ok, help me decide...youngest daughters birthday coming up...

thegelding · May 9, 2003 11:12AM

she is going into 9th grade...my eldest has an iMac DV in her room and we have the iMac FP in the computer room...thinking of getting her a computer for her birthday (though i am not sure we need a third freakin computer in the house)....so do i go with an iBook running a G3 or go with an eMac running a G4?? the eMac was just updated to really nice specs, but a notebook might also be a nice edition to the house....or maybe i should wait to see what is happening with the 970...arrrrgh, i hate this....

and my birthday is coming up too...should i get myself the 15 or 30 gig iPod....

too many purchasing decisions, not enough money nor brains...sigh....

leaning toward a iBook, but it is hard to get a G3 at this time...

g

luca · May 9, 2003 11:18AM

Sounds like you must be pretty loaded if you're getting your daughter a brand new computer or an iPod for her birthday... although I'm sure she would love to have an iPod (assuming she has her own computer and music as well). They seem to hold pretty universal appeal.

brunobruin · May 9, 2003 11:23AM

The eMacs are a good value, but get the iBook. They're great for schoolkids and you can take it with you on family trips. If nothing else the kids can sit in the back of the car and watch a DVD.

As for the iPod, $100 more gets you twice the storage. Go for the 30.

ijerry · May 9, 2003 12:11PM

gosh g. it is a hard decision there. I would go with the eMac myself. You have a computer that isn't going to be dead soon. At least the G4 has a little more life than the G3. I bought my ibook 2 yrs ago, when they changed from the clamshell. Back then, it was worth getting the G3, but now. Why?? It would be a waste of money in my opinion. the ibook is 999. so you could get an eMac and a 10G ipod for the same price. You could even get an older ipod for cheaper. Get the whole package that will run all the latest versions of X, and a little something that she can take with her. That would be better in my opinion. That is what I would do. Better use of resources.

Let us know what you do.

cycle · May 9, 2003 12:58PM

why dont u ask her?

doesnt have to be direct...

der kopf · May 9, 2003 1:29PM

Won't they get awfully jealous, if one has like an old steam-train iMac, and the other has this sleek white portable computer? Of course they're your kids, and I imagine you raise them well, but still, keep in mind the need for some equity.

luca · May 9, 2003 2:04PM

Yeah man. Get a Tangerine iBook!

fred_lj · May 9, 2003 2:33PM

Equity my donkey!! I was a sophomore in high school, and my grandmother's remaining trust was paid out to her kids (my mom among them) so she decided to let each of us decide what we'd get with a portion of the funds. She already wanted to get my little brother a french horn, so she did. I knew I wanted my own computer finally. So, during that spring break, I set out on what to get at the time. I convinced myself of the iMac DV -- nice setup overall and simple. And it was just too cool. But once I was actually in CompUSA with my dad, things changed -- as they always do with him being there. He mentioned one thing: how long will this thing last you? That's when my eyes drifted over to the towers --- and the just-canceled 350MHz B/W G3s next to the fresher G4s. I left there that night with a B/W G3 and a sony 17" CRT (both which I still have; the monitor is still the one I judge others by, and the machine, well, it sort of sits there for the most part now, despite my claim that it, being expandable and all, would last me "through grad school" -- ha, a high school sophomore saying this).

Anyway, a year later, my kid brother (with the french horn already) decided he needed a computer, too. And I don't know how in the heck he managed this with my parents, but since dad was still two years away from college expenses (which, it turns out, he doesn't even have since I'm full-ride), my brother somehow convinced him to buy a PowerBook G3 (pismo) for him. My then-computing-power-supremacy was trounced.

Then again, you've got girls and they probably don't care who has the better computer. But wait, to be feministic, they probably do in this day and age or else will figure out who's got the better machine sooner or later.

Ha, what a dilemma. Get her an old iMac like her sister's while they're still available.

thegelding · May 9, 2003 2:34PM

arrrrghhhh---long post lost as i hit wrong button....**** me

anyways.....lots of great points and suggestion (as for my daughters, they are wonderful young women and actually get along great and share very well...so one having a portable and one a desktop wouldn't be a problem).

the way i see it is this:

1) eMac is a great value for both specs and price at this time...i could get her a computer that is faster than my iMac FP and that would either have a faster superdrive than i have or a blazing fast combo drive. this eMac would last her through high school and probably into college (we run our computers 5 to 7 years before we "retire" them). it has a G4 that will run what she does forever...she iChats, emails, uses word, excel, powerpoint, plays iTunes and games like the sims and tropico and such other non-fps type games)...the downside is that this would be the third desktop computer in our house, and does anybody really need three freakin desktops in the house?? still a great deal and very much in the running...

