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Got my NEW 15" Powerbook!!! WOW!

P

Paperstreet

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 21, 2003
87
0
Detroit, MI (Or close enough to it.)
I'm incredibly happy today. I ordered my new 15" Powerbook using my ADC discount from Apple last wednesday. It wasn't supposed to get to me until Friday. But here it is!!!

Anyhow, I got the 15" 1.5ghz. I upgraded VRAM to 128, got the single stick of 512 ram and upgraded harddrive to 5400rpms. I then downgraded to a combo drive. (I had the superdrive on another model and seldom used it.)

With my ADC discount, it was only $1999 plus tax. WOW.

Here's a little background: I've had the iMac DV Special Edition (old, old, old model). Then I got the Dual 1ghz Powermac G4 w/ 17" LCD studio display. Then to add to that, I got the 12" Powerbook Rev.B. That was SWEET.

So I recently sold the 12" and the Powermac for about $1500 each, giving me about $3000 to play with. So I bought this new 15" Pbook, the Canon Digital Rebel, and Adobe CS premium. I feel like a kid in a candy store!!!

First impressions of the 15"- it's BIG. Coming from the 12", this is a LOT bigger. Basically because it's a widescreen display. I'm not used to this. But I LIKE IT. A LOT.

And this thing is FAST. It's not hot. It's not warped. I'm not getting shocked. There are no bugs. (yet.). It's just plain PERFECT.

I think I'm in love. I'm so glad I bought it. It's a perfect desktop and old laptop replacement. This is the ONLY computer I have now. And I have no doubt this will suffice for years to come.

Just had to tell someone my enthusiasm.

Thanks for listening.

Oh- and I ordered a Timbuk2 bag that is like half backpack, half messenger back. I forget its name. But it's well padded and I have a variety of ways I can carry it. So I'm stoked about that as well.

Now if only MacSkinz would get their powerbook skinz up I'd be all set.
 
DAMN that ADC discount, it's better than the Ed. discount.

Nice upgrade, but at the rate you're going, this new toy won't last long before you upgrade to a 17" G5 PB. :D
 
i just checked the fedex tracking on my powerbook and it should have been delivered to my house this morning. I can't wait to get off work and go play with it, and hopefully be able to post my own enthusiastic reatic to my (hopefully) awesome new mac :D

btw, it seems like everyone has been getting the new 1.5ghz 15" with 128 video ram and 5400rpm drive, this has to be far and away the most popular powerbook, i think apple could have easily made 128md video ram standard, why they didnt' i'll never understand. also a lot of people, like myself and the original poster, downgraded to combo drives after having previous models which we didn't use very much. i wonder how widspread this is, and if apple is almost seeing a regression of dvd-r use...



anyway, waiting to get home!!! ;)
 
That is an awesome machine. Pardon me, I have to go get a towel to wipe off the drool :D
 
congratulations. i too recently bought a powerbook, 12 incher, and am in love. the screen is a bit small for creative work, but i have a 17 inch. external lcd for that.
 
oh, i forgot to mention, mine was also purchased on ADC discount; i love that thing :D


and i'll let everyone know how it compares to my previous 1GHz Rev.A 17" pbook. hopefully it destroys it, at least hard drive speed and graphics chip (god i hate that silly little nVidia GeForce 440go, it's junk)
 
You're right, everyone is getting new 15-inch PowerBooks...it's too damned hard to restrain myself from buying one right now! The Apple Store is under half an hour away!
 
I'm about to do the same thing (15" PB, 128 VRAM, 5400RPM, combo drive) but I'm wondering, is it really worth it to spend $80 (even more when not buying through ADC) to get just one stick of RAM as opposed to two for 512MB? I mean, crucial.com lists one stick of 512 at $125, and you could find memory even cheaper elsewhere. On top of that, you can sell your old 256MB chips on eBay or elsewhere for a fair amount.

I'm just curious why so many people put out so much extra cash to get only 1 SO-DIMM for their 512MB rather than going with the stock two 256MB SO-DIMMs, when it seems cheaper to just buy more memory and replace/resell the 256MBs.
 
me too!! my last mobile work horse was a pismo.

a big me too
got the 15 inch, upgraded hard drive and video card
1 gig of genuine apple ram on a single stick
and i've been dreaming of a dvd burner in a laptop for about 10 years so yeah i got the superdrive

but lordy my pismo was a work horse! it wasn't some candy ass commute lap top -- i used that thing almost every day for four years. the electrical cord had burned out in so many places it was mostly electrical tape. the screen was still great -- but the hinges were shot and it would barely stay upright. i had a wireless card for it -- got to where i had to jam the wireless card back and forth before it would recognize. the audio out jack had been mangled long ago. i knocked the corner of the laptop and tore the plastic off the dvd/cd player cover. thing still starts up and works like a champ. os 10.3 was always pretty smooth for me on the pismo.

