Hi everyone,
I'm probably going to recommend getting a 12" iBook (~5lbs, right?) to a friend who told me that she's going to get a laptop. She's a music major and she doesn't do any gaming, and she probably just wants it for stuff like watching DVD's, Internet/e-mail/IM'ing, and wordprocessing. I asked her if weight and battery life were important to her, and she said yes, so that's why I thought about a thin-and-light (or close enough) notebook solution.
Here are some of my questions and thoughts/concerns. (Oh my goodness, I didn't think I'd type so much; please feel free to just quote and answer whatever points you feel like answering)
- Also, if I were to get 3rd party RAM, I understand that Apple has strict timing requirements for their notebook RAM (iBooks run PC2100), so would I have to get fairly expensive / fast timings PC2100 SO-DIMM RAM (normal SO-DIMM or micro?), certified Mac-compatible PC2100 RAM, or would getting PC3200 SO-DIMM RAM and running it at PC2100 speeds guarantee that it should have much faster timings than originally rated for @ PC 3200?
*whew* Ok, thanks for your time and attention. If you have other tips for someone transitioning from a Windows environment to Mac OS X (like, here's how you'd have to make adjustments if you're an MSN Messenger user; or if you have any thing to say about how well Appleworks or NeoOffice/J work in general or with MS Word), then please feel free to share your advice.
(These questions have pretty much been answered satisfactorily)
- I'm not sure if she's got a lot of experience with Mac's (either zero experience or probably some experience with them using specialized musical applications at school), but I imagine that the switch from Windows 2000/XP is pretty easy to make to Mac OS X and all the host of applications that come with it (Safari, Appleworks w/ the iBook, etc.)?
- I've read that the DVD playback quality on the Mac OS X isn't quite as high as it can be for the PC? As stated in the link below, Panther's and Tiger's de-interlacers and scalers "are absolutely horrible and unacceptable by today's standards". Have you guys heard anything similar? Any thoughts and experiences?
http://www.anandtech.com/mac/showdoc.aspx?i=2404&p=14
- Would a 1.2GHz G4 with 256MB of RAM be sufficient for her needs, do you think? I've heard that Mac OS X is pretty easy on your system, anyways, but under what conditions would scaling up to 512MB of RAM be beneficial or necessary? And if she were going to do some work in Garageband or something more sophisticated, like Logic Express 7 (http://www.apple.com/logicexpress/), would that tax the 1.2GHz G4 or 256MB of RAM?
- the 12" iBook is pretty much a thin-and-light class notebook @ 5lbs and up to 5 hours of battery life, right? Since we can get it for $1199 CDN base with a $225 CDN mail-in-rebate for a 4GB iPod mini or higher as university students, I'm guessing that there isn't any PC product in the same class of portability and reliability for anywhere near the same price? (I think this free iPod mini deal is insane)
- If 512MB of RAM would be beneficial even in day-to-day Tiger operation, then would you recommend installing a stick of SO-DIMM RAM myself (for cheaper than getting it from Apple)? From what I've read of the warranty agreement, they won't cover you only if your iBook is messed up BECAUSE of something you did, but if something else goes wrong with your iBook, your self-installed non-Apple approved RAM won't be an issue with them?
I'm probably going to recommend getting a 12" iBook (~5lbs, right?) to a friend who told me that she's going to get a laptop. She's a music major and she doesn't do any gaming, and she probably just wants it for stuff like watching DVD's, Internet/e-mail/IM'ing, and wordprocessing. I asked her if weight and battery life were important to her, and she said yes, so that's why I thought about a thin-and-light (or close enough) notebook solution.
Here are some of my questions and thoughts/concerns. (Oh my goodness, I didn't think I'd type so much; please feel free to just quote and answer whatever points you feel like answering)
- Also, if I were to get 3rd party RAM, I understand that Apple has strict timing requirements for their notebook RAM (iBooks run PC2100), so would I have to get fairly expensive / fast timings PC2100 SO-DIMM RAM (normal SO-DIMM or micro?), certified Mac-compatible PC2100 RAM, or would getting PC3200 SO-DIMM RAM and running it at PC2100 speeds guarantee that it should have much faster timings than originally rated for @ PC 3200?
*whew* Ok, thanks for your time and attention. If you have other tips for someone transitioning from a Windows environment to Mac OS X (like, here's how you'd have to make adjustments if you're an MSN Messenger user; or if you have any thing to say about how well Appleworks or NeoOffice/J work in general or with MS Word), then please feel free to share your advice.
(These questions have pretty much been answered satisfactorily)
- I'm not sure if she's got a lot of experience with Mac's (either zero experience or probably some experience with them using specialized musical applications at school), but I imagine that the switch from Windows 2000/XP is pretty easy to make to Mac OS X and all the host of applications that come with it (Safari, Appleworks w/ the iBook, etc.)?
- I've read that the DVD playback quality on the Mac OS X isn't quite as high as it can be for the PC? As stated in the link below, Panther's and Tiger's de-interlacers and scalers "are absolutely horrible and unacceptable by today's standards". Have you guys heard anything similar? Any thoughts and experiences?
http://www.anandtech.com/mac/showdoc.aspx?i=2404&p=14
- Would a 1.2GHz G4 with 256MB of RAM be sufficient for her needs, do you think? I've heard that Mac OS X is pretty easy on your system, anyways, but under what conditions would scaling up to 512MB of RAM be beneficial or necessary? And if she were going to do some work in Garageband or something more sophisticated, like Logic Express 7 (http://www.apple.com/logicexpress/), would that tax the 1.2GHz G4 or 256MB of RAM?
- the 12" iBook is pretty much a thin-and-light class notebook @ 5lbs and up to 5 hours of battery life, right? Since we can get it for $1199 CDN base with a $225 CDN mail-in-rebate for a 4GB iPod mini or higher as university students, I'm guessing that there isn't any PC product in the same class of portability and reliability for anywhere near the same price? (I think this free iPod mini deal is insane)
- If 512MB of RAM would be beneficial even in day-to-day Tiger operation, then would you recommend installing a stick of SO-DIMM RAM myself (for cheaper than getting it from Apple)? From what I've read of the warranty agreement, they won't cover you only if your iBook is messed up BECAUSE of something you did, but if something else goes wrong with your iBook, your self-installed non-Apple approved RAM won't be an issue with them?
So you can ignore the following bit, unless you want to discuss theoretical and real-world performance differences)
