Going for the 12" iBook, still have few questions...

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Flaps45

Guest
First... congrats. on this board!!! it is amazing the knowledge all of you have regarding apple products, I'm definately on the right place.
I'm switching to MAC after years of using PC, basicallyfor the same reason everybody else switches, however I just spent a few $$$ on my laptop to keep it up to date and have also a PC based at home just because I can't throw it away. I've been researching all over the place for a MAC, a laptop, I travel a lot and even though I am not required to own a portable computer it is nowdays a great companion in those long hotel stays. I've been reading the board for about 2hrs to learn more and more and most of my questions were answered here just by reading, however some others are still unaswered. My mind is almost set on the 12" iBook for several reasons. The HD is only 30g but I also own a 40g iPod which I can't make it pass 8g's of music, so I still have pretty much another 30 gs of space on the ipod's drive+the 30g's included I have 60 right there, I do not mind the 12" screen, my current laptop is 14" but I also would love to try the portability of the 12".
My inmediate upgrades at the time of purchase (next month) would be:

1-512mb memory,
2-I'm buying a USB keyboard (kinda piano) to use with garageband,
3-1 USB or firewire recording interface with MIDI inputs
4-A mice

I'm not really crazy about the super drive, I do indeed want to watch DVD's and burn my own Cd's, so I'm all set there.

The main use for the iBook is going to be, web browsing, some document typing every now and then, in the future some light to medium video work, CD burning and definately some medium music work, I won't use it as a recording studio but definately as an audio editing tool using garageband and some software I'll maybe buy in the future, I already have a recording studio so this little fella will be a helpfull scratch pad for music production, I'm not going to record u2's next album with it, or film Rocky XX with it so...

My questions are:
1- is the 12", 512mb iBook going to handle this tasks well enough?
2- what's the average battery duration for light workloads?.
3- How many charges is the battery capable of handling?

Thanks a lot in advance for the help.
 
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Your Mac's Specs
PowerMac G4 Cube 450mhz 832mb
sounds pretty good,
1. itll be ok, but if possible, get more ram.
2&3. not sure.
 
OP
M

meltbanana314

Guest
1. Get 768MB (256 in the iBook when you buy it, then buy 512MB from Crucial and install it yourself. Trust me.

2. Light workloads - Apple claims 6 hours, realistically you can get 3.5-4 on light use, with some services disabled and power-saving on. Some people have gone past that, though. Your milage may vary.

3. All lithium-ion batteries are good for about 500 charge cycles before they reach their point of becoming useless. You can make it better by completely discharging your batter about once a month. Think of it as a battery checkup. (If you aren't doing the same thing with your iPod, you definitely should.)
 
OP
F

Flaps45

Guest
Thanks a lot for the answers, you guys are great, I figure that if I'm going to upgrade the memory to 512MB I might as well pump it to 768MB now that I'm on a roll. Like I said I'm pretty decided and I think I should be fine, all the software that I need is already included and the software that sells around to do music production work listed their requiremnents way lower than the iBook's potential, so I think the little fella should do just fine...I'm buying it in 2 weeks when I get back home, wish me all good luck and looking forward on keeping in touch trhough this great board.
 
OP
T

titan0111

Guest
meltbanana314 said:
1. Get 768MB (256 in the iBook when you buy it, then buy 512MB from Crucial and install it yourself. Trust me.

2. Light workloads - Apple claims 6 hours, realistically you can get 3.5-4 on light use, with some services disabled and power-saving on. Some people have gone past that, though. Your milage may vary.

3. All lithium-ion batteries are good for about 500 charge cycles before they reach their point of becoming useless. You can make it better by completely discharging your batter about once a month. Think of it as a battery checkup. (If you aren't doing the same thing with your iPod, you definitely should.)
Which part# did you get from Crutial?

CT6464X265 ($97) ? or CT372707 ($137) ?
 
OP
T

titan0111

Guest
Flaps45 said:
which one is the best or the recomended one?...does it matter?.
I emailed Crucial and this was their response:

>Hello,
>
>Thank you for your email. Unfortunately your Apple iBook will require the
>base part number CT6464X265AP in order to function correctly. Apple
>products have special specification in order for the memory modules to be
>compatible with there product lines. Crucial technology acknowledges this
>and has complied with Apple. The base part number CT6464X265AP is
>specifically designed for the Apple iBooks.
>

But I don't think there is any difference. Does anyone know?
 
OP
F

Flaps45

Guest
Interesting...Thanx a lot Titan, I'm buying it from them then, good price you know?. not so bad
 
OP
F

Flaps45

Guest
excelent tip!, I've been looking and looking for the memory , this one the CT6464X335 is 30 some bucks cheaper yeah, and if you say it works fine I don't see why pay more?...
 

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