Best notebook for my work...NEED ADVICE

PowerBook 15" or 17", No question. The PowerBook are designed specifically to handle that kind of stuff (heavy graphics work i.e. Photoshop, pro design work, movie editing, etc). For a balance in terms of Power, Price, and Portability (what I call the "3 Ps" of Laptops ), you'll want to go with the PowerBook 15" with the 1.67GHz G4, and you'll want to also buy extra RAM for it (third-party RAM is much cheaper than Apple's and very good quality i.e. crucial.com). For graphics/design work, go for at least 1GB of RAM, and you can max it out later to 2GB.

I didn't suggest the PowerBook 12" not so much because its not as powerful as the 15" or 17" (I use Photoshop 7 on my 12" with little to no lag), but for the screen real estate. I don't do a lot of Photoshop work so I don't mind the small screen, but if you plan to do a lot of heavy Photoshop work, you definitely want the extra screen real estate.

Also don't forget to take advantage of the student discount, if you can get it. That will take off about $200 off the PowerBook.

And if you can spare the cash and want more screen space, an 20" Apple Cinema Display is pretty nice to have, especially when your working on 6 or 7 large images at once. With 10 different toolbars on the screen. At 2 am.

 

if you dont really care about movement. go with the 12in pb and just get an external. imo the apple displays are a waste of money. but if you need the 15 then do it. be aware that if you are going to be running CS when you arent on a power supply. watch the batt go to 2 - 2 1/2 hours MAX.