get iBook for study abroad? *URGENT!*

My university's computer store is selling 12'' iBooks for $650 and I'm thinking of getting one. Problem is, they come with 256MB of RAM and 30GB hard drives. I know I can upgrade the RAM, but the hard drive is what I'm worried about the most.

I am studying abroad in Germany next year and so I'm thinking of getting an iBook to replace my current HP laptop (which has a 40GB hard drive, of which I'm using 23GB). The iBooks are so much thinner, lighter, and more comfortable to type on, etc. My laptop is 7 lbs and the battery lasts a measly 2.5 hours. An iBook would be great for when I'm traveling around the continent working on my thesis project or something.

I know I'm not going to be seeing an iBook for $650 (after a rebate) ever again, so I want to jump on this if I can. But that 30GB hard drive makes me nervous. My mp3 player alone has about 7.5GB of music on it....and I've heard that the iBooks come with software that sucks up almost half the space on the hard drive!

Just want to get some advice from veteran Mac users out there -- what do you think? Good time to switch or should I stick it out with my current laptop in Europe? Keep in mind I'd also have to sell my Dell DJ and get an iPod...and I'd have to shell out $150 or MS Office for Mac.

what speed G4 is it and what do you intend to do with it?

I think an iBook will do you just fine. There are people out there now doing Real Work in the world with G3's no less. Not to offend, but you young whippersnappers may not know that not too long ago (though an eternity in computer/internet time, as in 5 to 7 years) we had servers that got along with 4 gig disks for a whole bunch of people. Granted there were usually more than one, but I'm now just retiring one such server which has a total of perhaps 16 gig and that machine served the development needs of about 200 people. I have clients that are retiring servers like that which ran the entire university.

So, really you jut need to learn to minimize. You can convert 8.4 gig of your existing data on your 30 gig drives into a dozen CD-R's, or twice that on two dozen. Especially if it's read only stuff like music and pictures. Two dozen CD-R's fit nicely in a CD wallet and is highly portable. That frees up plenty of space for a year of data acquisition, unless your 'data acquisition' is downloading movies, forecasting the weather, designing an airliner, or porn. At any rate, it's worth it to do a little work if you want to jump on a $650 iBook. I certainly would in your position.

i think it sounds like a good deal

you can always get neoOffice which works just like microsoft office and is free. about a hundred or so on a ram upgrade and 150 on an external hd if you want, or the cd idea is a great idea....

-chris

$650 for an iBook! Stuff the HDD i'd give my... sister to have one of those!

You could like people say, buy an external, use CD's (CD-RW's) (Good for coursework and whatnot actually...).

But I wouldn't miss the chance to get the iBook personally

with more thought about this, buy 2 or 3 and sell them on ebay!
-chris

Definitly get the iBook. LaCie and other companies sell great, large, portable Hard Drive's at great prices that you could use while you are away. I just bought a LaCie 160gb External USB 2.0 HD at Buy.com for $115. A great deal. And it was as simple as plug and play.

I mostly use my computer for word processing, web browsing, and watching movies & listening to music. nothing really hardcore. no designing or anything like that.

I'm just a little worried about the whole idea of an external hard drive...how convienient is that really?

it's a drive, usb/firewire cord, and power supply not terribly inconvenient.

dont worry about the internal drive, those are very upgradeable today. In fact you might be able to take out the one from your HP and place it (i could be wrong) does apple still put the bios image on the hard drive? i remember that being a problem with the wallstreets.

But dont worry, most can take a standard lappy hdd. The only t hing you MITE hafta do is add some sort of metal between the drive and comp, as some create magnetic problems causing it to not wake up from sleep

You could always ring up Apple and enquire about having a new HDD fitted, that's if the thought of 30GB really bothered you...

The worst they could say is that it isn't possible, in that case you'd either get the iBook at that amazing price and then buy an external HDD or... miss out.

I'd say get the ibook.

only thing that you mgiht wanna look into are voltage converters. In Europe, the voltage is different as in North America [I'm guessing you are form North America]

Well, I learned something new today! Thanks JacktheRipper for posting that...

I'd say go for the ibook. Thats a great deal!

The Power adapter for the Powerbook is universal, meaning that it will work with bother European and American voltage. However, you will still need a plug adapter for it.

Check out this thread:
http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16871&highlight=abroad