anyway -- i read these boards for weeks trolling for new powerbook reports so heres mine.

i didn't do the pixel test for a few days -- the screen looked great and i didn't want to spoil it. but it survived the pixel test and i lucked out with a great screen.

all four feet are on the ground -- no rocking.

the laptop came with a piece of thin packing foam between the screen and the keyboard. i'm trying to make it a habit to always put that foam back when i close up the laptop to protect the screen from the keyboard.

for those of you that have a pismo -- this is a 15 inch plus screen. or at least it seems bigger then the pismo screen. and of course since its brand new with a bunch of video ram -- darn these colors are really rich!

the keyboard is very nice to type on.

i am a power lap top user -- its on for hours at a time -- so far the top of the machine has never even come close to being too warm.

the backlight feature on the keyboard is just too damn cool. and its really practical.

i love the slot loading drive -- the way it just grabs the disc and pulls it in. big improvement over the player on rails.

wireless built in -- gotta love that and not having to fck with a card. i'm also an avid bluetooth user so having that built in saves me from that little usb perirphal that i've probably lost already.

anyway wireless reception seems ok compared to the card -- but this is one area where i do have a complaint with apple. apple fckin invented 80211 -- don't you think we should be able to say that apple laptops have better wireless reception then anything on the planet -- especially considering how all over wireless intel is? its just one of those bragging rights that should come with having the best laptop on the planet.

moving on -- the trackpad is ok but the click pad is way too stiff. i don't know if there's a way to adjust it but mine is way too hard to click. but then i found out about tapping the trackpad to click and i'm a happy camper -- tapping is much faster.

theres many little touches -- like the sleep light, the magnetic latch, the little light on the powercord that tells you whether its charging, all the ports on the sides, and the strength of the overall al frame that really add up to one sweet machine.

Joe Bob says two thumbs way way way way up !

:)
 
I just upgraded from a Pismo, too. I loved that thing, but it was showing its age. The dvd player stopped working about a year ago. The battery only holds 20 or 30 minutes of juice. The 2 key sticks. My cat ripped off the ~ key last summer. I replaced the hard drive a while back to a 7200 rpm 40 GB, but now that is full and the thing runs very s-l-o-w-l-y.

The 15 PB's screen is way, way brighter and sharper (1280 by 854 pixels). The Pismo's screen is 1024 by 768 pixels.

I got the "cheap" 1.33 version, but I couldn't believe how fast it started. All my software just screams, compared to the Pismo. Airport range is reduced, but it is still enough here around my apt. And I love having the ports on the sides, not in the back behind a flap.

The trackpad on the new pb is in a totally different place than on the pismo, and it feels very different. It took me a couple of days to get used to it, and I still sometimes find my thumb trying to click where there is no button.

The only thing is that I feel like this aluminum pb is not as rugged - I worry about just plopping it in my backpack. So now I am in the market for a sleeve with a little padding.

Anyway, I didn't think I could give up my Pismo. I didn't think I could love another computer like I loved that old friend. But this new pb, well, let's just say it is the perfect replacement.
 
kwajo.com said:
oh, i forgot to mention, mine was also purchased on ADC discount; i love that thing :D


and i'll let everyone know how it compares to my previous 1GHz Rev.A 17" pbook. hopefully it destroys it, at least hard drive speed and graphics chip (god i hate that silly little nVidia GeForce 440go, it's junk)
Click to expand...

HEY! I like my 17" Rev A!! *rubs computer*
 
me too! + 20" display

I finally bit the bullet (sticker shock!) and bought a 15" 1.5 PB 1GB (yes i got 2 512s from apple, I'm lazy) ram/5400HD + 20" Cinema LCD display to replace *my* trusty G3 pismo. I do some video editing with FCP and am planning to do a lot more, in addition to ordinary stuff. I was tearing my hair out over whether to go for a G5 dual 1.8 or get the PB, and I feel I made a reasonable compromise: I do appreciate the mobility, and since I'm not doing fulll time paid heavy rendering, this machine is powerful enough for the video, and I've had good luck with buying the last rev. of mac stuff, they seem to have a lot under the hood and "wish list' items of all the other revs.
Has anyone hit a wall with FCP on the Powerbook?

I got the display because since it's a laptop I'd like the extra real estate ( i can run it in clamshell mode w/wireless kbd + mouse or as dual screen), But more importantly I do plan to get a G5 desktop but want to wait til after WWDC as the price may drop on the model I would get or some brand-new architecture or standard might be introduced. So when I do get the G5 PM, I'll already have the display and won't have to worry about that cost.

