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I am a student and need help on selecting a new powerbook!
- Thread starter carbonmotion
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You may want to think about staying with the 40 or 60 and upgrading the RAM instead, to at least 512. That will give you better performance. I have the 17 and haven't used teh superdrive much at all. Save the $180-200 and get more ram and the larger hard drive.
if you are a U of M student (i'm a staff), check out the showcase.
http://www.itd.umich.edu/sales
some of the offers are better than apple edu.
also, you can get the stock 12" PB for $1399 (+tax) with edu. discount. at that price, i think you will have nothing to complain about the 12" PB.
(if you are impatient and only need the stock, go to Novi's Twelve Oaks Mall - there's an apple store there and you can pick one up with edu. discount.)
(you probably knew all the above, but i just wanted to mention just in case.)
buy superdrive only if you plan on burning DVDs. otherwise, that $200 is worth more in more HD space and RAM. count on $100 for a 512 MB stick.
by the way, unless the apps are altivec optimized, i am not so sure if 1 GHz PB will be much faster than the iBook you've got. it sure will be faster but i'm not sure how much faster... but comparing to 867 MHz rev. A, 1 GHz rev. B should be faster because of twice the L2 cache.
http://www.itd.umich.edu/sales
some of the offers are better than apple edu.
also, you can get the stock 12" PB for $1399 (+tax) with edu. discount. at that price, i think you will have nothing to complain about the 12" PB.
(if you are impatient and only need the stock, go to Novi's Twelve Oaks Mall - there's an apple store there and you can pick one up with edu. discount.)
(you probably knew all the above, but i just wanted to mention just in case.)
buy superdrive only if you plan on burning DVDs. otherwise, that $200 is worth more in more HD space and RAM. count on $100 for a 512 MB stick.
by the way, unless the apps are altivec optimized, i am not so sure if 1 GHz PB will be much faster than the iBook you've got. it sure will be faster but i'm not sure how much faster... but comparing to 867 MHz rev. A, 1 GHz rev. B should be faster because of twice the L2 cache.
go with rev b, but more importantly up ur ram, you wont see and benefit if ur just running at 256 you will think you didnt upgrade. hehe
isnt photoshop cs and Final Cut Express velocity engine enabled? along with some other adobe stuff and other stuff. um, just wondering.
reply
I was in a similar situation, a high school computer geek, and wanted a 'Book. I eventually got the 12" combo model with AirPort card, I have a superdrive in my MDD G4 at home.
If i had had the money, would have gotten a 15". The 12" is ultraportable, and gets the best batt life, and is perfect for whipping out in class and doin something for school. But your not always confined to a classroom, are you? No your not. And even if you were, you'd fall in love with the extra working space of a 15". The 17" would be a pain to lug around, but, does have lots of working space, which is a must for productive people. You could get the combo drive 15 model, and that would be 1999. You could even get an eduational discount!! That takes i think $200 off the 15" combo model. And $200 off both 12" models.
That's how I could afford to buy an AE card, but you could also use the leftover money for RAM, you need to add RAM.
I was in a similar situation, a high school computer geek, and wanted a 'Book. I eventually got the 12" combo model with AirPort card, I have a superdrive in my MDD G4 at home.
If i had had the money, would have gotten a 15". The 12" is ultraportable, and gets the best batt life, and is perfect for whipping out in class and doin something for school. But your not always confined to a classroom, are you? No your not. And even if you were, you'd fall in love with the extra working space of a 15". The 17" would be a pain to lug around, but, does have lots of working space, which is a must for productive people. You could get the combo drive 15 model, and that would be 1999. You could even get an eduational discount!! That takes i think $200 off the 15" combo model. And $200 off both 12" models.
That's how I could afford to buy an AE card, but you could also use the leftover money for RAM, you need to add RAM.
You can get the stock 12" w/combo drive at the .edu discount for $1399 from the Apple store that jxyama mentioned or the Apple store online (U-M Computer Showcase has a link to the education portion of Apple's store).
You can always pick up a firewire drive for more storage space (prices vary), a 512 stick of RAM from Crucial (>$100), and an AirPort card (~$100), and a firewire DVD burner (prices vary-- and they're faster than the superdrive, too. How often will you need to burn a disc during class?)
On a full charge, my 12" 1GHz (rev b.) that I bought early in November still gets close to 3.5 hours if I'm using Airport, a little over 4 if I'm not. Processor intensive tasks may reduce it somewhat, but how often are you going to be editing movies/ doing photoshop filters, etc. during class?
The screen angle has been good for my usage, sometimes I'll have to adjust it one way or another if I think something doesn't look right, but I haven't noticed anything show-stopping. It definitely has a wider viewable angle than my mom's clamshell iBook.
You can always pick up a firewire drive for more storage space (prices vary), a 512 stick of RAM from Crucial (>$100), and an AirPort card (~$100), and a firewire DVD burner (prices vary-- and they're faster than the superdrive, too. How often will you need to burn a disc during class?)
On a full charge, my 12" 1GHz (rev b.) that I bought early in November still gets close to 3.5 hours if I'm using Airport, a little over 4 if I'm not. Processor intensive tasks may reduce it somewhat, but how often are you going to be editing movies/ doing photoshop filters, etc. during class?
The screen angle has been good for my usage, sometimes I'll have to adjust it one way or another if I think something doesn't look right, but I haven't noticed anything show-stopping. It definitely has a wider viewable angle than my mom's clamshell iBook.
After adding the RAM to boost it to 768, I think you be happy with it, especially with the speed improvements of Panther.
I apologize for misunderstanding your post. It seems more and more people are wanting to do everything on the go when in reality they actually won't. The power adapter is a cute little cube thing that will fit into a side pouch of your backpack, and so if you do find the need to edit on the go, you'll likely be sitting down somewhere you can plug in (or have just come from home where you got a full charge).
I apologize for misunderstanding your post. It seems more and more people are wanting to do everything on the go when in reality they actually won't. The power adapter is a cute little cube thing that will fit into a side pouch of your backpack, and so if you do find the need to edit on the go, you'll likely be sitting down somewhere you can plug in (or have just come from home where you got a full charge).
forget the superdrive - unless you have plans for a lot of DVD burning. Spend the extra $200 on a 15.2" - or up the RAM (outside source).
iBook G3 to Powerbook 1Ghz
I recently moved from a 800Mhz g3 to the Powerbook 12". It is much faster. System bus is 133mhz to the iBooks 100Mhz, 200Mhz on the procesor, it is a G4, from what I have heard video card is about equal. Overall the Powerbook is noticably faster.
Before you buy make sure you are familiar with the product cycles of apple laptops. It would not be good if you get your new laptop and it gets updated right after you buy it. But then again they might not speedbump the 12". You can never tell what steve has up his sleeves.
I recently moved from a 800Mhz g3 to the Powerbook 12". It is much faster. System bus is 133mhz to the iBooks 100Mhz, 200Mhz on the procesor, it is a G4, from what I have heard video card is about equal. Overall the Powerbook is noticably faster.
Before you buy make sure you are familiar with the product cycles of apple laptops. It would not be good if you get your new laptop and it gets updated right after you buy it. But then again they might not speedbump the 12". You can never tell what steve has up his sleeves.