First Mac Sugestions

S

Scuba Steve

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I've been thinking about buying my first mac for a while now, and was wondering if a 12'g4 ibook would be a good purchase?

Thanks ~ Steve
 
If you like the looks (I love my iBook): The iBook G4 is a great first Mac. It's also a great and small notebook. You'd get better performance and a SuperDrive (DVD-RW) in a PowerBook 12", but other than that, I say: Save the money and get the iBook.

There's even a firmware hack that enables monitor-spanning if you connet an external secondary display.
 
I can say, owning a 12 G4 800 iBook. I am pleased with it. I use it for writing reports for work, basic spreadsheet, etc. Add more ram, and the iBook is capable of alot. Yes, I like the powerbook better, but I have a new G4 DT, and did not want to duplicate my stuff.
 
I had an iBook and I loved it. Now I love my Powerbook - iBook is a good start though :)

Welcome to forums.
 
I'm mainly gonna use it for word,pics,music and surfing. I'm also considering a emac or imac, but I'm leaning towards a notebook. Now I just gotta save some money.
 
I just grabbed an iBook last week. I like it a lot. Unfortunately, I got burned with a bad third party RAM, so I'm a teeny bit sour from that, but I can't blame the iBook.

Just make sure you get more RAM, preferably the full 512 extra for $100 give or take online (crucial.com is a name that comes up a lot).

I have found the iBook 12" to be a surprisingly decent machine. It's not goint to win any speed race, but for general purpose computing, it really does OK. I'm editing some on-the-road video now with only 256 RAM since I'm waiting on a new 512.

The entry price point is great on the 12" iBook at $1099. Of course, you can easily drop a lot more money over time (airport card, base station, carrying case, extra RAM, bluetooth connection, wireless keyboard/mouse, iSight, the list goes on and on...) But at least you can buy what you need or want as you feel.

If you said Maya, Photoshop and Final Cut Pro were your main apps, I'd say you've got to drop some more money and get the big box. But since you say word,pics,music and surfing you'll be fine. I would definitely recommend it if portability is more important than performance and having a SuperDrive.
 
If you want portability and the basic features you mentioned, you can't go too wrong with a 12" iBook. If you want to do more intense graphics, you may want a slightly larger screen because you are going to be scrolling and collapsing windows A LOT!

I have a 14.2" Powerbook Pismo Laptop and it has been working great for me. I paid $50 for it (from a friend) and replaced the broken screen for $250. You can find great deals on eBay if you are willing to put up with the bidding war process. :)
 
I'd also suggest an iBook, however the 14 goes to up to 1 Ghz and the 12 is at 800. Max ram in whatever you do and consider an AirPort card and Station. That's when you truly get the most of your $$$ in a laptop, the portability and ability to go wireless.
 
If you go for the 12" ibook and plan to keep music as well as work on it, i'd order it with a bigger hard drive. 30gb is to small. And like others said, max the ram.
 
I want to ask a related Wi-Fi question: How do you protect your data and your connection (from getting hijacked by someone else) when working wirelessly?
 
Are you specifically looking for a laptop? Getting a Mac really depends on what you want to use it for. If your just into surfing the net and gaming go with a PC, but if your into graphics, design, video go with a Mac. All depends on what you can afford. Personally I would go with a desktop if its your first mac, you can get a decent system for around $1200, load it with ram and you will compete with any PC with respects to what I said above. IMO, iBooks are a great secondary tool for a desktop, same goes for PCs. Either way you go, the iBooks are great, just make sure you get the Applecare with it, been hearing the boards tend to have issues.
 
I have had problems with eMacs and iMacs getting shipped with bad installed ram (the extra ram, not the internal RAM that's harder to get at.)
 
The Extreme Airport Card and Station that you have have encryption options that you can enable which means you get wireless surfing without having to worry about being bluejacked, or wifijacked. Additionally, you can keep File Sharing Off as a preference which further limits any prying eyes or greedy hands from afar.
 
Trying to earn some brownie points. Makes up for the other posts when I'm a deliberate contrarian. :D
 
I've looked on ebay, but I figured after upgrading it to panther it would cost about the same price as a new emac. I'm gonna buy it from a local mac store and have them order 512mb 3rd party ram and install it for me. I'm comfortable working on pc's, but I don't wanna screw up a new notebook.
 
my wife's boss just bought her a new eMac and it came installed with bad RAM. Just be aware you may need to replace the 3rd party install RAM when you get the machine delivered. Apple now allows you to fix it yourself (even puts instructions in the user manual) so you won't void your warranty. Just call first and start a case number with Apple before you do so, so you have some recourse in case you get a particularly ornery customer service person when you try to get your refund/new chip.
 
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