Substitute Apple Laptop etc.

By late August or early September this year, I shall have to bequeath my MacBook to my sister; I'll then be reimbursed for the price of a new MacBook (white/superdrive). I'm thinking however, that maybe I should wait for an extra few months, save money, and get a MacBook Pro----by late fall 2008, I presume we'd get another significant update as well.

But then, I'm going to need a computer to use during the fall. I'm considering to get a used 12" Powerbook, or an iBook----the specs etc. aren't at all important; what's important is that the computer be fully functional.

So: What would be the most reliable way to get, say a 12" Powerbook? Would eBay be fine? One important difficulty is that I don't think I can spend more than $300.

Any sort of help would be appreciated, thanks.

 

What do you use your Mac for? Chances are that an iBook or Powerbook might not be powerful enough to do the tasks you need.

Purchasing second hand Macs is usually not the best deal. Apple machines lose value slower than PCs, so it is not be the best value for money should you choose to purchase a second hand iBook or something.

As a result, I doubt you will be able to get a decent 12" Powerbook for $300 or less (especially since they are such nice machines). Realistically, you'd be looking at an old iBook at that price.

 

^ Yes, you're right.

I use my computer for all sorts of purposes; but the substitute need handle only some basic tasks like e-mail, word-processing, etc. It's just that I want to put off the purchasing of a new Mac until November; and I need something for schoolwork September through November.

 

Maybe try switching to a really cheap PC in the meantime then switch over to mac again?

 

Taking a quick look at eBay, you can score a 12" PowerBook G4 for $300-400.

I've seen them on Craigslist for $250 occasionally, but you gotta keep an eye out constantly.

How soon do you need this new book? If you don't need it til August/September when you get rid of your MacBook, you can probably get a better deal then.

 

< r0k is hear shrieking and running in circles. Finally he calms down and yells NEVER!! >

I searched completed listings only on ebay and confirmed that you are looking at an ibook rather than a powerbook in your price range. (You will need to log in for the ebay completed listings search feature to work). There is another possibility. You might be able to get a mac mini G4 unit in your price range but you have to come up with a monitor and keyboard. This is especially attractive if you have an old monitor lying around. Just make sure it comes with 1 gig of RAM. You really don't want to be taking the thing apart with 4 putty knives so you can put your own 1 gig in. I have found Leopard 10.5.2 is even more stable on my old Mac Mini G4 than it is on any of my newer Intel macs.

Hope this helps...

 

I was searching for "PowerBook G4 12"" in completed listings and did find a few under $400. They don't come up all the time, so you'll have to look and keep an eye on things (Or get Auction Hunter... I've gotten some good scores with that, especially when I'm at work!).

But if you are looking for an even cheaper option, you can get an old iBook G4 in that range all day long.

 

Nice car, Modly. Ok to drive but I'd hate to be the passenger in the back

 

Thanks a lot for all the responses! There are indeed some intriguing deals for Minis on eBay!

Another option would be not to wait until November to get a MBP, but buy a MacBook in September, and then upgrade it to 4GB RAM/300GB HDD; considering that I really don't need dedicated graphics, this would likely give me as much "performance" as a MBP would. I know I'd be missing out on the wonderful screen and all; but a 2.4ghzC2D/4GB/300GB machine running OSX is quite a monster in any case! Hard to decide.

And to ask a really stupid question: There *will* be some sort of update around Fall, right?

(ps. Going back to a pc even for a short while is no longer an option, sadly; I've already been intoxicated. I might try Linux, though.)

 

No one knows for certain when Macs will be updated next. There is a rumour going around that there might be a new Macbook design coming out sometime in fall. But of course, that's just a rumour, like the rumour stating that there was going to be a 12" Macbook with dedicated graphics coming out along with the Macbook Air.

 

^ Well, rumors aside, there's a calendar as to when new intel chips and/or architecture will be coming out, right? So I understand that the "Montevina" platform will be introduced in June this year; how long does it take for MBPs to adopt such new platforms?

 

Well, since they've only had a few upgrades to new platforms, it's not a given, but it seems like a month, or a month and a half at most. Most likely it's not because they wait for a while to get their paws on them, but supplies may be limited right off the bat. However with their Mac Pro's, they had the new processors in within weeks and were shipping (Less demand for Xeon cores, so they could probably score them up in higher quantities).

They probably get demo cores from Intel shortly before release, so they can work out as many bugs as possible for faster unveiling dates.

r0k; You may have seen some of my hearse club if you're in Detroit. A couple of the guys with multiple hearses live in the Warrendale area.

 

Thanks a lot. I'm aware that this update-awaiting is a bit silly; but the computer I'll need to buy later this year I'll end up using for a *long* time, and do some really important work on it; so I'm trying to calculate my steps carefully.

 

Ey man, was on gmail and just happened to look at the tiny ad and found this site that you may find helpful

http://www.teksale.com/computers/refurbcomputers/refurbcomputers.htm