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Mac for Graphic Design, Animation, some 3d

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xalex1

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 15, 2004
22
0
Hello, i need your help to try and decide what mac should i buy. It`ll be my first mac ever :) . I want to try keep my price as low as possible. Ill be using the mac to run :

Macromedia Studio MX 2004
Adobe Creative Suite
Video editing (maby Final cut Pro)
Maya 5.0

The option i was thinking about to get is :

A) Ibook 14" - 768 ram - 1.2 ghz g4 - 60 gigs Or the same specs on the 1ghz Version.

B)Powerbook 12" 512 ram - 1.33 ghz - 60 gigs

c) Powerpc 1.2 ghz - 1000 ram or the dual 1.2 ghz with 512 ram .



Note : that im planing to connect a 17" sony lcd dsiplay with vga conection with i already have. and that i could also go with a 3.0 P4 system for the same price. Its a relly tuff decition !

The laptops would be nice, but if they can`t cut it im going to have to go with one of the power pcs . ve always wanted to have a laptop. the screen sze of the laptop is not important thince i already have a nice screen at home.

any of the systems i get will make a big difrence i think i conparsion to what i have right now :

Atholon 1.2 ghz
20 gig hd
256 ram
win xp


Thanks for any help possibale !

Take care ! :)
 
I'm running everything you're running except for final cut and Maya (but I am running Pro Tools which is no joke). My new Powerbook is pretty impressive- not a powerhouse but quite capable. However, it is wonderful havig a portable machine! This is my first laptop, so I didn't think I would need the portability before I bought it, but now that I have it- I don't think I could be without it. I've taken it all over the city- to the computer store to get RAM in it, to my friend's house to work on a website- etc. etc.

The Powerbook- especially with a 7200 RPM firewire 800 boot disk will be fully capable and a hell of a lot more portable than a desktop. I am planning to buy the 23" HD monitor when they are updated for home use as well. good luck!

EDIT: I have a friend who runs a very successful video company (commercials for Sprite etc.) and they edit everything on Powerbook 867's with external FW HD's. You have to realize that here on Macrumors- a lot of the responses you get are from people who lust for power even when unessecary.
 
I just bought the 12"PB... I opted for the 80G 5400RPM drive.. only 256M RAM (bought another 512 from Crucial)... and I must say, I'm loving it.
I'm using all the same software that you would be- and have not run into any problems yet (although more RAM would be nice).

I have a desktop that's a few years old... Dual 1Ghz, 1.25RAM... and while the desktop does show an advantage on MacBench- it's barely...PBook is (roughly) 90-95% of the speed (basically meaning- you can't tell from use- although I'm sure render times would be noticably different).
My point is- while it may not be the latest and greatest dual G5.... it does stand very well against the older dual G4 models. And if you don't need the absolute fastest out there- it's a great little system.
 
I use a 12" PB rev. B, and use the Creative Suite CS quit a bit (mostly InDesign and some Photoshop). 512mb has been enough for most uses. It is only when I want to work with Canon RAW files that I find 512mb a bit limiting.
 
Thnaks for your help guys ! This is a cool forum !

Hey another little question, What type of memory can i get for the PB that is not the mac one. ? I noticed cyks said he was using crucial ? Cand you give the exact specification of the memory please. to see how muchis it going to be !
 
xalex1 said:
Thnaks for your help guys ! This is a cool forum !

Hey another little question, What type of memory can i get for the PB that is not the mac one. ? I noticed cyks said he was using crucial ? Cand you give the exact specification of the memory please. to see how muchis it going to be !
Click to expand...

One of the nice things about the crucial website is you just specify what mac you have and it will recommend compatible memory. Here is the link:

http://www.crucial.com/store/listProductLine.asp?cat=RAM&mfr=Apple&submit=Go+to+step+2+>
 
crucial is pretty expensive for PB RAM right now...

James Craner said:
One of the nice things about the crucial website is you just specify what mac you have and it will recommend compatible memory. Here is the link:

http://www.crucial.com/store/listProductLine.asp?cat=RAM&mfr=Apple&submit=Go+to+step+2+>
Click to expand...
crucial is very nice RAM, but I recently purchased RAM from digital society here in NYC 1gig for 350 installed with a lifetime warranty (lifetime RAM). Crucial is pretty expensive right now.
 
Doing the animation and Maya you need as much power as possible. Otherwise, you'll be waiting quite a bit while the machine renders.

D
 
xalex1 said:
Hello, i need your help to try and decide what mac should i buy. It`ll be my first mac ever :) . I want to try keep my price as low as possible. Ill be using the mac to run :

Macromedia Studio MX 2004
Adobe Creative Suite
Video editing (maby Final cut Pro)
Maya 5.0

The option i was thinking about to get is :

A) Ibook 14" - 768 ram - 1.2 ghz g4 - 60 gigs Or the same specs on the 1ghz Version.

B)Powerbook 12" 512 ram - 1.33 ghz - 60 gigs

c) Powerpc 1.2 ghz - 1000 ram or the dual 1.2 ghz with 512 ram .



Note : that im planing to connect a 17" sony lcd dsiplay with vga conection with i already have. and that i could also go with a 3.0 P4 system for the same price. Its a relly tuff decition !

The laptops would be nice, but if they can`t cut it im going to have to go with one of the power pcs . ve always wanted to have a laptop. the screen sze of the laptop is not important thince i already have a nice screen at home.

any of the systems i get will make a big difrence i think i conparsion to what i have right now :

Atholon 1.2 ghz
20 gig hd
256 ram
win xp


Thanks for any help possibale !

Take care ! :)
Click to expand...

This is considering your budget:

If you need the portability, go 12" iBook (1 GHz)

If not, go for a refurbished G5. The 1.6 G5 (refurbished) is selling for $1399 right now from Apple! That's a steal, and you get a full warranty, etc. I've had good experiences with Apple's refurbs so far. It comes with an 80 GB HD and 256 MB of RAM. You can pick up some more RAM (at least 512, for you I recommend a Gig) fairly cheap. Go! Grab it now!

Apple's refurbs are located here:

Go to the Apple's Online Store (store.apple.com).
Find the "Special Deals" button (red).
Find the refurb G5s. They disappear, but just observe and you'll probably see one eventually reappear.
 
The other day i had tthe chance to play around with the mac g4 1.2 desctop and the mac g5 1.6ghz desktop , and it seemed to me that the g4 performed equal as the g5 or maybe even better.. I might be wrong, nnot sure.
 
new question

Some new questions :)

*Ive been looking at the powerbook 15" , now do you people think there is diffrences in performance between the 1.33 mhz 12" and the 1.33 mhz 15" ?


*Whats a better buy ? Powerbook 15" 1.33mhz or imac 17" wichone is the fastest ?

thanks
 
Thanks for the help

Thanks for all the help people, im proud to say that im a new powerbook 15 inch owner. this little computer is incredible. it the 1.33 ghz model. now the next thing i have to do is get me some ram. I curantly have only 256. planing on buyin a 512 module.

Thanks agin.
:)
 
Possibly Hold off on the AppleCare . .

If you think that you are going to be doing a lot of FCP work, I would hold off on purchasing AppleCare and divert that cash towards a faster external drive (it makes a huge difference when editting and will prevent your laptop drive from working constantly) Just make sure you sign up for Apple Care before the first year is up.

Edit: About Maya: the optimization of OpenGL in Maya is great, so you should have no problem on the Pbook unless you are planning to do some insanely high poly and high texture size work.
 
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