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[B]iBook or Powerbook?[/B]

Zmmyt

Zmmyt

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jan 6, 2005
1,769
905
Hi,
I'm planning to buy an iBook or Powerbook next week. Because after the 10th of January. So when the prices for the "old" ones have droped.

All I want to do with my Book is to listen to musik via Airport Express, to surf, to type and do simple video- and picture-editing, not in a professional way.

Do you believe, all these Books would do their work well, of course with 512 MB of RAM or maybe even 1 Gig of RAM?

Thanks a lot for your answers,

-Tymmz. :confused:
 
Simple answer .. it will be plenty for the tasks you mentioned ..

Though I recommend you BTO to the biggest HD available or even get an external drive if you are going to look into video editing ..
 
What does BTO mean?

Don't you think 80 gig of memory is enough?

When I say "videoediting", I mean small videos taken with my digi-camera. No huge files. The music I have is about 30 gig.
 
Ahhh, ok.
So 80 gig should be enough to deal with my ambitions.

Do you think Photoshop, iLife, etc. will work fine? I just want to a have smooth running Laptop.
 
Great, thanks for your answers.

I'm looking forward to next week's MWSF. I wonder how much the prices will drop for the "old" macs. First thing I'll do next week, I'll check out my local Apple-dealer.
 
80GB will be good .. it might look like overkill now .. but swapping HDs in a laptop aint the easiest thing out there so maxing out now is a good idea ..

And a 1.2Ghz G4 with 1GB of RAM is plenty fast for most non professional Photoshop needs ..
 
Mertzen said:
80GB will be good .. it might look like overkill now .. but swapping HDs in a laptop aint the easiest thing out there so maxing out now is a good idea ..

And a 1.2Ghz G4 with 1GB of RAM is plenty fast for most non professional Photoshop needs ..
Click to expand...
How about for flash,fireworks,and dreamweaver?
 
CaptainCaveMann said:
How about for flash,fireworks,and dreamweaver?
Click to expand...

Should do pretty good.

For the record:

RAM and Memory are the same thing. Used as a quick-access storage space to allow your computer to run faster. Around 512 MB to 768 MB is considered good for the average user. 1 GB or more is for a professional user.
Hard Drive space is where you store files long-term. 60 GB is becoming the low-end, and 160 GB is becoming the higher-end. Pros use their own setups that are a lot bigger. 80GB is a nice size.

Just an FYI for ya.

EDIT: Oh, and vB tags and HTML tags don't work for titles. Only in posts.
 
Mertzen said:
80GB will be good .. it might look like overkill now .. but swapping HDs in a laptop aint the easiest thing out there so maxing out now is a good idea ..

And a 1.2Ghz G4 with 1GB of RAM is plenty fast for most non professional Photoshop needs ..
Click to expand...

WoW I am not part of the "non professional" crowd however 1GB is more than ample to work with PS regardless if you do pro or mature work. I work with 16-bit files, CMYK above 10x10 in size, full colour and 1GB is just fine I could also do well with less but that is just me. :)


Where do people come out with these claims that you need 10GB of ram to edit photo's professionally. I also work on wall poster size images in PS and its all works fine.

Editing video in RT is a different story though.

Web development is also fine with 1Gb or less of ram.

So were are you people getting you stats. :confused: :rolleyes: :)
 
I use Adobe CS, Macromedia MX Studio and Corel Painter IX on my 12" G4 iBook with 1.25 Gig of ram and a 5400 rpm 60GB HD with no problems at all.

I guess because I work for myself and not being paid directly by a corporation makes me a "non-professional"? Or am I non-professional because I chose an iBook rather than a PowerBook?
 
Bern said:
I use Adobe CS, Macromedia MX Studio and Corel Painter IX on my 12" G4 iBook with 1.25 Gig of ram and a 5400 rpm 60GB HD with no problems at all.

I guess because I work for myself and not being paid directly by a corporation makes me a "non-professional"? Or am I non-professional because I chose an iBook rather than a PowerBook?
Click to expand...
Hahaha i like that, good point. So i take it you really like your ibook? You saved a lot of money buying the ibook over the powerbook, no regrets? :D
 
CaptainCaveMann said:
Hahaha i like that, good point. So i take it you really like your ibook? You saved a lot of money buying the ibook over the powerbook, no regrets? :D
Click to expand...

Well the truth is I actually owned a Rev C 12" PowerBook prior to my iBook, but an accident 3 months in to ownership caused a nasty dent in the lid and bulging on the ports side. Suddenly it didn't seem as sleek. That alloy casing isn't as strong as I thought it would be and I travel quite often so I need something stronger just in case.

So I replaced it with the more robust iBook which for what I do performs exactly the same.

I love my iBook and I loved the G3 I had before it. The PowerBooks are nice and all and I'm sure they offer some benefit to video editors, but iBooks are definetly under estimated. I just got back from Thailand this week and my iBook travelled with me up and down the entire country with no incidence (the case still looks new).
 
