Coming back to the Mac - iBook or Mini...

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jbsengineer

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I'm 22 years old. I grew up on apples since i was little. My dad always warned me of the "dark side". My earliest mac i could remember was the good ole performa 600 with 120mb of hard drive. It was great. I used Macintosh right up until OS 9. I love computers and networking. At that point I went to school for windows and tought myself a wealth of "stuff". Also from that point I've yet to own a MAC. At work I'm known as the Windows guy. I build Windows Servers for a university and I'm heading up a migration from Novell to Windows in a 20K student university. I always have my hands in Cisco and Red Hat. Had my MCSE when I was 19 and my CCNA when I was 20. Unfortunatly I have had a void since I left the "cult of mac."

But still can't shell out enough dough to buy a Apple to compete with my dad. I miss them. So when I saw the rumors come true. I went frantic. There is no way I'm passing up a $499 apple mac mini to sit on my desk. I'm counting the days!!

But now I'm starting to lean maybe toward an iBook. I sold my Windows laptop just recently so I have some extra $$ and I'm short a laptop. Although the Mini would be awesome to have. I think i would really like the 12" iBook. Maybe the 14".

So I hope to be welcomed back to the "mac world" in the next few days.

I do have a couple questions before my purchase...

1. In everyone's opinion's how much of a performance different will there be between a Mac Mini1.25ghz and a 12" 1.2 ibook? I'm assuming hardly none beacuse the only difference really is the FSB...

2. This is a FAR STRETCH (but just need to check). But when buying in the apple store i understand they'll throw the ram in there that day if you decide to upgrade. But what about a possible hard drive upgrade... (crossing fingers).

3. Best place to buy ram for a iBook online?

Thanks and I soon hope to be a Mac Guru as well as a Microsoft ("dark side" i know) :)

Josh
 
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M

meltbanana314

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jbsengineer said:
1. In everyone's opinion's how much of a performance different will there be between a Mac Mini1.25ghz and a 12" 1.2 ibook? I'm assuming hardly none beacuse the only difference really is the FSB...

2. This is a FAR STRETCH (but just need to check). But when buying in the apple store i understand they'll throw the ram in there that day if you decide to upgrade. But what about a possible hard drive upgrade... (crossing fingers).

3. Best place to buy ram for a iBook online?

Thanks and I soon hope to be a Mac Guru as well as a Microsoft ("dark side" i know) :)

Josh

Welcome back!

1. The mini, the eMac, and the iBook pretty much share the same componets - so there's really no discernable difference unless you can telepathically measure clock speeds to the exact 1/10th of a MHz in your head.

2. Hard drive and memory upgrades can be done in store on the day of purchase, at least from what I've asked Apple and the local Apple competition (Simutek.)

3. Where's the best place to buy ram *anywhere?*

My vote goes to Crucial, but you may have a preference to go elsewhere.

EDIT: Ack. This forum re-shifting has made me lose 10 or so posts.
 
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get the ibook for portability

The mac mini is cool and i would get it if i was looking for my next desktop. i think the mac mini may have slightly better performance b/c the hard drive will faster than the ibook hard drive, (7200 rpm vs 4200 rpm). That being said for me it's all about portability and i love the ibook for it. Secondly performance should not be an issue unless you are going to be running heavy programs. i don't which is why i'm really content with pretty muco any kind of computer. i think the mac mini will be much more difficult to upgrade with 3rd party ram by yourself unlike the ibook. i was told by a friend the mac mini's warrant is voided if you open up the mini. i think this is why on the apple site they tell you that if you don't install the airport card, it cannot installed by anyone except an authorized apple dealer. if that is true, of course you will have research my claims, ram is gonna be expensive if u are forced to buy apple's ram.
 
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I think it's all about your requirements...

If you want to get something you can take over to school, on vacation, on trips - get the iBook.

If you want for use at home, over your friends house occasionally, to take to college - you can save yourself 500$ and get the mini...

It really is so small, you can just take it anywhere and hook it up to existing equipment.

You could even use it for presentations of you have access to a school's projector - just take a mouse and you'd be fine...
 
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T

titan0111

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Computer.Geek said:
The mac mini is cool and i would get it if i was looking for my next desktop. i think the mac mini may have slightly better performance b/c the hard drive will faster than the ibook hard drive, (7200 rpm vs 4200 rpm). That being said for me it's all about portability and i love the ibook for it. Secondly performance should not be an issue unless you are going to be running heavy programs. i don't which is why i'm really content with pretty muco any kind of computer. i think the mac mini will be much more difficult to upgrade with 3rd party ram by yourself unlike the ibook. i was told by a friend the mac mini's warrant is voided if you open up the mini. i think this is why on the apple site they tell you that if you don't install the airport card, it cannot installed by anyone except an authorized apple dealer. if that is true, of course you will have research my claims, ram is gonna be expensive if u are forced to buy apple's ram.
Where did you get the info on HDD rpm on mini?
 
