College laptop - what to buy, and when?

[crapola5]

Hi,

I'm going off to college in late August, and my parents have been looking at laptops for me to get. When I visited the campus, I saw a lot of kids in the classes with ibooks and powerbooks. I loved how they looked, and decided I should probably get one. But I have a couple of problems. First of all, I can't decide between an ibook and a powerbook. My parents don't really want to spend more than 1300 if they can, and that basically leaves out the powerbook and leaves some limited options for the ibook. I checked the apple site with the student discount, and with the upgrades that I need, the ibook would still come out to around 1300 (the 12' with 512mb ram, 60gb, and airport built in). The powerbook naturally has a little more power and a lot more features, so I'd really like to get that if I can. So I guess my first question is, is the difference between the two really that big?

Also, my second question: is apple releasing any new laptop models or do they have any plans to drop prices any time soon? I don't know if I should wait to buy the laptop some time during fall, or if I should get it over summer before I go to college. Naturally, I want to get it during summer so I can play around with it. But if the prices are going to drop later during the fall, maybe I could get a powerbook then.

Thanks for the advice!

[FFL]

Prices for new, current models stay pretty much the same. The iBook is likely to get a speed/feature bump in the next 30-60 days (no one here, even if they work for Apple, knows for sure or could say if they did).

If you shop the right resellers immediately after a faster model is announced, you can often get "last week's model" for an additional discount.

[FFL]

moved to Purchasing Advice and edited title to be more descriptive.

[MCQ]

Prices don't typically drop unless there's a product line refresh, in which case the older models being replaced are discounted.

As an FYI, there's currently a $100 promotional mail in rebate available for education:
http://education.apple.com/students/go/save/

Might bring the combo drive PB within buying range for your parents.

[BlueRabbit]

Also, if you really want the PB, you might consider buying one from the previous revision. It'll be a bit slower (1.33 GHz), but that's still as fast as the current 14" iBooks, and should cost about as much. Also, I believe that the 1.33 12" PB's came with the options you want on your iBook, like the 512 RAM, 60 gig HD, and Airport. It's a good deal.

[SorryToSay]

Prices don't typically drop unless there's a product line refresh, in which case the older models being replaced are discounted.

As an FYI, there's currently a $100 promotional mail in rebate available for education:
http://education.apple.com/students/go/save/

Might bring the combo drive PB within buying range for your parents.

Thank you. I just bought a new iMac and that is 100 bucks in my pocket.

[atomicbartbeans]

Don't worry about the proc speed, my iBook's 1.2Ghz is fine. Don't get the 14" iBook as it's big and you gain nothing as far as resolution goes. Oh, when you buy it, buy at least an extra 256 stick too (try best buy). You'll notice the difference considerably.

[BarracksSi]

Get the 12". It'll go anywhere that your school notebooks will go. You wouldn't even need a separate laptop bag.

There aren't a whole lot of practical daily-use features in the Powerbook that you'll miss if you got an iBook. If you've got no need for monitor spanning or PCI cards, you probably won't need a Powerbook at all.

Rather than buying RAM from Apple, shop around a bit. Check out www.macsales.com and www.crucial.com for RAM at much better prices.

[crapola5]

Thanks for all the help. Sounds like I should just go for an iBook, and if use that coupon I'd have to purchase it before late June. By the way, does that discount work for incoming freshman next year? I tried signing up for it and for some reason it won't go anywhere. It'll take me to a page where I have to choose the school, but when I do that and click continue it won't go to the next page. Anyone else getting the same error?

[NaMo4184]

if you get the memmory 3rd party you will meet your price range. Apple ram is a rip off

[RowdyScot]

After you sign up for it, it should be sent to the email address you gave to them. Mine is waiting patiently in my saved mail to be used after WWDC (Don't know what to expect, if anything, but I figure it can't hurt to see what comes out).

[jbloodwo]

if you get the memmory 3rd party you will meet your price range. Apple ram is a rip off

Yes go for the 3rd party memory. With any luck you will get enough money from you graduation gifts to get a 1gig stick of ram. You would be much better off spending what you would have spent on ram on more harddrive space. you will also need to rember that there is another 150 dollars for the student edition of Microsoft Office for mac that you will need to add to the cost. I would also agree with sever other people and say do not buy untell after WWDC in june. there is a chance that the iBook will get a rev then and it might come with 512 stadard like the power books do now. If an update is comming the 12" would have simular specs to the curent powerbook i am guessing same video but with a 1.33 g4 instead of 1.5

[crapola5]

Will I be able to use the coupon by then? The coupon expires late June I think.

Also, my problem is that I can't get past the second screen to have them send me the coupon. I click on next after that first screen, and it'll then ask me to select the college I am/will be attending. The problem is that when I select it and click next, the page won't load anything.

Finally, I have no idea how to install ram into a laptop, let alone an ibook. It's easy I'm assuming? (I'm guessing the positive stereotype of apple products is that they are very user-friendly)

[Stevuh]

even if you can't install it i'm gonna take a shot in the dark and say that having the Best Buy people(Geek Squad) install the RAM you buy there is gonna cost less than apple's RAM. but i could be wrong.

but to answer your question no, it shouldn't be very hard.

[atomicbartbeans]

Installing RAM is easy on an iBook. Pop up the keyboard, pull out the Airport, unscrew the little plate, stick the RAM in the slot and push down, screw it back in, put the Airport back in, pop the keyboard back down, and you're done.

Oh, don't get MS Office. It's nice, but Pages kicks incomprehensible amounts of ass, and it's compatible with Office docs.

[JayReding]

I have an 12" iBook, and I really wish I'd bought it when I was still in school. It's a great little computer, and hauling it around campus would be a lot easier. The PowerBooks are nice, but the iBook is made to be durable, and you'll want durability for a school laptop. :)

To be honest, the difference in price between having Apple add the RAM and buying the RAM from a store and having them install it isn't all that much. I'd check the prices, and if it's only $10 or $20 more to have Apple install it, just get the added RAM as a BTO option. Removing the keyboard and AirPort card is possible as a DIY project, but it's also a big hassle. If you have an authorized Apple repair shop in your town/near campus they might also be another option.

You'll want Microsoft Office. iWork is very nice, but you'll probably have use for Excel at some point. Office 2004 Student Edition is only $150, which is worth it for as much use as you'll get out of it.

An iBook with 512MB of RAM will run Tiger just fine, and will handle running Safari, doing stuff in Office, and playing songs in iTunes without skipping a beat. (And believe me, you'll be spending 90% of your time doing those three...:)) It's a great little computer, has no problems interfacing with wireless and wired networks and connecting to shared drives even on Windows machines, and you don't need to worry about viruses and spyware.

I really wish I'd gotten an Apple rather than the crappy Compaq laptop I had when I was in school, so you're definitely making the right choice. You might want to wait until after WWDC in June to see if they bump the iBooks, but they're probably not going to make a radical change. My guess is that they might bump the CPU to a 1.4gHz G4 and make 512MB of RAM standard. WWDC is the first week in June, so you'll have time to still use that coupon.

Buying a Mac wil be the best computer purchase you've ever made...

[crapola5]

thanks for your detailed response, you've pretty muched sealed the deal; I'll have to get a ibook now! I'll probably get the ram built in so i don't screw up my first laptop. I'm scared to hell about it, even though I've installed ram into my own desktop pc hundreds of times. Now if I can only get that coupon... :)