2) the iBook is a great value for price, is cute as hell, portable as all get out, but is (like all laptops) lacking in specs. still she could have a computer that is mobile that will do iChat, email, word, excel, powerpoint, iTunes and probably all her games and be usable for many years (not as long as the eMac for a variety of reasons: laptops don't last as long, the G3 chip will limit it has programs ask for more and more, she could lose or drop it, she could loan it to that idiot john at the macnet2 site and he could kill it with the black cloud that follows him like a curse...so lets say 3-4 years instead of 4-6 years...still it should last her through high school)...so the iBook is a good laptop that is very much in the running (and it will be faster than the iMac DV that is also a G3 but at only 400 mhz---of course that iMac is 4 years old and due for retirement in a couple of years)....

how is see it:

eMac--

Pro: Great Value

Con: Desktop

Pro: G4 chip

Con: Heavy as hell

Pro: 4-6 years of use

Con: fan noise

Pro: superdrive or fast combo

Con: not easily upgraded

and the eMac will play all current programs and probably will have the specs to play programs that are released for the next couple of years

iBook---

Pro: PORTABLE

Con: PORTABLE (can be lost or stolen easily)

Pro: PORTABLE

Con: G3 Chip

Pro: Light and mobile

Con: 3-4 years use max

Pro: quiet and mobile

Con: not easily upgraded

the iBook will play almost all current programs (some are starting to call for G4 minimum) and will always be able to do what it can do today....it will never "lose" abilities....but it is hard to buy a older chip when a newer one is out....and soon the G3 will be two chips behind when the 970 comes out....i suspect that fewer programs will support the G3...as i said, it will not lose abilities and it will do everything she wants it to do today....but will it do everything she needs from it in 2 years? 3 years??

anyway...the best suggestion is probably just to let her decide, but that takes some fun out of it....heavy sigh...oh well, if this is the worst problem i have, my life if pretty ****ing easy...

g

(ha, i had a french horn when i was in fourth grade...i had to walk almost a mile to school every day and that dang case was beating me in the leg the whole way...i had a perminent bruise that year....but it was worth it to play an instrument that you played while shoving your fist inside it...i miss that "freedom" horn)

stunned · May 10, 2003 3:53AM

Since u already have two desktops, an iBook will do great!

Its very affordable and portable!!

Happy birthday to your daughter!

macmedia · May 10, 2003 11:50AM

Get the iBook. We've got a couple of G4s and an old 7600 but when we added the iBook to the mix, guess which one got the most use? The iBook because it's:

Portable (we all fight over it trying to surf the web in the evenings)

Small

Goes on trips for games and DVDs

Kids don't mind the small screen

Can be used for school projects

It's cool!

No, it's not a graphics workhorse but for what it gets used for 95% of the time it's perfectly fine. Surfing the web, school reports, listening to iToones, Chatting with friends, playing games.

Cheers,

Chas

aslan^ · May 10, 2003 3:02PM

i have a ibook 600 and i love it to death but i really dont think its good for much more than web browsing, email and itunes.

if your daughter really needs office functionality then a g4 would probably be more usable, i dont know if office is coded any better than appleworks but when i type in appleworks it seems very sluggish to me which is in my mind counter productive.

just my 2c

i love my ibook but i decided to buy a powerbook (hasnt arrived yet) to do actual work with. my ibook will be relegated to a portable dvd player/web browser that i use while travelling.

ghost_user_name · May 10, 2003 3:26PM

Don´t think about what she is going to use in college. At that time both the G3 and G4 are obsolete.

What are the needs NOW? Sound like the portable win over the G4. Worry about college later.

towel · May 10, 2003 4:57PM

Quote:

Originally posted by AsLan^

i have a ibook 600 and i love it to death but i really dont think its good for much more than web browsing, email and itunes.

I have to put in another vote for the iBook. I beat the figurative hell out of my poor 600 mHz G3, and it holds up beautifully. It's simply disingenuous to say it's only good for email and web browsing. It runs all office apps (Office, Keynote, Filemaker, EndNote) like a champ. I routinely bust out 15MB Excel files and run them through plastic-melting calculations, and the iBook has no problems. Ditto for the multi-dozens-of-megabytes Keynote and PowerPoint presentations. And I maintain a 200MB (and growing) MySQL database of gene expression data which I spend all day mining through, with not a hiccup from the iBook. So speaking as someone who uses an (older) iBook for REAL work, it holds up nicely. It still won't crunch iMovies as fast as a G4, but it certainly won't leave you pulling your hair out - and can you take a G4 eMac on the road with you?

Re: Appleworks - yeah, it's a dog. I'm not sure why it would seem slow while you're typing, but it does load slower than MSWord, and the font display is awful. Mostly for the latter reason I quickly ditched it for Word, while I wait for iWrite.

thegelding · May 11, 2003 12:28PM

ok, leaning toward the iBook (though the eMac still has nice specs for what it is)....but i just bought her Freedom Force...it states G4 minimum.....anybody try this game on an iBook yet??

i kinda dislike buying a computer that doesn't meet minimum specs for current stuff...i know it won't play so things that come out in a year or two...but not playing stuff that is current?? oh well, like everyone points out...it will do 95% of what she wants it to do...the other 5 she can use my iMac (or the 970 ultra cube i buy for christmas with the nice 20" lcd)

g

ok, help me decide...youngest daughters birthday coming up...

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