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titan0111

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1. mini will perform slightly better than ibook(12"), but I am sure you won't be able to tell the difference. But it's 14" then they will be the same. Besides FSB only difference I know is that mini has only one memory slot and ibook has 256MB built-in and one empty memory slot.

2. I believe that as long as you don't open your mini, your warrenty won't be voided even if you use 3rd party memory.

3. I also recommand Crucial.
 
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Phiber

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titan0111 said:
1. mini will perform slightly better than ibook(12"), but I am sure you won't be able to tell the difference. But it's 14" then they will be the same. Besides FSB only difference I know is that mini has only one memory slot and ibook has 256MB built-in and one empty memory slot.

2. I believe that as long as you don't open your mini, your warrenty won't be voided even if you use 3rd party memory.

3. I also recommand Crucial.

How do you put the ram in without opening the computer?
 
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T

titan0111

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Phiber said:
How do you put the ram in without opening the computer?
I am saying just get a RAM from someone, go to apple store, and let them install it.
 
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Good question...

I am assuming that the imac mini will be using a 7200 rpm hard drive b/c most desktop computers use those type of drives. However, i checked the apple website and it doesn't list rpm speed which may lead me to assume perhaps it may be slower to minimize heat in such a small package. In response to the other question regarding installing ram, the mini will obviously have to be opened but i believe it has to be done by an authorized apple dealer to not void the warranty. of course, i may be incorrect as i was told this information but it's good to bring up the topic as many people may buy the imac mini assuming they can install their own ram themselves to save money when it may not be the case.
 
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jbsengineer

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I Did It.... Owner Of Ibook!!!

I'm officially a Apple user. I bought a 12" iBook this morning. (Took work off today to play, hehe).

After much thought and research i felt i could do sooo much more with the iBook.

I'm on it right now and using my regular monitors, keyboard and mouse through a KVM. Just like i would with the mini.

What a brilliantly engineering piece of machine. God i love it. I'm so excited to be back. I hope to contribute to the forums soon.

Question....

As i am using my ibook through my kvm to my usual keyboard and mice. I dont see a setting where i can tell the ibook not to sleep when i shut the top. Is this possible??

Btw, i saw a few posts about this. iLife 05 obviously was not bundled with the iBook but when i got home i sent in a form on the apple site and for 20 bucks there sending me it when it releases because i bought a cpu after 1/11/05.

Thanks again for all your help. It was very helpful...

Josh
 
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mangoSharingan

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jbsengineer said:
As i am using my ibook through my kvm to my usual keyboard and mice. I dont see a setting where i can tell the ibook not to sleep when i shut the top. Is this possible??

I very much doubt it. But if it were possible, it would be so great. I could just have it sitting on my desk, closed and connected to my monitor, which in effect would become a Mac Mini!

I think you made a good choice with the iBook. Pretty much the same as the Mac Mini except you can carry it around wherever you like, and if you want, you can connect it to a monitor easily for a bigger view. Too bad about it going to sleep when shut though....
 
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jbsengineer said:
Question....

As i am using my ibook through my kvm to my usual keyboard and mice. I dont see a setting where i can tell the ibook not to sleep when i shut the top. Is this possible??


Josh
There actually is a hack to let you do this - you just don't want to...
Why?

Well the iBook dissipates a lot of heat up through the keyboard area (feel the palmrests)..
If you were to close the lid with the processor running, you might have a smouldering heap of plastic left when you come back to your 'book...

You'd at least see some screen warping etc.

(btw. that actually happened to someone - smouldering lump that is...)
 
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J

jbsengineer

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interesting....

then it's obviously not worth it....

now i understand why there is no option for it in the energy saver.

thanks for the heads up.

Josh
 
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T

titan0111

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Computer.Geek said:
I am assuming that the imac mini will be using a 7200 rpm hard drive b/c most desktop computers use those type of drives. However, i checked the apple website and it doesn't list rpm speed which may lead me to assume perhaps it may be slower to minimize heat in such a small package. In response to the other question regarding installing ram, the mini will obviously have to be opened but i believe it has to be done by an authorized apple dealer to not void the warranty. of course, i may be incorrect as i was told this information but it's good to bring up the topic as many people may buy the imac mini assuming they can install their own ram themselves to save money when it may not be the case.
Since mini is so small, I think it will use notebook 2.5" HDD instead of destop 3.5" HDD.
 
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B

bograt69

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jbsengineer said:
After much thought and research i felt i could do sooo much more with the
As i am using my ibook through my kvm to my usual keyboard and mice. I dont see a setting where i can tell the ibook not to sleep when i shut the top. Is this possible??

Better idea....

http://www.rutemoeller.com/mp/ibook/ScreenSpanningDoctor.sit
(sorry, yet to discover how to make that an active link)

Basically that app will enable screen spanning support on your iBook, giving you 2 displays and a much larger desktop area, i've been using it for a couple of weeks now and find it very useful when running loads of apps at the same time.

Mike

EDIT: some cleverness seems to have made it a link automatically, handy!
 

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