I need your advice soon (computer specs question)

[Link]

Okay, my school is giving me a laptop for my good grades (aren't they sweet!), and they're paying up to $1500.  Now, I can upgrade it if I want, I just need to pay that myself.  So, I'm getting a G4 Powerbook.  With the student discount, it's $1399, so that leaves room for $101 for free, then any that spills over I have to pay.

Now, I don't have much dough on me at the moment (AT ALL), so I'm trying to decide between the two options:  (Keep in mind that this 12 inch Powerbook comes with 256 MB of built in RAM and 40 GB of memory)

I could upgrade to 80 GB of memory for $113, and only have to pay 12 bucks of it!  Not too shabby!

OR, I could upgrade to 512 MB of RAM for 90 bucks, then upgrade to 60 GB for only 45 bucks, totalling 135, meaning I only have to pay $34 dollars.

Now, if I plan on editing shorts and hopefully more lengthy movies, what should I go for?  More memory, or a little more RAM and a little more memory?  Would it be easier to get something like an external hardrive later, meaning I should go for the second option?  I know RAM is important, but would 256 RAM be okay (I was thinking No, but I'm not fo shizzle)?

Lemme know

[BonBon85]

If it were me I'd go with the 512 mb ram with 60 gig hard drive. It seems like more and more programs are requiring that much ram and it will be especially helpful in making sure your video editing programs run smoothly. If you have any projects that require more than a 60 gig hard drive it'd probably be better to keep it on an external hard drive anyway so you can work on it on other computers if you need to.

[Jeremy Blackman]

Now, if I plan on editing shorts and hopefully more lengthy movies, what should I go for?  More memory, or a little more RAM and a little more memory?

If you're going to be editing DV, you'll want to get an external Maxtor hard drive (160+ gigs). Give up on your internal hard drive.

You're going to want more than 256 RAM, especially if you're using Final Cut Pro.

[mutinyco]

Are you getting a PowerBook or an iBook? iBooks are G4 and less expensive.

But yeah, you'll actually want more than that 512 ram. Don't worry about adding more gigs, just get an external hard drive.

[Link]

It's a Powerbook.

[monodynamic]

make sure it is the powerbook with the upgraded option for superdrive/airport card.

Might cost more, but DVD burning & wifi is the way to go these days...

[Recce]

Also agree with getting the more ram. You can always buy another external drive later, whereas upgrading ram might be a bitch. Not like a desktop where you can do it yourself. I have 60gb on mine and I ran out of space a little while back, but if you ration, it shouldn't be too bad.

[TheVoiceOfNick]

Don't forget to get an Apple Care plan... but besides that, get the most amount of RAM that you can.