Help! Buy New Alubook or stick with old Tibook?

[Grokgod]

Greetings all~
Here is my problem...

The new Alubooks are here, side by side with the older Ti ghz.

I have an older Tibook 800. That I love!
But its getting to look slow. and the resell value will only get lower and I usually try to sell on end of a cycle to move up to a newer model.

The new 64 megs of Video and the extra 200 htz is starting to look very important to me.

Here are my thoughts and if anyone would like to add theirs to it, I would be very grateful.

I want more speed and video but the new Alubooks seem kinda ugly to me, I saw one at a store in town and its big and the Alu is weird looking like a metal tin plate waiting for prison slop!
But it is supposed to conduct heat better?
then it has this funky plastic trim around
it that i find really lame! then there is the rounded end shape, yuvk its countors cannot compare to the older Ti.

But there is the Firewire 800, yet does it every really get fully saturated? there is the screen reestate, but is that needed on a laptop, doesnt it defeat the purpose?
Is the DDR ram really DDR or is it uhh 166 htz?

OK... the Ti 1 ghz is the older style body, that i love, same video ram. only missing a few extras.
But when I check out the RAM it comes with 2- 256 dimms eating up all the slots!

So I would need to buy 2 - 512 dimms to fill it.
That bring the prices up to the ALubook almost!

So do i wait with my 800 Ti or get the ALu or the 1 ghz Ti.

I have been slicing this up in a lot of different ways. I really would like to hear anyones thoughts on this subject.

I mean I actually feel emotional about my Ti 800, it has been a great computer, but i feel the need for more speed!

 

[Bear]

Okay to answer some of your questions....

I find the 17" is a tad too large to be easily portable.

If you custom order the 1GHz TiBook, you can get it with different memory configurations.

To me, if you needed a Super Drive, that would be the biggest draw. I really don't think the speed improvements will be worth it. I'd recommend waiting for the first 15" PowerBook (probably an AlBook) that is faster than 1GHz.

How much your current TiBook is worth used shouldn't be a factor. Especially since as it's value goes down, you'll be getting a much better upgrade. So I don't really see it as loosing money by not selling it now.

But that's just my opinion.

 

[ryme4reson]

Just something to think about

I would be willing to buy you PBook 800, and if you have 1Gig in your 800, you can keep that and I will take the 256 out of the 1Gig. They use the same amount of ram...

 

[Maclicious]

I don't know how much more you'll love your 17 inch over your tiBook. All I can say is that I love this machine. I use it everywhere. It's size hasn't stopped me from using it anywhere I used to use my iBook, and that's saying something. For instance, this very moment I am sitting on the couch in the living room with my alBook in my lap browsing the web and writing this. True, I have a couch pillow between me and the bottom of the computer, but I used to do the same with my iBook. The screen real estate is unreal. The speed, the superdrive, the ambient light sensor for screen brightness, etc... Plus, I find the material and styling exquisite.

Don't believe that this thing is anything other than great. But, I doubt your tiBook 800 really suffers all that much by comparison.

 

[G5orbust]

hm... first off... a Tibook 800 should be fast enough for anything you throw at it. But, if you want to upgrade, by all means do so.

I would suggest holding off for just a bit longer; just to see if there are any faster chips/new chips/new screens/new chassis/etc.


But, if you want to upgrade now, and you like the 15 inch PB's, then go for a 1 Ghz model. If you dont need a superdrive- scratch it and compensate w/ maxed out RAM

while quite expesive (it is a laptop, after all), this is my picture of a great system you should think about getting

Summary
? 1GHz PowerPC G4
? 1GB SDRAM - 2 DIMMs
? 60GB Ultra ATA drive
? Combo Drive (DVD-ROM/CD-RW)
? AirPort Card
? Keyboard/Mac OS - U.S. English
? APP for PowerBook (w/ or w/o display) - Enrollment Kit
? 15.2-inch TFT Display
Subtotal: $3,248.00


you can take out the airport car and it will be around $3150

 

[Grokgod]

Thanks for the replies.

Maclicious , thanks for the information on the size of the Alubook. Do you find the plastic ring around it kinda strange, I really thought it was kinda funky
And what is withthe screen brighteness sensors can these be turned off?

Is there a noticeable difference tween a 800 and a 1 ghz machine, 200 used to mean alot in the olde days but now?

I played with the Alubook and it seemed SNAPPY.
System Properties came up very quick.
although I should have tried a HELP file, that it what brings all mac to its knees, the horrible helps file!! LOL

ryme4reson: You want to but my Ti , how much you offering?

i was looking at the spec sheets onthe 1 giger and i was trying to compare it to my 800.
First the 1 giger has ata 66 and i think its 133 on ram. But strangely the 867 has 100 ata.. what the hell is up with that?

Well, i still cant make up my mind.

 

[DHagan4755]

wait until the 28th is my suggestion...if you don't like the new 15-inch aluminum powerbooks for whatever reason, you'll likely be able to get a GHz Ti for a discount. Something to think about....

 

[Grokgod]

Interesting~

I wasnt aware that the 28th was when the new 15" ALubooks are coming out.
Are they going to be 1 ghz also.
Any other news on this?
I wonder if they will be available immediately or
if there will be a 3 month wait again.

I went back to the store looking at the ti and Alu
My friend and I did a speed comparison test by executing appz at the same time on both computers at the same time.

I would have thought that with the various
faster elements on the ALU that it would beat the Ti, but I have to say that it was the same overall.
Weird@

I have to say that 2 elements bothered my the most about the ALu.
A; the plastic strip that runs around the it.
B; The area for plugins USB etc are on the sides.
Making for quite a mess, I thought.
The screen was nice!
It was huge but looked smaller and more managable when it was closed, i think.

 

[janey]

grokgod: if your computer is slow, get the shadowkiller haxie from unsanity, demetallifize everything, turn off all the fancy graphics stuff and upgrade to 10.2.5.
you'll discover a moderate speed increase in your computer.

 

[cb911]

Grokgod, i also love my TiBook (667 DVI, which i am trying to sell ) if you can hold off from getting a new PowerBook until the new 15" PB's come out then i would do that. and then if the new 15" Al PB's aren't to your liking, you can always get a 1GHz TiBook then, at a much cheaper price.

 

[Grokgod]

all good ideas but

I am still trying to understand why the Alubook isnt faster than the Ti.
I was at the local store and there are they same speed, opening appz , even the dreaded help files are the same.

ALso, I have to move to Europe soon so I ahve to decide soon if I should get a newer powerbook to take there cause they are SO expensive over there.

Gos knows when the Alu 15 is comingout and ready to be shipped?