Mac Purchase Advice

[Robo]

I have around £700 to spend (it's about $1200) on a new portable machine, and I've always had my eye on a Mac.

But I'm stuck

I'm going to be doing college work, programming, using Dreamweaver and Photoshop and possibly a tiny bit of video editing. I know neither of these machines are perfectly suited to this but that is what I have to work with considering by budget. I need to know which you think is the best of these two Macs:

The IBook :
1.33GHz PowerPC G4 - £594.89
512K L2 cache (at 1.33GHz)
512MB memory (DDR333 SDRAM)
12.1-inch TFT Display
1024x768 resolution
ATI Mobility Radeon 9550
32MB DDR video memory
40GB Ultra ATA hard drive
Combo Drive (DVD-ROM/CD-RW)
Built-in AirPort Extreme
Built-in Bluetooth 2.0+EDR
Scrolling Trackpad
Sudden Motion Sensor
+ Logitech 2.1 Speakers £11.25

Total: £606.04


---------


The Mac Mini :
1.42GHz PowerPC G4 - £503.01
512MB DDR333 SDRAM
ATI Radeon 9200
32MB DDR video memory
80GB Ultra ATA hard drive
Combo drive (DVD/CD-RW)
DVI or VGA video output
AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth included
56k Internal Modem
Wired Keyboard & Mouse
+ 15" TFT Monitor £99.99
+ Logitech 2.1 Speakers £11.25

Total: £614.25

I really like the sound of the Mac Mini, but the IBook is a laptop afterall. Your opinion?

[CDN_Merlin]

You need more RAM. Cause I'm sure your video will share your RAM and 384 megs isn't much for editing.

[MD-2389]

Even 512 isn't much for editing.

Let me put it to you this way. I'm running an XP2800+ with 2x 256MB sticks of PC2700 DDR in dual-channel mode. It took nearly half an hour to render an SVCD resolution episode of Gargoyles (source being 720x480 mpeg2 stream).

I'd go for 1GB minimum for video editing.

[Robo]

I know neither of these machines are perfectly suited to this but that is what I have to work with considering by budget.

Which system?

[JMEaT]

Ibook

[Iceman]

I hate to be the one to break this to you Robo but with either of those systems I would consider changing my major.

[Robo]

College is very very different in the UK, Iceman

[Flatlander]

Well, if you go with the IBook and decide to upgrade the memory, at least you won't need one of these

[Mobius]

You must be prepared to have those systems run very slowly. Those CPUs are very weak compared to any semi-decent new windows laptop.

I have a Titanium G4 Powerbook on my desk here, to check web code, and while it's a slick machine, with a great interface, it is very slow, even with 512MB of RAM.

Why do you want a Mac anyway? If it's just to test work, buy yourself an old and crappy iMac, and install latest versions of browsers.

[Ferno]

You must be prepared to have those systems run very slowly. Those CPUs are very weak compared to any semi-decent new windows laptop.

I have a Titanium G4 Powerbook on my desk here, to check web code, and while it's a slick machine, with a great interface, it is very slow, even with 512MB of RAM.

Why do you want a Mac anyway? If it's just to test work, buy yourself an old and crappy iMac, and install latest versions of browsers.

um yea... coming from someone who has no clue about pretty much anything, I would take this guy's advice with a grain of salt.


your best bet is to talk to Whollycow about macs. He'll point you in the right direction.

[Robo]

Right. Thanks.

[Robo]

If I could stretch my budget slightly, would it be more worthwhile going for an iMac G5? It's not portable, mind you...

£899.00(£765.11 ex VAT)
Free Shipping

17-inch widescreen LCD
1.8GHz PowerPC G5
600MHz frontside bus
512K L2 cache
512MB DDR400 SDRAM
160GB Serial ATA hard drive
Slot-load Combo Drive
ATI Radeon 9600
128MB DDR video memory
56K internal modem

Ships with Tiger

[WarAdvocat]

Why do you want a Mac anyway? If it's just to test work, buy yourself an old and crappy iMac, and install latest versions of browsers.

um yea... coming from someone who has no clue about pretty much anything, I would take this guy's advice with a grain of salt.

In this particular instance, and within certain limits, Mobi is entirely correct. IMO, pretty much the ONLY reasons to purchase an Apple computer are

A) Sheer Necessity
B) Brand Loyalty
C) A, due to B (or vice versa)
D) Susceptibility to Apple's Marketing

Admittedly, personal preference also blurs the issue, but for sheer performance, you get a LOT more bang for your buck with a PC clone. In fact, I know people who use an Apple out of necessity, but have a PC for everything else.

Do yourself a favor. If you're not already an Apple user, Take Mobi's advice. If you decide not to, go with the G5.

[Pun]

I've been a Mac user since the 80's. If you have your heart set on a mac, and can afford it, definitely try to get something with a G5 processor in it.

I wont comment further on the mac vs pc subject, since that's not what you asked.

[Plebeian]

I'll second pun's advice. Get a G5 if you can. If you really need portability, the iBook should be okay, otherwise the Mini is probably the better bet.

My dad's got a G5 iMac (about the same specs as you're looking at), and he's been really happy with it. It's seemed pretty zippy from what little I've seen.

(Unfortunately, my personal daily Mac experience ends with my iMac G3. )

[Robo]

Thanks.

To be honest I should have said this first (aimed mainly at Mobi). I don't really care if you think it's not worth it, it might be slow or just a waste of money.

All I wanted was a decision between the systems. Thanks go to whoever did that for me

[Pandora]

I would also go for the G5 iMac, unless you really want to be mobile.
Get at least 1 gigabyte of RAM altogether, though. OS X runs much smoother then. But don't get it from Apple, if you want to have it cheap. I heard Crucial would be quite good for RAM in the UK.

As a sidenote: I would always (gaming being the exception) chose a Mac over a PC, but for none of the reasons WarAdvocat stated. But, yeah, let's leave it at that.