Buy now or wait? Upgrading from a PBook G4.

[themari]

Hi there, been a lurker for a long time and finally decided to post.

I’ve been waiting for the updates that came out yesterday for quite a while to replace my aging Powerbook G4 1Ghz 12-inch. The Powerbook is lagging in some things that I use the computer for, such as photo editing, internet surfing, chatting, Word/Excel, moderate to heavy iLife use (all programs), light gaming, chatting, light HTML coding, etc. I have an external hard drive already, which minimizes the trouble for lack of memory space but I don’t absolutely NEED to change it right now, although it would make a huge difference performance wise.

I saw the new long-due updates for the MBP but had a question in regards to the frequency of updates from now on.

If I was to buy the computer now rather than wait for the mid-year Montevina updates, what would I really be missing out? Blu-ray? New keyboard (are they that much better?), complete overhaul of the case (how much can it change?), chipset performance? I’m thinking of going with the base 15” model with a 250GB HD.

Any feedback is much appreciated.

Thanks!!

 

[pgseye]

I have a Ti-book 15 inch 1 GHz and I placed an order for a MBP yesterday. My powerbook was just getting a bit too slow for a lot of things. I'll be happy even if they do update again in a few months, I just didn't want to buy so close to this one being upgraded.

You've got to decide whether a possible change in look and design (complete speculation as to whether that will even happen) is going to affect your ability to use your computer for day-to-day tasks. In my case the answer was a resounding no! I don't particularly care about Blu-Ray - what's the point of watching hi-def on a tiny screen? (my opinion at least). Speed is of course always going to improve and if you're waiting for that variable, you'll never buy.

If you bought now, you'd have several months at least of a top of the line computer and regardless, at least a couple of years of excellent computing and I reckon whenever new ones did come out, you'd think you were happy you bought when you did.

But you've got to make that decision....

 

[chrmjenkins]

Hi,

You might be missing a case re-design. Montevina is a smaller chipset, so Apple could srhink the current design. You may also be missing a GPU upgrade. Right now, it's unclear if a 96xx product from Nvidia will be ready then. Blu Ray is also something you could possibly miss, but Apple may wait until Nehalem for that. Montevina will also have a faster FSB (1066 MHZ), which will make a little difference in performance. The RAM will also be DDR3 800, which won't be much faster, but will save power (better battery life).

It's something I would wait for if I were you. It's not likely that far off due to Intel's aggressive schedule.

 

[Manzana]

would you feel ok with buying a 1st gen product if they do indeed make all those changes? If you are then it probably makes sense to wait. However, i can tell you from personal experience - I upgraded from a 1.33 g4 15" powerbook to a 2.2 MBP last summer. My wife uses the PB now, it' s still very usable, but the MBP is very very nice.

 

[boonleng]

If you need one now... buy it. If you can wait, then wait. Just a heads up... with such a big change, I mean new chipset, new architecture, new optical drive, etc... you might ask yourself later if there is some bugs in the 1-st revision.

 

[azngamer808]

i currently use a powerbook 15" g4 for everything that you listed. (i was actually surprised how similar our usaegs are). It still works fine but i wish that things would be a little snappier. i feel that this current penryn update is perfect for what i'm going to be using my computer for. I know that in just a few months there'll be a more significant update, but i can't imagine it making much of a difference for what i intend to use my laptop for, which apparantly is very similar to what you're loking to use it for. Bottom line is I'm buying a new macbookpro this weekend. sorry for the poor grammer, i'm typing this in class lol. hope this helps your decision

 

[themari]

Thanks for all the feedback so far. Given what I'm gonna be doing with the computer, it shouldn't make THAT much of a difference in waiting for the Montevina updates, besides the bragging right of having the latest and greatest. Of course, a redesign, possible WiMax, new keyboard, larger trackpad for multitouch, and higher res screen (for multimedia usage) could be great additions but my main issue is the amount of difference that would make to my current usage.

 

[RumMunkey]

I upgraded from a PowerBook G4 to MBP just before the Penryns were announced.

For me though, it was an upgrade based more on wanting to get over to intel from PPC (family is expanding and computer upgrades will slip to the very bottom of our worry list once the kid arrives).

So I wanted to make sure my PowerBook had some decent resale value left in it, and could fund a portion of my MBP purchase.

Had I waited a few more years, I wouldn't have gotten anything for the PowerBook I'm sure.

Now, I've got a good intel Mac that will last me for a good number of years until I have to worry about it again.