I was asked to get some information for a friend of mine who has a MacBook, black, 2.2GHz, 2GB RAM, and a 160GB HDD. He got a HD video camera, and would like to edit and make simple movies on it. He wanted to know if getting a PowerBook G4, the last-gen HighRes version, would be better at basic video editing than his MB, due to the discrete video card. The maximum he can afford would be $550, any suggestions, and he did say that was the maximum he could afford, no more, no matter what. Any suggestions?
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For a friend..MacBook, or PowerBook?
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His MacBook will crush any PowerBook. GPU helps nothing in basic editing, only in professional apps and then he should be looking at Mac Pro, not PowerBook 
His MacBook will crush any PowerBook. GPU helps nothing in basic editing, only in professional apps and then he should be looking at Mac Pro, not PowerBook
I see, would there be any benefit for editing, because of the larger screen?I'm not shocked, but surprised about the integrated graphics being better than the Radeon Mobility 9700, the integrated graphics are that much..better than the 9700?
Discreet card or not, you are comparing a 5 year old G4 vs a 2 year old MB.
*everything* is faster on the Intel chip.
If he were to drop in 4 gigs of ram ($100) and a 320 gig 7200 RPM drive ($70), in the blackbook the gap would become even bigger.
imovie render:
http://www.barefeats.com/pb167.html -- 81 seconds for soft focus
http://www.barefeats.com/mbook3.html -- 34 seconds
Geekbench: macbook = almost 3,000 -- G4 1.67 = 830
http://www.primatelabs.ca/blog/mac-benchmarks/
*everything* is faster on the Intel chip.
If he were to drop in 4 gigs of ram ($100) and a 320 gig 7200 RPM drive ($70), in the blackbook the gap would become even bigger.
imovie render:
http://www.barefeats.com/pb167.html -- 81 seconds for soft focus
http://www.barefeats.com/mbook3.html -- 34 seconds
Geekbench: macbook = almost 3,000 -- G4 1.67 = 830
http://www.primatelabs.ca/blog/mac-benchmarks/
Tell him to spend that money maxing out his Ram and buying a faster hard drive, then use the extra to buy an external monitor if he really needs the extra real estate.. Buying a powerbook would be like owning a 2008 Ford Mustang and trading it in for a for 2002 Ford Taurus (of which I happen to own, and let me tell you it is not very fun).
The X3100 is by no means powerful, but they're at least as good as (if not better than) the discrete graphics in the powerbook.
The X3100 is by no means powerful, but they're at least as good as (if not better than) the discrete graphics in the powerbook.
Ok, that sounds good, I will tell him that, and just to max everything out. If possible, could he, if he wanted to, swap the logic board from a 9400M-equipped MacBook. Only if cost allowed, would this be a plan, but is it worth suggesting?
Slight design differences make some of the macbook boards non-interchangeable - some of the cables plug in in different ways or have different connectors altogether or screw holes appear in different places.
Plus it would probably cost less to sell the current MB and get a 9400M model than to buy a 9400M board and try to sell the old one.