Thinking About buying a Mac

[SilvorX]

well i'm only a teen, but this summer i'm thinking about working for my dad and if i save up enough $$$ i might buy an imac (g4 imac), classic imac, or an ibook.
i'm hoping to get a mac with dvd (the g4 imac) but $2500 CDN may be a little to much for me if i want to get more (like a digital camera or an ipod), but if i get the normal imac, i could probably buy what i want. Which imac should i get? a $1500 CDN G3 Imac , a $2500 CDN G4 imac with dvd and lcd monitor, or an $1899 CDN ibook?

right now i'm using a crappy PC with a celeron 466 mhz processor n xp, it still works well for me, but i dont get much time to use the pc anymore since i have to share it so i'm thinking i might as well buy a new computer, was thinking of building a computer cuz everyones telling me i should just cuz Athlon XP processors "seem" 2 be faster than any other processor used for home use (thats what every1 tells me) but i'm tired of useing dull windows n i'm usually using a mac for atleast 2 hrs a day (Mac OS 8.6 tho) but most macs i have used rarely ever freezed (with exception to netscape 4 and older macs with only 16 megs of ram).
and if i get an airport card, would it connect to my phone line since i use dial up?
thanx guyz

 

[mac15]

I would recommend the g4 imac....I have one and they rock
if you are planing to do DVD and use OS X I would recommend anything with a G4 in it
and welcome to the wonderful world of macs

 

[SilvorX]

ya, i'm mainly in favour of the g4 imac right now....but i'll wait till later this year to see what kind of selection apple has for g4 imacs
i've been using macs for most of my life...and i think i used to use either dos based pcs when i started school or commadore (sp) 64s :S, not too sure since i didnt like computers when i was little back then

n thanx

i was originally thinking of getting a G4 tower and a mac compatible monitor, but whats the use when you can get a G4 imac (although less mhz speed) for the same price but inclues a monitor n dvd

i currently just have a pc, works fine for me, but i bought meself a dvd player a month ago n it hogs lots of system resources, but then again its xp...although its heck alot more stable than 98/ME lol

 

[mac15]

do you just want a DVD player or a DVD burner
which one

 

[SilvorX]

DVD Player, i wont really need to burn DVDs lol

 

[Choppaface]

if you want to build a PC, pentiums are up front in speed again I think. supposedly the 2.533 ghz P4 is faster than a 2100XP. but if you want features, then building a PC versus buying a mac isnt really going to save you much $$. I believe somebody did a calculation here once and a G4 loaded was only about 100 more than a comparably PC loaded.

for the things you listed, I'd go with a G4 iMac

 

[Tommy!]

You might want to come down to the states and buy something from the apple store. If you bought a Mac and AppleCare from an Apple Store, you could get an HP deskjet 920 printer and a photosmart 318 digital camera for only 99 dollars. the printer retails at 100 and the camera retails at 200. a good deal, since you said you wanted a digital camera... there are other deals too, like on microsoft office, (260 off i think) and a cannon printer (200 off) and tons of cool rebates on stuff. its part of their 1 year retail store anniversary. check it out at http://www.apple.com/retail/anniversary/ good luck

 

[Catfish_Man]

The loaded machines...

Originally posted by Choppaface
if you want to build a PC, pentiums are up front in speed again I think. supposedly the 2.533 ghz P4 is faster than a 2100XP. but if you want features, then building a PC versus buying a mac isnt really going to save you much $$. I believe somebody did a calculation here once and a G4 loaded was only about 100 more than a comparably PC loaded.

for the things you listed, I'd go with a G4 iMac

...are about the same, but the low/mid range ones are cheaper. You can pick up an AthlonXP 1700+ with 512MB DDR, a Radeon 7000, a nice sound card, and 80GB hard drive, and a cd burner for about 1500 bucks. I'd recommend getting a low end DDR powermac after MWNY. If you use the student discount (you said you were a teen, so I'm assuming you're a student), you should be able to pick it up quite cheaply. Especially if you buy third party ram instead of Apple ram. I'd guess you could probably manage to get a low end powermac with a dvd drive and 17" crt for 1600 bucks if you try. The current powermacs are NOT worth their price (G4s really need DDR to be effective), but after MWNY they will be (unless Apple does something stupid).

