Should I switch?

[kriegs]

The answer is obviously, "yes", but the question is when. I am ultimately looking for a better interface and more seemless integration of my digital lifestyle. I know that the mac and OS X will provide me such with the suite of ILife apps.

However, I am currently running Windows XP on my Vaio desktop that has the Intel 815 chipset which is a P3 867mghz with 512k of ram. I am quite content with the performance with regards to everyday usage, email, websurfing, digital photos, etc. What I am craving is Imovie and Idvd and the integration of those with Itunes and iphoto along with the elegant design of the Mac.

I am indifferent whether I buy a desktop solution or a portable solution as I will eventually get both. What I am concerned about is that I do not want to buy an Imac now and not have a pick-up in experience outside of the Ilife apps. I am very sensitive to the limitations on the front side bus of the current genration of processors. That said, the G4 with level 3 cache would meet my needs, even though I am only a consumer/home user. Should I,

1) buy the 15" when it is released and wait on a desktop replacement when the IBM 970 occurs, or

2) Buy an Imac ( which gives me a faster hard drive and Dvd burner, but no Level 3 ) and wait to purchase an upgraded Ibook.

Thanks for the feedback.

[MacBandit]

What is your price range? Based on your suggestions of an iMac, iBook, 15" Powerbook I assume you have some sort of restriction.

If price isn't the problem I would get a 17" Powerbook and have the best of both worlds desktop and laptop. Or get a PowerMac. Either option is going to feel much faster then your existing computer.

[Flickta]

PowerMac? Not now. Too noisy, too expensive.

PowerBook! 12" - will last, and then you'll add a 970 (or whatever summer brings) PowerMac!
Or get 15" PB and lots of TiPaint... Well, I think it's prettier than AluBooks.

[fatfish]

If you can wait for the developers conference in June, I think you will find you are in a better position to answer your own question

[rainman::|:|]

i don't usually tell people to wait on purchases, but in this case waiting till june might be a good idea-- have a feeling we'll know a lot more by then. If the 970 is announced and released soon, wait and get that. If it sounds further off, buy now and upgrade after the 970...

pnw

[kansaigaijin]

if you are happy with current performance of the Sony you will probably be happy with 17inch iMac, or the top of the line iBook.

if you will eventually get a desktop machine, just get an iBook now and wait for the 970 to get a desktop machine.

[firestarter]

I was in exactly the same position. I'm also a Unix coder - so the pull to go Mac was even stronger in my case.

My previous laptop was a 600MHz PIII Thinkpad. Fast enough - but not enough memory to do what i wanted to do in Photoshop. For me, the complication was/is that I buy computers to run software - so I do have a fair amount of software that I have to cross-upgrade.

Two weeks ago, I bought my 12 inch Powerbook. Why?

1/ I thought the Powerbook would be better than iBook for Photoshop and 'digital lifestyle' purposes (encoding MP3s is much faster on a G4).
2/ I thought it would be fast enough for what I want. Correct. Photoshop runs great using 50M files even in 640M.
3/ I know there's good stuff 'round the corner. This was the cheapest laptop that does what I want (I went for the combo drive). A laptop is for portability, a desktop is for power. When the 970s come out, this will still be portable, but I'd feel bad if I bought a PowerMac now and I was left with a lower power desktop.
4/ I don't think the 970s will make it into the laptop range for a while, so I don't think I'll be feeling bad about buying a laptop now when a few months pass.

Conclusion - buy the laptop now, spend the next few months getting used to it and porting your data / software / lifestyle. If you really want to feel good in 3 / 6 months when 970 powered machines come out, then buy as cheap as you can right now. An 800MHz iBook bought now will still be a cool mobile email / lifestyle device in a years time.

[kriegs]

I appreciate all the feedback. I really want the ability to burn dvds, so the ibook is out for that reason and the fact that I think the g3 is way behind what I have now.

I would get the 12" powerbook, but am concerned that it would bug when editing video or viewing websites

Any comments?

[firestarter]

Originally posted by kriegs
I would get the 12" powerbook, but am concerned that it would bug when editing video or viewing websites


What do you mean bug? The screen would be too small?

Possibly for DV editing - I'm not sure - that's not my thing.

One thing that has REALLY impressed me about Quartz compared to W2K on my old Thinkpad is the font smoothing. It uses each sub-pixel (ie the red/green and blue) separately to smooth fonts - which gives the impression of much higher resolution. For web viewing / coding purposes, I'm finding I can get more text on the screen than with W2K 1280x1024 - pretty good. Take a look in an Apple dealership to see if it works for you.

My next purchace will be a 15inch LCD monitor to use dual screen. A setup like this might work for you. Personally I think the 17 inch is too big/expensive, and I'd rather have a more portable setup like the 12 + an external monitor when I need it.

[lmalave]

Originally posted by kriegs
I appreciate all the feedback. I really want the ability to burn dvds, so the ibook is out for that reason and the fact that I think the g3 is way behind what I have now.

I would get the 12" powerbook, but am concerned that it would bug when editing video or viewing websites

Any comments?

I have the 12" iBook and I have found that the 12" screen is a great size. My next laptop purchase a couple years down the road will again be a 12". You just adjust to it, and it's great having the small size and portability. The 12" PowerBook with the DVD burner is a great little machine, but I recommend going to an Apple store or a reseller and actually getting your hands on one so you can test iMovie and iDVD performance first hand (well, iDVD might be tough to test unless you bring in your own blank DVD...).

[MacBandit]

Originally posted by kriegs
I appreciate all the feedback. I really want the ability to burn dvds, so the ibook is out for that reason and the fact that I think the g3 is way behind what I have now.

I would get the 12" powerbook, but am concerned that it would bug when editing video or viewing websites

Any comments?

I think if you are going for a laptop first and holding off on a desktop and you are interested in video editing then a 15" or 17" Powerbook will fit the bill. The 12" is just to hampered by the lack of L3 Cache and the video card. The 15" would work great and you can always output to an external monitor but it is last gen. at this point and is expected to be updated within about a month. The 17" on the other hand is great all around but might be too big/expensive for a first Mac.