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15' Powerbook....which one?!

camobag

camobag

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 4, 2003
106
0
Ok guys, I'm sure you're all very tired about reading and writing posts about powerbooks...well, maybe not. So, I have a somewhat general but kinda specific question: I definitely want the 15 inch powerbook but can't quite decide. You have the one without the superdrive, with the airport extreme, with one gig, no-lit keyboard, and etc. Anyways, I just was wondering which Powerbook you all went for and why. Is the high memory speed important? Do you really like the superdrive? Backlit keyboard?? Thanks for helping...!
 
-"15' Powerbook....which one?!"-

Woooow a fifteen foot powerbook-which apple store did you find that at?

depends on what you need- the best value is the 1.25 15" pb, with all of the extras it hopefully will not be really obsolete in the too near future- and it is easily upgradable when it starts to gets clocked by the G5 pb. Plus if you don't need the extras now(airport extreme, bigger hd, backlit keyboard, more ram and more processing speed) you may want them a year from now and you'll be kicking yourself after laying out a couple hundred for not getting it in the first place. IMHO if you're gonna spend around 2k on a computer, at that point it's worth a couple hundred more to get the pimped out version.......

now all we need is that price drop and I'm throwing down the plastic................
 
I would skip the super drive option, it would be cheaper to just get an external burner that is 2x as fast as the internal one would be, thats if you even need it at all.
 
Just get what you want

The main nonconfigurational diffs between the 1.25 and the 1.0 are the backlit keyboard and processor speed. You can opt in or out of the superdrive at both levels. You can add airport extreme to the cheaper model. You can bump up or down the HD. Do you want to make DVDs? Get the superdrive. The superdrive is also handy if you're going to have large quantities of data to back up.

Lately my pet issue has been HD size. They are cheap, and they are a pain to upgrade later (not so much the physical upgrade, but getting your data to the new HD), so I think you should get the biggest available. Basically, if you must have the backlit keyboard, or you want maximum performance, get the bigger model. Otherwise, configure both the way you want and compare prices. If there's not a big difference, see if the keyboard and 25 percent faster CPU are worth it to you.
 
Originally posted by nolem
I would skip the super drive option, it would be cheaper to just get an external burner that is 2x as fast as the internal one would be, thats if you even need it at all.
Click to expand...

Well, the Superdrive is just a $200 option, about the same as most 4x external drives. For me, for basically the same price, I'd rather have the slower internal drive, especially given the added benefit of iDVD functionality.
 
I went for the 1.25GHz. I needed the airport card, I only have 30GB left on the hard disk at the moment so I needed the hard disk space. I have found the Superdrive useful for backing up some large files at work that would not fit on a CD. The backlit keyboard I have found useful, as my wife likes the lights low when she watched T.V., so I can keep her company and use the Powerbook at the same time. Your choice will depend on if you want wireless networking and how much you think you need a Superdrive (Although I know you can spec the Superdrive in or out).

Actually when I was going to buy the Powerbook I was originally going to get the 1 GHz version, as that is the budget that I had, however the store only had the 1,25 GHz version, so that's what I got. However I am really pleased with the Powerbook that I have got, and found all of the extras of the 1.25 genuinely useful, as at the time of the purchase I was not sure!
 
I would say start with the high-end 1.25ghz Powerbook and work your way down... If you don't want the superdrive (if you will never use iDVD) then get the cd-rw/dvd combo. Other than that, the 1.25ghz Powerbooks has very nice specs and is cheaper than getting the 1ghz with all of the extras added on.
 
Originally posted by crazzyeddie
I would say start with the high-end 1.25ghz Powerbook and work your way down... If you don't want the superdrive (if you will never use iDVD) then get the cd-rw/dvd combo. Other than that, the 1.25ghz Powerbooks has very nice specs and is cheaper than getting the 1ghz with all of the extras added on.
Click to expand...

i agree. that's the way to go about it.
 
If you start adding stuff to the 1Ghz machine, it dosent make much sense to buy it.

Using EDU discount as an example this is why:

1Ghz 15" machine with backlight keyboard, combo drive and extreme airport costs: 1,950$

the 1.25 with combo drive costs 2,119$:

for the difference (169$) you are getting: extra 20gb of storage, extra 256mb, and a 0.25Ghz increase in speed. The same gap is going to hold if you buy the superdrive.