Bern said:
Well the truth is I actually owned a Rev C 12" PowerBook prior to my iBook, but an accident 3 months in to ownership caused a nasty dent in the lid and bulging on the ports side. Suddenly it didn't seem as sleek. That alloy casing isn't as strong as I thought it would be and I travel quite often so I need something stronger just in case.

So I replaced it with the more robust iBook which for what I do performs exactly the same.

I love my iBook and I loved the G3 I had before it. The PowerBooks are nice and all and I'm sure they offer some benefit to video editors, but iBooks are definetly under estimated. I just got back from Thailand this week and my iBook travelled with me up and down the entire country with no incidence (the case still looks new).
Click to expand...
Awesome, thats pretty cool. Makes me def want to go buy a new ibook since im in the market. I just really like that wide screen 15 inch display on the PB. But i havnt seen the ibooks screen enough to really get a good feel of it.
 
Tymmz, the iBoook should be fine for your needs. 1GB of RAM is plenty and will ensure its longevity.

Captain, no Mac laptop likes being dropped and beaten. You take a hammer to them, they all will break.
 
Top,
so next week the apple comunity will have a new member.

See you soon, typing on an iBook or a Powerbook. I'm still not sure which one it will be, it depends on, how much the prices will drop.

Again, thanks a lot for your advices,

-tymmz
 
Bern,

I'm looking to get a new laptop and it seems that you and I do similar work, I was going to just throw as much as I could into it - which would probably amount to a 15" G4 powerbook, 80Gb, 1.5GHz, and at least 512Mb Ram to start...but after reading your post, it seems I may be throwing my money away. Do you have trouble working on the smaller resolution for the ibook in Painter and Adobe? And no problems with storage space? I know Painter is heavy program...
 
Correct me if I'm wrong, but if you are going to be dinking around with video and you want to use iDVD, you will need to have an internal SuperDrive, not the Combo (the 12" iBook doesn't have this).

I think there are some workarounds to use and external DVD burner, but they are not officially sanctioned.

Just a thought.

My daughter wanted to get a 12" iBook for the same thing this Christmas, but we decided to wait until she can afford to buy what she really needs instead of working around everything.

Using FC Express and Toast might be different.

I don't have any expertise in the area, but just wanted to raise the issue.

Woof, Woof - Dawg
 
Also keep an eye out for refurbs. You can't get the BTO 80gb HDD, but you could get an an external faster HDD that could double as a back-up drive once you partition it.
 
attic salt said:
Bern,

I'm looking to get a new laptop and it seems that you and I do similar work, I was going to just throw as much as I could into it - which would probably amount to a 15" G4 powerbook, 80Gb, 1.5GHz, and at least 512Mb Ram to start...but after reading your post, it seems I may be throwing my money away. Do you have trouble working on the smaller resolution for the ibook in Painter and Adobe? And no problems with storage space? I know Painter is heavy program...
Click to expand...

Well I'm using a Wacom tablet with these as well just to let you know and I have no issues with the 12" screen. IMO the money you save between the two laptaps you could invest into a 1gig stick like I did.

You're right Painter is pretty intense, but the new iBook handles it effortlessly.
 
Bern said:
Well I'm using a Wacom tablet with these as well just to let you know and I have no issues with the 12" screen. IMO the money you save between the two laptaps you could invest into a 1gig stick like I did.

You're right Painter is pretty intense, but the new iBook handles it effortlessly.
Click to expand...


DOn't really see much of a difference at current to go PowerBook, I mean the name means nothing IMHO.

I know many people who use the Power line to do basic stuff they just like to brag that is all. :rolleyes: has nothing to do if you are a Pro or not, stereotypes. :p

Just don't play HD movies on 32MB of GPU the movie skips frames. :(

Many games on the market, web sites are not yet tuned for Wide-scrEEN content so its not much of a worry. :)

CCM, the sticky keys with the PowerBook you were interested in, is in regards to the BackLit keyboards so the 15" and 17" suffer from "skicky keys". :)
 
Chip NoVaMac said:
Also keep an eye out for refurbs. You can't get the BTO 80gb HDD, but you could get an an external faster HDD that could double as a back-up drive once you partition it.
Click to expand...

Actually, I've seen a few pop up from time to time... Extremely rare, however.

And in a real Apple Store they might cut you a deal, if you buy a returned iBook an pay for the labor for upping the hard drive they might do it for you.
 
just a comment on pro/ non - pro...

the computer is your tool. i see it to often, when people buy the biggest and best computer and they think that they will get a better result, and people will pay them more because they have the latest and greatest, but in actuality when it comes down to it, if you computer can do it, its fine. i know a graphic designer, who used a cheap old mac running os 8.1 and 96mb of ram, that he got for $25 at a yard sale and he has pleased every client to date. since, he has upgraded but thats besides the point.
 
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