[King_Rat]

A friend of mine is looking at getting a used laptop, and I am trying to get him to get a Mac. However, he is on a budget of about $450. What is the best powerbook that he could get for this price? Where is the best place to look (yes, we have checked ebay).

[Phossil]

on such a small budget I would reccomend getting a windows laptop. As much as I love macs and OSX, if he wants to be productive and spend no more that $450, a mac is not the right way to go. He could probably get an older pismo for that.

[KeriVit]

Though I think Phossil has a good point...

These guys have always done well for me and I've had no problems with anything I've ever bought from them.

http://www.powermax.com/cgi-global/g...cgi?p=c-u57181

[macaddict0001]

pismo would be the best you could get for that price. but luckily if he decides that he would rather have something else he can sell it for the same price he payed if he got it for a good deal.

[King_Rat]

Sadly, it is looking like we will end up going with an evil wintel laptop. A pismo would be good enough, but I am having trouble finding one for $450; the only one that I found (in the Macnn marketplace) sold before we could get it. I will look around for another day or two, but I expect that I will not find anything that quickly.

[gzeus]

Don't give up - the pismo will run tiger, has a dvd drive which works in os x, and it's easy to upgrade the hard drive. I purchases a used pismo 400mhz dvd 2 months ago for $330.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=5729302039
You just have to be persistent on ebay. Use a sniping service or application, and check for newly listed items with low buy it now prices (how I got mine). I like using my pismo so much that I jettisoned my aluminum powerbook - the black plastic just looks and feels better, and a 400-500mhz machine with atleast 512mb ram (mac or windows) seems to be the price/performance sweet spot for me. I also like the fact that the pismo's keyboard pops up like a car's hood, which makes it easy to tinker with or replace anything.

[His Dudeness]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...69684&rd=1

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...59934&rd=1

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...01737&rd=1

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...85508&rd=1

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...94857&rd=1

These should do.

[iomatic]

Don't discount the iBooks-- they are great value for budget computing. Plus, they'll run OS X.
http://dealmac.com/basement.html

[discotronic]

Originally posted by His Dudeness:


http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...59934&rd=1

This iBook looks like a great deal to me. The HD is smaller than your friend is looking for but it wouldn't be hard to replace down the line. Also, if your friend doesn't like the laptop it could be resold easily for the amount of money they have in it.

[iomatic]

It does.

But this is why you hire a professional agency:
It will save you time and you can start suing your machine sooner, tim

Originally posted by discotronic:
This iBook looks like a great deal to me. The HD is smaller than your friend is looking for but it wouldn't be hard to replace down the line. Also, if your friend doesn't like the laptop it could be resold easily for the amount of money they have in it.

[Person Man]

Originally posted by iomatic:
It does.

But this is why you hire a professional agency:
It will save you time and you can start suing your machine sooner, tim

Professional agency... as in law office???

How else will he be able to sue his machine?



Sorry, couldn't resist.

[His Dudeness]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...69684&rd=1

That one is a Lombard, should work for you.

[King_Rat]

Thanks for all the good ideas! We may well get one of the laptops with the buy it now option. If you see any other good offers please tell me. My friend is still thinking about what to get (though I think that he had better not take too long). I will post a note saying what we end up doing.

[iomatic]

Agency, as in an Advertising/Creative firm to properly write and design your website marketing materials. Or maybe a Law Firm....

Anyway, the reason why people are pushing the Lombard is because it's so expandable. Others (and a search here) can explain. I like the form factor of the 12" machines myself. Size jokes not withstanding (you can ask STAT about that.)

Originally posted by Person Man:
Professional agency... as in law office???

How else will he be able to sue his machine?



Sorry, couldn't resist.

[King_Rat]

Thank you all for your advice; it was very helpful. It also reminded me that you can find good deals if you search ebay hard enough. We have got a Pismo on ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...57154&rd=1
It cost more than we wanted, but the 60GB hard drive made it worth while (not to mention the 550MHz upgrade). Lets all hope that it works out. We will also be sure to contact a law firm if we ever need to sue the machine. Of course, this is a Mac so that should not be much of a problem; su should take care of all our problems. Of course, if we had gotten a compaq it would be a different story.

[His Dudeness]

That's a damn good laptop. That's one that many Mac heads love to death.

[Phossil]

If you want, you can upgrade it to a 500Mhz G4 - here is a link http://eshop.macsales.com/MyOWC/Upgr...=Show+Upgrades

[macaddict0001]

The 500 megahertz g4 won't be much of an improvement because it slows the bus speed and a g4 is in many ways the same as a g3 and in most tasks the g3 will actually do better due to the higher bus but for processor upgrades there is a 1.1 gigahertz g3 on the market that can represent good value.

[crazeazn]

i also believe the pismo is quick b/c it has 1 meg of L2 cache!