Newbie ibook adventure ending

[merlynhome]

I am about to make the switch from my 4 year old HP which is slowly grinding to a stop to a brind new mac. I have no doubts that I am making a great move and am going to love my friend very much however I am feeling in a bit of a bind about what to get.

I must have a laptop, well that narrows it down and I am a consumer not a pro, excellent that makes my choice between a 12" and a 14", well I would like the bigger screen and the superdrive so desicion made.....or is it. You see all is fine untill you look down the specs and there it is

32MB DDR video memory

Now dont get me wrong I am not starting a campaing for 256mb grapics card but at the same time come on what is that?

I understand that this is not a dedicated games machine but I dont think it is unreasonable to expect the average Consumer to whant to try a game or to for fun, is that not what a consumer madol is for.

I am an avid Football Manager player and although the grapics are basic I am a bit concerned that it may bring my new Ibook to its kneeswhat will happen when I want to pick up Rise of Nations or Command & Conquer Generals which againg are not grapics intensive, but what if I where to move on to Lego Star Wars, or I get taken along in the excitment of Doom3 all of a sudden my top end Consumer machine has to back away.

My second concern is the screen. Let me go back to football manager, you see I am plaing it right now, as I am typing this my team is pressing for a goal. i can do this because I can set my screen resolution higher than the minimum 1024x768 needed this means that I can play the game in a sepporate window and not full screen brilliant I can browse the web send e-mails listen to music, i can do this on my dying computer I could go to dell and do it on a £600 laptop but on 14"ibook, I dont think so.

So do I go back to the drawing board brake my budget and get a 12" powerbook, well no I need a bigger screen, what about the imac well imo they are great and fantastic price but I really need to be portable, do i go second hand and try to find a cheap powerbook maybe but on my fist mac purchase you will understand my hesitation. Maybe for me the adventure is already ending although i am already in love the tiger and smile when I think about the ripple affects, was looking forward to getting my photos and music in order maybe it is not to be maybe that dell advert was ment for me.

I know there is not much of a answer to this post, if you have any opinions let me know, please remember I am a newbie and excuse any glaring mistakes i have no doubt made.

thank you

 

[mad jew]

Look through eBay for a second hand 15 inch PowerBook? If you get a recent model, that will solve your GPU issues and your screen resolution problem.

 

[SummerBreeze]

Go for the PowerBook instead, sounds like you may be a bit disappointed with the iBook. You can check out the refubished models, they may fit better into your price range.

You're definitely making the right decision to get a Mac.

 

[merlynhome]

as i said the 12" powerbook is too small really need a 14". Finding a 15"powerbook has two problems buying new means another £300-£500 depending on new or refurb. i could scan ebay but that in itself can be a risk and i am not sure if I want to do that on my first apple purchase,

what is the general satisfaction rate of apple ebay buyers.

 

[jholzner]

as i said the 12" powerbook is too small really need a 14". Finding a 15"powerbook has two problems buying new means another £300-£500 depending on new or refurb. i could scan ebay but that in itself can be a risk and i am not sure if I want to do that on my first apple purchase,

what is the general satisfaction rate of apple ebay buyers.

The 14" iBook as the same resolution as the 12" Powerbook and iBook. Everything is just bigger on the 14 inch screen (you have the same amount of screen space on both). I've convinced a couple people to go with the 12" powerbook instead of 14" iBook and after using it had no problem with the screen. I think most people just think 12" is too small but once they use it they realize how wrong they were. Besides, I think the 14" iBook is just so big a bulky and in my opinion one of the more poorly desiged macs on the market right now.

 

[Chundles]

Well, C&C Generals should work fine on an iBook, sys reqs are:

Operating System: Mac OS X 10.2.6 or later
CPU Processor: PowerPC G4 or later
CPU Speed: 1GHz or faster
Memory: 256 MB or higher
Hard Disk Space: 1.6GB free disk space
Video Card (ATI): Radeon 7500 or better
Video Card (NVidia): GeForce2 MX or better
Video Memory (VRam): 32 MB or higher
Media Required: DVD Drive

Yeah, it says 32MB or higher but look at the cards it lists - they are very old, the GeForce2 MX is Cube era.

As for Lego Star Wars:

Operating System: Mac OS X 10.3.8 or later
CPU Processor: PowerPC G4/G5
CPU Speed: 1.2GHz or faster
Memory: 512MB RAM
Hard Disk Space: 2GB free disk space
Video Card (ATI): Radeon 9000 or better
Video Card (NVidia): GeForce FX5200 or better
Video Memory (VRam): 32MB
Media Required: DVD drive required to install and play

The specs are higher but the iBook still falls within range.

Doom 3? Heelllll No!!

Compared to a PC, any Mac will struggle a bit with Doom 3, except maybe the new beasts of PowerMac G5's.

The problem is, as you've said, the PowerBook is a bit exxy and the rest just aren't portable. Just to make sure you do realise the 14" iBook doesn't offer any more real estate on it's screen compared to the 12"? They're the same resolution and I'm one of those people who find the 14" screen looks a bit fuzzy (top shelf battery life though...)

Looks like you might have to go for something in the second hand PowerBook range if you're that concerned about gaming performance. I love my little iBook - nothing I've thrown at it yet that it couldn't handle but then I don't play video games so I can't be looked upon as a provider of good advice on this subject.

PowerBook looks like the deal, check out the Marketplace forum - I'd trust buying from members here more than I would eBay.