Which Mac Portable to Buy???

[galstaph]

Hi all,
I was wondering if anyone could give me advice on which portable mac to buy. I am starting my second year of University in september and want to toss the old winblowz laptop. I have been looking at the new ibooks and they appeal to me 9mostly because of pricing much lower than a new TiPowerbook. With my educational discount the low end of the Ti family comes in at $3899 Canadian (a bit much for a student like me), whereas I can get a 12.1" ibook /w combo drive for $2324.00. I will be using it mostly for writing and such. I would also like to be runing 10.2 on the machine. Should I an older powerbook, without warranty, or should i bite the bullet and go with a new ibook? I've been trying to decide for the past few months. I also want the laptop to last me for the next 5 or 6 years. Does anyone have any suggestions? I'd like to hear some opinions on the two machines.
Thanks.

BTW I love this board, even though I haven't posted much, I do lurk, all is good.

 

[cb911]

well, if you're just doing typing and stuff like that, then the 12" iBook should be good for you. and it should be able to run 10.2 fine, i hear that it's alot faster than 10.1.
the iBook is also alot more 'carryable'. the TiBooks big size can make it a bit cumbersome, and if you're going places all the time, then you'll probably be glad you got the iBook.

as for lasting 5 or 6 years, i doubt that the iBook will last that long. it will probably stil be working okay, but you might want another Mac by then.

do you have to get it soon? if not i would suggest that you go to an Apple store once Jaguar is released and then have a play around with the iBook and see how you like it.

 

[Beej]

Even the fastest computer now will be laughably slow in 5 - 6 years. 5 years ago I was using a 7200/120, now I'm using a 933 quicksilver But I still love that old 7200... and I'd even use it... if I hadn't blown it up

Anyway, my advice is to go with the iBook. Get it new with Jaguar on it, get the warranty, and get the oppertunity to use the service and support from Apple/your local reseller if you need it. The iBooks are wonderful little machines, especailly for students. They're quick, sexy (in a non-garish old iBook way) and very rugged.

One thing to consider is bumping up the RAM it comes with, 256 is really a minimum, 512 is nice. I have 512, with another 512 stick in the mail. Yummy... RAM

PS. Apple resellers don't make any money out of selling education-priced Macs, so don't bother trying to get them to throw in some freebies. They won't do it. Trust me, I've tried. Really hard

 

[bevo]

I just purchased an ibook 600 with dvdrom and 15gb HD from compusa yesterday brand new for 1k american.

Im not sure if you could buy from compusa if they are in canada? But maybe goto a local apple reseller and see if they have any of the old models in stock. Here it seemed like they were in a hurry to get rid of the older ibooks. Im loving mine. Its brand new and with the 512 meg piece of ram I got for $100 its running pretty good. Looking forward to the updated os x to see further speed improvements though.

 

[ShaolinMiddleFinger]

I would go with the iBook but don't expect it to be a great machine in 6 years.... If you're still doing wordprocessing by then, it should be fine.....