 

[SilvorX]

yep i'm a student, i'll try contacting a local computer store about discounts or else try buying from apple.ca

the current computer i have right now was a computer i DID NOT want to get, my parents picked out, but i added on stuff for the last year n some 2 make it better.
i was wanting either a nice p3 (back then) or an imac, but i changed my mind for imac cuz i wanted a computer that has windows already installed on it (even though i can use vpc)

 

[Baseline]

You may want to consider the eMac as well.

I'm pretty much in the same position as you. I'm a lifetime PC user, but now I *really* want a Mac because of OS X (I'm a Unix nut).

I've been trying to figure out which machine to buy: For the longest time it was going to be a Powerbook, but now I'm having a hard time rationalizing $6000 CDN for a Powerbook and warranty (and that's WITH my educational discount).

So my considerations have moved to the iBook, new iMac and since it was released, the eMac. I'm just waiting for my university's computer store to get their eMac pricing before making a decision.

With the eMac, you'll get the power of the new iMac, but at something closer to the price of the G3 iMac.

 

[SilvorX]

i could give emac a try but its too educational like lol :S

 

[Tommy!]

eMac purchases may only be made by k-12 faculty and staff, and not k-12 students. If you are a college student, or faculty/staff member however, you are eligible.

 

[Baseline]

Originally posted by Tommy!
eMac purchases may only be made by k-12 faculty and staff, and not k-12 students. If you are a college student, or faculty/staff member however, you are eligible.

Or, you could go to practically any university computer store and just buy it there. I know that my university's store doesn't require proof of anything. Never in my life have I heard of a university computer/book store that requires proof that you attend the institution before allowing a purchase.

Besides, in Canada, the only way to get educational prices for Macs is to go to a University and buy it there. I quote from the Apple website: "For Canadian higher education pricing and promotions, visit your campus computer store for details."

 

[SilvorX]

im not in university...
lets just skip the emac
if apple releases great products in july, maybe they'll be cheaper and more competitive than the PC counterparts.
2500 - 6 grand canadian for a G4 tower (on its own) is just WAY too much, unless your rich....if they had more competitve prices, and the the towers supported x86 hard drives (but acted like a mac hard drive) you could add more space for future use
i'm still thinking between a normal imac, g4 imac n an ibook...
thanx for your help anyways guyz lol

 

[AlphaTech]

Re: Thinking About buying a Mac

Originally posted by SilvorX
and if i get an airport card, would it connect to my phone line since i use dial up?

You are starting on the right track by getting a Mac. Get any with the G4, depending on your budget and what is available to you. If you can get it, go for the eMac, since I believe they are fairly inexpensive, and come with the 17" crt inside them. My next suggestion would be an G4 iMac, a tower or TiBook. If you want to be able to really tweak it and add new technologies as they come out, then get the tower. You can downgrade the video card for now (to save some $$) and get a better one later. Also opt for the cd-rw or combo drive inside, since you mentioned that you don't need (or intend) to burn dvd's. With the tower, you get 4 PCI slots to add things like usb 2 or FireWire 2 to the system later.

As for the airport question... wtf... In order to use the airport card with either dial-up OR another computer, you will need one of two items. Another Mac with an airport card to connect to, or an Airport Base station. The base will allow you to go online wirelessly as well as dial out for you (you won't need to plug the phone line into your system at all).

If you don't get a laptop, don't bother blowing your money on the airport card. All the Mac's come with a 56K modem inside to allow you to go online. If you ever do go with a high speed internet connection, then get the base station and start networking your systems. You can use either airport or network switches to do that. If all the computers are in the same room, go with the switch, since it will cost much less to connect more then two systems that way. You can get an 8 port 10/100 ethernet switch for about $150-$200 US, where airport cards run $100 US (each).

 

[AlphaTech]

SilvorX, what do you mean by "if they had more competitve prices, and the the towers supported x86 hard drives (but acted like a mac hard drive) you could add more space for future use"???

I can understand about it costing more up in canada, but that is the price you pay for a dollar that is weaker then the US dollar. Ecomonics are such a b*tch.

