Cheap PoweBook 12". Whats wrong with it?
 

Hi Mac people.

I was wandering round Dixons before and came across the apple stand. They are doing PowerBook 12" 1.33 GHz CDRW/DVD 256MB for £600 ex VAT. Whats wrong with this, is it an old model or something ?

Should I snap it up quick sharp ?

No mate it is not an old model,but are you sure you are talking about a power book and not an iBook. see link below for the apple store.
Apple store

The latest powerbooks are 1.5GHz

It is an old model in that whilst they are still producing the line, that configuration is no longer offered and hasn't been since the end of January.

The newer PowerBooks include faster RPM hard drives, sudden motion sensor, Bluetooth 2 and "scrolling" trackpad. Current 12" iBook is 1.2GHz, current 12" PowerBook is 1.5GHz.

It will still come with a 12 month warranty, which will commence from the date of purchase and you can obviously extend this with Apple care. Dixons tend to run their lappys without the battery installed, so that won't have been abused. However they do just "kill the power" to the shop floor at the end of each shift so the machines are rarely shutdown properly. Was it priced at £599.97 by any chance?

It will also come with Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther) but you should be able to upgrade it to 10.4 (Tiger) for a small fee using the Up-To-Date programme.

All things considered i.e. the latest 12" model runs 1.5Ghz but costs £ 893 exec VAT = £1049. Forgetting the two finger trackpad/BT2.0 I would snap it up and buy a 1.0Gb Crucial memory upgrade and you are rocking . . . . oh yes and the Tiger for £11.99 deal since you bought it in the upgrade period !

rich101

an ex or current DSG stores group employee by any chance? You are correct about the shutting down and the 97p ending means it is end of line!

Yes I work for PC WORLD!!! *zips up flame suit*

Ex PC World :D I was the only one on the "mat" who knew anything about the internals of PC's, let alone Macs.

As rich101 said though, seems like a very good price. You could probably buy it and see £150 profit on eBay easily!

Might get em to knock some more off for the display model ;)

No chance; the 97p ending indicates that its being cleared as already stated and itd have to be in a shoddy condition for you to have any chance of a further reduction.

Simon (Ex-PCSC Engineer and lattery I sorted out big problems for PCW, an endless task so I quit...)

I did it, im typing this on a new 12" PowerBook :) Got em to knock it down to £600 !!!! You reckon I got a bargain ? ;)

Only question is, they insisted on re installing I havent got the password. How can I reinstall, because to run the install I need the password ?

Just boot it from the CD :) Insert the first install disc, restart and hold down the C key as soon as the screen turns black. No password required and it will go straight into the installer program.

Then grab the Mac OS X 10.3.9 "combo" update and install that. Be aware that it's around 120MB!

Are you a seasoned Apple hack or are you a noob to the Cult of Mac? I think you got a great deal, they're lovely little machines.

Alex

Well im back on it now.

Basically the person that installed it did it post haste ;)

Basically i just wiped the disk. Then installed everything, as shortnames were screwed and the keychain went all funky.

Im a total apple newb, despite supporting a dual G5 at work lol.

Gotta say first impression, it rocks. "It just does stuff" Icalc, with real time currency conversions, can you see that in windows, doubt it :D

PS The £600 was minus VAT, but I can loose the VAT. Now to grab a £12 copy of Tiger ;)

"Once you go Mac, you never go back"
:thumb:

Any Q's just post away. Us Maclots are a friendly bunch, even if we are sometimes a little scary in our loyalty to an operating system and lumps of aluminium and polycarbonate!

We're not as geeky or sad as that OS/2 lot though ;) BOFH, BOFH, BOFH :D lol

Very good deal on the machine :)