help choosing options

Q

quanz

Guest
like the title states, I need help choosing options for my ibook, and a few questions

12" or 14" ibook, it will be for university, I will be going for photography.
right now my system has:
-80gig harddrive
-512ram
-2.0ghz pentium 4
-windows xp
17" moniter (its big, way too big for me)

I want the labtop to be able to preform as well as this.
so should I upgrade the ram, or keep it as it is, then upgrade later if need be.

the most demanding program I will use is photoshop, and not very often. mostly jsut for reasizing, but every now and then I need to make band flyers, or cd covers.

I Have heard labtops are not genrally used for stuff like this, because they cannot run at full capacity for very long.


also my budget is about 1600 canadian.

and I will most likely be waiting for tiger to come out.

thanks in advance to any help, and if this is in the wrong forum please forgive me, I am a newbie
 
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X

xthisisRomancex

Guest
so should I upgrade the ram, or keep it as it is, then upgrade later if need be.
you can get ram from another site for ALOT cheaper sites such as www.crucial.com
will help yhou find the right ram for your ibook
If you want a 80gig hd i would go a head and chose that option from apple. becasue you will void you warrenty if you upgrade your self.
As far as 12inch or 14inch. it is best to go to ur local apple dealer and take a look for ur self.
 
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Q

quanz

Guest
xthisisRomancex said:
you can get ram from another site for ALOT cheaper sites such as www.crucial.com
will help yhou find the right ram for your ibook
If you want a 80gig hd i would go a head and chose that option from apple. becasue you will void you warrenty if you upgrade your self.
As far as 12inch or 14inch. it is best to go to ur local apple dealer and take a look for ur self.
I looked at the apple stroe near by, I liek the 14" for its displqay size, but the 12 for the price and the wieght/ protability.

I should ahve said somethign else in the main post, its an 80 gig hd, but i only use 15.8gigs of it.

so a 30 gig hd is fine for me..

also thanks for the link
 
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R

Robbob91

Guest
If you are going to school, don't forget apple offers student discount. I have the 12 inch and I love the ease of carring it around. Get more ram and install it yourself, its easy, the instructions come in the manual. I just got the 12" upgraded the hard drive, and an epson c86 printer for $1183 US. Plus $99 rebate for the printer coming back to me.
 
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quanz said:
I looked at the apple stroe near by, I liek the 14" for its displqay size, but the 12 for the price and the wieght/ protability.

I should ahve said somethign else in the main post, its an 80 gig hd, but i only use 15.8gigs of it.

so a 30 gig hd is fine for me..

also thanks for the link
Don't skimp on harddrive space though!

It can't really be upgraded later and in my experience you always end up needing more than you think, especially if you are going off to university...

I upgraded to the 40GB drive and now wish I had gone for the 60GB drive! (actually I could do with a 100GB drive...)

With wireless lan connection at university, people keep sending you photos, videos and harddrives fill up fast!

If you're sure you'll only need the 30GB option, fine. But just remember that it's a hassle to upgrade later!
 
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well regarding either a 12 or a 14, I would definatly go for the 12in if you're always on the move. I choose the 14 because I was a little concerned about eye strain as I plan on spending alot of time in front of my ibook. I'll be on the move alot but the 14 isn't too big or heavy. I did like the size and weight of the 12in though....

I'd say take a trip to an apple store if you a have one near you or go to an authorized dealer and play around with them. You'll immediatly get a feel for which one is right for you.

jason :mac:
 
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quanz

Guest
Aptmunich said:
Don't skimp on harddrive space though!

It can't really be upgraded later and in my experience you always end up needing more than you think, especially if you are going off to university...

I upgraded to the 40GB drive and now wish I had gone for the 60GB drive! (actually I could do with a 100GB drive...)

With wireless lan connection at university, people keep sending you photos, videos and harddrives fill up fast!

If you're sure you'll only need the 30GB option, fine. But just remember that it's a hassle to upgrade later!
well I Will have a backup external harddrive, In time, and i have an image dock for all of my photos, and its 5 gigs.

I still have my eyes on the imac though, I wont be moving it that much, just to come home on holidays and reading week, and at 18 pounds, it wont be a hassle to take on the bus. And since its g5 it will run alot faster, look nicer, and run overall better. whil I know an ibook will be more portabel and less bulk.

also ichat, will this program free up more ram than running icq, msn, and aim. that I run right now.

and does anyone know how much ram norton anti virus usees up, because I have it on this comp, and i just want to see how much ram I will need on my mac. I know you dont need anti virus on a mac, and that ichat will replace all those other programs, but I still would like some numbers to base a descision off.
 
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quanz said:
well I Will have a backup external harddrive, In time, and i have an image dock for all of my photos, and its 5 gigs.

I still have my eyes on the imac though, I wont be moving it that much, just to come home on holidays and reading week, and at 18 pounds, it wont be a hassle to take on the bus. And since its g5 it will run alot faster, look nicer, and run overall better. whil I know an ibook will be more portabel and less bulk.

also ichat, will this program free up more ram than running icq, msn, and aim. that I run right now.

and does anyone know how much ram norton anti virus usees up, because I have it on this comp, and i just want to see how much ram I will need on my mac. I know you dont need anti virus on a mac, and that ichat will replace all those other programs, but I still would like some numbers to base a descision off.
Well to use multiple chat protocols you need to use a 3rd party solution such as the excellent and free Adium.

iChat only supports .mac and aim accounts, not msn.
Adium supports all chat protocols there are...

No need for virus scanners as you say, but for optimal average use get at least 512MB or even better 768MB of Ram...



Btw. you can get chat programs with support for multiple clients on PC too...

Gaim I think is one...
 
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Q

quanz

Guest
If i read correctly, both the imac, and ibook, have an expansion slot for more ram. but the imac can take cheaper ram, becasue it isnt noteboook specific?
 

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