Mulling over the first Mac

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Jason

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Yup, yet another one! Trying to decide between:

14" iBook combo drive with 512mb, 80GB, bluetooth
12" PowerBook combo drive, no options

$25(USD) difference in price!

This will be my first Mac ever. It will be used for digital photos and some very light video editing, nothing beyond iDVD. No real games (I use consoles), just emulators.
 
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14" ...it's still a very portable notebook, but the screen isn't as small.
 
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jbsengineer

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Jason said:
Yup, yet another one! Trying to decide between:

14" iBook combo drive with 512mb, 80GB, bluetooth
12" PowerBook combo drive, no options

$25(USD) difference in price!

This will be my first Mac ever. It will be used for digital photos and some very light video editing, nothing beyond iDVD. No real games (I use consoles), just emulators.

going to be traveling alot with it...carrying it back and to????

nothing beats the portablity of the 12"...really. i've had 15" pc laptops...too heavy.

something to chew on...

Josh
 
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Jason

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Yeah I travel 90 mins by train each way to work (yeah I know, YUCK!). I'm not sure I can deal with the 12" screen, but the speedier hardware is tempting. I'm going to the Apple store tomorrow to see both in person :D
 
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jbsengineer

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Jason said:
Yeah I travel 90 mins by train each way to work (yeah I know, YUCK!). I'm not sure I can deal with the 12" screen, but the speedier hardware is tempting. I'm going to the Apple store tomorrow to see both in person :D

to each his own. i went to the apple store with the same decision to make. but personally it took one look at the 14" to decide i would like the portability, :). let us know what you get!

Josh
 
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Avid6eek said:
14" ...it's still a very portable notebook, but the screen isn't as small.

hehe, your computer desk is what the college kids use as a beer pong table....
 
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PowerMac G4 Cube 450mhz 832mb
the 12" actually that small eith, just change the screen resolution and you have the same amount as screen real estate as the 14".
 
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Running LCDs out of their native resolution is never a good idea...makes the screen look pretty bad.
 
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I LOVE my 14" iBook. It's better looking for starters, and if you have almost the same speed as the Powerbook and more RAM, it's going to be faster than the PB anyway. Personally I would recommend not getting the 512 in the iBook from Apple, and going to Crucial or some place like it, buying a whole 512 stick (still cheaper than Apple's 256) or 1 GB if you're a nut like me, and putting it in the iBook. They KILL you on RAM prices.
 
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Meyvn said:
I LOVE my 14" iBook. It's better looking for starters, and if you have almost the same speed as the Powerbook and more RAM, it's going to be faster than the PB anyway. Personally I would recommend not getting the 512 in the iBook from Apple, and going to Crucial or some place like it, buying a whole 512 stick (still cheaper than Apple's 256) or 1 GB if you're a nut like me, and putting it in the iBook. They KILL you on RAM prices.
Yeah I do love the looks of the iBook, very sleek machine (and matches my iPod lol). Does adding your own RAM to the iBook void the warranty? How easy is it to add?

I may be a M$ technician, but I'm a Mac n00b :D
 
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Well, I asked around and I was told that just RAM does not void AppleCare. HDD most likely does. It's incredibly easy to do. I just used this little step-by-step guide on PBfixit! or whatever it's called. It took about fifteen minutes total. The only annoying thing is getting a #0 screwdriver.
 
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jbsengineer

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Meyvn said:
I LOVE my 14" iBook. It's better looking for starters, and if you have almost the same speed as the Powerbook and more RAM, it's going to be faster than the PB anyway. Personally I would recommend not getting the 512 in the iBook from Apple, and going to Crucial or some place like it, buying a whole 512 stick (still cheaper than Apple's 256) or 1 GB if you're a nut like me, and putting it in the iBook. They KILL you on RAM prices.

ibook faster than a powerbook??
 
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jbsengineer said:
ibook faster than a powerbook??
If you have more RAM in the iBook and the processor speeds are closer, under circumstances in running multiple programs, the iBook will run faster. If the Powerbook's "attention span," the RAM, is more taxed than the iBook's, of course. I can run a ridiculous number of programs at higher speeds because I have so much RAM. In general I'll perform faster than a 1.5 GHz Powerbook with 512 RAM, and pretty much always faster than a 256 one.
 
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Meyvn said:
If you have more RAM in the iBook and the processor speeds are closer, under circumstances in running multiple programs, the iBook will run faster. If the Powerbook's "attention span," the RAM, is more taxed than the iBook's, of course. I can run a ridiculous number of programs at higher speeds because I have so much RAM. In general I'll perform faster than a 1.5 GHz Powerbook with 512 RAM, and pretty much always faster than a 256 one.

gotchya...i don't disagree on that point. but just for anyone debating between the 2. i know you talked about hd upgrade. if your still running a 4200rpm it's going to be a noticable difference all around on a pb with 5400rpm... another big thing is the powerbook's faster FSB...

i had a ibook with 1.25gb ram. running at 1.25mhz... then i upgraded to a powerbook with 768 ram running at 1.33 it's a huuuuge difference. the FSB, better video, faster HD had alot to do with it... definetly a noticable difference.

Josh
 
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All right. Thanks for the info. I never thought the processor would make that big a difference. I guess the bus does help a lot. The video I really would like. 32 MB of Video RAM is just ludicrous, especially when you look at the fact taht when the 9200 came out, 128 was fairly common on PCs.
 
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Meyvn said:
All right. Thanks for the info. I never thought the processor would make that big a difference. I guess the bus does help a lot. The video I really would like. 32 MB of Video RAM is just ludicrous, especially when you look at the fact taht when the 9200 came out, 128 was fairly common on PCs.

i agree.. one of the main reasons i moved up to the powerbook was the video. granted i never play games. i just felt 32 was minimun. I am very happy with the card i have now. it atleast is supported by core images in tiger. (tiger tiger tiger, can't wait)
josh
 
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Jason

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I think that's the main thing that bugs me about the iBook, the utter lack of VRAM. :(
 
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I talked to apple it only void's the warranty on the Hard Drive if you upgrade it yourself.
 
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Jason

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Well I just got back from the Apple store. I really like both machines, and still am not sure which one to get! lol Oh well, I have time :D The good thing is that I can get the gov't employee discount after all even though I'm a contractor :D

I just can't believe how much Applecare costs for the PowerBook! :confused: Is there a cheaper way to get that? Is Applecare even worth having?
 
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Jason

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Well, after looking at the prices with the government discount, I think I'm going to go with the 12" PowerBook with SuperDrive. Thanks everyone! :D
 

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