1ghz 12" or 1.33ghz 12"? Benchmarks?

[smilinggoat]

I'm going to be purchasing a 12" powerbook soon but I'm not sure whether to get the 1gHz model for $1100 or the 1.33gHz for $1400 with student discount. I will be upping the RAM to 768 on my own and either putting in a 7200rpm internal drive or going for an external firewire drive.

I have been looking for benchmarks to compare the two machines but have not been very successful. Searched the forums, found very little. I don't really play games but I do alot of audio stuff.

So I'm pretty much asking, is the extra 330mHz worth $300? Money is VERY tight for me so it really has to be something in order to convince me to go big.

Any links to benchmark info or personal experience would be apreciated.

 

[slipper]

when i was at the apple store last week, i used alti-vec fractal carbon on the new 1.07ghz ibook and the 1.33ghz powerbook. the ibook scored 4200 flops and the powerbook scored 5200 flops, my 800mhz ibook scores 3200 flops.

 

[Abstract]

The system bus of the newer 1.33GHz 12" is higher at 167MHz instead of 133 MHz of the 1 GHz 12" Powerbook, so that should also add to the speed difference. The newer PB is much faster than the old 12" model. I have the 1 GHz model. A rev B (1 Ghz) model scores about 88 to 98 using XBench, depending on whether you have 512 MB of RAM or 768 MB. The new model scores around 120 - 125 on Xbench, but I forget the amount of RAM in that system. Its probably 768 MB as well, but I honestly don't know.

The settings on all systems were also set to HIGHEST PERFORMANCE in the Energy Saver settings of System Preferences.

 

[keysersoze]

The system bus of the newer 1.33GHz 12" is higher at 167MHz instead of 133 MHz of the 1 GHz 12" Powerbook, so that should also add to the speed difference. The newer PB is much faster than the old 12" model. I have the 1 GHz model. A rev B (1 Ghz) model scores about 88 to 98 using XBench, depending on whether you have 512 MB of RAM or 768 MB. The new model scores around 120 - 125 on Xbench, but I forget the amount of RAM in that system. Its probably 768 MB as well, but I honestly don't know.

I can confirm that my 12" 1.33 with 768MB RAM and 4200rpm drive scored a 122 on XBench.

 

[smilinggoat]

that's good to know...but what does that mean? Is it worth an extra $200? (200 because it turns out airport cards aren't included with the 1ghz, so i'd have to pay another 100 bringing it up to $1200 for the 1ghz vs. $1400 for the 1.33ghz)

 

[keysersoze]

that's good to know...but what does that mean? Is it worth an extra $200? (200 because it turns out airport cards aren't included with the 1ghz, so i'd have to pay another 100 bringing it up to $1200 for the 1ghz vs. $1400 for the 1.33ghz)

I would say it's definitely worth it. I wouldn't even waste a second thought on it, to be honest. And if you get a 1.33 refurb from the Apple store, it's only $1350. I love mine... and it's noticeably quicker than a 1Ghz I played around with at bestbuy. The screens are better too. The older 12 inchers used the iBook screen... the new 12 inchers use a PB screen. Brighter, crisper. Check the Macrumors forum for more reviews on the new 12 incher.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[oingoboingo]

that's good to know...but what does that mean? Is it worth an extra $200? (200 because it turns out airport cards aren't included with the 1ghz, so i'd have to pay another 100 bringing it up to $1200 for the 1ghz vs. $1400 for the 1.33ghz)

So it looks like you're faced with a $200 difference all up (assuming you want to add AirPort to the 1GHz model). For that $200, the differences between the 1GHz (Rev B) model and the 1.33GHz (Rev C) model are:

- 60GB hard drive standard in Rev C; only 40GB in Rev B model
- 167MHz FSB in Rev C; 133MHz FSB in Rev B.
- DDR333 SDRAM in Rev C; DDR266 SDRAM in Rev B.
- 64MB video RAM in Rev C; 32MB VRAM in Rev B.
- Rev C seems to have a new screen, which is brighter than that in Rev B (in my experience)
- Rev C battery life seems to have improved slighty (about 20-30 minutes) over Rev B battery life (in my experience).

Apart from the quite large increase in CPU core and bus speed, the extra 20GB hard drive space and the extra 32MB of video RAM are probably the two biggest advantages of the Rev C 12" over the Rev B. If you ever do any amount of work with an external display plugged in, that extra 32MB of VRAM is probably going to come in handy. A 50% larger hard drive never goes astray either...Mac OS X and iLife '04 will use up a decent chunk of your hard drive before you even pull your machine out of the box. I have owned both machines, and I agree with the other posters here...there is a noticeable difference in speed between the 2 models. That's not to say that the 1GHz model is a snail, it's just that the 1.33GHz model is noticeably faster Have you checked www.barefeats.com and www.macspeedzone.com to see if there are any benchmarks of the 12" PowerBooks there?

