Help! Diff. between the two 15inch pbook

[yuy]

Hi, guys, I am planning to switch to Mac Fantastic World soon just after the exam(oh, gosh, exams, suffer).

After searching the threads here, I plan to buy 15inch power book for the bigger screen leading to higher productivity as said

But after checking the online apple store, I find big price difference between the two 15inch models. They are exacly the same execpt for 0.17 Ghz cpu speed, comb vs superdrive and graphic memory BTO. But the price gap is as high as 200 pounds.

I am wondering do these difference worth more quid, or are there any underlying different specifications between there 2 models.

I basicaly do not have intention to use superdrive, nor additional external display. What I am care about is the graphic memory, is 64m enough? will I feel lag for the games like World of Warcraft, or Doom3 with 64m graphic memory?

Thanks for help. I am eager to be a mac user.

 

[deebster]

Other than the highlighted differences the two models are identical.

You could drop the Superdrive from the higher priced model and save £100, but the better graphics card adds £70.

So (*does some quick sums*) you have the choice of standard 15", or better 15" (with double VRAM, minus Superdrive) for £170 more.

I'm no gamer, but from what I hear you would probably see the difference with the better VRAM. But is it worth 170 quid? Only you can answer that.

 

[Piarco]

Tricky, I know. I had the stock 1.67ghz model, but if there are no new PBs released at WWDC (mainly a 13" widescreen) I'll be ordering the fully loaded 1.67ghz. Thanks to a newly discovered educational discount

And speaking of which, if you have exams you'll be part of a school/college/uni, thereby meaning you could save some serious cash! The 1.67ghz with 100GB HDD and 128MB vram costs around £1450 with educational discount - a huge saving of around £275. Well worth looking into if you haven't already.

 

[Mechcozmo]

Definitely go with the more VRAM. You CANNOT upgrade it later, so get it now. The Superdrive is nice to burn DVDs with, but IIRC you can BTO it and get a Combo drive.

Upgrade your RAM later. Apple overcharges for most their RAM, so just take the 512 MB stick they give you and add your own 512 MB stick. It is easy, there are instructions in the manual.

I'd vote to go with the higher-end model with the chance of BTO-ing it. (BTO=Build To Order). BOBW, the Best Of Both Worlds. (And a Duo codename )

 

[pulsewidth947]

get the best you can afford

i'm going to purchase a 15"er within the next two months and i reckon i'm going to go for the 1.67 with 128 video and superdrive. You may not need those features yet, but you might next year or the year after.

the way i see it is, your mac can last you 5 or so years. Although not getting those extra options will save you a few £ now, in the grand scheme of things its worth spending that extra money, just to future proof yourself. Even if you treat your PB like a car and upgrade every couple of years, Macs hold their value really well, so you dont lose out too badly financially.

So lets say you want to keep your PB for 5 years, and it costs you £1500 educational. 1500 / 5 = £300 per year. Thats like 82p a day man!

At least thats the way I convince myself to spend all the money on a new mac


Follow the advice of the other people on here by using education discount, and buying your ram from crucial direct, and you'll get an amazing deal on a Mac! Finally, good luck with your exams.

 

[runninmac]

Yeah I would go for the 1.67 +the grapics card and -the superdrive. Also that will future proof it a little more.

 

[yuy]

thanks for your reply.

You could drop the Superdrive from the higher priced model and save £100, but the better graphics card adds £70.
.

why is better graphics card? are they exactly identical same card except for vrams?

 

[yuy]

And speaking of which, if you have exams you'll be part of a school/college/uni, thereby meaning you could save some serious cash! The 1.67ghz with 100GB HDD and 128MB vram costs around £1450 with educational discount - a huge saving of around £275. Well worth looking into if you haven't already.

yeah, i will definitely go with edu. discount. that's really good. I can only see Apple provides student discount in UK, others like IBM, HP do not

 

[yuy]

Definitely go with the more VRAM. You CANNOT upgrade it later, so get it now. The Superdrive is nice to burn DVDs with, but IIRC you can BTO it and get a Combo drive.

Yeah, this is a point. not chance in future to change vram.

Upgrade your RAM later. Apple overcharges for most their RAM, so just take the 512 MB stick they give you and add your own 512 MB stick. It is easy, there are instructions in the manual.

I will buy crucial 1gb ram,haha , I even want to have a BTO that can remove the original 512m ram and buy from Crucial 2 gb, that will be double-channel. which is impossible presently

 

[yuy]

So lets say you want to keep your PB for 5 years, and it costs you £1500 educational. 1500 / 5 = £300 per year. Thats like 82p a day man!

At least thats the way I convince myself to spend all the money on a new mac

Finally, good luck with your exams.

Thank you very much for your remark and wishes.

Anyway, man, 5 years? incredible!!! in 5 years, there will be dozens of new macs come out, shoud we pass them on? We definitely will grab some when updates,

 

[UTB_Avid]

I knew that with the exception of ram upgrade I would kick myself later if I didn't go with everything I possibly could. I vote 1.67 upgrade vram and superdrive, stock 512 chip and buy more from someone else, maybe crucial... I would leave the HD at 80gig, you can always buy an external later.