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Mac Mini, 12" PowerBook, or just wait?

H

heesey1010

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 6, 2006
99
0
Bit of a conundrum...kind of requires a simple backstory.

I'm an Apple lover (while still keeping up with everything that goes on in tech)...it shows with how many Apple stickers I have in various places. Anyway, I used to have a Macbook but mysteriously the motherboard died and I didn't have AppleCare...so I got stuck with an HP laptop with Win7 that's actually treating me OK.

I've gone only a few months without a Mac and was doing OK til I got back home and played around with my graphite iMac and realized how much I missed the more aesthetically pleasing Mac OS X (despite it being Panther). I've been thinking about getting a Mac Mini for sometime just as a segway machine until my dad purchases a MacBook Pro for me after I graduate college/get into med school.

But then I saw this 12" PowerBook on sale in my local Craigslist...1.25GB RAM, 80GB HD, OS X.5, 1.33GHz G4, etc., all for $300. One or two keys are acting a little funky (scissor attachment for the keys are not working as they should), but I genuinely think it's a good deal.

I'm stuck though...not to mention there's "iSlate". I don't care for it that much though, and I definitely won't care if it's not running OS X and instead is running iPhone OS. But I don't know what to do...is it OK, in this case to just stick with the somewhat old PowerBook? All I really need right now is a machine that will do Word, Excel, and PowerPoint as well as a good amount of web browsing and basic photo editing/storage.

I should also add that I'm somewhat of an "old" Apple computer collector...along with the graphite iMac, I (will) have a graphite iMac. The 12" PowerBook definitely appeals to me on a collectable level...I just don't know if it's worth it.

Thanks for reading this post!
 
$300 sounds fairly god for that 12" PB. I have one and I still use it when I travel, mainly for email and the net. Depending on what you need it for the 12" should do fine for you. Offer the guy 250 and see if he will take that for his PB.
 
I have one and a netbook is much faster and more portable for about the same price. I have the 1.5ghz version and it can barely handle YouTube lol
 
Honestly? It's a good deal, but I wouldn't buy it. It's years old already and we're already past the maximum OS it can handle. If you want it on a collectible level, just wait a few more years and they'll be $100 or so. For usability I would get a new(er) laptop, no question. At least with an Intel!
 
I say go for the powerbook.

You love the old Macs, so its shortcommings (its a little slow) won't bother you. It's a nice collectible: isn't it the smallest footprint mac ever made? It's got great I-was-Apple-when-Apple-wasn't-cool cred.
 
Hold out for a 1.5ghz 12" Powerbook. Much better than the 1.33 12" PB...

2.0 USB/2.0 Bluetooth/Sudden Motion Sensor/Scrolling Trackpad/Faster CPU/Better Superdrive/Faster bigger Hard drive (oem at least)

I wouldn't touch any but the 1.5ghz. I've owned four of them now, two from brand new.
 
So after a brief talk with my dad (bad idea at first, good idea later on). I decided to forgo the option of the 12" PowerBook...for now. The guy on Craigslist offered to actually lower the price to $250...but for some reason, I would've just not felt right having a notebook that still had some loose keys (I forgot to mention that in my original post), so I tried asking for $200 to no avail (and rightfully so...300$ for 1.25GB of RAM in a 12" PowerBook seems still like a good deal).

Now it's just on to wait for iSlate. Or maybe even some sort of i3/i5 MacBook Pro. Thanks to all, and happy new year!
 
Well, I would say that today, in this modern and fast-evolving world, no one should buy an old computer unless they seriously have no money and no computer at all. But you have an HP laptop, that probably does Word, Excel, PowerPoint and web browsing perfectly well, and that's what you need it for. If the only reason you want a Mac is because of the "Mac Feel", and there is no urgent need to get one because of something like Final Cut Pro or because your current computer is too slow, or whatever reason. I would say stick with your HP until you can afford a good, brand new Mac.
 
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