Need some advice on buying a mac...

[ImNeat]

Hey all, I need some advice on buying a mac. My girlfriend's laptop just died - and instead of working to fix it I plan on telling her it's beyond repair, and surprising her with a mac for xmas. (She has always wanted one). The problem is... I can't afford a brand new mac. I'll have to go used/refurbished.

Her old laptop is around ~500MHz, 128MB RAM, 10GB HD. I would like something nicer than this... but she doesn't need much more as the old thing did her day to day stuff just fine.

What should I look for in a used mac, and what's a decent price? I have been checking out craigslist for my area - but I don't know what's a good deal. I offered $500 on this one but am still awaiting a reply (I'm looking to negotiate down to $600ish).

I think I'd like to get a decent deal on some kind of a 12" laptop. Macbook, Powerbook, iBook... whatever. Don't really know the difference. Budget is somewhat flexible - but would like to keep between $500 and $600.

Tips would be much appreciated!

Also - how does a PowerPC compare to Intel clockspeed-wise? Faster/slower/same?

[eraker]

This site frequently lists crazy deals. The site pretty much just carries ads for low-priced macs from other sites. I get email notices on the macbooks/powerbooks/laptops every so often from them and you should be able to find something over there for between $500-$600. Sign up for emails if you don't see anything right now.

Also, in relation to installing a Linux distro on the thing, I would personally look to get something with an Intel-based processor, purely on the guess that support for Powerpc might be harder to come by in the upcoming years. Probably distros like debian and gentoo will continue to support powerpc, but I thought I read something somewhere about how Ubuntu is no longer going to actively keep up the powerpc support.

[Cabhan]

As far as the different Mac options:

iBook: The PowerPC Apple Consumer Laptop
PowerBook: The PowerPC Apple Professional Laptop
MacBook: The Intel Apple Consumer Laptop
MacBook Pro: The Intel Apple Professional Laptop

The professional versions tend to have bigger screens and better specs.

As far as a comparison of processors: The Intel processors are faster. Having said that, I imagine that for most things your gf will be using the computer for, the difference won't be a huge issue.

Some actual comparisons:

http://www.geekpatrol.ca/2006/02/mac...o-geekbenched/
http://www.geekpatrol.ca/2006/03/ima...ch-comparison/
http://www.macworld.com/2006/11/firs...ench/index.php

For the record, the most recent iBooks and PowerBooks use a PowerPC G4 processor, and the most recent MacBooks and MacBook Pros use an Intel Core 2 Duo (but the first release used the Intel Core Duo).

Having not purchased a used Mac before and having not gotten involved with Apple until the Intel transition, I can't speak much on what to look for in a PowerPC Mac or any known problems with them. The specs on the one you posted are certainly better than the old laptop (obviously), so if you can get it to a good price, it looks good.

As a further note, I imagine that she will need office software? If AppleWorks comes with the laptop, this has some useable office software. Microsoft Office is some $300-400 for the Mac, so this can be expensive. iWork (Apple's current office offering) has a terrible word processor. If AppleWorks doesn't work for you (or even if you just want to use it instead), OpenOffice.org is available for the Mac (it runs under an X Server, so isn't fully Mac-like, though). If you would prefer an app that integrates better with Mac OS X (though OpenOffice is pretty good), you can use NeoOffice, which implements OpenOffice in Java (allowing a native-appearing interface, and connection with Max OS X fonts and such).

I hope some of that helps.

[techieMoe]

Also - how does a PowerPC compare to Intel clockspeed-wise? Faster/slower/same?

In my personal experience (I went from a 17-inch Powerbook G4 to a 15-inch MacBook Pro Intel) the Intel chips smoke the POWER chips in overall desktop performance. If you get one of the newer ones with the Core 2 Duo (64-bit) chip the difference is even more significant.

As of the MacBook Pros (and to the best of my knowledge the Powerbook G4s) new Apples do not ship with Appleworks. Instead they include a demo for their iWork suite, which includes a word processor called Pages and a PowerPoint-esque program called Keynote. All Apples also come with a full version of the iLife suite (iTunes, iMovie, iDVD, iPhoto, iWeb, GarageBand).

For office software I would also recommend NeoOffice.

[ImNeat]

Just bought a brand new MacBook.

It has an Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0GHz, 80GB HD, 1GB RAM, Wireless, Bluetooth, DVD burner, 13" wide screen and all that.

It cost me much much more than I was expecting to spend - but I figured the short-term debt would be worth it. This thing will hopefully last quite some time. I hope the gf likes it... she'll get it next week.