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OT: iBook for college kid....


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I've always been a PC user and know next to nothing about Apple products except that they have an infinitely cooler look n feel.

 

Son is heading to college and we've got to buy the obligatory laptop. Any quick hints as to what an iBook with a reasonable configuration would run?

 

Son is not a geek. He basically plays games, does homework, fools around on the web, and has his iPod mp3s on his PC. He does have an M-Audio Mobil Pre USB with the lite vs of Live. He's going to probably be a liberal arts student at least for the next couple of years. So like so many kids, he'll use all the HD space we buy him, but he doesn't need tons of CPU power.

 

I mean in 1 minute I can order up a Dell for $800 and be done with it.

 

What do you Mac people say?

 

nat whilk ii

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Do the Dell. As long as you can get the XP option. My two cents. :D

 

Plus, if he's already a PC user, I'm sure the Mac would piss him off. It did me. Once you get used to a certain platform, you just know it, ya know?

 

Whatever you do, get him one of those little mice. Those touchpads suck donkey balls. :mad:

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Depends on what he wants to do, if he isn't into graphic arts, video or Music, get a PC.

 

ibooks have been discontinued, but you can find used ones.

 

Macbooks are the current laptops, Now have Intel cpus, and can also run Windows, and Linux.

 

And now that the Mac hardware can run other OSs, I'm ditching my PCs so I don't have to do the hardware software Windows dance.

 

:cool:

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What does your son prefer?

 

 

Well, he's pretty easygoing about what he wants. In our family, everyone has their own computer - kids got their first ones at about age 8, and plenty of access before that. So he doesn't have any built-up deferred gratification, computer-wise.

 

I'm the computer geek-dad, so they pretty much just let me buy them and they're happy. If anything, everyone's been spoiled with computers (except for those eMachines...those were really cheap but kinda crappy and they're long gone).

 

He likes cool stuff, basically. And almost all Apple products score much higher on the cool chart. But he also knows we're on a budget, so he's just asking me if it's possible to get a Mac, knowing they're usually more expensive.

 

He won't want to bother with researching prices and options and all that.

 

I'll boil down the options that fit the budget and let him choose. We're looking at about a $1,200 tops budget for the thing.

 

I'm just looking for a head-start and experience-wisdom tips since I'm almost totally ignorant about Macs.

 

nat whilk ii

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We're looking at about a $1,200 tops budget for the thing.

 

 

As long as your son is familiar with MacOS and feels he can work with it to complete his schoolwork, it would probably be a great computer to give him.

 

Your price point slightly limits your options. You have two models as possibilities:

 

- MacBook 13" 1.83GHz, 512MB RAM, 60GB HD ($1099)

- MacBook 13" 2GHz, 1GB RAM, 80GB HD ($1299)

 

I think either would be a great solution for a college kid.

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If you go the Mac route, absolutely, definitely go with the MacBook (rather than searching for a used iBook or PowerBook which are available around for almost nothing but are not worth much more than that from my brief experience with an ill-fated $2800 PowerBook I helped hook some friends up with... they got a deal on it used, at around $750 when it was about a year and a half old -- but it died about a year after they bought it) -- and absolutely, definitely make sure you investigate the student/educator discount options available to you!!!

 

 

If you, on the other hand, go the PC route, make sure you check the Dell "Outlet Store" for refurbished models. I helped my mom pick out at Core Duo 17" for just under $800 (with XP, of course!)... it was just about $1040 with tax and shipping AND a 3 year, next day, onsite, drop-and-spill-coverage warranty!

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Nat,

 

Go with the MacBook Pro. My wife got one after 10 years on a PC, and she's doing fine--hasn't even turned the PC back on. You'll like it, too, if you let yourself get into it.

 

Here's a money saving tip for a school kid. NeoOffice for Mac. It's basically a free version of Microsoft Office. It opens any Office document, and you can save your files as Microsoft docs. Check it out here: http://www.neooffice.org/neojava/en/index.php

 

Good luck.

 

Steve

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I think the MacBook is the way to go in this situation.

 

If not the MacBookpro, or the MacBook, then a G4 iBook wouldn't be a bad investment, despite what blue says. (Not everybody has the same experience.) What you definitely do NOT want to do is get a G3 iBook; most all of them have a faulty videocard in them, and will die on you. (I'm dealing with trying to get ours going again, for just this reason. Not fun.)

