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New here, have some questions regarding 12" iBook

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BrewCityGirl

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 12, 2005
16
0
Hi,

I'm new here and have some questions for the 12" iBook G4 that I'm going to get. I will be receiving it as a gift with all the standard specs.

1.) Where can I send it to get an upgrade in the hard drive to like 60 or 80 gb? How much would this cost approximately?

2.)And could they also upgrade the RAM for me?

Also, I'm a college student. Does Apple offer a discount on the Microsoft Office Suite?

Sorry if my questions are obviously answered elsewhere on the forums. I'm trying to search to find some answers.

I greatly appreciate any responses to help me answer my questions. And any recommendations. Thanks so much!

-Gina
 
BrewCityGirl said:
Hi,

I'm new here and have some questions for the 12" iBook G4 that I'm going to get. I will be receiving it as a gift with all the standard specs.

1.) Where can I send it to get an upgrade in the hard drive to like 60 or 80 gb? How much would this cost approximately?

2.)And could they also upgrade the RAM for me?

Also, I'm a college student. Does Apple offer a discount on the Microsoft Office Suite?

Sorry if my questions are obviously answered elsewhere on the forums. I'm trying to search to find some answers.

I greatly appreciate any responses to help me answer my questions. And any recommendations. Thanks so much!

-Gina
Click to expand...

1) Places like MacResQ.com will replace your hard drive and transfer over the contents of the old one but, the services aren't cheap and some can go higher than $300. External drives are much cheaper, but take up space.

2) You can go to an Apple Store and have them install RAM, installing RAM in an iBook is fairly simple and is easily installable. Here is a link to Apple's support page, you can find a guide on installing RAM there.

3) There is a Microsoft Office Student and Teacher edition that is already heavily discounted for education use. You should be able to pick it up at the Apple store.
 
BrewCityGirl said:
Hi,

I'm new here and have some questions for the 12" iBook G4 that I'm going to get. I will be receiving it as a gift with all the standard specs.

1.) Where can I send it to get an upgrade in the hard drive to like 60 or 80 gb? How much would this cost approximately?

2.)And could they also upgrade the RAM for me?

Also, I'm a college student. Does Apple offer a discount on the Microsoft Office Suite?

Sorry if my questions are obviously answered elsewhere on the forums. I'm trying to search to find some answers.

I greatly appreciate any responses to help me answer my questions. And any recommendations. Thanks so much!

-Gina
Click to expand...
First of, Welcome to the forums !
you can send the iBook to a apple certified shop to get upgraded , but i would just customize your order with the original order you are making-

ram is real easy to upgrade on the ibook - just do not buy it from apple as they can sometimes overcharge for ram - easy to upgrade the ibook just lift up the keyboard and remove the airport extreme card and slot it in


i think at the moment you can get Office for a really good deal from the apple store - have a look online-

"For a limited time, you can load up your new Mac with a full version of Microsoft Office 2004 and save up to $250 after mail-in rebate"


hope this helps:)
 
BrewCityGirl said:
1.) Where can I send it to get an upgrade in the hard drive to like 60 or 80 gb? How much would this cost approximately?

2.)And could they also upgrade the RAM for me?
Click to expand...
The RAM is really easy to upgrade yourself, really, and the HD is well less so, but still doable if you have patience and read the guides at http://www.pbfixit.com/cart/catalog/

One thing to keep in mind is that if you do get your iBook pre-configured with a larger HD and more RAM from Apple, these parts are covered uner AppleCare. Otherwise, you're SOL w.r.t. extended warranties.

The student Office deal mentioned above is great. Right now you can order Office for Students for $99 after rebate!

B
 
Wow! I'm glad everyone is so nice here! :)

Thanks for all your replies, I will take notes.
 
liketom said:
For a limited time, you can load up your new Mac with a full version of Microsoft Office 2004 and save up to $250 after mail-in rebate
Click to expand...
haha, I beat you again! :eek:

I know the education version is much cheaper - but, it's non-upgradable. So say if you get Office 2001 Student & Teacher edition, you can't upgrade it to the new office say Office 2004, Although the cost of the upgrade is probably the same as buying the all new student and teacher version, the dessicon is up to you. I don't think there are any limitations to the education version besides the no-upgrades thing, but I could be mistaken.:confused:
 
LimeiBook86 said:
haha, I beat you again! :eek:

I know the education version is much cheaper - but, it's non-upgradable. So say if you get Office 2001 Student & Teacher edition, you can't upgrade it to the new office say Office 2004, Although the cost of the upgrade is probably the same as buying the all new student and teacher version, the dessicon is up to you. I don't think there are any limitations to the education version besides the no-upgrades thing, but I could be mistaken.:confused:
Click to expand...
:D yeah you been beating me all day

HDD is better when orderd via apple on the original order - or external is the way to go:)
 
Go with an external Firewire hard drive that you leave at home. Use it to back up your internal drive, for use as an emergency boot drive, and for non-current data you don't need to take with you when you are walkabout. The external 3.5" drive will be faster, much larger, and less expensive than customizing the iBook.

Take the RAM up to 1.5 Gb with a single 1 Gb module if you can afford. Third party RAM is much less expensive than the Apple, and installing is a matter of a jeweller's Phillips screwdriver and 3 minutes work. Choose your RAM from a reputable seller who tests and guarantees compatibilty with your model Mac, offers a lifetime warranty and a no-cost return if it doesn't work.

To get the up to 50% whatever rebate on Office - the software has to be bought at the same time and on the same invoice as the Mac. Sorry, the window may have already closed for you on that. But the Student and Teacher edition is a good buy, and your Uni may have an even better price on a single student edition.

Thanks
Trevor
CanadaRAM.com

& welcome to MR, eh?
 
CanadaRAM said:
The external 3.5" drive will be faster, much larger, and less expensive than customizing the iBook.
Click to expand...
The faster part is not something to ignore, unless portability of all your data is an absolute must. The iBooks generally use the same 4200 rpm drives as the Mac mini, and there are reports (e.g. http://www.budget-ha.com/index.php/content/view/22/1/) of fairly dramatic performance boosts from using an external 7200 rpm drive.

B
 
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