Got my NEW 15" Powerbook!!! WOW!

[Capt Underpants]

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

We have the same macine (besides superdrive). I had enough money to go with 3rd party RAM, a bigger HD, and a combo drive, or stock HD, stock RAM, and a superdrive. I chose the former. If I had had the money, I would've definately got the superdrive with all the goodies you got. You're getting a great machine!

 

[Diatribe]

We have the same macine (besides superdrive). I had enough money to go with 3rd party RAM, a bigger HD, and a combo drive, or stock HD, stock RAM, and a superdrive. I chose the former. If I had had the money, I would've definately got the superdrive with all the goodies you got. You're getting a great machine!

Thanks. I hope I'll be as happy as I think I'll be. I wouldn't have gotten the stock RAM if it hadn't been cheaper than Crucial and I definitely need the SD to backup my data when I'm on the go. I don't feel like dragging my 250GB external HD everywhere.
What kind of battery life are you getting with yours? I am coming from an ibook so this is going to be worse but it is smaller and lighter in comparison which is going to rock.

 

[crowdaddy]

Is an extra battery necessary for the 15" Powerbook?

 

[Capt Underpants]

Thanks. I hope I'll be as happy as I think I'll be. I wouldn't have gotten the stock RAM if it hadn't been cheaper than Crucial and I definitely need the SD to backup my data when I'm on the go. I don't feel like dragging my 250GB external HD everywhere.
What kind of battery life are you getting with yours? I am coming from an ibook so this is going to be worse but it is smaller and lighter in comparison which is going to rock.

I'm getting about 4 hours. I wish it was closer to five, but the max I can get is 4.

 

[FuzzyBallz]

1 gig of genuine apple ram on a single stick

Apple don't make RAM, but they are good at slapping the Apple logo on everything, included Memorex brand DVD media. Apple uses Samsung RAM, or should I say overpriced Samsung RAM.

 

[Rower_CPU]

Apple don't make RAM, but they are good at slapping the Apple logo on everything, included Memorex brand DVD media. Apple uses Samsung RAM, or should I say overpriced Samsung RAM.

Apple's getting better about RAM pricing.

They're on par with Kinston on the memory talltomkat got.
Apple - $600 on top of regular price for 256MB
Kingston - $713 - $86 for the 256MB you would have gotten = $627

 

[talltomkat]

which ram to get...

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.

just another point of view for those cruising the boards
the problem is compounded by the fact that there are shady companies selling ram
so maybe you know who to avoid and where to go but other people dont
also -- i've heard bad ram stories from major mail order companies who arent even giving that much of a discount
maybe these problems have all gone away...?

so its cool if you know who to go with but for a newbie buyer -- even one with an apple laptop already -- its a think twice issue
remember how apple did a system upgrade and suddenly a bunch of third party ram wasn't recognized? and this wasn't grey market ram. there was a patch that someone did -- it saved me and a lot of other people from having to replace the ram -- but i don't really want to go through that again.

 

[Paperstreet]

Sorry it's been a while since I've posted.

But to answer some questions I've read...

I think it's definitely on par with how my dual 1ghz Powermac G4 was. Maybe it's a bit slower, but I sure haven't noticed it yet.

The screen is a little smaller than the 17" Studio LCD I had, but way bigger than the 12" laptop. So it's a nice compromise I think. For the record though, the 12" was easier to type on. My arm hits the side and bottom of this laptop. It'll take a little getting used to I guess.

As far as why I get 1 stick of 512 built in, I do it so I can add another 512 and have a total of 1gb instead of having the 256 wired in and ending up with 768 when I add a 512. I already ordered a stick of 512 from Crucial, so I'll be up to a GB. That'll be nice.

So far, so good. I just love this thing. Seeing how big it is, the 17" would be WAY too big for me. For some people, I'm sure it would be fine. But even the 15" is big. So no 17" in the future. 15" will be as big as I go.

Next purchase is another desktop. By that time, it might be a G6. Hehehee!!!

 

[stockscalper]

This is the exact configuration that I got a month ago. I can tell you using it only gets better!

