Computer upgrades anyone?

I’m jealous! A friend went out and bought a new iMac after Apple released the new versions yesterday. They look quite impressive and thin. And, as she stated – “If I can’t be thin, my computer might as well be.” From a personal perspective, that’s a great theory to live by. Along with the new iMacs, Apple upgraded the .Mac, iWeb (part of iLife), and iWork software.

The upgrades to iWeb and .Mac are particularly interesting. For some time now I’ve kept my eye on .Mac because it comes with a very good backup software, but I couldn’t rationalize paying $99 for backup software alone, even if there was 1 GB of storage space and e-mail provided. Well, that has now changed. .Mac and iWeb now support personal domain names. In other words, I can create my website using iWeb and then publish it to my personal domain name, which would be supported by .Mac. On top of that, they now provide 10 GB of available space, which is a 10x upgrade from what they used to offer.

The iWork software now includes a spreadsheet tool called Numbers. It seems to be pretty cool after reading a review on macworld.com. Although, the person that wrote the article notes that it will take an Excel user some time to adjust to the different layout of Numbers. Apple has apparently created the software to change the way users think of spreadsheets. Numbers, along with their word processor (Pages) and presentation (Keynote) software now makes for a reasonable alternative for Microsoft Office. Add the $79 price tag and it looks like a potential steal.

So, since I’m a budget freak, lets see how much that will set me back:
1. Mac OS 10.5 (Panther) – $129 (assumes same cost as 10.4 Tiger)
2. RAM – $150 for 1 GB (1 DIMM) or $300 for 2 GB (2 DIMM)
3. .Mac – $99
4. iLife – $79
5. iWork – $79
Total – $536 to upgrade to 1.5 GB RAM or $636 to upgrade to 2GB of RAM

Ok, so the total cost might be a bit much for one single purchase, but there’s nothing wrong with dreaming. The question now is, in what order do I buy them? Chance are, since I run Windows XP using Bootcamp and have Office 2003, iWork will be the last purchase. Since my contract with godaddy.com lasts until next March, I’ll probably wait until then to upgrade iLife and .Mac. That leaves the OS and RAM upgrades as my first purchase sometime around Christmas. Sounds like a plan. Any bets on whether I’ll stick to it. In providing full disclosure, I have had my eye on a new big screen TV and a new monitor for the desk at home .

But the again, next year my laptop will turn 2 years old. Might it be time to retire this laptop to a family member and upgrade to a new one?! Ok, that’s a lot of money I’ve thrown around in the post, I’m going to have to stop now.