As for adding storage... in the towers, you can have a total of four hard drives. You can add a second one inside RIGHT AWAY. After that you need to get an ATA or SCSI controller card (all the towers use ATA drives on the motherboard). That is just like with peecee's, support for two hard drives, after that, you MUST add more controller cards to add more drives. Mac's can use drives up to 120GB with the controller on the motherboard, with 160GB drives being usable with third party ATA cards.

 

[SilvorX]

SilvorX, what do you mean by "if they had more competitve prices, and the the towers supported x86 hard drives (but acted like a mac hard drive) you could add more space for future use"???

i meant "could you add more storage space?" n it looks like you can add extra storage...how much do hard drives cost for macs (40-80 gigs lets say) (if i was going to plan on adding more space for a mac tower later?)

n for the economy: its really hard times out here right now...we're all hoping it'll get better soon

 

[Tommy!]

Originally posted by Baseline


Or, you could go to practically any university computer store and just buy it there. I know that my university's store doesn't require proof of anything. Never in my life have I heard of a university computer/book store that requires proof that you attend the institution before allowing a purchase.

Besides, in Canada, the only way to get educational prices for Macs is to go to a University and buy it there. I quote from the Apple website: "For Canadian higher education pricing and promotions, visit your campus computer store for details."

When I tried to get my computer at dartmouth (i wanted it right away) they wouldnt let me. I had to order it through the applestore for edu website (my mom teaches). If your local college won't let you, ask a friend who is a student, faculty or staff member. You could get a fairly good discount.

 

[AlphaTech]

Originally posted by SilvorX

i meant "could you add more storage space?" n it looks like you can add extra storage...how much do hard drives cost for macs (40-80 gigs lets say) (if i was going to plan on adding more space for a mac tower later?)

n for the economy: its really hard times out here right now...we're all hoping it'll get better soon

They cost the same as if you were going to put them into a pc. ANY ATA hard drive will go into a Mac. You can get 120GB drives for about $200 (US) or so (depending on where you buy them from).

ATA hard drives (which the G4 towers use) are platform independant. Just as SCSI drives are, just a matter of what you put them into.

 

[SilvorX]

ahh good lol, i'll wait n see what happens next year n if its all good next year (computer wise) and i enjoy using a mac (if i ever do get the mac), i'll wipe the current 40 gig drive i have n put it in a g4 tower if i get one for a grad present

 

[macfreek57]

i did the same thing this past summer
i originally wanted to get a g4 tower for the "expandability" but when i realized that i wouldn't have enough money, i settled for a g3 imac (!!!!).
i wish now i had waited another summer and gotten the computer i really wanted, but oh well
i am pissed that apple is cutting DOWN on the expandability of its top-of-the-line model. i can't have a DVD drive and a CD-R drive? what the heck is that?

 

[SilvorX]

Originally posted by macfreek57
i am pissed that apple is cutting DOWN on the expandability of its top-of-the-line model. i can't have a DVD drive and a CD-R drive? what the heck is that?

thats pretty lame...most ppl who want a dvd drive would ALSO want a cd burner of course, i hope for the next series of macs it has better specs (maybe 900 mhz for g4 imacs) and good prices n includes everything a mac user may want (ie: dvd/burner combo), computer prices seem to be pretty stable lately (hardware wise)

 

[macfreek57]

Originally posted by SilvorX
includes everything a mac user may want (ie: dvd/burner combo),

that's exactly what i'm talking about though...
i'd rather a cd burner (separate) and then a dvd drive (maybe buner). i hate having to copy an entire cd's contents to my hard drive to be able to copy it ...for...backups
but that's how apple decided it and that's probably how it will stay so oh well

 

[SilvorX]

Originally posted by macfreek57

i hate having to copy an entire cd's contents to my hard drive to be able to copy it ...for...backups
but that's how apple decided it and that's probably how it will stay so oh well

yep, i used to have to copy all the contents of one cd (that i wanted to burn) into a folder on the desktop then burn the contents, using 2 drives was a time saver for me

 

[j763]

whatever you do, don't get the classic iMac -- they can't run OS X well... go for the g4 and save up to buy ipod etc. later...