1.67 or 1.5 ghz powerbook

[andcraig]

I'm planning on ordering a 15" powerbook with 1.5 ghz proc, 1 gig of ram, and superdrive
but i looked at the prices and the 15" with 1.67, 1 gig of ram, superdrive, and 128 megs of VRAM is only 200 dollars more

Considering i want to use it basically as a work laptop but with gaming such as WoW, the upgraded proc and vram would greatly help, but how does this affect battery life and is the performance increase that substantial.
(and i know that i won't get the best performance from WoW either way but i've already resigned to that fact, just want to keep up when i'm away)

Also, how do the battery's on 15 inchers normally last, i know my friend was getting close to 6 hours on his 12 inch and i read on a review that watching dvd's you get 2.5 hours about, but how is it for normal usage (word proc, itunes, etc...like what you'd be using in and between classes).

 

[deebster]

The 15" has shorter battery life than the 12", but I don't know exactly how much in normal usage since I don't have one. I'm sure plenty of people can give you real world figures on this and the gaming performance.

But do consider buying RAM from elsewhere. Apple are not the cheapest and it really is a doddle to install yourself. You could order it with the stock 512 MB and add a nice 1 GB stick to the remaining slot, and your Mac would thank you for doing so.

 

[Abstract]

Firstly, there's no way to get 6 hours from a 12 inch Powerbook, or the iBook for that matter. You would get closer with the 12" iBook though, since they last longer than any Powerbook. You could get 6+ hours from the 14" iBook, but that's with a fairly new battery and everything.

The 15" Powerbook has the worst battery life of all the Powerbooks. It shares the same battery as the 12" Powerbook, and yet uses more power, so you can imagine. The 17" Powerbook compensates for its high amount of power usage with a larger capacity battery, so it actually gets 3.5 hours of real-world usage.

And about the 15" Powerbook.......I don't think you'd be able to watch a 2.5 hour DVD on it unless your battery is fairly new and hasn't been degraded too much, but that's a guess. In real world usage, you'd get 2.5 to 3 hours on battery power, and that's if you're not using iTunes and have the display at 50 to 75% brightness.

 

[dmw007]

I recommend buying the 1.67GHz model with 128MB VRAM. Performance will not be substantially faster, but it will outperform the 1.5GHz fairly well (especially in gaming). For the extra $200 a faster cpu and twice the vram is a good buy!

 

[audiovox]

I recommend buying the 1.67GHz model with 128MB VRAM. Performance will not be substantially faster, but it will outperform the 1.5GHz fairly well (especially in gaming). For the extra $200 a faster cpu and twice the vram is a good buy!

Just wondering, will the extra vram make a substantial difference when editing movies in FCP and such?

 

[dmw007]

Just wondering, will the extra vram make a substantial difference when editing movies in FCP and such?

Not an expert in this field but common sense would dictate that more vram would equal faster/better performance.

Also, keep in mind that what you put in your powerbook as far as vram is concerned can not be upgraded- what you buy now is what you will always have- so going for the extra vram should be worth it in the long run.

 

[metsfan489]

I just bought a 15" powerbook 1.67 w/ superdrive, 100gb hd and 128mb vram about a 1 1/2 weeks ago. On average with the airport extreme enabled, the screen brightness at 1 -3 bars, i can get around 3 hours and 45 of battery life using office, web browsing and itunes. If you disable the airport extreme you can easily get 4 hours and 15 minutes.