Buying an Apple iBook Through Amazon

[caribiner23]

I am thinking about buying an iBook.

My company gets a discount through the online Apple Store, but Amazon is offering rebates, one year free financing (with their credit card), and a tax-free sale to my state. This would save me a bunch more than my corporate discount would.

The overall question is this: Amazon only seems to carry the basic configuration for the system I want (12" iBook). I want to upgrade the memory and hard drive from the default configuration, and there doesn't seem to be any way to do this through Amazon.

The specific questions are: (1) How difficult is it to upgrade the hard drive and memory on an iBook? (2) I can get the memory through online sites like Crucial, but what's a decent source for a hard drive? and (3) What does this do to my warranty if I buy the three-year deal from Apple and it has components not installed by Apple inside?

Thanks in advance.

[gugnheim]

Don't know how much help this will be, but I love my 12" ibook. I was really afraid it was going to be too small, but man it's been impossible to live without. I put crucial memory in mine, and the Mac store guys did NOT have a fit about it when they put in my wireles card. I haven't done anything else yet, but as it just left the warranty period, I'm aching to try a few things.
Gug

[gear02]

I've only done the memory and the airport card, and they're both very easy. Hard drive, however, I'm not sure...but I'm betting it will be expensive since you'll be buying a brand new one.

[verve247]

I am quite positive that replacing the hardrive will void your warranty. Memory and wireless cards won't.

[eSDee]

Hard drive replacement is tricky but doable. I think verve is right. It might void your warranty.

[caribiner23]

Thanks, everyone.

I called Apple and spoke to someone there about the particulars of their warranty and the system itself.

Memory is no issue. The guy said that people put their own memory in all the time, and the only warranty impact is that if I buy and install it myself, I need to make sure it's removed if I call Apple for service. And of course, they won't warranty someone else's memory.

The hard drive on the 12" iBook is, evidently, very difficult to swap out. He said that if I did it, I would certainly void the warranty (at least on the hard drive). He also said that if I could find an authorized Apple service center who would be willing to swap it out, it would probably be very expensive.

So, I'm back to probably using my corporate discount and having them build the machine the way I want it right from the start (although I may do Crucial memory since it's a lot cheaper).

And thanks to gugnheim for the opinions on the iBook. It's great to hear good things about something I'm planning to buy.

:thumb:

[gear02]

I'm not sure how much this will factor in, but you *might* want to wait for when iLife 2005 will be included in all new ibooks. It includes better versions of garageband, iphoto, idvd, and imovie. It's great if you like to make multimedia stuff (movies, dvds, music).

Otherwise, don't worry about it. The only reason to wait would be to save $79 for buying 2005. I have a pbook 12inch and I'm not getting ilife 2005 because I don't do any of that stuff.

[ribitch]

the harddrives are a PITA to swap on the iBook. I have swapped a few of them. I wish apple would make them more accesible. The RAM and wireless cards are consumer replaceable parts, meaning you can change them without voiding your warranty. The harddrive will void the warranty unless done by an apple service center.

I would go through apple. Amazons stock will not contain the iLife and iWork software just released, and they dont offer customizations. Order your ram through crucial or someplace similar. Apple charges way too much for additional ram.

[caribiner23]

I was hoping ribitch was going to get vibes and join this topic. :)

Thanks again. You guys are further confirming that I am on the right path.

I called Apple again and asked about iLife and, as long as I was at it, Tiger. The iBooks are shipping with iLife '04 now, but they are in the middle of switching over. If I get a unit with '04 on it, they will include a CD with '05 so I can upgrade. Tiger (the next version of OSX) is supposed to ship in the first half of 2005, but that's all the salesperson would say. If I buy the iBook within a couple weeks of Tiger's release, I will get a voucher for the next release.

Gettin' ready to pull that trigger..

[gugnheim]

Thanks carabiner. You won't regret it, many, many times since the purchase I have been happy with the size. It's been to China, school everyday in my backpack with a foamish case-logic cover that protects it well, and many many road trips. It's about to go to Iraq with me as well. Have them build it with the bluetooth in, to avoid my mistake of not getting it, so i have to use a dongle.
Gug

[caribiner23]

Thanks for all the advice, everyone. I ordered the iBook directly from Apple yesterday.