[iBook] Fantasy Mac Buying

[Peter]

Joe,

How much of the "computer work" is your freelance business? What are you 
doing to get by presently, with your machine on the fritz (an even older 
spare machine? your wife's computer?) How much does laying out the £800 
or £400 hurt you financially?  I recently started a business (using old 
imac dv's as workstations to teach kids animation) and the cost was a 
huge factor in what machine I was able to use, and I held out as long as 
possible using a couple of powermac 8500's with ancient analogue 
cameras, to keep my costs as low as possible. I broke down to get the 
imac dv's only when it became evident i needed a uniform platform 
because i was hiring someone else to run the classes for me while I am 
out of town.

The annoying fact is, your machine is causing you time and energy right 
now, and you're throwing away an important resource (your time) that 
could be generating income. Have you considered leasing a new computer? 
if you do a lot of your work on a laptop, leasing it keeps your 
technology cost even, and here in Canada (I'm not sure about the UK) a 
lease is 100% deductible, whereas a purchase is only depreciated when 
tax time comes around. Has the old ibook already paid itself off? Are 
you breaking even? How long will it be to pay off the new macbook, and 
is that cash readily available?

I wanted a new imac, and even looked at the crazy mac store, but my wife 
nixed it in the bud. why was she correct ?(and correctly so i might add) 
I use the aging agp 400mhz G4 power mac (800+ or-  megs of ram, pathetic 
20 gig drive, 320 g external) mainly for emailing and web surfing while 
I'm working up here in Montreal (living with the in-laws). The actual 
production work I am doing is done in a studio using someone elses' 
Pentium gazillions. The pathetic slow user experience on utube and other 
time wasters on the net should keep me away from those distractions and 
focussed on more productive situations. Using a low end machine in no 
way hinders my work, and that is the key for me- only when I can prove 
my work productivity is lowered  can I justify getting a new computer. 
This does not include some photoshopping or video work for fun, or the 
fact it is slow opening up a timesheet in excel I need to submit weekly. 
If i can do stop motion on my g4 (I can teach kids using a g3), why 
bother getting a speedy new imac to quench some techno lust.

It all comes back to the crashing and unreliable ibook.  A $50 imac 
"bargain" I purchased for my workshops that was decidedly flakey gets 
left on the shelf  for parts and replaced by another rock solid slot 
loader- minimal cost. Up until a month ago, most of my business was run 
from an imac G3 400, and our families mac mini (for editing and 
compiling kids' workshop dvds), the "new" g4 was a big step up, and I 
brought it to montreal for "work." Using the Mac pro workstation here at 
work, with it's twin 30" monitors is amazing, but let's be realistic, 
this isn't what I'm doing at home after work. The g4 is slow but reliable.

Besides a laptop, what are the actual options at hand- whats the $0 or 
£0 solution? I try to remember the words of a business mentor, " spend 
every dollar as if it's your last"  A sentiment of which many of us low 
end mac fans and small business owners are well aware.  How much time 
can you lose figuring out a cheap solution versus making a quick but 
expensive move to maximize your earning potential? I'm afraid i have 
answered your question with a huge rambling series of questions. Good 
luck in your  decision (remember, I still have a shiny new imac riding 
on this, so post your justification) It's nice to see real and practical 
questions being asked.

Peter Stephenson
> I am in the same situation as you.  I am going with the Macbook.
>
>  
> On Thursday, August 23, 2007, at 05:05AM, "Matt Hurst" <matthurstpr at googlemail.com> wrote:
>   
>> My two and a half year old iBook starting crashing on me a lot about a month
>> ago (kernal panics, freezing, go slows? you name it?) and my local Apple
>> Centre and got the IT equivalent of 'see if some aspirin help': 'Try a clean
>> reinstall. If that doesn't solve it, it's probably the logic board.'
>>
>> I did, and it hasn't. It's a bit better, but still crashing, although not in
>> a BSOD way, which means it's probably the logic board, so that's £400 to
>> sort out, apparently.
>>
>> So my next quandary is whether to replace, and if so, with what.
>>
>> Should I choose:
>>
>> (a) £400 to mend an ageing laptop;
>>
>> (b) £400 for a secondhand Powerbook from a respectable dealer;
>>
>> or
>>
>> (c) £800 for a gleaming new MacBook.
>>
>> I can figure out the pros and cons of the MacBook, but any thoughts on the
>> pros and cons of getting a secondhand Powerbook vs new logic board?
>>
>> I'll be using it a lot, for work (I'm freelance so I can't *not* have a
>> computer) but not making massive demands, on the whole ? mostly WP, email,
>> and web. I do a bit of photoshopping, video editing (Powerbook's extra
>> outputs score well here), and DTP. I lug it around a lot so I don't want
>> anything massive.
>>
>> So I thought I'd phone some friends. Go on, you know you love Fantasy Mac
>> Buying.
>>
>>     
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