<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 12pt">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.'
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 12pt">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.
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 12pt">So my next quandary is whether to replace, and if so, with what.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 12pt">Should I choose:</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 12pt">(a) £400 to mend an ageing laptop;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 12pt">(b) £400 for a secondhand Powerbook from a respectable dealer;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 12pt">or</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 12pt">(c) £800 for a gleaming new MacBook.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 12pt">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?</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 12pt">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.
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 12pt">So I thought I'd phone some friends. Go on, you know you love Fantasy Mac Buying. </p>