apple iBook help needed - general questions

[dave heats]

I'm looking at buying a laptop in the next few days, and I seem to be favouring a apple iBook at the moment. Heres the one I am looking at:-

PC world iBook

I have some questions:-
a) is this a good laptop for the money?
b) I have heard that whilst apple specs look ****e on paper, they are alot better in action. Whats the deal with this? Would the 933Mhz processor on the above laptop do me ok for general use?
c) Would I be able to hook it up to my blue yonder cable modem at home?
d) Would the above laptop be able to hand more strenous programs? For my architecture course I use Archicad alot, a high powered piece of design software. Whats a iBook like at handling more resource tapping programs?

Many thanks for any help. Its my first foray into the world of laptops, as I cant be bothered with this piece of **** desktop any longer.
Dave

[Valken]

a) That's the typical price but getting it from apple and faking being a student will get you a discount. They usually don't check.

b) This causes a lot of fights but yes, their hardware is very different from that of a wintel PC and that spec is actually quite decent. They REALLY need **** loads of RAM though... I'd get the max which I believe is 640MB but it'll make it more expensive.

c) If you connect to the cable modem using an ethernet card then definitely, if via USB them probably but I'm not 100% sure how.

d) With lots of RAM fine but be warned that ibooks can only display 1024*768 resolution and can be a problem with apps that require a lot of desktop realestate. Also, is there a Mac version of the software you want?

I will say this... for much less money you can get a centrino or celeron based notebook that's easily as powerful if not moreso. iBooks are lovely but they're more about style than anything else.

I don't regret buying my apples (G3 iBook and G5 Powermac) but in hindsight they're a bit of a rip off.

[baddie long legs]

I'm a recent owner of an iBook and I say go for it! Although mine is pretty dumpy (500mhz, 192 MB RAM) it suits me. I reckon the iBook you suggest would be able to run your program but I'd advise you to max out on RAM (if you can afford it). I dunno what the max is on an iBook (a gig maybe?). Maybe a Power Book would more up your alley (for the higher resolution screen). I find it pretty hard doing graphic work on 12" iBook.

If your Blue Yonder cable modem has an ethernet port then there's no problems in connecting. If its USB you may have to get OSX drivers for it.

Hope that helps .

Bugger beaten to it.

[Welrain]

The max on my 12" inch Ibook is 640 MB

Thats the 128MB that on the board (WHY!!!) and the expansion port fitted with 512MB.

[Shimmyhill]

You can put 1gig chips into a ibook Apple just dont support it.

I have just got teh 12" Ibook G4 and i love it, the price is pretty much the same anywhere - but the student blag is a good idea.

If u run a external screen u can firmware hack it to display a higher res if needed for the cad software.

Im a PC engineer by trade and im well chuffed with the Mac - ill not be going back to a wintel pc thats for sure.

Ohh and i had a 1.3 Centrino b4 the mac, in apps like photoshop id say they are pretty even. In the general OS the Mac wins.

[Valken]

If u run a external screen u can firmware hack it to display a higher res if needed for the cad software.

Any chance of a link to said firmware hack?

[dave heats]

Many thanks for all the help thus far chaps, its appreciated greatly.

Well, the current situation is that Im waiting for confirmation that archicad 8 student version will run on a mac OS. If the answers yes, I will be buying aforementioned iBook a.s.a.p, and if possible increase the amount of RAM at a later date.

I do have one more question however. If I had my iBook with me now, how would I be able to get any files from my PC to my iBook? Is this possible? If so, what software/cables would I need?

Thanks again
Dave

[Valken]

No software needed to transfer your **** to the ibook other than an ethernet card in your PC and a crossover cable. OSX supports the SMB protocol that windows uses to share files.

Mac and Windows Performance of 8.0 requires good hardware. Some Macintosh users have had problems running 8 in OSX with older hardware. We don't recommend running 8 on a Mac w/ OSX with less than a G4 1ghz processor, a gig of RAM and a professional grade OpenGL video card preferably with 128 of on-board memory.

That seems to imply that at least some version of 8 does OSX but given the recommended memory requirements it might be very sucky on any laptop :S

[dave heats]

I havent got a ethernet card on my pc. Would I be able to use the ethernet socket on my cable modem?

[Valken]

Erm... I dunno. I take it you use USB to connect to your modem?

tbh I'd just buy an ethernet card. They're only a few quid tbh and in the long run well worth it if you decided to have a PC and Laptop using the connection at the same time.

[60-hz]

I had an old iBook G3 600Mhz machine and it was fantastic, i switched to apple 2 years ago and there's no way i would ever go back to Wintel machines. Currently running a 1Ghz iMac !!

Whatever Mac you get, you won't forget it and you'll never go back
OS X is amazing....

Jump here tomorrow http://stream.apple.akadns.net/ and watch Steve Jobs introduce some new goodies New iPods are expected !!!

[Valken]

OS X is amazing....

It really is. I've been using various *nix and linux operating systems for years and OSX really is the perfect example of how such a powerful OS should be brought to the desktop.

I recently got a G5 after having a G3 iBook and it's basically of the nicest machines I've ever used.

I'm not too sure if it's put me off using intel-based machines though

[60-hz]

Hey valken,

Do you know of anyway we can save tomorrows keynote webcast?

I have Quicktime Pro and i'm sure i couldn't save the stream last year either? Maybe there's another app out there that could be used?

Would be great to archive macworld keynotes

[Valken]

I dunno mate, the honest truth is I'm not interested and thus have no motivation to figure out a way.

Steve Jobs REALLY annoys me and I've spend ?3000 on apple this year. NO MORE MONEY FOR THEM!

[dave heats]

Thanks again, you have got me really buzzing in anticpation for tomorrow. I'm almost certain Archicad will run on a Mac, due to the following quote on their website:-

The student version consists of a single multi-platform CD, a serial number and the full documentation in electronic (PDF) format.

That and the fact that all previous versions are multi platform too. Wow, I'm actually going to own a Apple tomorrow. Never thought I'd see the day.

Regarding the ethernet card, would this bad boy do the trick?

Seriously, this help is greatly appreciated. And I will try and watch that broadcast if Im back in time, although I am sure it will show me gadgets I may not be able to buy for many years ^_^