[dilated]

Hi newbie here, Im not looking for some sort of seedy toy - no something much sexier!

Can anyone helop me out with buying myself a iBook please.

I want a laptop for surfing, reading emails, doing work with office and maybe developing in Flash MX.

I considered a Sony Vaio Centrino as they are portable, good battery etc but the Apple is half the price, much cooler and has OSX which is way better than XP.

Can I bag myself a bargain on eBay? There are cheap iBooks that range from 500-800Ghz and if I was prepared to upgrade memory and maybe hardrive I could probably get myself a good deal.

Not knowing anything about the hardware at all, how would a 500, 800 or 1G compare ot a pc and would these be any good for what I want? Am I right in thinking that a 500MHz Apple is a lot more powerful than a 500MHz pc?

Can a cheaper model be upgraded? Can I add Airport, memory, harddrive, dvd etc?

I am also looking at looking at a new one on from the apple store with 1GHz cpu and a airport. Decisions!

[kdixey]

I would defiitely go with a G4 ibook. The G3 ibooks might be a bit too sluggish on Flash MX (I find MX products to be much happier with more power behind them).

You can upgrade the RAM and add and Ariport crad to an ibook, but the CPU is not upgradeable and while the hard drive is, it is a pretty costly affair (doing it yourself requires patience that I don't have).

The new ibooks are a good bang for the buck. If you're a student you can save money by getting it at educational pricing. refurbs are also a good way to say a few bucks. I'm funny about comnputers, I depend on mine so much I don't think I would be comfortable buying it off of ebay (but that's just me).

I think the new 12" ibook is probably the best ibook Apple has offered to date. You can also order it from the Apple Store and get options for a 60gb hard drive, Airport Extreme and Bluetooth built-in. You end up with a pretty capable little machine for not too much cash.

[Michel_80]

Don't get an ebay Ibook. They hold their value far too well, which is bad news if you want to get it used. Go with the edu discount.

[dilated]

I may get an edu discount as I am a mature-degree student, is the criteria strict as reading the rules Im not sure I qualify.

[kdixey]

As long as you are currently a student you qualify.

[finboy]

Originally posted by kdixey:
As long as you are currently a student you qualify.

And you can get your educational discount via Smalldog, I think.

I hate to keep beating their drum, but they're good folks.