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funduk
2006-07-25, 22:52
Hey guys,

I'm not usually one to ask for purchasing advice, but hey that's cool, a lot of the threads in here are really helpful! So here goes.

I have the most recent revision 12" PB, I upgraded it to 1.25GB of RAM (of course :)) and I love it, it's like my baby. I treat it like the king of the house.

*ahem*

The problem comes in that I bought the machine for my software engineering program at college. First year went fine, the powerbook totally owned every piece of crap windows laptop my classmates had, it was good times. All day you'd head *bonk!* *bonk!* and that god awful start-up noise...

I ended up with an overall average of 92.5% or so.

Then I read the course outlines for 2nd year and realize that we'll be doing a bunch of portable application development specifically using visual studios windows ce junk or whatever, along with a bunch of java/c++ that will (no doubt, knowing my prof) incorporate a bunch of windows specific api crap :mad:.

Since my battery is starting to show it's age and Intel cpus are starting to make the ppc's cheaper on the market, here's what I have planned.

My local apple retailer takes trade-ins! They apparently offer ~$600 for used 12" powerbook! The price is the same whether it's 512mb of 1.25GB of ram, so I can sell my extra stick seperated for another 70 or so $.

I dont have that much money though, so the only machine i'd be able to afford at this deal is the core solo machine. What do you think? Of course it'd only take me a month or so to get some money together and upgrade the ram, but is this machine going to cut it for development stuff?

The development I do, besides what is mentioned above basically just consists of Ruby on Rails, some PHP stuff, xcode for school projects and I suppose windows xp running in parallels (or bootcamp, dont really care but would rather not partition my hd).

Is the solo going to cut it? I suppose I should wait for wwdc but I have a feeling it wont change much other than a) my pb trade in price going down even further and b) slight price drop for the mini... ? Should I just do it! Spend the 90 bucks on the mini, I already have a cinema display and all that good stuff, it'd be SWEET if it can handle my day to day activities of development + diggnation episodes + browsing, etc. I'm so excited about a new machine yet scared that it'd be a letdown to go with the solo. ARG!

Sorry for the long rant, and thanks for any thoughts,
Funduk

Windowsrookie
2006-07-25, 22:57
I'd say keep the 12" or sell it on ebay. Everybody loves the 12" (well at least Brad, Luca, and I) You can probably get ~$900 on ebay too.

torifile
2006-07-25, 23:15
I actually agree with WR on this one. You'd be missing out on a couple hundred $$ if you did the trade.

Here's what I'd do if I were you: sell the PB on ebay. Take the money and buy a macbook and iPod. Sell the iPod. Send in the rebate for $179. Your net cost for the macbook shouldn't be much more than $900.

$1049 - base macbook
+$229 - 4 gig nano (I think this is the most cost effective one to get)
------
$1278
-$179 (iPod rebate)
-------
$1100
-$200 (sale of the iPod)
------
$900, give or take depending on taxes, etc.

funduk
2006-07-25, 23:47
Yea, I sort of thought of that. But like I said I don't have much money and I need to get this done probably by 3rd week of august, also I have no ebay account.

There's no way I can afford another 229 for the nano upfront. I also dont really want to go through the hassle of finding a buyer for the nano, not to mention that my fiance would go apeshit wanting it to replace her mini :)

I obviously wasn't clear enough but my main problem is if the core solo would do it for me based on what I do with it. I have no real use for the laptop anymore, I do nearly all my work at home and my fiance has a macbook that I can take with me to school on a certain day if i need it. My 12" pb ends up sitting on my table plugged into my cinema like 24/7 (like now).

My main worry is that the solo wont be able to handle all the crap i'll throw at it and will feel sluggish.

edit: also! I just remembered I checked ebay! It looks like the most they sell for that people actually bid at is ~700 bucks. For the difference of $100 it's not worth my time to put it up, wait, wait wait, get a bid, hopefully, hopefully it's a decent price, then i gotta do all that ebay payment deal crap and then I have to actually ship it! Honestly I'd really rather go into my local apple shop tomorrow, have them diag the laptop and then have me come back in like 3-4 hours and leave with a mini for $90. But the solo might be a bad idea, is all i'm sayin.

Thanks for the ideas,
Funduk


ps. check out this (http://cgi.ebay.ca/12-PowerBook-G4-1-5GHz-1-25GB-RAM-80GB-HD-SuperDrv_W0QQitemZ200010651447QQihZ010QQcategoryZ1 4909QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem) horrible deal! 10 bids! :(

Robo
2006-07-26, 00:08
Are you checking completed listings? (I'm assuming not, since you need an eBay account for that.) Grab a free account and check completed listings. There's no way you can gauge prices on incomplete listings, simply because most of the bidding occurs at the end of the auction.

funduk
2006-07-26, 00:26
Ok well I can appreciate that. Still, based on my other reasons I dont think ebay is the way I'm going to end up going. I might not have a lot of money to SPEND but I also am very lazy and so saving a hundred bucks isnt on the top of my list if it's a hassle.

Luca
2006-07-26, 08:04
More like saving $300.

You could also try posting it to AnandTech (http://forums.anandtech.com/categories.aspx?catid=45&entercat=y)'s classifieds forum. Registration is super quick as with any forum, and there's a lot of traffic. It's worth a shot before you just trade it in.

Wyatt
2006-07-26, 08:16
You're also not going to get a good price on eBay. You're not likely to have people competing to buy from you when your feedback rating is zero. Some sellers won't let zero-feedback people bid, and many buyers (myself included) refuse to buy from zero-feedback sellers, no matter how good of a deal it is--especially on high-dollar items like computers.

