2nd hand Apple i Book - good idea?

[iloverhubarbcrumble]

Be very grateful for your views. Thinking about a 2nd hand laptop, for maybe £100-200.

Already have a desktop PC which we use for email, internet, photos, listening to music, i player, DD for some basic games. Nothing v demanding.

Considering an Apple, as DD loves cousin's Apple and Garageband in particular.

Obviously we wouldn't be able to access our Microsoft office files using the laptop, but guess there would be no issue accessing our yahoo emails, itunes, internet via our wireless broadband? Would also like to be able to record and play back music we make ourselves, eg a backing track, either by connecting to digital piano, or via mike built into mac.

iBooks look the best value. Seen a G3 on eBay, 30gB. Or would a G4 be more sensible? Or not what we need at all?

As you can tell I haven't a clue about Apple at all.. My research so far has been done on ebay! Any pointers would be great, and thanks.

You can open Office files on a Mac, you can get MS Office for them or you can download one of the free alternatives such as Open Office from here www.openoffice.org

When buying any second hand laptop the first thing to make sure of is that you get the original install disks with it. With a Mac that's a pretty good sign that you'll get everything you need as Macs have for the last few years come with absolutely everything you need on accompanying CDs. With Windows machines it's often never as simple as some stuff might be on the disk, or you get some dodgy "system restore" disk that never quite works right.

The first thing to look for is which Operating System comes with the iBook. Some things, such as Open Office, require at least version 10.4 (Tiger).

Also check that you get iLife with it, I'm pretty sure that it's been given away with "new" Macs for a while, as that will give you Garageband and also things like iPhoto.

One issue with both the G3 and G4 processors is that they're now quite out of date so some more modern software just won't work on it. However that may not be much of a problem, I've got a G4 Mac and it's fine. I can still download most software and in all honesty I don't have a problem.

But be aware of it anyway.

I'm not sure about connecting keyboards and such to a Mac, I believe that it's pretty easy but hopefully someone else can come along with some advice.

iTunes should work fine, however newer versions of it will still running on my G4 feel a bit slow and creaky at times as they pack more and more features in. However it does work.

However the latest version doesn't make any claims as to whether it works on a G3.

If you get iLife you'll get a version of iTunes which might connect and work with regular iPods but might well have trouble buying things from the store or handling iPhones and iPod Touches.

So if you can get a G4, or be aware that iTunes might have problems with newer iPods.

That's so useful BP, thank you for taking so much time to advise. The one I was looking at on ebay did not come with original install disks, so I won't go for that one. Looks like a G4 might be best.