster processor, big deal. It won't get that much faster. Trust me, these miniscule processor updates of Apples exist because they can't do a bigger CPU update. Its not Apple's fault that they have no mobile cpu, but whatever. Getting it early means that you can set everything up beforehand, and if there are any problems, you can get them sorted with Apple before Uni starts.

Secondly, even if a newer iBook system comes with 512MB as standard, I agree with Mechcozmo that 768MB of RAM is the right amount for what you do. An iBook has 2 slots for RAM. I bet you that they'd put two 256MB sticks of RAM in there for you. If you want 768MB, you'd have to replace a 256MB stick with a 512MB stick, so whether you get an iBook with 512MB or 256MB of RAM as standard does not matter. :)

I'd also upgrade to the larger HDD (the 80GB) if you're listening to Lossless format music. Just be aware that your iPods anti-skip will not work well with Apple Lossless because the files are so big. Also, your battery life will definitely be absolute crap.
 
thanks for the suggestions guys.

I already have an external hard drive for my lossless files, but it's formated with an NTFS file structure. I'm assuming I would have to archive all the files to disc and reformat inorder for the disc to be useable on a mac?
 
I also think that an iBook is a very solid machine for use at college. Be sure to purchase the best that you can afford. Also maximize the RAM.
 
I know student budgets can get pretty tight, but have you considered a refurbished PB? PB's have monitor spanning which is great if you want to hook it up to a larger CRT or LCD display.

As long as a PB is kept in great shape, you can always check refurbs for dead pixels, which you really can't do when buying new.
 
Edit: Nevermind, I saw that you store your tunes on an external. I was going to recommend (and still do) the largest HDD (80GB).
 
If you really need the internal superdrive then at the moment you have no choice, but bear in mind that the 14" and 12" iBooks are the same (1024 x 768) resolution. You just get bigger pixels on the 14".

If you can get by without it then maybe consider the 12" and an external DVD burner in a firewire box.
 
urth said:
I already have an external hard drive for my lossless files, but it's formated with an NTFS file structure. I'm assuming I would have to archive all the files to disc and reformat inorder for the disc to be useable on a mac?
Click to expand...
According to the (unconfirmed) Apple developer notes for the OS X 10.3.9 update, due any day now:

"- support for NTFS formatted volumes"
 
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