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Need Help Convincing My Dad

bennetsaysargh

bennetsaysargh

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jan 20, 2003
2,367
1
New York
i need some help convincing my dad to buy a new computer. i am currently on a 400Mhz G3 iMac (Slot-Loading) with 512MB of RAM and a combo drive.
lately, the whole computer has been slow, really really slow. slow beyond your worst nightmares. i think it's time for a new computer. it would most likely be a new iMac, or eMac. i plan on making a movie with iMovie, or FCP if i can get a copy of it. My family would use it for email and web browsing. We all use iTunes. without iTunes, i don't know where i would be.

we are on a limited budget, so i also need ideas to help with that. sonce he works at night as an NYPD officer, i need to talk to him about the money tnat would be needed. i also want to know more about the apple loans.

any help/suggestions would be greatly apriciated.
 
I'll just tell ya, Apple loans are like Apple's standard warranties, they suck. If you get a loan, PLEASE go through a bank and don't pay 10% interest.
 
well how old are you? if your old enough for a job then get one and work hard to get enough for what ever computer you want. Im 17 and I worked, saved, and then payed for what I have now all on my own(powermac 1.42). TRUST ME Ive had my parents buy my computers before but now that I bought this one MYSELF it feels SO MUCH better and I just love it all that much more knowing that.
 
definately get a job if you can, at least to pay for part of it. Parents are a lot more willing to spend money on more expensive items if you work to pay some to cut down their cost, and since you're a student (i assume hs) you can score an apple student discount. Just try to talk with your parents to find out what you can do to get them to be more open about getting a new computer. Drop the "it's my future" line and other such bs.
 
Re: Need Help Convincing My Dad

I recently helped pick out and set up a new computer for my family. We were replacing an imac 400 dv slot loading with 256 RAM. :)

A careful review of the specs show that the emac is a much much better deal than the imac (15", since I doubt you'd be looking at the 17" imac on a budget). Faster system bus, airport extreme, better video card. Faster processor for the same or even less money. All around a much better deal. You lose the sexy form factor... but the emac looks very nice in it's own way.

My family went for the 1 Ghz emac with combo drive and RAM upgraded to 640. With a student discount and no sales tax, the total price was only $1050. I know that's still a lot of money, but it's a really great computer. It's very fast, very sturdy, and would do everything you and your family want.

I'm not sure what your budget looks like, but I suggest the 1 Ghz combo emac over the cd rom emac. For $200 you get 200 mhz, 20 gigs of hard drive (nice if you'll be making movies), and the (fast) combo drive. But at $800, the low end emac is an excellent deal as well, and keeping the price under 1k may be a big selling point for your dad. Either way, you must upgrade the RAM. Our emac had 128 for a day (before I could get the 512 stick) and it was awful. With 128 RAM neither you nor your family will be happy with the computer. OS X *demands* at least 256, and preferably as much as you can give it.

You can look for deals online at
www.macspeedzone.com
They list a lot of online sellers, and tell you if they have tax, shipping, and what extras they are currently offering.

I applied for an apple student loan once (on a different purchase) and got offered a rate of 20%. The hell with that! I can do better on a major credit card! But you could look in to it; maybe you would get a better offer.

When my family got the emac, we sold the old imac on ebay, and it brought $400. That went a long way towards defraying the cost of the new computer. Maybe you could do the same.

Finally, the other posters are right. If you can get a job and contribute something towards this computer, it will both show your dad how important this is to you and will also ease the financial pressure.
 
I agree. Get an eMac. It has great specs for the price.......better than the iMacs. You lose the cool display, but oh well, what can you do if you're on a budget, right? Also, eMacs look great. They honestly do.
 
thanks for your help everyone.
especially thanks for telling me about the interest on the apple loans.:p

i am doing more research on the online stor because i get to talk to him after dinner. i think he migh want to get an iMac, but i'm not sure. i think he definatly wants a superdrive. i'm thinking of taking him to the apple store for a field trip.:)

he's off untill august on vacation, so wish me luck:)
 
wait!

i got another question, which is better, the

ATI Radeon 7500 with AGP 4x support; 32MB dedicated DDR SDRAM graphics memory

the
NVIDIA GeForce2 MX with 32 MB of DDR SDRAM

or the

NVIDIA GeForce4 MX with 64 MB of DDR SDRAM

thanks:)
 
Ask our folks to get an eMac and help save up for it. If you don't want to/can't get a permanent job, offer to mow some lawns or something. Unfortunately, you're a high school student so you don't qualify for Apple's student discounts (you have to be faculty or college student).

