[Bobmouse]

Hi, Been reading theese forums for a while and they seem pretty good.

I need some advice, I want to get a mac because of osx and have more hassle free computing experience. I mainly want one for music and maybe a spot of video but nothing to demanding. I like a nice snappy system, the choices I am faced with are a maxed out 14"ibook a lower end pb or an imac G5 maybe 20" or 17" depending on funds. Any advice would be great.

I am currently running a AMD xp-m 2400+ acer aspire laptop with a 40gb 5400rpm hdd and 768mb ram with xp sp2. I want to switch basically because I spend more time maintaining this thing more than I do using it.

[galarneau]

Choosing a Mac is pretty easy if you can do two things:

1) Figure out if you need a laptop or a desktop
2) Figure out how much money you have to spend

If you can tell us what your budget is, and if you need to have mobility, we can give you better advice.

[Bobmouse]

My max budget is about £1500 but thats pushing it I would like to spend under £1000. As for portability I would like a laptop over a desktop, however the idea of watching dvd's on a 20" screen does appeal. The mini mac with as much ram as I can afford and a nice tft to go with it is an option instead of an imac g5. See this my problem I cant decide. I'm a sucker for value for money but love high performance.

[Kyros]

A G5 iMac will be a lot faster than a mac mini with a display. If you don't mind the fact that the iMac is an all-in-one, it would be a far better deal. It's also a lot faster than the iBooks, so I would get an iMac. The other stuff will probably feel slow compared to your old pc.

[Bobmouse]

At just over £1000 you can get the 17" superdrive model imac G5 with 1gb ram which lookslike a bargain really. I would prefer a portable. i think at the mo its either a maxed out 12" or 14" ibook or wait and see what happens with the pb.

[Forbodium]

The only advantage that the 14" iBook has over the 12" one is the availability of a built-in Superdrive. The extra screen space of the 14" model is wasted because the max resolution is the same as on the 12" model (1024 x768).

[budster101]

The 14" would be perfect for you.

- Superdrive standard
- 14" screen
- 1024 x 768 resolution
- 32mb Vram
- Airport Extreme / Bluetooth standard
- 1.42 ghz
- Upgradeable to 1.5gb Ram (512mb standard)

It's not that far off from a 12" powerbook... and it's $400 cheaper (Superdrive model)

It's a sweet computer, and you can spend the left-over money on maybe some more RAM
or some Applications.

[Bobmouse]

Agreed, the ibook 14" maxed out with ram would be a very good option for me. Whats the HDD speed of the ibook?

[budster101]

"Depending on iBook model, choose a 40GB, 60GB, 80GB or 100GB Ultra ATA/100 (Advanced Technology Attachment) drive for expanded storage. All drives run at 4200 revolutions per minute. "

[Bobmouse]

Originally Posted by budster101

"Depending on iBook model, choose a 40GB, 60GB, 80GB or 100GB Ultra ATA/100 (Advanced Technology Attachment) drive for expanded storage. All drives run at 4200 revolutions per minute. "

This is the one thing that is stopping me 4200rpm drives are just to slow. I swapedout a 4200rpm drive for a 5400rpm drivein my current laptop and it made a huge difference. Is it easy to upgrade HDD on the ibook?

[wataru]

No, it's relatively difficult and it will void your warranty.

[Forbodium]

I'd think replacing the HD would be physically easy, at least easier than some of the PowerMacs that I've done the same thing with. Such a shame that they hit us with the warranty issue.

[Bobmouse]

Originally Posted by Forbodium

I'd think replacing the HD would be physically easy, at least easier than some of the PowerMacs that I've done the same thing with. Such a shame that they hit us with the warranty issue.

Also upgrading the HDD to a 5400rpm drive would have an impact on battery life but I dont know howmuch difference it would make. I would love to see how an ibook with 1.5 gig of ram and a 7200 rpm disk drive would perform.

[wataru]

Originally Posted by Forbodium

I'd think replacing the HD would be physically easy, at least easier than some of the PowerMacs that I've done the same thing with. Such a shame that they hit us with the warranty issue.

It's not. Unless 90+ minutes for a guy with experience seems like "easy" to you.

[Bobmouse]

Originally Posted by wataru

It's not. Unless 90+ minutes for a guy with experience seems like "easy" to you.

OMG , to take the HDD out of my laptop it takes less than a minute just unscrewing two screws then sliding it out. I dont think i will be trying that on an ibook.

[wataru]

Yeah, the last laptop hard drive transplant I did was on a Pismo, and that was cake.

My father's iBook's hard drive is on the fritz. It's out of warranty anyway so I will be attempting this procedure in the near future. I'll let you know how it goes.

[Bobmouse]

If all goes well today I will be ordering my first Mac computer very soon. I have a job interview at 3.30pm. If I get the job a 12" ibook 80gb HDD and 1.5 gig of ram is mine.

damn it wont find out untill early next week now, lookslike i wil have to wait.

[DeathMan]

I'd go with the iMac unless you really think you need a portable. You'll definately notice a difference. I will be buying an iBook, since I want to be able to work while I travel.

[Bobmouse]

Originally Posted by DeathMan

I'd go with the iMac unless you really think you need a portable. You'll definately notice a difference. I will be buying an iBook, since I want to be able to work while I travel.

Price is an issue at the mo, a mac mini ad a old crt is looking more likely to happen if i dont get a job soon. My switching plan may have to be put on hold

[wataru]

Followup: I just replaced the hard drive in my father's iBook G4. It was rough. I spent probably 1.5 to 2 hours on it. I nearly broke one of the speaker wires, but luckily everything came through in one piece.

In summary: I don't recommend this procedure for anyone who isn't either very brave or very stupid. You need to be handy with small tools and very, very careful. Also, don't use the instructions I linked to earlier. This page was much better.

[CaptainHaddock]

I hope you find a job soon! I think the iMac would be right up your alley, and the 20" LCD is a sweet display for using Garageband on if you're into music.