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Advice needed for Laptop purchase.

absolut_mac

absolut_mac

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 30, 2003
934
0
Dallas, Texas
(A repost as I originally posted this in the wrong forum - thanks QCassidy for pointing that out and for your advice.)

Okay all you mac mavens, here's the chance most of you have been waiting for (I think).

I'm about to purchase my first mac, a laptop for my daughter's 15th birthday.

I had initially settled on a 12" PB for her, even although my experience with Nvidia graphics cards hasn't been great - I figured it shouldn't be too bad, especially as she's not a gamer.

Now with the release of the updated G4 iBooks, it looks like the 12" iBook is marginally less good than the PB, for about $500 less. Plus it comes with an ATI card too.

The only real advantage that I see of the PB over the iBook is the larger L2 cache, 512M versus 256M. The slightly bumped up G4 speed of the PB is probably negligble when running most applications versus the iBook.

Anybody here have a chance to compare these two side by side? How do they compare speed, ease of use etc? Keeping in mind that both now come with Panther pre-installed :)

All opinions and advice welcome :)
 
what will she be using it for? If she is just going to be doing the normal teen stuff [music, chatting, typing, surfing] then get the ibook. If she is doing any photographic stuff in PS, or editing of any sorts, then go with the pb.
 
Originally posted by tazo
what will she be using it for? If she is just going to be doing the normal teen stuff [music, chatting, typing, surfing] then get the ibook. If she is doing any photographic stuff in PS, or editing of any sorts, then go with the pb.
Click to expand...

Normal teen stuff.

But, she does like to mess around in PS. Nothing fancy, collages of classmates, calendars and invitations etc. Also, being an amateur photographer most of her pic files are 200KB or less. Good enough for 5" X 7" I think.
 
I got a question kind of on this topic.

How do the battery lives of the Apple laptops compare over regular usage? (Regular usage being: using the web, word processing, with iTunes playing in the background along with a chat program or two)
 
PB has DVI ---- allowing it to be hooked into almost any display --- that's a big deal to me, especially when the original screen is pretty small
 
Originally posted by RobVanDam
900? Is that a G3?
Click to expand...


yes thats a G3. The only other reason i can think of that she might need a powerbook would be if she needed to burn DVD's. She wont be able to do that on an ibook. But for what you said she does, an ibook will fit the bill. (use the extra money u saved from the powerbook by getting more RAM or buying her a nice case. I reccomend these cases, they're fabulous! (Try the purcell, thats the one that i have)


http://www.willowdesign.com/WillowAppleCatPORT.html#12iBook
 
yep thats a G3 baby. I just like the sound of G3 better than G4. Yeah thats it. No really this thing does almost everything i need it to.
 
Originally posted by absolut_mac
Normal teen stuff.

But, she does like to mess around in PS. Nothing fancy, collages of classmates, calendars and invitations etc. Also, being an amateur photographer most of her pic files are 200KB or less. Good enough for 5" X 7" I think.
Click to expand...

hmm 15 years old? amateur photographer?

i would go with the PB

she's in what grade 9 or 10, if her interest grows in photography so will the need for more power... the PB will be ready to take just about anything she throws it, and if she really likes doing what she does, her needs WILL grow,

especially after switching from PC to a mac.

and that little PB should suit her fine for the time she's in high-school, more so then the iBook

i started with photography, in photoshop, and after getting my mac at around the same age, it quickly developed into video, and the PB will handle video projects better then the the iBook, hell it will handle photography projects better then the iBook

get it with the superdrive, and you've got a state of the art multimedia production machine that any professional would be proud of, and your teenage photographer gasping in awe.. ;)
 
Based on what you've said I would suggest the ibook for now. When thinking of technology purchases, I prefer to think short term (12 - 24 months max). So if she does get interested in photography/video editing etc later on in life, you will most likely have more options by then. Maybe she'll even get a job and decide to pay for it herself. ;) (Thats what I did! Bought my first laptop at 18 and got my 12" PB last week at 20 - all with my own money.)
 
Originally posted by Fahd
Maybe she'll even get a job and decide to pay for it herself. ;)
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Yup, I think that's what I'm going to do. Next month I'll get her the 12" iBook, and if she complains because she'd rather have the PB, then she can cough up the difference - cough, cough:D

Thanks everybody for your input. If anybody actually does get a chance to compare these two side by side, please post your thoughts here so that we can all learn, Gary :)
 
Are the Powerbook G4's on 130nm, and the iBook G4's on 180 or 150nm chips?

I don't know but would love this cleard up, Since getting a straight answer out of MOTO is like trying to draw blood form a stone.
 
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