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DeusExMachina · Sep 14, 2004, 10:49 PM

I never owned a mac before, and for a while, I have been a big PC fan. I wanted a mac for a long time, but I just never wanted to give up my pc for gameing, and so on. anyways, after alot of thinking, I decided to get a cheaper mac such as a ibook or imac. now I didnt expect the imac G5 to come out when it did, but when it came out, it just made my decision alot harder.anyways, I decided that since this will be my secondary computer, I should probaly get it as a laptop, because I allredy have a desktop, and I will probaly get alot more use out of it if its a laptop.

anyways, so I decided that I might want to just sacrifice speed for portability. anyways, what I orderd today was the ibook, and the only upgrades I did was just upgrade the hard drive from 3oGB to 60GB, and get the wireless airport interned adapter. so other then that, everything is how it comes. now I was wondering, should I have goten any other upgrades such as the bluetooth, or 512MB? The ibook that I bought was the 12" combo drive.

anyways, when I orderd it, I used the college stdent discount because my sister is enrolled in college, so if they ask I can use her as the backup. and I also used her name for the one ordering the computer. so since I got the student discount, I decided to take advantage of the cram-n-jam deal, and get a ipod for only like $60 or so.

now after all of this, the total was about exactly $1,400 with the ipod, but it will be only $1,200 after the rebate. so in all, with the tax, it ended up costing me about $1,300 in the end for all of this. so basicly, since I am 16, this is ALOT of money for me to spend, so do you think that I made the right decision? also, do you have any places that you wil recomend to get some memory at? and how much memory would you recomend me buying? also I did the standard shipping, should I have done the 2-3 day?

so just please tell me what you think about all of this ok! thanks for takeing the time to read this all. and sorry for any typos that might be there, I was trying to type all of this out kinda fast.

Captain Obvious · Sep 14, 2004, 11:00 PM

Why get a 60 gig 4200RPM drive?
You have a desktop to store your meida files. And you could have gotten an external firewire drive with a faster 2.5 inch HDD if you wanted extra space... plus you have an iPod as an external drive just in case.

I would have instead spent the money on Bluetooth.

And yes, its smarter to get RAM from a 3rd party.

pat++ · Sep 15, 2004, 06:29 PM

You'll definitely need to get more RAM. I would recommend www.crucial.com. Order a 512mb stick if you can. Get a 256mb stick otherwise.
(performance of the iBook will be *much* better with more RAM, and 256mb is clearly not enough for Mac OS X). Getting the larger harddisk might be a good choice in the long run because it's not something that you can upgrade easily. I'm sure you'll enjoy your iBook !

Welcome

jmonty12 · Sep 15, 2004, 07:04 PM

I think you made a pretty good decision on your first Apple computer. The 60GB upgrade was a good idea. Since this is your only Apple computer you will be able to store all of your music on this computer and still have room for other stuff. You may find over time you prefer to use this computer for photos and video as well. But warning, you're doing exactly what I did, and you'll find that you're going to want a desktop Mac soon enough!

Good luck and welcome!

Kissargi · Sep 19, 2004, 03:01 PM

welcome to the light side

LukeGX · Oct 16, 2004, 06:12 AM

I would say you chose the right option. Macs make very good laptops. Mac desktops aren't really worth getting unless you can afford a G5.

Definitely get more RAM, it will make a big difference in performance. But of course you could wait a while until the computer starts to feel old, then get 512MB RAM and it will be fun to use again...

THe 60 gig HDD was a good idea because they are harder to upgrade in the future.

Thats my opinion anyway.

drive-thru · Oct 16, 2004, 06:37 AM

Hopefully your iBook will come with a Shift key so your posts don't read like a few, paragraph-long, sentences.

Just kidding.
Anyway, there's not a lot of point in asking whether or not you've ordered the correct stuff if the order has already gone through.
But, since you're looking for affirmation:
-An iBook is a great place to start if this is your first mac. Soon enough this will probably take over from your PC as your main computer, although some people just don't get on with macs, so who knows?
-You did the right thing with the hard drive upgrade. If you use iTunes for your music you will soon run out of space, upgrading the hard drive later will void your warranty or, if you get Apple to do it, be expensive.
-Get RAM from somewhere else (like Crucial.com). Apple charge a lot for their RAM, although apparently they use very good, low-power RAM. This won't make a difference to your iBook, so buy it somewhere else. I would recommend putting in another 512MB.
-If you're going to be using wireless then the Airport card was a good buy. You'd have had to buy it from Apple anyway so might as well get it with the iBook.
-Bluetooth is a personal thing. If you're going to use it to sync a cell phone etc then you can either get it built-in or buy a USB dongle and use it when you need to.

What will you be using it for? Just general portable computing?
If this is the case, you probably won't need any extra software other than MS Office. iTunes, iPhoto and all the other general applications are all built into the OS and work really well together.

Have fun exploring OS X, I'm still learning cool features and shortcuts and I've been using it for 3 years.
If you have any more questions, don't hesitate to ask.

webcookie · Oct 16, 2004, 09:18 AM

Congratulations on purchasing your first Mac! Like everyone else has said, buy more RAM. I have 640mb in mine. Good job on upgrading the hard drive; I can't imagine having only 30gb (I have 40gb in mine, but I will be needing to buy an external soon). iBooks are sweet little computers and once you have a laptop you'll never want to go back.

LukeGX · Oct 17, 2004, 06:47 PM

If you want to improve the usability of the iBook I would suggest getting a two button mouse. Any USB mouse should work fine (I use microsoft mice). This makes the computer much easier to use and reduces wear on the track pad.

Also download side track (http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/12800)
it allows you to configure your track pad to have scroll regions and right clicks.

Abit667 · Oct 17, 2004, 10:07 PM

I like your user name

I did pretty much the same thing with the iBook. More memory is pretty much a must, I got a 512 stick and that seems to be about the best value for the performance you get out of it.

I'm selling mine though, HL2 must be played when it comes out.

fhoubi · Oct 19, 2004, 03:39 PM

Congrats! My 700 is 2.5 years old, and I'm now temped to buy a new one. HD choice is perfect, as my 20 GB is running full for quite some time, and when buying an iPod later a small HD is not enough. Get RAM, an extra 512, I topped to 384MB 2 years ago and it is barely enough.

And you know what? I payed 1700 + 94 + 115 Euros for the iBook 700 G3, 256MB extra and an Airport Card together....

O yes, I will be buying a 12" again!