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1) G3, G4, or wait ? 2) X11

maradong

maradong

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Mar 7, 2003
1,058
0
Luxembourg
Hiya all,

Basically I got the following question. I know it has been discussed many times on these boards, but this time, I think it is slightly different.
There are a few few things I want to get out of a notebook/laptop.

1. Battery Life
( should be around 4 hours )

2. Heat Production
( I don t want to have an oven => like in peecees... I want a laptop )

3. Speed
Now, I don t want to know whether I shall buy an Ibook or a Powerbook, well certainly, it s about the same, but not exactly. I want to know how the different processors are competing against each other, namely in the situations that will follow:
All i want to do is a lot of surfing, word processing, listening to music ( itunes, ) , ripping music, have the ability to use airport @ school,use iphoto with my digital camera, have medium speed in Photoshop using some ( rarely ) basic filters, Macromedia Studio Appz and different compiling applications.
In Photoshop most to do is correct red eyes effects ( My father bought me the programm, i know it has far more capabilities as I will ever use ), and sometimes use filters.
In the Macromedia Programms ( for which we got a license @ school ) I ll use Dreamweaver, Flash and Director MX. I know Director will perform not that fast.

4. Network capabilities
Most of the time it will be used in my home Network, and I will use programms on my Debian Box in the "basement" ( dunno if this is the right name for the level under the ground floor :) ) through X11. Now, if my linux ssh server isn t giving me a timeout. What will happen if I put the Ibook to sleep while I got some open windows? Will those applications crash, or will I be able to work with them as soon as the Ibook wakes up.

5.Conclusion
Now what shall I do, get a g3, g4, or wait what will come out. All I know for sure is that I want it in the next 14 days.

6. P.s.
I know all this seems much, and it might be pretty confusing, as I am not used to write that long posts in english. As you probably know, English is not my first language. ;-)
Please be gentle, or in other words, as I read somewhere on the boards:
*pulling the fire-proof suit up* :rolleyes: ;)

[edit]
Minor modifications ;-)
[/edit]
 
1. iBook is better on batteries.

2. G3 runs cooler than G4.

3. Speed, G4 is much faster for iTunes (ripping and burning) tasks.

4. Should be fine to tunnel in with SSH. Not sure though what sleep mode turns off. I am guessing restarting of apps is required, but again I haven't done that so I can't say 100%.

5. I would say G3 as of right now. Hopefully Monday it will be more obvious what to get (I am hoping for a nice new updated 15" PowerBook).

6. No worries mate! ;)
 
1. Battery Life
My friend has an iBook and he's thouroughly satisified with the battery life. He's routinely getting 4+ hours. The PowerBook I really can't talk about, but I'm guessing that if you're not doing too much processor intensive things, then you're going to be in the 4 hour range. This'll greatly decrease if you're doing Photoshop, Flash, watching movies, etc... The 17" 'Book will have quite a shortened battery life, whereas the 12" should have a longer life (the LCD really drains the power)

2. Heat Production
Once again, my friend's iBook runs really cool, I can't tell the difference between it being on for an hour or three. Another pal of mine has a PowerBook (15"), and that runs relatively cool. Supposedly the 12" is a frying pan, but I'm not too sure about that.

3. Speed
In most every test, the PowerBook will come on top. Sure, it puts out more heat and uses more juice, but the G4 is still faster than the G3, no matter how you look at it. With Photoshop the G4's AltiVec will help a lot, and I'm guessing that your Macromedia applications will run faster on the G4. On top of that, the G4 runs at a higher clock than the G3. Yeah, speed isn't everything, but I guess the general consensus will be that the PowerBook will be faster. By how much is a different question, but check out www.barefeats.com for some benchmarks.

X11
Well, first thing is that I've not had my ssh server time me out, but then again I never really leave it idle. From my understanding though, if you put your laptop to sleep, the connection will be closed, and you'll lose your session. Lemme check into that for you though... I'll rig up my server here and test it.


