iBook G4 iBits

[JibberX]

I know there are some Mac folk about, I've talked a friend into buying an iBook, its a IBOOK 14.1/1GHZ/256/40G/COMBO-GBR thats all fine and dandy, however I am not sure what a vanilla iBook comes with hardware wise, or where the hell on the apple website you are meant to find the associated bits, like bluetooth, airport, memory, in fact is the apple site the best place to go?

[Valken]

A vanilla iBook comes with no extra hardware...

You can specify extra RAM, bluetooth and Airport when you're buying it.

It's worth bearing in mind that you need to order built in bluetooth at time of purchase as you can't get it (built in) at a later date.

You can view the extra stuff like Airport in the apple store site under "Apple Products"

[JibberX]

And is apple the best place to get the kit from?

[Valken]

Well I've always got my stuff from them directly.

The time between ordering and shipping for big hardware like an iBook takes the piss but otherwise they're good.

In terms of price it makes no difference since Apple do their best to fix prices that their resellers use.

In terms of customer service Apple are ok... if the hardware is faulty they send someone to collect at their expense.

Apple tech support is abysmal though.

[Wild_Cat]

Watch out though if you want extra RAM; Apple prices on memory is laughably abusive. Buy your RAM from Crucial instead. (and NOT from the "cheapest place you can find" store: Apple computers become unstable when low-quality memory is used in them)

[bignige]

You may be better off visiting the Apple refurb site, open for a few more days and up to 45% off. Although, today they've ran out of portables. Best to look everyday.

http://promo.euro.apple.com/promo/refurb/uk/

If you want more memory, forget Apple and go to Crucial - it's what all my macs run on (6!) finding the memory for your mac is done step by step - dead easy and very reliable service.

Hope this helps

[bignige]

One final thing, if you have a John Lewis nearby go visit them, everytime I've visited the Solihull branch they've had discounted, ex-display and end of line Apple portables.

[JibberX]

ahh my grammar is a bit crap in my first post. He actually has his iBook now, I got him to buy it from the refurb, he got a 25% discount I think, darn good price considering the warranty, niceness, price fixing.

Crucial looks like the place to go, thats a darn good find, how easy is it to install the memory I'm assuming its just a flap on the bottom.

[Valken]

You lift the keyboard and there's a slot in there.

Likewise for Airport.

[bignige]

on old iBooks, (not sure if it's same with new) in the middle of the top line of numbers is a very small plastic screw, you need to unscrew this, then release the tabs. You wouldn't believe the amount of wrecked keyboards this caused due to people not noticing the screw.

[Valken]

Yup it's still a little screw (and it's also the numlock light).

[Welrain]

Its easy to install memory etc. I did it while drunk. :P

[weightgain]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh the G4 can take airport. Nice.
If I installed this, what precautions would I need to take so I didn't fry the memory etc ?

[bignige]

Just touch something metal in the iBook, don't cause to much friction walking about etc. It's a very simple job to do, will take 5 mins max.

[Valken]

Just make sure you connect it "fully" despite it needing a little force. If you don't you might have poor signal problems.