The resale value of this machine will always be higher than the resale value of the 1Ghz machine.

As a side note: if you BTO the 1Ghz to equal all but the CPU speed (i.e 2x256 and 80 gb hard drive) it will total 2108$
which means that you pay ~11$ for the 0.25 increase. Even if you buy the memory else where it will still keep the difference at about 50$, which I still think is not worth the hassle.

BTW: without student discount add 50$ to the differences. This is because the discount on the 1.25Ghz is bigger than the one on the 1Ghz.

So in my opinion it all boils down to whether you are going to BTO the 1Ghz machine. If you keep it as it is, it might be worth while, if you start tweaking it, I say go with the 1.25Ghz.
 
I went with the 15 1ghz 60 gb combo with the edu discount for 1799. I may have went for the superdrive 80 gb, but I have an external drive and dvd burner anyway, so there really was no need. I plan on using it just for design work only when im on the go, so i figure the 60 gb is big enough for me. I also ordered two 512 sticks of ram from crucial with the extra money. anyway you go, i think you will be pleased.
 
Got the high end model...its not much more and 25% faster or so. I have been waiting for revisions and toying between a 15" and a 20" imac...the 15" super was more expensive but has a longer future...
 
wow...the 15" 1.25 super sounds money

Well, it seems everyone is leaning towards the high end model. It doesn't seem too surprising since it's money! Anyways, how do you guys think halo or ultimate tournament will run on it? I've heard it's kinda choppy on the 12 inch pb.
 
Well, all I can say is, it's what you need. I got the 1 Ghz model customized with a SuperDrive, mainly because I didn't need the 80 GB HD (I have external drives, which are much faster than internal laptop HDs for movie-editing :p, AirPort Extreme, and backlit keyboard (I can type without looking at the keyboard, and Apple doesn't have an option for taking the backlit keyboard off the 1.25 Ghz model). But otherwise, the 1 Ghz model just was great for me.

Before, I was going to purchase the 12-inch model, but realized that it was a better value to get the 15-inch model, because you get a much better LCD screen, faster memory/bus speed, FireWire 800, PC Card Slot, Gigabit Ethernet, 60 GB HD, etc. Also it was about a $200 difference with an education discount. Not a bad value at all.

When I got my computer, I was totally satisfied with it. It had the speed, snappy-ness, and slick looks. No matter which model you get, you'll be satisfied with it. Since I customized it with a SuperDrive, it was comparable to the 1.25 Ghz model, besides the AirPort Extreme and 250 Mhz difference between the two models. But once you think about it, comparing the previous TiBook model with the new 1 Ghz Aluminum PowerBook, the new model is slightly faster because of the faster L2 cache, bus speed, etc. So I've always thought about it that way.

It all comes down to this question: what exactly are you going to use your computer for? If your going to use it for pro apps, then I guess going for the 1.25 Ghz model would be better. Otherwise, I still think the 1 Ghz model is a great value; you'd only wait a few more seconds for finishing some tasks. Either way, you'll be satisfied. I use my PowerBook for movie-editing, After Effects/Photoshop work, etc. But remember this: RAM always speeds up your computer. I recently added a 512 MB stick, all adding up to 768 MB for my computer now. So I'm happy. :)

______________________________________

Power Mac G4 Sawtooth 450 Mhz, 1 MB L2 Cache, 640 MB RAM
iBook G3 12-inch 600 Mhz, 256K L2Cache, 384 MB RAM
PowerBook G4 15-inch 1 Ghz, 512K L2 Cache, 768 MB RAM

Apple KICKS ASS!
 
You guys know your Powerbooks!

Thanks for the info. guys, but, please, keep posting!
 
Re: wow...the 15" 1.25 super sounds money

Originally posted by camobag
Well, it seems everyone is leaning towards the high end model. It doesn't seem too surprising since it's money! Anyways, how do you guys think halo or ultimate tournament will run on it? I've heard it's kinda choppy on the 12 inch pb.
Click to expand...

I've got Halo and it runs fine on the 1.25GHz 15". I have got a 1 GB ram but I am sure the performance will be the same with 512 MB.
 
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