I was in a Best Buy yesterday and couldn't help but look at the laptops there, out of curosity since I had just bought a new one. A sales rep saundered over so I asked him to print off some specs on a couple of their top of the line Centrinos for comparison purposes. The hard drives were only 3600 rpm's, the video they were using was the old ATI card Apple used in the ibooks a couple of years ago with 32 megs of ram and they were clunky and thick as a brick. 7.5 lbs for the "sleek" (their words) Centrino and almost 11 lbs for a P4 (really huge) 15" screen laptop. These were the VAIO's, the HP's and Toshibas. Horrible, absolutlely horrible compared to the specs on my new PB. Two out of three of these machines had the old wireless technology, the same as my 3 year old Titanium. Except for the VAIO the screens on them were terrible. They had crude disk loading trays for the cds and the keyboards had a cheap feel to them. When I commented on the poor screens and keyboards I was told that "most people buy an external monitor, keyboard and mouse...". Why? I've been using Mac laptops since 1994 and the screens and keyboards are excellent and you don't need anything else. Next time I hear some clown pronounce that Wintel laptops are superior, cheaper or better in any way to Macs I'm going to slap them.

 

[Megaquad]

I am looking to order 1.33GHz 15" with 4200 rpm drive next week.
Can anyone tell me how is the speed of above machine? I am very concerned that 4200 rpm drive will ruin everything, and I can't get faster drive at the moment since this machine costs around 2500€ (3000$, it sucks) where I live...

 

[kwajo.com]

my powerbook was running so well last night that it completely slipped my mind that i was running off battery to calibrate the battery. and i had the processor settings for battery to "reduced" and i still thought it was killing my rev.A 17-inch.
so i plugged it in when after it went to sleep and have it on "highest" for power adapter use, and WOW! i didn't think the difference would be this great, and i had my 17-inch well maintained, and a pretty clean system. i switched over my extra 512 ram later last night (bringing me to 1GB), and installed final cut pro this morning before work, so i'm anxious to give that a real workout with a documentary i'm doing right now.

a question for all you other new 15-inch owners: is your screen really stiff in operation? mine is incredibly so, and i was worried about overly tightened screws in the back, so i took a glance at them and there was a white mark on the aluminum between the 2 screws on either side, almost like stress marks in the metal. i was alarmed and took a screwdriver and slightly loosened them, just marginally mind you. any thoughts on this?

and a tip for those of you moving to a new system, and your previous one isn't very old, use firewire target disk mode with a firewire 800 cable (assuming both machines have one). it's BLAZING fast! copied my gigabytes, and gigabytes of data at amazing speeds oh, and how sweet a link is a 15-inch pbook connected to a 17-inch pbook, through a firewire 800 external 160GB hard drive

 

[citizenchunk]

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.

well, as someone who DIDN'T upgrade to 128MB VRAM, i can tell you that i don't feel like my pbook is a piece of ****. there are plenty of people like me who use it for things like music and graphics (photoshop, not 3D motion graphics) whose demands are mainly CPU, RAM and HD, and for whom 64 more megs of VRAM won't mean ****. from the barefeats benchmarks, it seems as though you might expect anywhere from a 1-7% increase in performance with the upgrade, and only with the most recent, bleeding-edge games. perhaps the gap would increase when using external displays with high resolutions. but basically, for most professionals, the upgrade is overkill.

THAT BEING SAID... i do really wish that they had made it more public that the upgrade is ONLY $50! had i known this, i would have definitely ordered the upgrade, if only to increase resale value down the road. in retrospect, i feel stupid for not checking. but i placate myself by placing some of the blame on Apple for not making it effing obvious that the upgrade is only $50.

 

[jazzmfk]

...snip...
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.
...snip...

Other World Computing makes these little leather thingies that are perfectly sized to your keyboard. I use mine on my little iBook - got it AFTER I noticed the key imprints on the screen, not before. In retrospect, I probably just should have gone to a fabric store or something for a slice of leather and cut it myself - but then I wouldn't be contributing my fair share to the global economy, now would I?

Have fun with your new 'Book. I'll be in the market soon - early fall, maybe. Can't wait to see the choices then!!!

MFK

 

[JFreak]

I am looking to order 1.33GHz 15" with 4200 rpm drive next week.
Can anyone tell me how is the speed of above machine? I am very concerned that 4200 rpm drive will ruin everything, and I can't get faster drive at the moment since this machine costs around 2500€ (3000$, it sucks) where I live...

the 7200rpm drive really gives a huge performance boost - make a change when you can. it's more than worth it.

