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Buy Powerbook G4 now or later?

M

MagnumSSS

macrumors newbie
Original poster
So, I have a good deal on my plate. Someone local is selling a powerbook G4 12" 1.33 Ghz 768mbRAM combo drive, along with an external keyboard and mouse for $1200. I could buy a bigger external monitor for $200 or so and be all set for @ $1400.

Should I take this deal? Or,

Should I buy a 15" Apple Certified Powerbook G4 for $1699 (combo drive 1.33Ghz, 256 RAM)

or,

Wait for what will come out/be upgraded in early 2005?


Honestly, the FIRST option seems like the way to go. GREAT bang for the buck. I'm going to be doing some minimal audio recording on this so the external monitor and keyboard/mouse will really help out for my homesetup.

Thanks y'all.

Mag
 
Merry Christmas...and yes, option #1 looks like a way better deal than #2 especially since you're going with an external monitor.
 
Option 1 is better than 2. However I think you should wait for Macworld and see what Steve has in store for us. The conference is only two weeks away and if new powerbooks are announced, the current ones should see their prices slashed.
 
I keep hearing I should wait until the Mac Expo in San Fran. Does anyone have a clue what might be announced?
 
I really wouldn't reccomend buying a PB at the mo, just save some more money for the next rev.

Tiger and all the apps will be tiger native soon - medium - big speed increase.
 
I just sold my PB 12" 1.33GHZ... I am waiting for new PowerBook announcements from MWSF!
 
I did a little research, is Tiger the new up and coming Mac operating system? I'm going to be using the powerbook for audio recording, so the latest and greatest Operating system/version is not always best b/c the audio software drivers need time to catch up with the updates. The main thing I'm looking out for are possible hardware improvements/price drops.
 
MagnumSSS said:
I did a little research, is Tiger the new up and coming Mac operating system? I'm going to be using the powerbook for audio recording, so the latest and greatest Operating system/version is not always best b/c the audio software drivers need time to catch up with the updates. The main thing I'm looking out for are possible hardware improvements/price drops.
Click to expand...

Currently Apple is using Panther 10.3.7. Tiger is the code name for the next Mac Operating System, it will be 10.4. It's due out in the first half of 2005, probably closer to the June timeline.

A price drop for the PowerBook isn't all that likely. Apple usually give us improvement at the same price, such as speed. MWSF coming up January 10th is the place to watch. Steve Jobs will give his famous Keynote on Tuesday January 11th, hopefully an announcement will be made.
 
OPTION 1. 🙂



Always a good idea to sell your Apple product a month before updates. 🙂

I might get more money back for what I spent on my system with upgrades. 🙂
 
Yes, I'm leaning toward the 12" option for $1200, comes with external keyboard and mouse and 756 RAM. That is so tempting for my wallet. My only beef really is the 12" screen size. I will get a bigger external monitor for home use/recording, but I'm just worried that when I'm using the 12" screen to do most of my website work, I'll get bothered by the small size. I'm gonna go check one out in person more when I get back from the holiday traveling.

Cheers!
 
MagnumSSS said:
Yes, I'm leaning toward the 12" option for $1200, comes with external keyboard and mouse and 756 RAM. That is so tempting for my wallet. My only beef really is the 12" screen size. I will get a bigger external monitor for home use/recording, but I'm just worried that when I'm using the 12" screen to do most of my website work, I'll get bothered by the small size. I'm gonna go check one out in person more when I get back from the holiday traveling.

Cheers!
Click to expand...

the 12" screen does not bother at all it has a good resolution at 1024x768 and many sites are either designed with that size or lower at present. 🙂

Check it out in person its not bad at all. 🙂
 
Maya, my last post was actually incorrect. I've seen the 12 inch powerbook that I might buy in person. It's right on that fine line of being too small. But, this isn't such a big deal b/c I'd like to have an external screen anyhow.

My only beef now is that I just realized that 12" models don't come with Firewire 800. This seems to be the future of audio interfaces these days. Keep in mind that I will be using my powerbook for audio recording (small projects, like 1 or 2 inputs at a time, and 6-32 tracks with effects, etc.). I'm not sure how big of a deal it will be to not have a Firewire800 port.
 
Magnum, I think you'll be okay with FW400, especially if you'll only be recording 1-2 inputs at a time. I just did a live show with a 15" powerbook where I was capturing 2 tracks in from the mixer, processing them, and sending them back out to the mixer, all via my Edorol firewire interface, plus sending fullscreen video out to the 2nd display. I had no problems at all. (Well, at least not with *my* equipment!). Many people are still using USB for audio capture; I think FW400 is plenty unless you're recording many many tracks.

Where you may run into problems, though, is if you are capturing to an external firewire drive, as I've heard that daisychaining in a capture situation is not always rock-solid (though to be honest I've mostly heard about it in terms of dropping frames while capturing DV). Perhaps someone else can speak to this, as I usually capture to my internal drive. Where the FW800 will really shine is in working with video on a fast external drive.

By the way, you may already own an interface, but if you don't I have to give a shout out to the Edirol FA-101. It's got 10 in/10 out (though that's really 8, because two are optical), decent if quiet preamps, and best of all it is only half rack size and powers straight from the bus. It can also be found for under five hundred bucks. I really love it. Here's a picture:

EDIROL_FA101KLEIN.jpg


Some reviews.

Whatever you get, enjoy it! I'd recommend the 12" and a monitor if you're going to be mostly working at your desk, and a 15" if you think you might do any significant amount of AV away from your desk, or if you will need to be showing clients work.
 
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