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johantheolive

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 1, 2005
21
0
I just got my first mac back in September, a 12" ibook 1.33ghz runnning on a gig of ram. The new macbooks are tempting (although I don't like the keyboard's appearance, and the integrated graphics is highly dissapointing) but would upgrading from an iBook to, say, the base model macbook be worthwhile? My graduation is fairly soon so my thought is that i could possibly sell my ibook and use the money from it, and some i expect from relatives, to get a macbook or pro. I don't doubt that a macbook pro is a significant upgrade, but is a macbook worth buying coming from an ibook? Danke!
 

SpaceMagic

macrumors 68000
Oct 26, 2003
1,744
9
Cardiff, Wales
Ich habe denselben iBook, der ich am 10. September 2005 gekauft habe.

Just guessing you're studying German, ending with Danke n all :)

Anyway, if you're not - I also have the same iBook, which i bought in september. I'm thinking of doing the same. Apple says they're 5.1X faster than the 1.42Ghz iBooks so im saying 6times faster than our 1.33 as a rough guess. I think i'm going to take the plunge in july.
 

mikemodena

macrumors 6502a
May 30, 2005
552
0
Connecticut
SpaceMagic said:
Ich habe denselben iBook, der ich am 10. September 2005 gekauft habe.

Just guessing you're studying German, ending with Danke n all :)

Anyway, if you're not - I also have the same iBook, which i bought in september. I'm thinking of doing the same. Apple says they're 5.1X faster than the 1.42Ghz iBooks so im saying 6times faster than our 1.33 as a rough guess. I think i'm going to take the plunge in july.

I am really thinking about the Macbook as well, because it's readily available.. but I'm also trying to hold off for the PowerMac replacement.
 

lfielder06

Guest
Dec 5, 2004
193
0
My wife had the 1.33ghz ibook and just sold it and purchased a new macbook. I have a macbook pro with the 1.83ghz and 512mb of ram (soon to be upgraded) and will say the speed increase is amazing. Do it now while you can still get pretty good money for your ibook. :D
 

joshysquashy

macrumors 6502a
May 13, 2005
707
1
UK
My god you must be loaded, I also bought an iBook G4 1.33 in sept, and i consider it nearly brand new, it isnt showing any signs of aging, and can keep up with my heavy fireworks/video recording/video converting/video editing/photoshop/ you name any other power hungry app usage!!!

why do you want the new one? the only benefits i can see is a built in webcam and a remote control, and a slightly nicer design.

the widescreen and glossy screen are debatable as to wether it is an upgrade or downgrade, it is heavier and most important apps (photoshop, word etc) are yet to be supported by intel macs.

wait another year or two, something better will come out, come on, this laptop is still state of the art compared to any pc's on the market!
 

mkrishnan

Moderator emeritus
Jan 9, 2004
29,776
15
Grand Rapids, MI, USA
SpaceMagic said:
Anyway, if you're not - I also have the same iBook, which i bought in september. I'm thinking of doing the same. Apple says they're 5.1X faster than the 1.42Ghz iBooks so im saying 6times faster than our 1.33 as a rough guess. I think i'm going to take the plunge in july.

The new MacBooks look wonderful, but... please... don't read too much into wild Apple claims of any product they make being x times faster than any other product they or anyone else makes. They tend to be very hard to prove. I don't think you are going to find many practical tasks in which something you actually do with your Mac is actually going to literally be 6 times as fast as it is now.

