Picking the Right Mac

A friend of mine has been using a Windows notebook for the past six months or so. However, recently he's been telling me how much trouble Windows is giving him - and how he would like to buy a Mac.

Before ho got this Windows machine, he had a 333 MHz iMac, which he has kept to run his Mac programs. What he had been finding was that he was using his Mac more than his PC, and so he decided that he really needed to think about replacing his PC with a Mac.

The question was, which Mac? Apple's offerings often change, and so do used computer prices. When he first started looking, the Cube was available new. The Cube was his first choice: small, somewhat portable, and very cool looking. The next was a used or refurbished PowerBook G4 or iBook. Both are very cool machines that can be "made into" a desktop machine with little effort.

But for the price of a used G4 PowerBook, he could get a (used) faster G4 tower.

Let's take a look at each of these options.

First there is the Cube, one of the coolest hardware designs around and among the smallest desktop machines ever. However, the Cube lacks expansion. You cannot add a second internal hard drive. There are also no PCI slots and only one AGP slot for a graphics card. The price is still pretty high, even used, and it probably will be for quite some time.

The PowerBook G4 is also an excellent machine, and if you are considering the Cube, you might want to take a look at one of these. The 15.2" screen is plenty big for most uses, and if you need a bigger one, it is easy to connect one. The keyboard and trackpad are decent, but you can easily connect external peripherals. The G4 has a PC Card card slot, so you can upgrade it somewhat. The G4 also has a generous 1 GB RAM ceiling, which is decent for a laptop. The drawbacks of a G4 PowerBook are much the same as any other laptop. You can't do much about processor upgrades (some laptops have them available, most don't), RAM expansion is limited compared to desktops (but as I mentioned before, the G4 can hold 1 GB, which is almost as much as the G4 desktops can hold), and hard drive upgrades are expensive.

The iBook is nice, and the real reason to choose that over the G4 PowerBook would be the smaller size and lower price. Of course you get what you pay for: the screen is smaller, there are no PC Card slots, and you cannot upgrade the RAM to 1 GB. However, the iBook is a good choice for someone who needs a small machine to can carry almost anywhere.

The G4 tower is the "pro" machine; it can be upgraded quite a bit to suit the needs of almost anyone. The G4 tower can be upgraded to 1.5 GB of RAM (or 2 if you are running OS X), and it can hold four hard drives. Four PCI slots and an AGP slot give it excellent expandability. It's the best machine to get if you like to upgrade and play around. It's also the best machine to get if you like to keep your Macs for a long time, as you can easily upgrade it in the future.

But what would be best for my friend? He does Internet, email, and some photo editing. He found that his iMac isn't fast enough and wants something that can be upgraded as his needs grow. He has found that a laptop is not what he really wants, because he doesn't use his Windows notebook as a portable. He also wants something that can run OS X decently. In his situation, I recommended a used or refurbished G4 tower, preferably a 500 MHz or faster model. Dual processor would be nice, because OS X takes advantage of the second processor.

If he had wanted a laptop, I would have suggested the 400 or 500 MHz PowerBook G4. Don't rule a laptop out for yourself, however. Remember that you can always (on the current Apple laptops) attach an external monitor, keyboard, and mouse to make it like a desktop computer if you prefer a them but want the ability to bring your machine with you when you travel.