help- 1.6 g5 or 1.25 powerbook

Re: help- 1.6 g5 or 1.25 powerbook

Originally posted by Cfg5
I will be buying my first mac in about a month and am having trouble choosing between the 1.6 ghz g5 or the 1.25 ghz 15 inch powerbook. Please help!

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actually i been facing the descision.
You want to choose between a notebook and a desktop.
1st off the price is gonna be a big factor
around $2500 for the notebook and $1800 for the 1.6 g5 (this considering no monitor).
Second off you gonna have to weigh performance vs mobility. If mobility is a big factor then the obivious choice the powerbook. Performance wise, (this is considering you get 512 mb ram at least) the 1.6 g5 is gonna out perform the powerbook. Beside the processor speed there is gonna very big difference in hard speed. Since the hard drive is the slowest piece of i/o this will impact your performance greatly in hard drive intensive operation, since the powerbook can max contain a 5400 rpm drive while the g5 gets a nice 7200 rpm. The difference in speed in night and day, but notebooks most give up speed for mobility. Other big difference is the g5 will have 3 pci-x slots, for upgrading and adding fancy stuff. so stuff like video/audio editing stuff like that, the g5 is logical choice.

however if you want mobility the powerbook is the way to go. I think its like 1.1" which about the thinest notebook out there (consider all notebooks that have internal cd-roms). Its also very light. Comparing with the sony viao's notebooks, which are impressive to me at least. the problem with them is that they are design to be an optical illusion. the edges of the sony's notebooks slanted inward. this creates a thiner appearance, but it is still not that thin. the powerbook has straight sides.

hopes this helps.

Personally, I would try (if you feel you can) to consider it to be between the PB and a dual 1.8 G5. For my money, the 1.6 is a glorified G4- PCI instead of PCI-x, slower RAM, lower RAM capacity-- the 1.6 is a machine for the past and the present, the dual 1.8 is the machine of today and tomorrow.

G5 v. PB

Hi CfG5. I agree with kanker . . . if you have $2500 to spend anyway, and you already have a monitor, get the dual 1.8GHz G5. There is such a dramatic performance difference between the G5s and PowerBooks - the 1.6GHz G5 simply demolishes the 1.33GHz G4 17" PowerBook, and that G5 costs more than $1000 less. Of course you're comparing the 1.6GHz G5 with the 1.25GHz PowerBook, so your price difference is about $700. That will buy you more RAM (2 GB with money left over), or the 17" Apple Studio Display.

Take a look at the performance difference between PowerBooks and G5s:
http://www.barefeats.com/pvp.html

The only thing missing from that test is the dual 1.8 G5, but since you're concerned about the 1.6 it should be helpful.

There's a graph half way down this page that gives an idea about how fast a dual 1.8 G5 is compared to the 1.6 G5 and the dual 2: http://www.apple.com/dvdstudiopro/compressor.html

I'd get the G5. 🙂

G5 is simply superior to the G4, dont fool yourself. i wouldnt even compare the 2. the g4 is the new g3 if you know what i mean, and dont expect moto to advance the clock much on whats left of g4 production anyhow a no brainer unless you have to have a book and be forwarned books just dont last as long as powermacs and sure dont upgrade as powermacs have! Apples most powerful machine is the powermac G5 everything else with a g4 is a distant 2nd need i say more.

I second the dual 1.8 G5 PowerMac. Great machine.

the 1.6 G5 may use older tech but will stuff any G4 (and don't go on about multi processor aware apps) for most things it's much quicker not to mention quieter and better equipped long term. I chose a 1.6 over a dual 1.42 (v.large discount) in the short term knowing full well that the money saved over a dual 2.0 GHz (the only dual at the time of purchase) can go towards a dual 3 GHz+ machine next year. If apple introduce all the tech available to them at that time faster RAM, GPU, bus, hard drives(?), super drive and maybe even a 64 bit OS then it really will be worth having as it will be much faster then any current mac. Hopefully the few rev.a kinks that have appeared on some machines will also be ironed out. In day to day terms unless you are a serious professional any of the current G5 line up will offer a fast and efficient user experience. You cannot compare a notebook to a desktop you either want one or the other. If you move around even a tiny bit then you choose the PB and use it until it needs putting down or you upgrade. Otherwise go for the desktop 1.6+screen+ram or dual 1.8 and rest assured that what you have will be faster than any laptop. All apples pro models are plenty fast enough for any 2D design work so just buy and enjoy. There will always be faster machines out there pick what is best for you. So you lose a few seconds here and there opting for a G4 or slower processor but you'll waste more sitting on the toilet during the day.

I'd say that that's a wise choice. The single 1.8 has all of the features of the duals, it just costs less, and you've covered future expansion compatibility with pci-x.