 

Overall, if you're going mac, and it's for your college-age son, I'd go MacBook.

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MacBook. MacBook. MacBook. I'm loathe to directly contradict the advice my esteemed colleague offramp wrote on the G4 PB (who I note with some trepidation has precisely 666 posts at this writing)... especially since I'm already on record... but NOOOOOOOOOOOO! Really.

 

Sorry, offramp. I just gotta go on the line on this one. I had a short but intimate aquaintanceship with that G4 PB I mentioned (they put me in charge of getting it cleaned up and optimized, which I delegated to a Mac maven pal. But I spent some quality time getting to know it afterwards. It was very slow even by the standards of mid-2005 and particularly in comparison to the refurbished Dell I'd bought a year and a half before. (It was an 800 MHz and they did get faster clocks before the line was closed down, to be sure. About double that, yeah? Still, the drive was oddly slow, even though it was supposed to be a 60 GB 7200. It was just a slow machine. The MacBook that my friends replaced it with is a rocketship in comparison.)

 

 

Also, seriously consider Applecare!

 

Laptops are not something mere humans should ever consider doing more than maybe playing with the RAM on. (Some machines may have a primary drive you can get to but even that's often beyond the comfort zone of even box-builder types.)

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Yes on XP using Boot Camp. A qualified maybe on Vista for now, you may have some issues and you'd definitely want to do some checking before doing anything crazy. It appears you may have better luck first installing XP and then Vista as an upgrade to that. Google is your friend, here.

 

 

If I can step back just a step or two, here. (I'm a little concerned that my heavy touting of the MB may have misrepresented my basic position a trifle.)

 

The MB's are very sleek, small, slim machines. But that sleekness does not come without some tradeoffs. On my friends' MB, the fan can kick into high at odd times. And like many laptops, top rev on the little fan can be louder than you come to expect when it's not on. Earlier models had a handful of issues (if you should troll for a used MB -- and I'd look at Apple's own refurb store before I'd buy a used machine on the open market -- watch out for machines that were affected by the "Sudden Shutdown Syndrome" recall or any other early-release issues you may find by googling).

 

It sounds like your son's got his head on his shoulders and will approach any machine as the gravy it is; but my usual advice is this:

 

If you think you want a Mac and you can afford a Mac, you should probably buy a Mac, because otherwise, every little thing that doesn't go the way you want is going to bug the crap out of you. Whereas, if you're a PC person who wanted to get a Mac and finally does it, it will all be one big, interesting and hopefully mostly fun adventure and you'll be a lot more inclined to like your machine, even if it is, like all computers, not perfect.

 

That's my thinkin'.

 

;)

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I had a short but intimate aquaintanceship with that G4 PB I mentioned (they put me in charge of getting it cleaned up and optimized, which I delegated to a Mac maven pal. But I spent some quality time getting to know it afterwards. It was
very
slow even by the standards of mid-2005 and particularly in comparison to the refurbished Dell I'd bought a year and a half before. (It was an 800 MHz and they
did
get faster clocks before the line was closed down, to be sure. About double that, yeah? Still, the drive was oddly slow, even though it was supposed to be a 60 GB 7200. It was just a slow machine.

 

 

"short, but intimate".

The most vehement anti-Apple statements come from these experiences.

I don't doubt your experience--I've come up with some interesting four-letter words while working on Apples--but I say, you got the rare lemon.

There's also the possibility that whoever you gave it to, to do the 'maven' work, wasn't quite up to snuff.

Still, your experience was yours; I would own a G4 iBook or Powerbook if I had the money and need.

 

 

Laptops are
not
something mere humans should ever consider doing more than maybe playing with the RAM on. (Some machines may have a primary drive you can get to but even that's often beyond the comfort zone of even box-builder types.)

 

 

Nonsense. Dig in. Builds character.

I've had the Pismo apart a few times. The G3 iBook IS a bitch, to be sure.

My biggest kick is finding out how to get inside the seamless presentation. Take the iPod: when I finally figured it out, I had those sumbitches apart so fast; then I went on eBay and bought parts and built a couple.

Good times, good times.

 

If you can't open it, you don't own it.

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