Macs

Heres the deal,
I have come into a bit of money and should be getting some more after all my exams are out..... so... i am planning to buy a Mac for college Next year...
Now, At the moment.... I have no idea about Macs other than they look really pretty :D
So... I was just wondering if anyone could reccommend a Mac Laptop for me which i can use for Design aswell as Schoolwork ?

I looked on Mac.com and thought maybe the 14" iBook or the 12" Combo Drive Powerbook....

Please help

Thanks

Marc

The iBooks and Powerbooks are pretty similar in many areas, and different in others.

iBooks:

Can't get a Superdrive (DVD Burner)

Limited to 640mb of RAM (12" powerbook goes to 1.25gb if you buy a 1gb chip, or 768 if you buy a 512mb chip)

No Dual monitor support. You can hook up an external monitor, but it is only mirrored, you can't do dual desktops (though I think there is a hack to make it work)

Limited to 60gb HD (12" can have a 80gb)

Bluetooth is not included in the iBook, it's an extra cost.


That's pretty much the only difference between them. And you get different software too.

The Powerbook is considered a "pro machine" so it comes with the art director's toolkit, omnigraffle, omnioutliner, quickbooks, MS Office demo, etc.

The iBook is a consumer model, so it has Appleworks (apple's office suite - old), tony hawk's pro skater, 2 other games, quicken, etc.

both have the entire updated iLife suite, etc.




If you have the money I would go with a 12" powerbook. I love mine. If you want the extra 2" of screen space and don't think you'll need the extra ram or HD space, get the iBook. You can probably make dual desktop work with a hack if you want.

But if you plan on doing any DVD burning you'd have to go with the higher end 12" powerbook. iDVD does not support 3rd party DVD burners, so if you don't get a DVD burner when you get your computer, you'll never be able to use iDVD.

Also realize that you can get educational discounts if you order from apple, which will know $100 - $200 off the price.

let me know if you have any other questions.

wow.... thanks.. thats really cleared alot up for me.... I will definetly save up the extra money to get the Powerbook :D Thanks

And how do i claim a discount?

Thanks
Marc

Just go here and enter the school you will be attending: http://store.apple.com/Catalog/US/Images/routingpage.html

Also keep an eye on the Refurbished section of the store: http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/72301/wo/BjNXLrHu2Zae2plbpyv1QAyWVUz/0.0.7.1.0.5.13.0.3.0.0.0.0.3.1.1.0?84,65

These are factory refurbished machines. They have the same warranty as a new one, and are actually sometimes more reliable because you know they have been inspected by a human. Whereas new machines coming off the line are probably only inspected by hand randomly.

Thanks for the help :D