Buying PowerBook Questions

[mr..nemo]

Hi i live in the uk and i am starting a graphic design course, im thinking of buying a 15" powerbook to assist me. www.pcworld.co.uk i was thinking of buying from which seams to have the same price as the apple uk website but my question is. can i get it cheaper anywhere else.

also doing graphics im thinking of upgrading the ram to 1GB but im not sure to get 1 dimm or 2 dimm, im not sure what the difference is and what is better value for money. also if i buy a 1gb chip, will i have (1gb) ram or (1gb+what is already installed) RAM.

any comments, suggestions or answers to my questions most appreciated.
Thanks

 

[deus_ex_machina]

if you buy a single DIMM it will be added to the chip soldered on the board (256 I think). Prices will vary (depending on where you buy - crucial, owc, etc) although if you get 1 DIMM it leaves room for upgrading later on.
Edit: anything on Ebay? there's also a buy/sell/trade section here

 

[mr..nemo]

so basicly if i get 2dimms they will work just as fast as the 1dimm, but there will be no more slots left to upgrade

 

[deus_ex_machina]

exactly...they put two slots for upgrading from stock

 

[misskool]

if you are a student in the uk, you get a higher education discount (13% off). you can access the prices only if you are connected to your university network. (and if you sign up to greasypalm, a cashback site, you get 1.5% back of your apple purchase as well). hth

 

[MichaelSullivan]

I'm able to view student discounts from work, just by selecting my university.

 

[Lasha]

Okay. First of all, the 15inch PowerBook doesn't have memory soldered onto the logicboard. That is only with the iBooks, and the 12inch PowerBook.

The 15 and 17inch PowerBooks have 2 DIMM slots which you can put upto a complete 2GB of DDR RAM, 2048MB, to be precise.

I too am personally getting a 15inch PowerBook specifically for that field. I will be using the PowerBook for design purposes. Photoshop, Dreamweaver, FlashMX, and etc...

I am getting the PowerBook with 1GB of RAM stock from Apple, and it will be for the single slot. I will be purchasing another 1GB chip in the future for myself. I need all the performance I can get. Heh.

I don't know about getting a PowerBook cheaper anywhere else, unless you will be getting a student discount as mentioned above.

 

[johnnyluu]

HE discount is as cheap as you can get it.

If you have an NUS card goto http://www.nusonline.co.uk/ follow the activate/register procedure, log in and then go to the Special Offers page. From there you can access an NUS Apple Store web site with HE discounts from any internet connection and not just from your Uni network.

By the way if you don't need a portable, for the price of a 15" Powerbook with 1 Gig of ram, you could afford to and get better performance from a dual 1.8 Ghz G5 with 512 Mb of ram. And still have money for a 19" CRT monitor.

The G5 is considerably more powerfull than the G4. I'd even say getting a single 1.8 Ghz G5 would be better and loads cheaper. In the long run a G5 is a better option for a primary system. But if portability is essential to you the Powerbook is really sweet.