mac laptops

convergecult · 11-01-2006, 11:03 PM

ok im a college student and i have a desktop that i can run anything on but i am wanting an mac laptop for school. now it is only really going to be used for word processing, internet maybe basic things like i movie garage band or something. now ebay has hudreds have older mac's from 500mgz to 1ghz for anywhere from $250-600. if i get a g4 with lets say 600mhz processor and upgrade the ram to 512 or 1 gig will it be what im looking for? is it fast enough to do the simple things im wanting withought waiting 5 min for a program to load? i can not afford a new one so i am looking at the older ones... any help will be good thanks

mac_mogul · 11-02-2006, 03:02 AM

GarageBand needs at LEAST 600mhz and shouldn't be used with LESS than 512mb RAM.

Get the best one you can find. Thats my advice. Don't go for price because you'll just get screwed over. (DUH!)

If you can get a 1ghz G4 with 1gb RAM, that would be perfect and it would last you quite a while.

jauburn · 11-04-2006, 02:53 PM

I agree w/ above poster.

cloud · 11-09-2006, 03:50 AM

be careful about buying computers/parts from ebay i've read a lot of bad experiences

ksu-burke · 11-10-2006, 12:18 AM

Macbooks are great, just buy them new, the old iBooks are feinds at heating up (apple wants a silent pc, which is crap) there are apps that let you control fanspeed to control this

honestly, I wish I'd gotten a good desktop (or gotten more parts for my other desktop) and a mac, because HP suck at everything

so, GO, don't look back

WorldIndustries · 11-11-2006, 08:52 AM

Haha, whoa. I was gonna post a very similar thread to this, so I guess I'll just take the same advice as this guy... However, contrary to this guy, the best I can afford is probably a 600MHz iBook with 512MB RAM, and I would then probably upgrade the RAM to 1GB, and get a larger hard drive... Is this as easy to do as a PC? Can you just stick any generic Corsair or Kingston RAM in there, and any type of unpartitioned/unformatted hard drive?

mac_mogul · 11-11-2006, 12:55 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by WorldIndustries
Haha, whoa. I was gonna post a very similar thread to this, so I guess I'll just take the same advice as this guy... However, contrary to this guy, the best I can afford is probably a 600MHz iBook with 512MB RAM, and I would then probably upgrade the RAM to 1GB, and get a larger hard drive... Is this as easy to do as a PC? Can you just stick any generic Corsair or Kingston RAM in there, and any type of unpartitioned/unformatted hard drive?

To replace the ram, all you have to do is just pop-up the keyboard and snap it in there. (if you have an airport card, you'll have to take that out first. The ram is underneath)

Replacing the hard drive is another story. I've never done it, so it would be best to find a tutorial online or something. I do know that you'll have to take the computer completely apart. The hard drive rests right under the left wrist-rest and obviously there is no 'door' or any sort of easy access to that area.
Your BEST bet for replacing the hard drive would be to take your iBook to a local Apple Store Genius Bar and they can do it for you at a nominal fee. That would be the easiest way by far.
(I really don't suggest doing it by yourself)

technogab · 11-15-2006, 01:05 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by WorldIndustries
Haha, whoa. I was gonna post a very similar thread to this, so I guess I'll just take the same advice as this guy... However, contrary to this guy, the best I can afford is probably a 600MHz iBook with 512MB RAM, and I would then probably upgrade the RAM to 1GB, and get a larger hard drive... Is this as easy to do as a PC? Can you just stick any generic Corsair or Kingston RAM in there, and any type of unpartitioned/unformatted hard drive?

I had a 600Mhz Ibook with 512MB (recently sold it to get a Macbook) but it was plenty fast for what I needed it for. I used to use Dreamweaver and Fireworks on it with no problem. Actually it runs better on my old ibook than my new Macbook because of under Rosetta those programs drag on the Macbook.

But I really liked using Garageband and Imovie, so I wanted something more powerful, but my Ibook did run both GB and imovie with no problem, a little slow, but not that bad. a 600mhz ibook still has lots of life left in it, but if you can, try to get something a little faster, but 600mhz should be fine.

dogsjenny · 11-27-2006, 04:22 PM

Im running a laptop with OS X 4.8 with upgraded RAM of 1.25, 1GHz and doing hard processing in Final Cut Pro. I travel and have taken it to The Antarctic, Middle East and done 6500 Ks in a caravan within Australia. It has never missed a beat and burns DVD disks really fast. This is just over 1 year old. It is a power mac rather than an ibook.
cheers Dogsjenny

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