JayReding
2006-07-26, 11:59
Are you thinking of a Mac mini or a MacBook?

I wouldn't go with the Core Solo if you plan to use Parallels, as virtualization is much faster with a dual-core setup, and I don't believe that the Core Solo has Intel's Vanderpool virtualization tech enabled, which really helps performance. The Solo always seemed like a pretty crippled processor to me.

I'd wait a few days until after WWDC to see if the mini gets a bump now that the Core 2 Duo chips are out - I'd also see if you can get a refurbished mini with a Core Duo - I've had very good luck with the refurbished models and you do get a nice price cut in the process.

funduk
2006-07-26, 12:50
Are you thinking of a Mac mini or a MacBook?

I wouldn't go with the Core Solo if you plan to use Parallels, as virtualization is much faster with a dual-core setup, and I don't believe that the Core Solo has Intel's Vanderpool virtualization tech enabled, which really helps performance. The Solo always seemed like a pretty crippled processor to me.

I'd wait a few days until after WWDC to see if the mini gets a bump now that the Core 2 Duo chips are out - I'd also see if you can get a refurbished mini with a Core Duo - I've had very good luck with the refurbished models and you do get a nice price cut in the process.

Definitely mac mini, have no use for the laptop anymore.

Thanks for the tips! I was thinking that too, that since core2 duo is out shortly that we may get bumps across the board totally phasing out the solo. My other option was to maybe just get the solo and upgrade it in 6 months to a core2 duo when they're cheaper (i have a buddy who owns a local pc shop and I could get a pretty good price even now / when they're available in the channel).

My main concern about not waiting is that the tradein price will just keep dropping and dropping. Another problem is that over the past month my battery has gone (in coconut battery) from ~80% of original capacity to 56%! That's only gonna hurt my trade in value and I also tend to be very impulsive and the more reasons to just trade it in now the harder it is to wait! :no:

Like I said though I dont REALLY care about virtualization, I can dual boot for now and if I decide to upgrade the processor I can go to parallels later. But yea, I do see your point. Solo kind of sucks.

You're not likely to have people competing to buy from you when your feedback rating is zero.

My thoughts exactly. Not to mention the fact that, like I said above, regardless of the closing prices of some auctions, the ones that are going on NOW have like 10 bids and are at 300 bucks and the auctions that start high have 0 bids. It just doesnt look good to me, certainly not worth the hassle.

The anandtech idea above is ok but I'd rather not go through the trouble of shipping and getting a paypal account and all that. I tried posting it to my local newsgroups (i live near the craziest univerisy in canada so it's a pretty busy group) and posted the asking price at $800 obo and got no replies, people dont want ppc notebooks anymore I guess which is why I just want to get rid of it NOW or SOON! :)

torifile
2006-07-26, 13:25
So, the upshot of all of this is you're too lazy to maximize your profit and too impulsive to wait for a week and a half. :err: The quickest way to get this deal taken care of just chuck the powerbook out the window and be done with it. :err:

Keep in mind that the core 2 duo is not a drop in replacement for the core solo, so "upgrading" the mini in 6 months will likely be the same situation as you're in now, but you'll be out a few hundred more $$. Even in Canada a few hundred $$ is worth something. ;)

Obviously, you're intent on doing what you had originally proposed (and that's completely your prerogative), so why even ask the question here?

funduk
2006-07-26, 13:32
err, well, I had a few options. My main question was if the core solo is going to do what I need it to do in terms of development. So no, i'm not intent on doing what I posted, infact JayReding had some good suggestions and I have altered my plan accordingly.

I'm not too impulsive to wait for 2 weeks, I was just saying that I am impulsive in general so it's HARD to wait for 2 weeks. Gimme a break.

Core2 duo is a drop in replacement for the solo... so... yea 200-300 bucks in 6 months, I can handle that.

JayReding
2006-07-26, 15:38
Don't be so sure about the Core 2 Duo being a drop-in replacement...

Yes, the socket is the same, and in theory that should work, but you need the BIOS to recognize the new chip, and since Apple uses EFI it's up to them to support such an upgrade. It's possible that the Mac mini already does, but I'd verify that you can upgrade the processor before spending any money.

funduk
2006-07-26, 16:35
Here:

http://macenstein.com/default/archives/323

Also, it's mainly the chipset that needs to support the new cpu, not the bios, since the bios is not a bios at all, it's efi, which is entirely different. The chipset in the mac mini supports core 2 duo for sure.

Windowsrookie
2006-07-26, 16:38
My thoughts exactly. Not to mention the fact that, like I said above, regardless of the closing prices of some auctions, the ones that are going on NOW have like 10 bids and are at 300 bucks and the auctions that start high have 0 bids. It just doesnt look good to me, certainly not worth the hassle.

This is how ebay works. You get most of your bids in the last 15 minutes of the auction. You can get ~$900 for the PowerBook.

Look here...http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/powerbook_g4/stats/powerbook_g4_1.5_12.html

Estimated current price $1,300. ;)

funduk
2006-07-26, 17:22
Arg maybe you're right. I guess I should see if I can find a friend with an ebay account who might be willing to help out or something before taking the $600.

Now, my other main concern wasn't so much the value of the powerbook, but if the mini will do what I need it to do. Anyone using a core solo mini (or core duo if I get enough for the pb :)) for student-ish development? Ruby on Rails, C/C++ using xcode etc?

funduk
2006-07-28, 15:42
Ok, I put it up on ebay with the help of a friend with a decent rating...

Thanks for the input guys.