As to whether these extras are worth $200 to you, that's a tough call. We don't know your exact financial situation here, or how important (or unimportant) the extra performance of the 1.33GHz model is to you. Is that $200 going to come from your rent, food, transport or clothing budgets? One other thing to consider is that a newer model PowerBook will hold a better resale value down the track compared to a older model.

If you're stretched for cash and you're considering a 1GHz PowerBook, have you also thought about the 1GHz 12" iBook? Discounting the look of the white plastic iBook versus the aluminium of the PowerBook, a 1GHz iBook could get you most of the things you would get with a 1GHz 12" PowerBook, for less cash. iBooks now officially support up to 1.25GB RAM (same as 12" PowerBooks), and can be made to support display spanning with a simple (unofficial) firmware patch. The speed of a 1GHz 12" iBook and a 12" PowerBook would be comparable. Of course you only get a 30GB hard drive standard, and you can't get a Superdrive in the iBook if you need one, but you have the price savings to make up for that.

 

[keysersoze]

FYI: If you plan on getting a better, faster drive, remember about installation costs that could run you $100-200. The 7200 is NOT a BTO option from the Apple store, whereas the 5200 is. If you are thinking you are brave and will install the 7200 yourself, please review the procedure to know what you are getting yourself into...

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/systems/powerbookG4_12in_HD_upgrade/PowebookG4_12in_HD_upgrade.htm

I am pretty happy with my 4200, but the 5200 has gotten rave reviews. Whatever you choose, best of luck!

 

[oingoboingo]

that's good to know...but what does that mean? Is it worth an extra $200? (200 because it turns out airport cards aren't included with the 1ghz, so i'd have to pay another 100 bringing it up to $1200 for the 1ghz vs. $1400 for the 1.33ghz)

You might also want to read this article:

http://www.lowendmac.com/musings/04/0421.html

...which discusses the value equation of the PowerBook range after the April 2004 updates were released, including a discussion on run-out 1GHz 12" pricing versus new 1.33GHz 12" pricing.

 

[Jovian9]

I have had a 1GHz 17" PowerBook and now a 1.33GHz 17" PowerBook....both with 1GB RAM. I have no test specs but I have noticed a great increase in overall speed with the 1.33GHz PowerBook and all of the apps we use on a regular basis. My wife and I use the following quite a bit on the PowerBook:
Photoshop
Dreamweaver
Fireworks
Office '04
iDVD
iMovie
Final Cut Pro 4
DVD Studio Pro 2
GarageBand
iPhoto
Warcraft 3
Civ III
The Sims
Sim City 4
DVDBackup
DVD2OneX
iTunes
Safari
Toast 5 & 6

Often we have b/t 3 and 8 of these going at a time without problem on the 1.33. Hope this helps.

 

[QCassidy352]

I have a 1 Ghz 12" PB and I love it, but I have to say that you should go for the newer model. The old one is essentially identical to the current 12" ibook, and the new one has numerous advantages. Faster processor, faster bus, faster RAM, twice the video memory, and higher quality screen are the big ones, off the top of my head. Those easily justify a couple of hundred more.

Oh yeah, and the rev. C already has an airport card, while it would be another $100 to add a card to the rev. B powerbook.

 

[puckhead193]

FYI: If you plan on getting a better, faster drive, remember about installation costs that could run you $100-200. The 7200 is NOT a BTO option from the Apple store, whereas the 5200 is. If you are thinking you are brave and will install the 7200 yourself, please review the procedure to know what you are getting yourself into...

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/systems/powerbookG4_12in_HD_upgrade/PowebookG4_12in_HD_upgrade.htm
!

Wow I never relized how hard it was to upgrade a laptop. Apple really doesn't want you to "fiddile" around with things!

If the $200 isn't going for something you need (ie food). For a month or two, don't go out as offten. It doesn't sound like your going to be upgrading to a newer PB for a while, go with the 1.33, so it will last a bit longer in the run! Just my views....

 

[smilinggoat]

Thank you all for your input. I've decided to go with the rev. C model. I'll be upping the RAM to 512 or 768 on my own and will wait on upgrading the HD till I actually need it.

Now to wait for the next couple pay checks to come in!

 

[oingoboingo]

Thank you all for your input. I've decided to go with the rev. C model. I'll be upping the RAM to 512 or 768 on my own and will wait on upgrading the HD till I actually need it.

Now to wait for the next couple pay checks to come in!

Good choice. If you can stretch that extra $200 it'll be worth it in the long run. Installing the RAM yourself is very easy...a 60 second job tops. The standard 60GB hard drive is fairly roomy, and of course you can add any USB2 or FireWire 400 external hard drive later on if you don't feel like ripping open your PowerBook.