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15" or 17" for $500

H

HardHatMac9

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 2, 2004
197
0
I'm debating between a new 15" and a 17" Powerbook. The price difference is $500.

I'm a graduate student who is jumping ship to apple in order to be able to work more seamlessly with my music, pictures, and DV. I also write many papers, create powerpoint presentations...etc.

Any suggestions or ideas on which to buy?

Thank you!
 
I would have to say the 15 as well...are you going to be using the computer mostly someplace besides your home? If you are doing most of your work at home consider getting a cheap extra monitor for more screen space if after you buy and use it you feel you need it. this way you have a smaller machine for portability but have great screen space for the majority of computer time. You can use the monitor as a second desktop to store open docs, etc....sort of an extended desktop.
 
As a 17" owner I agree that you should buy a 15". I can't imagine carrying this thing to campus everyday, plus (as stoid stated) the extra screen space isn't going to do you a lot of good.
 
I love my 17" PowerBook. The screen size is great for working on multiple assignments or web browsing while doing homework....or watching a movie while doing homework.....or for watching movies in the bedroom or the car or on the plane. It's really pretty easy to carry around also.....just make sure you find a great case so you do not have to carry around the PowerBook in it's case and a backpack. Here is the case we use:
http://www.macally.com/spec/carrying_case/cb_jsmh.html
It will hold a lot of other stuff besides the PowerBook and it's charger.
 
If you're going to do DV, use that $500 for a 5400RPM internal drive and an external Firewire 800 hard drive (since you can't import DV to an external Firewire 400 drive, since there is only one Firewire 400 port).
 
Great Comments...More?

This is a great forum. Thank you.

I would love to hear more comments, especially from 17" owners.

Thanks!
 
I would just like to point out that if your going to be using Powerpoint, you might want to at least check out a demo of Keynote. I think you would like it alot.

As for the 15'' vs 17'', visit your local store if you haven't already. You should know within mins which one is right for you.
 
crazzyeddie said:
If you're going to do DV, use that $500 for a 5400RPM internal drive and an external Firewire 800 hard drive (since you can't import DV to an external Firewire 400 drive, since there is only one Firewire 400 port).
Click to expand...

That's incorrect.

Most (if not all) external firewire enclosures allow you to daisy chain 1394a devices (such as a camcorder and a harddrive.) I import digital video (and digital photos) through my fw400 drive quite often.

I did it today in fact. :)
 
After much thought , buy the 15" and use that $500 to get a high quality dvi name brand 17" monitor, buy a good dinner, some itunes songs, and 1 extra battery. JMTS
 
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