That being said, the MB's are very lustworthy. But all this 5x as fast stuff is just Apple hooey. ;)
 

rye9

macrumors 65816
Sep 20, 2005
1,347
77
New York (not NYC)
Sure, it would be nice, but is it necessary? Do you really need the wider, glossier screen; Front Row, built in i-Sight? I mean I would love to sell my 12 inch 1.33 Ghz iBook and get one, but it seems illogical to me. Maybe you have a different story and more money... and it would be a good move in your case.. but otherwise, I say no to replacing your less than a year old, beautiful iBook.
 

johantheolive

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 1, 2005
21
0
I'm not really complaining about my ibook, i'm just saying that I can probably get decent money for it and could upgrade to a newer machine. I understand that apple's claims aren't all they're cracked up to be, but I find the ibook to be unusable for video editing or even idvd. Video encoding takes very long, audio encoding (other than itunes) is kinda slow too. I love my ibook for everyday tasks - internet, email, music, etc but it's not capable of intensive tasks. I think i'm going to hold off as one person suggested. A lot of sotware is still making the jump to being universal, and a fair number of people are claiming heat issues.
 

kugino

macrumors 65816
Jul 10, 2003
1,166
169
i upgraded from a 1GHz/1.25 ram ibook to the new macbook. the speed increase is dramatic, especially when running things like handbrake, isquint, and the ilife apps. it's basically the same machine as my 2.0 intel imac (save the graphics card, but we won't get into that here :) ) so i know it will fly.

the intel imac is more responsive than a dual 2.0 G5 powermac i had previously. the MB will certainly be much faster than a G4.

that being said, upgrading depends on your intended uses...my ibook is going to my wife and it's more than enough for her web surfing, emailing, and movie watching...
 

bodeh6

macrumors 6502a
May 18, 2005
773
0
I am in the same dilemma with my 14" iBook last revision. Should I sell it and buy a 1.83GHz / 80GB HD / 1GB MacBook for a couple of hundred over what I would get selling it ( I guess around $900-$1000 + $250-$350 cash) or buy AppleCare for my current iBook for around $200. I run Office, PhotoShop Elements 2.0, Flip4Mac, Safari, iTunes, iPhoto. I am heavily leaning on the MacBook way. I have played with the MacBook several times at the Apple store and love it. But I like my problem free 9 month old iBook. Please help.
 

runninmac

macrumors 65816
Jan 20, 2005
1,494
0
Rockford MI
I just (awaiting payment) sold my iBook G4 1.33 Ghz, Its going for my new BlackBook because when I bought mine I originally intended to sell it for an intel model, so this was a no brainer for me, but my iBook does everything I need, I just really wanted a iSight built in to chat with my sister when shes off to college. So I guess it really just depends how much you get for you older computer IMO.
 

CaptainCaveMann

macrumors 68000
Oct 5, 2004
1,518
0
joshysquashy said:
My god you must be loaded, I also bought an iBook G4 1.33 in sept, and i consider it nearly brand new, it isnt showing any signs of aging, and can keep up with my heavy fireworks/video recording/video converting/video editing/photoshop/ you name any other power hungry app usage!!!

why do you want the new one? the only benefits i can see is a built in webcam and a remote control, and a slightly nicer design.

the widescreen and glossy screen are debatable as to wether it is an upgrade or downgrade, it is heavier and most important apps (photoshop, word etc) are yet to be supported by intel macs.

wait another year or two, something better will come out, come on, this laptop is still state of the art compared to any pc's on the market!

I agree with this guy! Imagine what will be out in a year!? Look at the ibook im using, it kernal panicks all the time and safari is always unexpectantly quitting on me, but im still not gonna trade it out for a long time. Its fast and it works great. Keep it man and wait until they come out with a laptop thats not a rip off due to problems. IMHO By the way, if anyone wants to help me with my ibook software probs let me know! ;)
 

WillMak

macrumors 6502a
Jul 29, 2005
957
0
I will most likely sell my ibook when I graduate from college two or three years from now. How much do you guys think a 1.33ghz 12' will sell for by then?
 

Jiddick ExRex

macrumors 65816
May 14, 2006
1,469
0
Roskilde, DK
Seeing as you would have to Rosetta most if not all of your apps, I would really wait until Leopard comes out.