As far as new displays introduced at WWDC, yes it freaks me out but whatever, as whatever they introduce probably won't ship for another 3 months and I have the cash now, and i find the 20" cinema display to be pretty darn nice, (though insanely expensive).

So all in all I found the 15" PB + 20" display to be the ideal combo, until I feel justified to require the power of the G5 PM, which may be a few bucks cheaper by then.

(I also have a 7200 rpm powerbook HD 60 gig which i may throw in once the warranty runs out.)
 
MrSugar said:
HEY! I like my 17" Rev A!! *rubs computer*
Click to expand...

yeah me too, i'll be sad to see it go (buyers ? :p ) anyway, i'm typing this from my new powerbook :D

screen= perfect, absolutely perfect, nothing wrong in the least, it's bright and sharp, and i think i can almost notice the higher dpi over my 17". no white spots or pixel problems :D

speed= so far seems fast, right now i'm runnign software update and then i'll reboot and see for sure, but one thing i have noticed is visual smoothness. minimizing, expose, scrolling, etc. all these things are much smoother and more fluid. i'm pleased as punch. hopefully itunes vicuals will follow suit. also, i'm about to try the C&C generals demo which was the last game i played on my 17" to see how it compares

i'm not sure what else to say so far, i need ot run some more things and plug in my external firewire 800 drive to test some more. so far though, fit and finish rock and i have none of the troubles others have with the 15-inch, i'm so relieved and pumped to work this machine to the max
 
furrina said:
So all in all I found the 15" PB + 20" display to be the ideal combo.
Click to expand...

me too, but i have not yet been able to justify the cost of a 20" display. a thousand euros maybe, but not the 1700 euros that apple is currently asking for...

it's an outrage, really. you know, 1700 euros is FAR more than the average net earnings per month in finland... it's the elite 10% that earn more than that per month.

but give me the apple 20" cinema display (without a single stuck pixel) for 1000 euros and i'd buy it at a heartbeat :)
 
i think people talk too much about the ram savings buying third party and dont talk about why it might be good to stick with apple ram at least to start.

when you are spending 3,000 for a laptop -- do you really want to put mickey mouse ram in it? apple boards are full of horror stories from people saving a few dollars and then getting hours or days of pain and no laptop to work on.

my opinion is that if you can justify it all -- especially if you are expensing out the overall purchase -- try to get apple ram on one stick and get as much as you can. then you have another slot open for third party ram -- but if any problems emerge with the third party ram you arent totally screwed. and this might sound trivial but -- you won't have to crack open the laptop for a while and to me thats just one less thing to worry about.

ymmv
 
3rd party vs. apple ram

talltomkat said:
when you are spending 3,000 for a laptop -- do you really want to put mickey mouse ram in it? apple boards are full of horror stories from people saving a few dollars and then getting hours or days of pain and no laptop to work on.

ymmv
Click to expand...

I think people's point is that Apple ram, preinstalled, really is a lot more than any others. I got the 2 512 sticks because of the same reason you stated, that I was already spending the money on the BTO, but I'm really just lazy (and broke!). And I wouldn't by the 1 gb stick from them, it seems ridiculously overpriced.

It's definitely true that inferior ram can screw you up, never buy it, I know someone who got cheap ram for their g5 and it doesnt recognize it, etc.

That having been said, I believe the ram from Crucial is the exact same manufatcurer that Apple uses for their ram, but just $100 + cheaper. Also reputable places like OWC sell ram that's of the same quality as apple's, just less expensive. So it's definitely not "mickey mouse" ram.

I think it's a matter of how much money you're willing to throw away for the pleasure of getting all you need from the get go in one shiny package. :rolleyes:
 
talltomkat said:
i think people talk too much about the ram savings buying third party and dont talk about why it might be good to stick with apple ram at least to start.

when you are spending 3,000 for a laptop -- do you really want to put mickey mouse ram in it? apple boards are full of horror stories from people saving a few dollars and then getting hours or days of pain and no laptop to work on.

my opinion is that if you can justify it all -- especially if you are expensing out the overall purchase -- try to get apple ram on one stick and get as much as you can. then you have another slot open for third party ram -- but if any problems emerge with the third party ram you arent totally screwed. and this might sound trivial but -- you won't have to crack open the laptop for a while and to me thats just one less thing to worry about.

ymmv
Click to expand...

Money is money. If you can save a few hundred, why not? And it's hardly cracking open the laptop. Theres four little screws and a door made especially for RAM.
 
Congrats to all new pb owners.

After some serious arguing over whether to buy the 12" or the 15", I ordered mine yesterday. A 12" SD with 786MB RAM, 80GB HD for 1684€. Life is sweet. I'm counting days now :D
 
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