From: Ed Kummel (tech_ed_at_yahoo.com)
Date: Wed Mar 24 2004 - 22:45:53 PST
This is funny coming from a PC person, but a friend of
mine decided he wanted to buy a "toy" so he picked up
an apple laptop (crap...I can't remember what it is,
but it's a 12' i-something...ibook I believe...)
The 128mb that comes with it is seriously lacking and
dramaticaly slows the machine to almost unusable
proportions...What sucks is that the 128 is built
in...so you only have a single ram slot for upgrading.
Be careful though...256mb isn't really much better!
So, if you purchase, make sure that you get the
maximum you can afford, because if you upgrade, you'll
just have to throw away the memory in the external
socket...because it can only hold a single dimm.
And another thing about memory...the ibook has a weird
issue with non-apple approved memory. He got his dimm
from...I think it's microsolutions, or
microstrategies, or something similar? they are the
maker of a major brand of memory...he specified memory
for the ibook...he went through 3 different sticks and
none of them worked...sure they booted, but the
machine would eventually lock-up and crash upon
starting any applications. BTW, this is heavily
documented on many sites on the internet...and
apparently apple has had these problems for quite a
while..non-apple memory not being compatible with
their machines...in fact, Apple says that use of
non-apple memory voids their warranty!
He eventually took the ibook to the apple juice-bar at
an apple store and had the bar-tender pop in an Apple
branded stick...at almost 3 times the price he paid
for the non-apple branded memory...the good thing is
that he didn't charge for installation!
If you get the airport card, get it first, because it
installs beneath the ram...yeah, that sucks...and
there is a ribbon cable hanging out around that port
so the less you mess with that area, the less chance
you'll have in damaging the ribbon cable (whatever it
does)
The good thing with this ibook is that it was
cheap...well, cheap for a Mac, that is. Bestbuy has
them for under a grand and with the bestbuy credit
card, you can get credit for a year with no interest
if you qualify. Add the wireless and the ram and
you'll spend under thirteen hundred...not too bad of a
price....
the fit and finish is a little less than to be
desired...the battery is a little kludgy and needing a
nickle (the coin) to remove the battery is a pain in
the butt...but the nice things are the instant on
feature (it's instant...no delay time) and in my
opinion...the lid latch!
You gotta see it! It works by a magnet! A light spring
holds the metal hook up inside the lid. You bring the
lid down to the base of the laptop and a magnet in the
latch basin attracts the metal hook down to it and
causes it to latch...in my opinion, that is the
coolest feature of the whole machine! I was a little
disappointed with the way the laptop wobbles when
lying on a flat surface and the battery composes part
of the external casing and doesn't fit flush, so it
looks like the front of the case is cracked and skewed
because the battery doesn't seat properly.
The display is ok...not very good on the angle
viewing, it dims quite a bit at minor angles.
Definatly not as good as a display as you can get on a
cheaper Averatec or HP or Dell...but better than what
you'ld get on older Apple laptops though.
So, that's my non-apple biased opinion of this laptop.
I don't own a Mac, I don't use a Mac, this is my
opinion based off a coworker who purchased an ibook
and still prefers his Porsche design Viper
Matrix....that he got for about the same price as his
ibook.
Ed
web/gadget guru
--- Marty Sanchez <martysanchez_at_earthlink.net> wrote:
> Hey All,
>
> Just looking for some advice.
>
> I currently work in IT and I have my various O/S's
> down pat
> (Unix/Linux/Windows) but it's been awhile (a long
> while) since I've played
> with the Mac O/S.
>
> I'm currently looking into getting back into the Mac
> and I'm wondering what
> would be a good entry level Mac laptop.
>
> I'm wondering a couple of things:
>
> 1. How much RAM should I have installed if I am
> going to be running Panther?
> 2. How compatible is the Airport Extreme with other
> WiFi routers such as
> Linksys?
>
> Those are just a sample of some questions.
>
> If there are any recommendations that you can make
> or some websites that I
> should check, please let me know.
>
> Ideally, reply to me offlist, unless of course you
> feel that it would
> benefit the group as a whole.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Marty
=====
"China is a big country, inhabited by many Chinese."
- Charles De Gaulle, former French President
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