I use Office, Dreamweaver, most apps from CS1, IntelliJ and TexShop on my iBook so it's not really a choice for me :)
 

®îçhå®?

macrumors 68000
Mar 7, 2006
1,826
2
I think that the upgrade will be worthwile. The speed increase is mahoosive but if you don't need it, don't buy it.
 

iflipper

macrumors member
Jan 11, 2006
85
0
Leeds, UK
My 12 inch ibook is now just over a year old and I don't intend to replace it until I need too due to it not working. I'm lucky enough to have an intel mac mini for my powerhouse work, but it's not just that. For starters the new macbook is heavier and bigger. Also many of the apps I would use are not intel ready yet like office (unless I missed that announcement somehow) and eclipse (which I use a lot). Unless you really need the extra juice then why not wait and let others work out the teething issues? There were certainly enough of them with my mac mini.
 

Zygon Gambit

macrumors regular
May 21, 2006
133
0
England
I got my 1.33 iBook last September, and I've certainly been tempted by the new MacBooks, but have decided to leave it.

If I bought a MacBook now (and sold the iBook) when I didn't really *need* to, I'd be spending money on a machine that will be out of date in a few months anyway. I don't want to buy and sell a machine everytime the line is updated.

The balancing act is between the resale price of the iBook now against later, versus the potential improvements in the MacBook line later against now. I'd rather wait, and get a better MacBook later.
 

LastLine

macrumors 65816
Aug 24, 2005
1,313
21
I've got the final Rev. 14@ (Damned PC Keyboards!) iBook, I want to upgrade but don't need to.


Going to the Apple Store in Meadowhall this Friday to play :cool:
 

thewhitehart

macrumors 65816
Jul 9, 2005
1,094
583
The town without George Bailey
I'm in the same situation... I'm moving to Japan, and the only reason I want to upgrade from my G4 ibook to the macbook is for the built in isight to chat with my folks back home.

Then again, I want a superdrive to make dvd's to send home, but I don't want to pay extra for that. Perhaps I'll wait until superdrives are standard.
 

Qoxiivi

macrumors regular
Nov 28, 2005
175
0
London, UK
MACDRIVE said:
What is a PowerMac? :confused:

It's kind of the 'proper' Apple desktop and is the only remaining personal computer yet to be upgraded (from G5 PowerPC processors to Intel ones). It's for people (generally industrial users) who need a little more 'grunt' from their machine (if they want an Apple computer but are mad about games or need to run processor-intensive software programs) Follow the link:

http://www.apple.com/powermac/
 

Jiddick ExRex

macrumors 65816
May 14, 2006
1,469
0
Roskilde, DK
thewhitehart said:
I'm in the same situation... I'm moving to Japan, and the only reason I want to upgrade from my G4 ibook to the macbook is for the built in isight to chat with my folks back home.

Then again, I want a superdrive to make dvd's to send home, but I don't want to pay extra for that. Perhaps I'll wait until superdrives are standard.

I don't think they will ever be standard in the low-line version. Else the low CPU would be the only thing to upgrade...
 

QCassidy352

macrumors G5
Mar 20, 2003
12,033
6,062
Bay Area
I'm in the same boat also. I got my ibook in august '05. The reason I want to upgrade is not speed, but rather that a lot of things about the ibook annoy me. First, it feels cheap and flimsy. It creaks and squeals. The macbook is solid like a powerbook. Second, the ibook screen sucks. Low res and dim. I know some people hate the glossy, but I saw the macbooks and was very impressed with the screen. Bright, wide, beautiful. Third, the ibook keyboard sucks. I know the MB takes getting used to, but it's really a great, responsive, solid keyboard unlike the squishy ibook keyboard.

Also, I'm a sucker for the latest and greatest, and the isight and remote are so cool (I know, I know, I'm really still a kid at heart :eek: ).

On the other hand. I do NOT want a superhot MB with the bad thermal paste. And my G4 could probably only sell for about $700 now. And the next gen integrated graphics chipset is supposed to be way better, and of course Merom is supposed to rock.

I really haven't decided yet...
 
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