Looking for help and advice

My 15 y/o son wants an Apple laptop for Christmas. I do not know anything about Apple computers. I would like to spend around $500 which I know means I will have to purchase a used machine. However, I don't know the difference between a G3, G4, iBook, iMac, etc. I am clueless. Can someone recommend which machine I should look for and what the RAM, etc should be for a good deal?

FYI: He is a broadcast student and likes to make and edit video.

You could buy a brand new mac mini for 599.99 if thats in your budget. I have one and it's a great little computer. If not I would suggest not less than a G4. You could get a G4 powermac for about 250.00 300.00 on craigslist. As for ram not a big deal because you can go to OWC and get it very cheap for an upgrade. I got 1gb of ram for 25.00.
I highly reccomend the Imac G4's. They are fantastic. If you can find one with at least a 1.0GHz processor and a 512 ram your son could even run Leopard as I have on mine. Imacs are great. You can find them fairly cheap on ebay.

Well a "G3" is an older processor type that was succeeded by the G4, then the G5, and now the Intel-based CPUs. An iBook is an Apple laptop that is somewhat smaller and less powerful than the Apple Powerbook laptops that would have been out at the same time. And then for the iMac... that's an "all-in-one" type of computer that has everything you need built into one unit.

For your budget, you probably are best off looking at either an iMac or perhaps a Powerbook. If you can get an iMac G5 for that kind of money, great. Most likely you'll have to settle for a G4 model though. The Powerbooks don't come with the G5 technology... so look for a Powerbook G4. Settle for no less than 512 MBs of RAM, but you should aim for a full 1GB or more, given what your son wants to do.

Now if you have a monitor and keyboard already, you could go with MacGirl's recommendation of the Mac Mini. A brand new one will have the Intel processor and give your son the option of dual-booting Windows if he really needs to (except for games, he really shouldn't need to).

I just did a brief eBay search, and you should be able to get an iMac G5 for about what your budget is, perhaps a little more. Unless your son has a need for a portable computer, then I would encourage you to go for either this or a new Mac Mini.

macbook = The latest smaller compact laptops available.
Macbook Pro = the latest laptops which are more powerfull than macbooks
iMac = A desktop Computer but the computer and monitor are built in to one.
iBook = The older apple computers that are no longer made.

Not sure about the G's as im a new switcher and these are before my time.