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15" PB or 12" iBook & iMac

yoak

yoak

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Hello
I am trying to write this post on a friends PC, and when I was almost finished it dissaperd. So excuse me if a half written post has somehow made it out to the forum.

I`m in the process of buying a new Mac. I am a cameraman so I need to do some editing, no big stuff, mainly my showreels. I do need a SuperDrive to get my reel out to people. I also travel quite a bit, so it would be nice with a portable. (Altough I belive I wlii do most of the editing at my desk)

My first idea was to get a 15" PB with SD, but the price is quite steep here in Norway.
As I was doing my research the lovely new iMac came out and I got this idea that I could buy a 12" iBook this month, then around Janary get the 17" iMac with SD. (This way I can spread the cost a bit, and get a G5)
The total price would be close to the 15" PB

Is this the way to go, or is it too much hassel to edit on the 12"?

Any advice would be appreciated

PS Thanks for a great forum, I`ve gotten a lot of good info here (almost to much as I can`t decide)
 
well.....it depends really.........if you need a laptop and how much you require that laptop to do..........

if you want a machine that serves both as desktop and laptop.....get the pbook, if notget tthe imac and ibook........it's a good option (de ibook and imac)
 
Get a ibook + imac. Thats is far better. the performance of ibook is significantly lower than the powerbook (12" vs 15"). For basic editing it might be a little painful to do it on the ibook. Imac should be by far better than both of them anyway. Choose the order if you donot need a laptop right now get a imac and get the ibook in jan! Then you can get a better ibook as it should get updated.
 
I have been back to my Apple shop and I think I`ll go with the Powerbook. It can do everything I need. Besides the ibook and imac option becomes more expensive than I first thought if I`ll get Applecare for both.

The question is, with the G5 in all the desktops, how long time do you think it will it be before I will have problems running new software on my PB?
 
My first suggestion would be to not buy applecare when you buy the computer. I believe you can purchase the extended plan anytime within the first year you own the computer. Secondly, I would say go for the powerbook. I have the 15" as listed in my sig and it can do everything that I have tried to do (I am not a photoshop user but I believe it will have no problems). Finally, if you could do without the laptop for a few months, wait until January (it's not that far away). I would be very surprised if there are not updated PBs and/or IBs by then. My opinion is that there will be fairly significant changes to the PB, meaning not just a higher clocked processor.
 
here's my vote for the iBook + iMac.

as stated, you can spread the cost of Applecare over time by purchasing it next summer for both machines.

editing on a 12" isn't painful. I did a lot of editing on my starter Mac, a 12" G3 white iBook. having a bigger screen is nice, but in a 12" laptop the tradeoff is for portability.

a good thing about having two computers is that when one of them's busy rendering or encoding, you can use the other one to be productive or check email / read the web.
 
Thanks for your thoughts guys.And to Rod Rod, I appreciate your input.
May I ask what editing software you used on your 12"?
 
I used iMovie for a couple of months, and then I taught myself Final Cut Pro. I actually bought FCP a month after my iBook, but it took me a little while to start using it.

The reason I bought my first Mac in the first place was to edit news packages. The iBook was a more cost-effective solution than any PC.

1024x768 resolution makes for a tight fit in FCP for all its windows, but it works. You can even connect the iBook to a television and use the TV as a sort of broadcast monitor while you edit.
 
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