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Superdrive or Airport Extreme??

J

jliechty

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 25, 2003
10
0
Seattle
Hey,

Just lookin for some advice here. I'm planning on buying a new 12" PB in the next week. Not wanting to overspend...as this will be my first experience w/ a mac....I'm trying to decide between the superdrive and getting a netgear router or sticking w/ the combo and springing for airport extreme. Any thoughts??? I'm comfortable w/ one or the other. I hear about plenty of problems w/ AE. Thanks for any input.
 
I think that the Aiprort Extreme card could be justified as a later, but ultimately vital purchase for your powerbook. The superdrive you can only get now. If you think you will ever need to burn DVDs get it.

I don't have one, feel that I have no need for one but LOVE my Airport Extreme.

Gid
 
Misunderstood me...the AE card i'm getting for sure...what I'm talking about is the AE base station...$199 when I can get a netgear for $70....and then have some extra $ left over for a superdrive...or get the AE base station and live w/ a combo
 
I can sell you the Netgear WGR614 Wireless 54g Router for $80 shipped if you are interested. (no rebates or tax to mess around with, I bought it expecting to use it for a G5 powerbook, now that no powerbook I have no need for the router as I can plug directly into my optimum online modem).
 
shouldn't make much of a difference not getting an Airport base station. Any .11g compatible base station should work.

Superdrive is a must if you ever are going to wat to do video or backups of either large volumes of data or single files over 650MB. (You can split files up as multi part ZIPs though.)
 
save yourself money on both. get a netgear or other wireless access point. at staples.com i just bought a netgear for $62.00 with a mail-in rebate for $20. i think it was worth the $40 holding out and getting that deal. also i think you should go with a DVDR firewire drive. much more practical for any application. buy a firewire case and a plain drive and build it yourself. a lot cheaper and you can upgrade the drive later with a faster burner if you so choose. go to OWC everything you need is there and very cheap. also check Dealmac
 
i just bought a linksys wireless g router today and i am super happy with it.

no problem at all getting it working. i was worried about having to mess with settings and stuff but i had to do nothing.
it works beautifully.
right now i am sitting on the floor in my living room with my 12 pb on my lap.

i dont have a superdrive and i wish i did have one.

i dont see why you couldnt get the superdrive and get a cheaper wireless router? or even wait and get the router a little later?
the superdrive is pretty much now or never...you can always go with and external dvd burner..but why ?
 
the external is :
#1 Faster - external burners burn at 4X where the apple superdrive in the powerbook burns at 2X.
#2 upgradeable - it is much easier to take apart a firewire case and swap drives than it is to crack open a powerbook - would void warranty also.
#3 portability - a internal burner is portable but can you easily hook it up to anyones machine and burn from it - i think not.
#4 price - you can buy the ingredients for a firewire burner or the whole built thing for cheaper than one from apple.
I am not saying don't go with apple because i have both but if money is an issue than i would go firewire.

peace
 
firewire burner is not really a good substitute for internal superdrive...you can't use the iapps liek idvd without an internal superdrive ... I have a superdrive and don't use it, I would spend the extra money on more ram than the superdrive
 
you are correct about the apps but anyone serious about video wouldn't use iDVD. DVD studio pro is the way to go.
 
I would get the superdrive... One less thing to carry around, instead of an external. I would also get either the airport with the antenna jack, or an access point with a better antenna than the standard low-end airport.

That is me though... If you were a student, dvd studio pro is dirt cheap. If you planned on making dvd's. If you don't, the superdrive will still be nice for baking up iphoto and itunes libraries.
 
just burning random stuff the everyone is correct with getting the superdrive. if options are your steeze than get the external with DVD studio pro because it is far supperior. if you are newbie thann get the superdrive because iDVD is super simple to learn and quite powerful.

again - i still support DSP and external drives....that is just me though.

just my $0.02
 
This one is easy ;)

Get the Linksys 802.11g router (signal booster is available if needed) and the SuperDrive.

Later on (2 years) if you are doing lots of DVD authoring, then look into getting external burner and better software.
 
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