 

[JFreak]

Is an extra battery necessary for the 15" Powerbook?

if you can live with the less-than-three-hour battery life, then no. if you need more, then you need more batteries. thank god powerbook battery can be changed on the fly without a reboot

 

[tamara6]

I am looking to order 1.33GHz 15" with 4200 rpm drive next week.
Can anyone tell me how is the speed of above machine? I am very concerned that 4200 rpm drive will ruin everything, and I can't get faster drive at the moment since this machine costs around 2500€ (3000$, it sucks) where I live...

I have this machine and it feels very fast to me. I came from a 400 MHz G3 Pismo. There is really no comparison. Even just rendering web pages is a lot faster.

I don't know what you are used to, though. Go to http://www.barefeats.com to see speed comparisons.

 

[furrina]

Video editing/FCP on 15"??

switched over my extra 512 ram later last night (bringing me to 1GB), and installed final cut pro this morning before work, so i'm anxious to give that a real workout with a documentary i'm doing right now.

I'd love to know how anyone is doing editing video with FCP on the 15" PB.

I just ordered 1.5 + 1 gig ram/5400 rpm (+ large fast external FW HDs) and eventually 20" display. I chose this instead of g5 desktop and I wonder how well it will perform for video editing since I hope to be doing a fair amount of it. I have editor friends who seem so disappointed that I didn't get the g5 (waiting for WWDC on that one

 

[JFreak]

I'd love to know how anyone is doing editing video with FCP on the 15" PB.

people are doing fine even on the 12" powerbook. believe me. it's not the equipment that does it, but the user.

 

[Paperstreet]

I gotta agree with you about the 12". It IS all about the user. I edited some videos on my 12" using FCP, and it was more than adequete. You learn to work around any shortcomings of the equipment.

Sure, the 15" gives you more screen real estate, but the 12" is REALLY a godsend for portability. The 15" is good in that area, but nothing beats the 12" for how small the thing is and how easy it is to just take anywhere.

The bottom line is you can't go wrong with ANY powerbook. THEY ARE ALL SUPERB MACHINES.

And they ALL kick Window's @ss!!!!

Way to go Apple.

 

[furrina]

shortcomings?

You learn to work around any shortcomings of the equipment.

Like, go have lunch while your files are rendering?

 

[dweebert]

Other World Computing makes these little leather thingies that are perfectly sized to your keyboard. I use mine on my little iBook - got it AFTER I noticed the key imprints on the screen, not before. In retrospect, I probably just should have gone to a fabric store or something for a slice of leather and cut it myself - but then I wouldn't be contributing my fair share to the global economy, now would I?

I'd be careful what I put in there. I've seen some put some pretty heavy material in there, which I would worry would stress the hinge or the catch that keeps the lid closed.

I just put a Swiffer cloth in mine. It's thin, fits the keyboard perfectly, and has done a great job of keeping the screen clean for over two years now. (Every couple of months I rinse it in plain water and hang it to dry.)

BTW, the "imprints" are just a transfer of grease (or something) off the keys onto the display. They come right off by rubbing them with a damp, soft cotton cloth, using firm circular motions. (I've used my Swiffer for this purpose a couple of times, but I would really recommend a 100% cotton T-shirt instead.)

-g

 

[cubist]

Hey, you guys with the 1.5GHz are getting 3 times the CPU speed of my old TiBook. But the wide screen is still wonderful. Somebody with the 128 vram and 5400 drive, get an xbench score...

 

[nyprospect]

Has anyone every come from a p4 3ghz and switched to a g4? im interested in a pb but im kind of worried i wont be as happy as you all are .

 

[yeungdoug]

Same Config ordered!

Good to know that someone's ordering the same configuration I'm getting. I wasn't sure downgrading to the combo drive was the right decision or not but that saved be $ for something else plus I don't really think I'll be burning DVDs.

I decided to switch to the Powerbook and I cannot imagine looking at one of those windows laptops again (although I have to use one at work).....

 

[Godfather]

I think I got a score of 138 on xbench on my new pbook superdrive with 1 gig of ram/5400 RPM drive/ 1.5 gighz/128MB VRAM. It's the 15" model.
(Aimed @ nyprospect)