[jeem]

Hi. I'm SERIOUSLY planning to leave the dark side and join the Mac crowd.

From what I read so far in this forum, it is advisable to get the cheapest model and grab third party upgrade deals for the budget concious.

My question is:

Is the ram modules for ibook any diffrent from the ones use in PC laptops?
How much ram is optimal for average leisure use (web surfing word processing, emails?
Which firewire ext hardisk should I get?
What other upgrades do you suggest?

Thanks.

[wataru]

Get another 512MB. It's regular DDR RAM, but I don't remember how many pins. Just use a site like http://www.dealram.com and don't worry about it.

Any Firewire drive will do. I recommend just buying an IDE drive and slapping it in a Firewire case. It's cheaper that way, and you have more options.

[benandkelley]

Originally posted by jeem:
How much ram is optimal for average leisure use (web surfing word processing, emails?
What other upgrades do you suggest?

Glad to hear you're considering a Mac. Each machine (PC, Unix, Mac, etc.) has many great things to offer. The Mac is extremely stable and good at managing memory and multi-tasking.

I have an iBook G3 with about 512mb RAM, and an internal 30 or 40 gig HD. I do extreme web application develop. Sometimes it has Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Word, MySQL, Virtual PC, a web server, and a few web browsers all open at the same time...and my computer has managed the RAM well enough to run just fine :-)

Find a Mac that suits your needs and you'll do fine. Some people would suggest pumping the machine full of this and that to make it all mighty and powerful (kinda like how some make fancy cars)...I, on the other hand, get a bare basic machine to do just what I need (kinda like my car, gets me from point A to point B).

What ever machine you get will be great and you'll enjoy it tremendously. My point: don't worry that you must spend $10k for a good machine. You can get a great iBook for about $1,500 or an eMac for under $1k.

Good luck :-)

[Gamoe]

Hello, Jeem. Welcome and congratulations! ;-)

I suggest that you max out your memory. Go to Crucial.com, and check out the memory. It's the same quality memory Apple uses, but they sell it at reasonable prices.

To max out an iBook to 1.25 GB would cost about $380, I believe. Then, you'll never have to worry about memory again. Remember that as your machine ages, you'll probably want to run bigger apps, and run the latest Mac OS, which requires more memory. If not, you can still live on 1 GB or even 512 MB, but you shouldn't have less than that.

As for firewire hard drives, I've had good experiences with a LaCie drive. I'd just look through a Mac magazine or web site and compare the prices and features. Try Amazon, CDW, Outpost, MacZone, etc.

As for other upgrades? I'd just recommend a good computer bag, and maybe a keyboard cover. Definitely an Airport wireless card. You can get free (or included with purchase) wireless access at some cafés, Universities, hotels and other public places now.