12" Powerbook + 20 inch Display, (wait for a) Macbook, or an iMac Intel?

[silversyren]

Okaay.. I never realizing buying a computer was such a hassle. I bought a Dell for my parents (yes, I know.) over a weekend. Buying a personal computer is apparently way more difficult.

But -- the Dell was just for normal websurfing, typing papers, typical stuff.

My computer needs to be able to handle design -- large photoshop, illustrator, quark, indesign files. I tend to work with a lot of layers and I work at a high resolution for print.

I have a 300GB External Hard drive so HD isn't that much of an issue.

I have a budget of 1300$ (which sucks, I know. Ah, to have 4000$ to spend on electronics!)

Will a 12" 1000$ Powerbook be able to handle my graphic work? I'd get a 20 inch screen (the viewsonic around $280.) with it. It'll definitely be nice to have something portable.

I could also wait for a Macbook -- which would probably be comparable to a 12" Powerbook, correct? Speed, graphic card, etc? Since there's an <1000$ iBook model, the Macbook should have something in a similar price range.. and I'd also get the 20 inch screen with it.

Or.. I could get an iMac Intel 17" (20" if I get lucky or want to bump up my price range) which would give the best value for my money.. and with a iLugger (another $100) "could" be portable but not really.

I posted previously and received good suggestions -- but wanted to ask again now that I have three defined options.

Thank you!

 

[Willis]

well, as you're using photoshop, your best bet is the 12" Powerbook. OR, you could go on eBay and try find a newish 15" Powerbook. 1.5Gz is good enough for photoshop though, so if its 12" you want, get it while you can.

I'd avoid any Mactels at the moment as Photoshop will be SLOW. Unless, you have a windows version of Photoshop. then buy a Mactel and use boot camp to install windows. Ive heard that Photoshop runs quicker on a Mactel running XP than a normal Pc does.

 

[munckee]

The other option, of course, is to get a used powermac G5. Realistically, that will give you the most "future-proof" option (other than a macintel, which I'm avoiding until CS3 comes out).

For comparison's sake, I had a 12" 1.5ghz powerbook with 1.25GB of ram. It worked, but was on the slower side. I recently sold that and purchased a 15" 1.5Ghz powerbook and dumped 2GB of ram in it (I made the switch primarily for the extra screen space, but there's a decent jump with the extra ram as well). I have no doubt that it will last me a year or so until I'm ready to jump to a MBP (with CS3 and probably leopard).