Just so you know, I'm in the same boat as you. I'm going into college this Fall, but personally, I'm going for a PowerBook. Not only has it got more goodies, such as AirportExtreme and a Superdrive, I think it'll last me longer than an iBook. Sure, it might be more expensive, but I think it's worth the cost. Plus now the prices for PowerBooks have fallen so much, it's quite affordable, especially if you go through the Education store, but wait til Monday, it can't hurt you any... The 15" PowerBooks are due for an upgrade (it is the "year of the laptop" after all). Oh, and one more thing, your English is pretty darn good. Polish was my first language, but I've lived in the states for 15 years, so I've sort of grown accustomed to English. Good job though... no need for any flame-proof suits unless you want to go off on a spree of Mac-bashing posts.
 
1. Battery Life
My PowerBook 15.2" gets about 4hrs with LCD turned down and while working in Word (ususally 2.5-3.5 with other tasks)

2. Heat Production
The TiBook doesn't have awful heat. Only while playing Quake3 or JKII do I experience crazy heat.

3. Speed
An iBook will suit you fine with speed, but getting a Powerbook will make your investment last longer. I doubt Panther will work on a G3, but it'll "probably" work on a G4. Anyway I'd wait until the WWDC to see if anything new comes along. If you don't see anything that suits your fancy you can always get a G3 iBook or G4 pBook.

4. Network capabilities
Don't know about X11, but all macs under OSX disconnect from all networks when in sleep. I suspect this was from when ppl attached to networks at work and upon wakingup the laptop at home the laptop froze because it couldn't find the network it was on. But that is just a story I've heard.

5.Conclusion
Anyway, wait for WWDC - if you can't wait then get either an iBook or a pBook. For compactness get an iBook, for more power get a 15-17" pBook. The pBook would definetly last you longer (as in you won't need to replace it as soon as you would an iBook).

6.
Naw, your English is perfect. If you didn't have Luxembourg listed as your location I'd confuse you for an American.
 
Originally posted by yzedf
3. Speed, G4 is much faster for iTunes (ripping and burning) tasks.
Click to expand...

not entirely true - my G3 900 iBook (640mb ram), outperforms a friend's G4 800 TiBook (512mb ram) when it comes to ripping and burning in iTunes. He gets around 6/7x ripping, i get 7/8 sometimes 9x. I guess a 1Ghz TiBook would probably win, a 1Ghz iMac (256mb ram) hits around 10 on a good day.

i guess this is due to the faster optical drive and faster hdd
 
thx for all the help.
I ll probably get a PowerBook than, if there are new ones coming out @ WWDC...
6. Thx all, my english seems to not be that bad ;-)
 
Originally posted by Schiffi

....I doubt Panther will work on a G3, but it'll "probably" work on a G4.
Click to expand...

WHAT ARE YOU SMOKING? Why would PANTHER NOT work on a G3 or G4 when that's all that is out now? COME ON do u really think if you can run Jag on a BEIGE G3 that you won't be able to run Panther on a brand new 900MHz iBook?

I know you say this b/c there is a rumour that Panther is 64bit...

First off all...there has been no confirmationof that.
Secondly, it won't be. There may be a 64 bit version but there will be a 32 bit version because it WILL run on a G3/G4.
The PPC 970 is 32bit compatible. The lowest common denominator wins. Apple will not blow off the entire APPLE user base because ONE chip is 64bit.

Maradong...

I stand by my other posts, I just went thru the process of deciding 12" PB vs 12" iBook and I came to the conclusion that the iBook was better and I havent been happier and I OWNED a TiBook that I sold to get the iBook.

I notice no difference in speed between the two in my every day real world use (iChat, Photoshop, Mail, Safai) and with the money I saved I maxxed out my RAM and that made the difference.

I also love the durablity of the iBook, truly much more rugged than the 12" PB.

I'd wait til monday to see what comes out tho...it's only the weekend!

MacBoyX
 
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