[baseballdan]

I am looking to get one and I have no idea what to do. I am thinking of either getting a used one on ebay or waiting for some incentives from apple since i am a college student I am hoping they do the ipod thing again. I would most likely use it for work processing some photo editing probley to make some movies. I'll probley buy an external dvd burner. And another question what is the difference between the ibooks with 800 megahurtz 1 g and 1.2 is there any big performance difference anything a lot of ram could fix? Thanks for any input
Dan

[timehoc]

Buying a 800mhz versus 1.2Ghz means buying a used 800 right? That would mean possibly no Tiger installed. That would be an extra $69. Loads of RAM does help alot, but the four hundred Mhz difference IS noticeable.

[baseballdan]

what about say a 1.04ghz?

[pat++]

1.04 and 1.2ghz are very similar in performance (both are significantly faster than the 800mhz because the L2 cache of the G4 on the 800 is only 256kb, against 512kb for the 1.04ghz and the 1.2ghz). Also the ATA bus is slower on the 800 (100Mhz against 133mhz). Not sure it makes a huge difference though. The Airport card (for wireless networking) was optional on the 800 and standard on newer models. Also soldered memory is 128mb on the 800, and 256mb on newer models.

To give you an idea about performance of the 800 and the 1.2, mpeg-4 encoding is twice as fast on the 1.2.

[MacGallant]

Originally Posted by baseballdan

I am looking to get one and I have no idea what to do. I am thinking of either getting a used one on ebay or waiting for some incentives from apple since i am a college student I am hoping they do the ipod thing again. I would most likely use it for work processing some photo editing probley to make some movies. I'll probley buy an external dvd burner. And another question what is the difference between the ibooks with 800 megahurtz 1 g and 1.2 is there any big performance difference anything a lot of ram could fix? Thanks for any input
Dan

You know you can get a student discount as a college student from Apple either from Apple's education on-line AppleStore or from their retail. This applies to their refurb and new computers.
They have a:
-refurb 12" iBook: 1.2 Ghz/256Mb ram/30GB HD/Combo drive/AP Extreme/56K modem for $849
-refurb 12" iBook: 1 Ghz/256Mb ram/30gb HD/Combo drive/56modem for $799
-the brand new 12"iBook 1.2 Ghz w/ combo drive starts at $949

[smileydub]

At present Amazon has a better deal on iBook 12", i.e. model M9623 at $1,000 less $100 mail in rebate, no shipping charge, and no tax if you live outside Nevada. Net price after rebate is $900. I ordered mine last friday, and it is scheduled to arrive tomorrow, thursday 6/16.

I spoke with the Apple Education Store people last week. The student and faculty price is only $50 discount, i.e. 12" is $949 plus tax, and free shipping. AppleCare for 3 yrs is $183, which is cheaper than from the Apple Store at $250;. However, if you customize it, say, to add RAM and other changes, then they give ten percent discount off these additional items. So, if you plan to customize with many features, then you probably benefit from buying at Education discount price. You have to think hard whether you wish to splurge on extra features.

As I will be adding the RAM myself, I find it best to buy directly from Amazon at $900 and 1GB RAM from Newegg at $117. I was following this iBook forum for the last 2 weeks, and decided that the iBook 12" is the best way low-end model to switch to Mac. Thanks guys for sharing your opinions, which helped me decide to switch.

[baseballdan]

Thanks for the advice so you can get the student discount with the refurbed computers?

[MacGallant]

Originally Posted by baseballdan

Thanks for the advice so you can get the student discount with the refurbed computers?

Sorry, for confusing you but apparently student discounts are for the new items. But the refurbs have been discounted though. The prices are listed in my previous post for this topic thread; $849 & $799.

[doucy2]

buy me
ibook snow 12" g3 800mhz 256mb (upgrade to 640) 30gb $750
airport card if needed
PM me if interested