ibook or eMac?

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Shape

Guest
Hi there,
I'm thinking of purchasing either the Ibook G3 800 or the Emac G4 1ghz. I was wanting a system for pretty everyday things; Cubase, iTunes Office etc...

But I was also wanting something I could play a few games decently on.. such as Battlefield 1942 and Warcraft III.

I'm only used to playing them on a 1.3ghz Duron PC with a Radeon 7500 so I'm not looking for blistering performance, just decent playable frame rates.

We use eMac 700's at my college and I have been rather dissapointed with the screen quality. It's kindof blurry & ugly. Have they improved this? The iBook on the other hand only has a 12" screen but it's a very nice one.

I'm choosing between these two because the are the same price & I was also wanting something semi portable. I'm not going to be taking it with me to school every day, but I would like to be able to just put it in a box and take it home with me when I visit my parents.

So which is better for me? Your opinions please.
 
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m1k

Guest
Definitely go for the iBook. It shouldn't have a problem running everyday apps like the internet or word processing or cubase or whatever. It'll still be good for games if you up the RAM to at least 256MB, then you shouldn't have a problem with running games at all. You'll definitely get more performance out of an iBook 800 than out of a 1.3GHz Wintel box.

Why the iBook you ask? Well, the screen is much crisper, you can do everyday things on it just as well as you could on an eMac, and it's just really nice to carry it around with you, trust me. I carry my PowerBook around all the time, and although I don't go on trips or whatever all the time, it's just nice to carry my Mac with me when I'm going to a place where I'll sit for a long time. It's just nice to have the portability of a laptop, it really does make a difference.

I say go for the iBook. It has almost the same gaming speeds as the eMac (up the RAM and you won't have a problem at all), it's excellent for everyday things, the screen is better, and it's just better to have a portable system if at all portable.

Good luck!
 
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MoltenLava

Guest
The screen on my eMac is very good. It's CRT, but it's the newer flat trinitron. The resolution on my eMac is higher than my iBook. Lastly, eMac is about $500 cheaper than iBook.
 
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"The screen on my eMac is very good. It's CRT, but it's the newer flat trinitron. The resolution on my eMac is higher than my iBook. Lastly, eMac is about $500 cheaper than iBook."

But i thought he was talking about a G3 800Mhz iBook.

That would probably also be quite cheap, seeing as it's 3 generations old...

I'd recommend picking up a G4 800Mhz ibook, it'll be a lot quicker due to the improved processor (altivec enhancements...)
 
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Shape

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I was picking them up refurbished. They both cost $1200NZ Someone else I was speaking too suggested I get a Sawtooth Powermac G4 400, 1.1gig ram with Geforce2mx for $700NZ... how does that weigh up.. will there be much perforance difference between them?
 
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MoltenLava

Guest
Ah.. 800MHz iBook. That's actually what I have right now. :) I also have 700MHz eMac. Somehow the eMac feels faster than my iBook. I can't explain why.
 
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m1k

Guest
I was picking them up refurbished. They both cost $1200NZ Someone else I was speaking too suggested I get a Sawtooth Powermac G4 400, 1.1gig ram with Geforce2mx for $700NZ... how does that weigh up.. will there be much perforance difference between them?

Well, the processor in the G4 400 isn't that great, but the RAM is certainly a bonus. I'd say go for the iBook because of portability, as I said before, but if you had to get a desktop I'd go for the G4 400. It's like half the price of the eMac, and you can just get this: http://www.sonnettech.com/product/encore.html which considerably bumps up the processor speed to about the same as the eMac for like $200 extra. With the extra RAM, definitely go for the G4 400 if you're going to get a desktop system, and upgrade the processor. But I still highly reccommend the iBook because of portability.

Best of luck!
 
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Shape

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I have the opportunite to pick up the ibook 800 for $900NZ with one slight fault... there's one dead pixel on the screen, that doesn't seem like a bad deal, what're your thoughts? Would it annoy me?

Otherwise for the same price I can get an iBook 600 with combo drive.

Would there be much difference in speed? I take it the 600's video card doesn't support QE so it would be slower running OSX?
 
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m1k

Guest
Discolored pixels don't really bother me much, I have one red pixel on the left side and I never notice it unless I'm actually looking at the spot. A dead pixel though... It might bother me. But all laptops eventually get a few dead pixels at least, so even if you get the iBook 600 chances are it'll have a dead pixel in a few years. Pretty much all laptops get them.

So I say go for the iBook 800, since there's more power and the 600 will probably get a dead pixel eventually. But if dead pixels really bother you, pick up the 600, you'll be deadpixelless for a few years at least.

Upgrade the RAM to at least 256MB though, whatever you do. OS X doesn't do too well with 128MB. 256MB RAM will speed up your system dramatically.

Good luck!
 
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Shape

Guest
I went into a Apple store today & tried a ibook 12". I found the screen is just too small for me. I do alot of score writing in Sibelius so I like to have a bit of screen room.

So now it's just a toss up between the $1120NZ eMac & a $1300NZ 14" iBook. I think I might go for the iBook, they seem like really cool computers.
 
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The iBooks have 133 system bus, eMac as well AFAIK. Powerbook has 166, if that helps :)
 
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m1k

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The PowerBook isn't in his budget, witeshark. he said either the iBook or the eMac. Otherwise I would reccommend the PowerBook as well, it's fast as ****.

As it is, I say go for the 14" iBook, it kicks foot! It'll be a bit slower than the eMac, but its portability is huge, and they really are great systems.
 
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Matt

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If anyone saw he was talking about A G3 iBook, not G4, so the eMac will be faster. I would go for the G4 with 1.1 gig RAM. The processor is not great, but the RAM would rule that one out, I think. If you can try get 600Mhz and above.
 

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