What should I do about my poor iBook?

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tacojohntacojohn
Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Alright I'm in a little bit of a dilemma here...



I've got a dual USB iBook- they very first white one they introduced.



500MHz, 20 gig, 640 ram, airport, DVD drive.



My batter only lasts about an hour now- if that.



I'm in the middle of my junior year in college and I'm planning on studying abroad this summer in the UK for photo journalism.



I'm planning on purchasing panther in the coming weeks but I'm not sure if I should bother...



I need to get a new battery for this summer, I want to upgrade the OS to panther, I recently bought a bluetooth adapter, I have an external LaCie firewire CD burner, I have a gamecube and games that I would be willing to get rid of, also have a gameboy sp with games that I would be willing to give up too.



Should I try and sell the iBook, burner, bluetooth adapter, gamecube, and gameboy. Skip panther and the battery and try to somehow try to get a powerbook.



or



Should I just wait and get a new battery and panther and live with the aging slow iBook?



I'm planning on getting a canon 10D digital SLR for this summer so having extra hard drive space, good battery life, and faster performance would be nice while I'm in the UK. But I'm just not sure if I can afford a new powerbook right now.



I would possibly be looking at it as a partial christmas gift from my parents (maybe they pay for 1/2 or 1/3 or something).



How much do you think I could get for the iBook?



thanks!

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 5
    pscatespscates Posts: 5,847member
    Gosh, I would TOTALLY go for the PowerBook, tacojohn.



    You'll go from a 500MHz G3 to a 1GHz G4. That ALONE is pretty much worth it. Not to mention, you'll have the built-in Bluetooth, a built-in Combo Drive, a machine to play games on, etc.



    If you can wait another few weeks, you'll be able to get a 12" PowerBook with Panther pre-installed, I'd imagine.



    You're a student, right? You can get a Combo Drive 12" iBook for $1399.



    Check eBay and other places to see what your iBook is going for. Sell it, the burner, the Bluetooth adapter, hit up the parents for help, etc.



    If I were you and in your position, I'd get the new 12" PowerBook, hands down. That one little machine pretty much replaces - AND improves upon - all those other separate devices anyway.
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  • Reply 2 of 5
    tacojohntacojohn Posts: 980member
    Yeah- thats my point.



    It would come with panther (I wouldn't have to buy it)



    It would come with a new battery (I wouldn't have to buy one)



    If would come with a burner (I would be able to sell mine)



    It would come with bluetooth (I could sell my adapter)



    I don't use the gamecube or gameboy enough to warrant having them- I could just do emulation on the powerbook anyway if I wanted to do some console gaming...



    Its just that being a student I'm really not making much money right now- most everything is going towards rent/utilities/etc.



    I guess it all depends if I get this job I've been in the process of trying to get and if my parents are willing to shell out some semi-serious cash for the holidays.



    I think I might be able to sell them on the idea of needing it for serious school work- I'm a TC major at Michigan State and I'm starting to get into heavy video editing, image editing, web design, etc so I've basically out-growen the iBook. And once I go to the UK with a 6.3 mega pixel digital camera my 3-4 gig of hard drive space that I do have is going to be sucked up and I'm not lugging around my exteral burner to burn the pics while I'm there. So having a 60 gig drive + built in superdrive would help BIG TIME!



    Its just going through the process of selling everything that would basically be useless once I got a new computer...
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  • Reply 3 of 5
    pscatespscates Posts: 5,847member
    Please don't include your wife or girlfriend in that list!
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  • Reply 4 of 5
    pensievepensieve Posts: 661member
    I'd second scates' opinion. If you get Panther and a battery, that's $200. Instead of doing that, you could probably get ~$700 for the iBook and extras. That comes out to about $900 you'd have for a new powerbook. Surely you can scrounge up the extra few hundred $$ for the powerbook. And you'll have a warranty on the computer - something I would never be without on a laptop.
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  • Reply 5 of 5
    tacojohntacojohn Posts: 980member
    Alright- so I'm gonna start to sell some of m stuff I guess...



    I think I'm gonna try and go with the 1GHz 12" powerbook, superdrive, 512 ram, 60 gig drive, Airport Extreme, and the bluetooth mouse. Which with my student ADC discount it would come to $1693.



    The only thing I wish I could change was the screen. I'm on a 12" iBook right now and I need more screen!!!! I want to keep the small form factor of the iBook but could I have a wide screen please? I wouldn't mind adding a 20" ACD but its a little expensive and the 17" isn't widescreen...



    Maybe later I'll be able to add a 17" wide ACD to the mix (if they ever release one).



    What about the G4 in the powerbook? Do you think its going to be quickly outdated? I don't want to be in the situation I'm in right now not having a computer that supports something like quartz extreme...I'm just afraid that the powerbook (if I get one) is going to be outdated quickly. I guess if I look at it though I'm still happy with the iBook, just could use a little more speed, more screen res (which I would be able to add later with the mini-DVI out), internal burning, internal bluetooth, audio in, panther, and better battery life.



    I'm just one of those people that loves speed. I want it all- high screen res, dual G5, built in IO, built in optical drive, all in the size of my palm m505...
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