Get a minimum of 512 MB of RAM but order the RAM from Crucial, not Apple. Apple charges too much.

Order from MacMall or a similar mail-order outfit. They usually offer great deals like a free printer, free RAM, free Office v.X and other things like that. I HIGHLY recommend ordering from one of those places.

As for the graphics card question, I would be inclined to say GeForce 4 > ATI Radeon 7500 > GeForce 2, but I reserve the right to be wrong. Unless you're going to be playing games on this computer, I wouldn't worry a lot about what graphics card you get.
 
On Apple Inst loans

One thing to remember, now on the Apple Inst Loans, it's 6 months same as cash (i.e. no interest as long as you pay it off before the 6 months are up).

I use those (no interest, no payments) loans a decent amount to delay the costs of house upgrades and on both computers I bought. Borrow someone else's money for free... Just remember to pay it off before the 6 months is up.

One a $1000 computer, that's $200/month to throw at it and it'll be paid off before the 6 months is over... Sometimes that's easier to deal with than $1000 out of pocket, or paying ANY interest on a loan for 1/2 years.

Enjoy!

...Jim
 
Re: wait!

Originally posted by bennetsaysargh
i got another question, which is better, the

ATI Radeon 7500 with AGP 4x support; 32MB dedicated DDR SDRAM graphics memory

the
NVIDIA GeForce2 MX with 32 MB of DDR SDRAM

or the

NVIDIA GeForce4 MX with 64 MB of DDR SDRAM

thanks:)
Click to expand...

daveman is correct; The vid card on the emac is better than the one on the 15" imac, but worse than the one on the 17" imac. The 64 VRAM on the 17" imac is a nice step up over the other too, and if you're going imac/ emac, the 17" imac is by far the nicest machine overall. But also by far the most expensive.
 
thanks for all your help.
i;m bringing him to the online store to see what we can get. once we do that, i'll try to convince him to take a trip to paliusades to try then out:)
 
Originally posted by Daveman Deluxe
Ask our folks to get an eMac and help save up for it. If you don't want to/can't get a permanent job, offer to mow some lawns or something. Unfortunately, you're a high school student so you don't qualify for Apple's student discounts (you have to be faculty or college student).

Get a minimum of 512 MB of RAM but order the RAM from Crucial, not Apple. Apple charges too much.

Order from MacMall or a similar mail-order outfit. They usually offer great deals like a free printer, free RAM, free Office v.X and other things like that. I HIGHLY recommend ordering from one of those places.

As for the graphics card question, I would be inclined to say GeForce 4 > ATI Radeon 7500 > GeForce 2, but I reserve the right to be wrong. Unless you're going to be playing games on this computer, I wouldn't worry a lot about what graphics card you get.
Click to expand...

Keep in mind that the iMac has two RAM slots that can hold 512 MB each. Only one of these is accessible by the users (you). I suggest you get a Build to Order from the Apple Store and choose the 512 MB 1 slot option. This will leave the other slot empty so you can add to it later.

You said you dad is on vaction and goes back to work in August. If he's a teacher or school employee, he may qualify for the education discount.

The freebies from mail order stores (MacMall, MacWarehouse...) are gimiks. You have to pay for the items and then send in rebates to get your money back. If you are going to buy a new printer, RAM, software or whatever anyway you have nothing to lose. If your budget is tight, don't bother with them.
 
Originally posted by Fender2112
Keep in mind that the iMac has two RAM slots that can hold 512 MB each. Only one of these is accessible by the users (you). I suggest you get a Build to Order from the Apple Store and choose the 512 MB 1 slot option. This will leave the other slot empty so you can add to it later.

