I have a iBook G4 1.33 Mhz, 512MB, 40G HD, Mac OS X Tiger 10.4 plus. I bought the iBook about 8 months ago and really like it. Apple Computer has swicthed to  the Intel processors now and

the G4 and G5 Mac selling reduced prices. See unlimitmac in Bangkok sells new and used Macs at reasonable prices. Because of the Mac OS X operating system, the Mac G4 And G5 computers will remain good performers for most tasks in the forseeable future. 

Where as Windows "Vista" is probably going to be a problem for most uses in Thialand

See Macintouch review for Mac models performance comparisons.

Have fun...

http://www.unlimitmac.com/Classifieds/category.php

http://www.tidbits.com/

http://lowendmac.com/

http://www.macintouch.com/perfpack/comparison.html

Conclusions

The iMac G5 is a wonderful system, and we'd rather pay a few hundred dollars over the cost of an eMac to get one, but all the Apple hype about the G5 falls a little short when you see the low-cost eMac, with its slower G4 processor, pushing the iMac G5 in performance. The eMac is actually faster in several real-world situations, and it looks like low-level hardware design is responsible for eMac advantages in disk performance.

Adding the Mac Mini to the mix really changes the buying equation. For far less money than an iMac or even an eMac costs, you get excellent performance, silent operation and the ability to drive a big beautiful monitor of your own choosing, a critical feature missing from all but the Power Mac and big PowerBooks. The Mini's one weakness is disk performance, which may make the eMac a better choice for video, database and multimedia work, but it shouldn't be an issue in too many applications. For general home or office use, the Mini is perfect.

If you want the ultimate in performance - or multiple large screens - the Power Mac G5 is the way to go, although we have some concerns about reliability with the liquid-cooled 2.5GHz model and would probably stick with 1.8- or 2.0-GHz systems. The ability to hold dual internal hard drives for a RAID configuration easily overcomes the controller performance problems.

PowerBooks are nice, but pricy. The one advantage you get for the extra price of the 12" PowerBook is the ability to drive a larger external screen in dual-display mode (up to 2048x1536), although the built-in screen has the same 768x1024 resolution as the iBook.

The 15" PowerBook is an ideal mobile machine, and it can drive a big external screen and use FireWire 800 to get outstanding disk performance in a compact, quiet package. This lovely laptop costs about four times what a Mac Mini costs, however, making it an expensive option for its portability and performance.

The 17" PowerBook strikes us as an expensive alternative to the iMac with better portability and battery power. It's basically an oversized 15" PowerBook.

One final factor is the G5's support for 64-bit processing, which is supposed to get a boost with this year's Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" release. Theoretically, this may be an advantage for the iMac and Power Mac G5 models, but the real-world advantage for general applications is questionable at this point. For specialized scientific or business processing, it could give G5 Macs an advantage over other platforms.

By Ric Ford

Pros and ConsPros Cons

Mac Mini fast CPU/memory, very quiet and compact, inexpensive disk performance lags all but iBook; no FireWire 800 or audio input.

eMac G4 surprisingly fast (especially disk); audio line input; screen resolution goes fairly high bigger, heavier and louder than others; screen not as nice.

iBook G4 fast for a laptop, very compact and quiet, appealing price limited screen resolution (768x1024) without unsupported hack, no audio input, not as fast as desktop systems .

iMac G5 compact, very fast CPU/memory, exceptional access to internals, beautiful screen more expensive than eMac/iBook/Mini, disk performance slower than expected, lacks FireWire 800.

PowerBook G4 great screen and external display support; excellent performance; FireWire 800 offers dramatic disk speed boost, audio input and PC Card/CardBus; quiet expensive; internal disk not very fast.

Well what can I say, I have just made the decision to move away from being a dedicated Windows user to a Mac. I was about to commence doing the research and you post this.

I was considering the 17inch PowerBook to use as both a desk top with a large external Mac monitor and as a (admittedly far too large but exceptional) portable for external use to my home/office.

I like the idea of having an all in one, with an external drive for back up. I am way past having both a desktop and a portable, I like to just grab my pc and walk out the door at anytime knowing I have everything in one place.

Should be an adveture after all the years with Windows moving to Mac, but with the Microsoft influence, which to me is a great, I believe one gets the best of both worlds. I also agree Vista, given even XP after all these years to get it right is still a dog, is not something to entertain for at least a couple of SP's.

Just priced the 17inch PowerBook here in Sydney $4,300 Aussie less 7% refund for VAT at the airport. How does that compare elsewhere??

so is that my belated xmas present ?

i've got a 12" powerbook g4, i'm fairly happy with it except that i need a hot rod graphics card to do the stuff i tend to need to do (and this doesn't have it).

i like the idea of being able to boot up in windows. generally for 'work stuff' you can find plenty of applications on the mac, and microsoft office documents cross platforms with no problems.

os 10 is a lot more stable than any version of windows to present, mainly because it's built on UNIX which has been around since the 60s more or less and by now is rock solid once it's up and running. i rarely have to reboot the machine (i do about once a week to do maintenance, and i try to remember to shut the machine down when i carry it with me so i dont screw up the hard drive).

i'm going to get an intel mac. main reason is the ati radeon graphics card (havent decided on a macbook pro vs imac yet). i also llike the idea of being able to run windoze, since i have developed a weird obsession with designing my own amplifier and there are obscure little shareware programs for designing circuits using triode vacuum tubes that are windoze-only. they'll run in virtual pc or parallels or whatever but the REAL reason is that you need to boot in windoze to run windoze games. there aren't that many good games for teh mac (there are a few, but not many).

17" macbook pro is 104,900 baht or so (it changes every week or so) and last year's 2.16 ghz model is 94,900. the old ones may be cheaper at pantip if you go to the apple shop in the back of the first floor.

if anyone's desperate for one i'd sell it for 30k baht including a lot of accessories, (3 extra power adapters, extra battery, etc) but i'm not desperate to sell either.

Great comments everyone. Here's a url that gives the spec's and prices on all on Mac computers.

http://everymac.com/

I want a Macbook pro too.

Good luck!

sadly, the old (2.0 ghz ) 15" macbook pro doesn't have firewire 800, so if i want a macbook pro i gotta get a new one.

firewire 800 is great for video and i have 3 firewire hard drives. not sure if it's worth $600 or so difference in price between that and the 17" imac.

God info...I'm just about to swap as well...prices seem universal with the Mac thing....