$2000 to spend
I've been banging away on a Wallstreet 266 PB for nearly five years now and am finally upgrading. With the pending release of Panther, I figure it's time to move from OS 8.6 to X.
Couple of things to keep in mind:
I've got $2,000 to spend. It's going to take an act of God to increase that number.
I'm eligible for an education discount.
I'm not going to use anything that doesn't have the letters "G4" or higher inside. Altivec is king.
Superdrive is preferred.
Usage would include the basics (Web, e-mail, iTunes, word processing) plus iPhoto, iMovie and iDVD (thus the Superdrive) after Christmas.
I've looked around the Apple Web site and found a few options: eMac, 17" iMac, DP 1.25 G4 tower (would need to get a monitor; suggest one), and a 15" PB (12" is too small for me.)
Is there something I'm overlooking or do you have advice on which one would be best? I've only got two grand. Little help?
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rentedmule
Couple of things to keep in mind:
I've got $2,000 to spend. It's going to take an act of God to increase that number.
I'm eligible for an education discount.
I'm not going to use anything that doesn't have the letters "G4" or higher inside. Altivec is king.
Superdrive is preferred.
Usage would include the basics (Web, e-mail, iTunes, word processing) plus iPhoto, iMovie and iDVD (thus the Superdrive) after Christmas.
I've looked around the Apple Web site and found a few options: eMac, 17" iMac, DP 1.25 G4 tower (would need to get a monitor; suggest one), and a 15" PB (12" is too small for me.)
Is there something I'm overlooking or do you have advice on which one would be best? I've only got two grand. Little help?
-------
rentedmule
Comments
If you get the iMac, make sure you add more RAM. Get an extra 512 MB in addition to the included 256 MB. Also consider getting the BTO 160 GB hard drive if you need that much space (otherwise don't bother, external Firewire drives aren't much more expensive than internal ones and they provide an excellent way to back up).
If you go for the PowerMac, the educational price is slightly more reasonable - $140 off vs. $100 off for the iMac. That's $1469 for a machine that will be much faster than the iMac. For a display, you could go with Apple 17" Studio, but that's $599 even with the educational discount, so it's above your price range. You could also look for a quality 17" CRT (I've heard good things about the Samsung 700NF), or an inexpensive 15" or 17" LCD. It depends on whether you want an LCD or not. 15" LCDs are NOT expensive, just a bit more than a CRT these days, so choose what you like and what you can afford.
Make sure you do the math before you buy! Apple educational discount on the iMac is pathetic, only $100 off. They'll probably end up charging over $100 in tax, which wouldn't apply if you were to buy it from a normal mail-order outlet. Most mail order places give you free RAM as well - you'll probably find a deal to bump it to 512 MB for $30 or something. Also, if they claim to require the installation fee, you may as well try asking them if they can waive the installation fee and have you install it yourself. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but it's worth a try.
Another option is actually the eMac. The top of the line model is still cheap, especially with an educational discount ($200 off!). It has a CRT instead of an LCD, and it's not expandable, but on the plus side it's still very powerful and it's very cheap.
It's about $70 more than the dual 1.25ghz with superdrive (non refurb) on the Apple Store site.
I've read very positive feedback from dual 1.42ghz owners.
http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPL.../1.0.7.1.0.5.3