You said you dad is on vaction and goes back to work in August. If he's a teacher or school employee, he may qualify for the education discount.

The freebies from mail order stores (MacMall, MacWarehouse...) are gimiks. You have to pay for the items and then send in rebates to get your money back. If you are going to buy a new printer, RAM, software or whatever anyway you have nothing to lose. If your budget is tight, don't bother with them.
Click to expand...

why is only one of them user accesible?

my dad is an NYPD cop. if we go through the online store, ew can get up to 100$ off, and that will help. we can sell the iMac after we get the new computer, and then pay off the apple loan before the first 6 months to avoid interest.

i don't think we will go through any mail order stores. we already have office, ew can hook up to my brother's printer upstairs, and we have ebough RAM.

in SDRAM in this iMac, it is 512MB in 2 256 pieces.


thanks for al of your help:)
 
Originally posted by bennetsaysargh
why is only one of them user accesible?
Click to expand...

I believe one of the memory slots is soldered (I could be wrong...)

and we have ebough RAM.

in SDRAM in this iMac, it is 512MB in 2 256 pieces.
Click to expand...

the Flat Panel iMacs use DDR ram (17" model), not the older ram in the slot iMac. I fyou want to use your old ram - you might have to go for the 15"...

Note however, that DDR ram is really cheap (512Meg stick is AUD$110 - or ~$65-70USD) - DO NOT buy ram from Apple - paying 4x the price for ram (you can buy the exact ram they put in Apples at most PC strores for 25% of the price (AUD$110 versus AUD$440 is a darn big difference!) I have a friend with a 12" pb that works at a PC store - he can tell you the exact brand of ram they use...

-- Dan, buying 17" pb in September (if they ever update...) :D
 
Originally posted by Aciddan
I believe one of the memory slots is soldered (I could be wrong...)
Click to expand...

Its not soldered in, its an ordinary full-sized RAM stick like those used in just about every other desktop, its just on the inside on the other side of the logic board so you have to basically take the whole bottom half apart to get to it, that's why only the other slot is user-accessable.
 
thanks for all of that information. it turns out that i'll be waiting untill october when the budget losens a bit.

thanks again:)
 
If you buy it through pcmall.com you get up to 512mb of ram free, choice of 2 free printers, free MYOB Firstedge and a free floppy disk drive. Not a bad deal.
 
i'm pretty sure backtothemac is no longer with general cybernetics so the good deals (except the macs he's selling) are no more....he was forced to sell his 17" iMac ....too bad you don't have that kind of cash you could help out a fellow member and get a great machine.
 
"Dad, I'm hooked on heroin and I got some girl pregnant."

-"W-What the--?!?!?!"

"Just kidding. I want a mac tho."

-"Whew, thank god...."
 
do NOT buy the emac. the 17 inch imac is a FAR better machine. if you see the display, in person, and compare it to the emac, you will see what i mean. the LCD on the imac is just SOOOOO good. and it is widescreen. as for the superior components of the emac, just wait until the next (soon) imac revision. PLEASE, do not get an emac.

one more very important point about the imac: it looks good. and not just the machine, i am talking about the display itself. the image on screen is PERFECTLY framed. this IS important, as you will be looking at your screen for the next few years. imagine a masterpiece painting, with a really thick, deep, crappy frame. it sort of detracts from the brilliance of the painting. the same analogy works with the imac display.

the imac is far more ergonomical. and no, the emac stand is NOT a substitute.

it may be a few hundred dollars more expensive, but it is worth it. and you CAN earn that money before october.

so, in closing, GET THE IMAC!!!!!!!
 
well, my dad has not yet decided on weather we will get an iMac or an eMac, i will be happy either way. i do mean as long as it is at least 1Ghz and has a superdrive:)

i know the iMac has a far better screen, because i always go on them at the apple store, but it is up to my dad because without him, i have no chance of getting it.
that extra money could make his choice the eMac, but i think he wants an iMac from what information i have gathered.
thanks yet again:)
 
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