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Need some advice:12" Powerbook or 15" Powerbook

W

Wilson

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 26, 2004
103
0
Which is the better choice for a design student on a tight budget, needing to run applications such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Quark and InDesign.

12" Powerbook super drive 1.33 GHz for $2149 CDN (educational discount)

or

15" Powerbook combo drive 1.33 GHz for $2399 CDN (educational discount).

Also, how much RAM do you think is neccessary for the programs to run smoothly? Would 1 gig of ram be enough?

Thank you in advance ;)
 
well if you are on a budget, then go with the 12" and put some more RAM in it. At least that is what I would do. You can always get cheap monitor later if you need more screen.
 
yoda13 said:
well if you are on a budget, then go with the 12" and put some more RAM in it. At least that is what I would do. You can always get cheap monitor later if you need more screen.
Click to expand...

I agree. And 1gb of RAM will be more than enough unless you do some very heavy graphics work. If so, you should max it out. (1.256gb I think). Also, be sure and buy as much of the ram yourself as you can. Well I guess if you do that it would be best to go ahead and put 1.25gb in the 12". That way you can buy all the extra on your own (256 built in + 1gb yours). I suggest Crucial for the RAM.
 
get the 12" powerbook

i am a recent born-again mac user, i just bought a 12" 1.33ghz powerbook about two months ago and it rocks. by far the best notebook machine i've used to date. just make sure you stick some extra RAM in (i ordered a 512mb from mushkin.com) that saved me about 100 bucks off of what apple wanted.

so in short, lovely machine, go buy it now.

jarom
 
Go the 15": Design programs + extra screen space = happier user!

Normally I would have said go for the 12" since you are on a budget, because it is such a killer machine for the price. But given that you are after the 1.33GHz 15", the price difference is only CDN 250 and you are a design student specifically requiring Photoshop, Quark, Illustrator etc, I think you'll find those extra $250 well spent for the extra screen space.

Not everyone needs that much room, and the 12" suffices for pretty much everything, but if you are going to be using those programs you will really appreciate the extra space you'll have to play around with to keep palettes, toolbars and other windows open. I loved my 12"s, but for programs like those you're after and video editing programs, whilst a 12 inch screen certainly can do the job (even better at rev C speeds), the extra space enormously helps you to do your work more effectively.

Of course, there are plenty of other things you need to consider, that are and aren't necessarily related to your being a design student: how portable do you need the Powerbook to be (which raises both size and battery life concerns)? How important is the ability to burn DVDs on the run, or will a faster Combo drive be more effective for your particular uses? And, perhaps most important, you should be putting as much RAM as you can reasonably afford into the Powerbook to run these programs well.
 
im sure that you would regret getting the 12inch powerbook if you intend using it for design work, the advice i give to people who have this dilema is.... decide exactly what you need it for if its for carrying around alot then get the 12inch but if you will use it alot at home for graphics or photo work
then defo get the 15 inch (plus you can get the backlit keyboard as a bto)
i hope this helps, but i honestly would recomend the 15...

but either way there both top machines :)
 
Does the backlit option on the 15" only come with the more expensive 15" model? the one that comes standard with the superdrive?
 
What about video card?

Don't you need a nice video card for that graphics design or is it reletively light? Cuz the 15 inch can get it's video card upgraded while the 12 inch can't
 
KiDrOck80 said:
Does the backlit option on the 15" only come with the more expensive 15" model? the one that comes standard with the superdrive?
Click to expand...

Yeah, if you want all the perks saddly you have to shell out a little more. Apple aint dumb, suck a cool feature, even if it costs them say $20 to add to the PB is gonna make em thousands if not millions :D. Ah, if only id thought of this! Might be rish now lol.

Mark.
 
KiDrOck80 said:
Does the backlit option on the 15" only come with the more expensive 15" model? the one that comes standard with the superdrive?
Click to expand...

It comes standard on the 1.5 GHz model, but you can order it BTO on the 1.33 GHz model. You can also get the faster HD and a superdrive on the 1.33, if you BTO. But you can't get the upgraded video card - that is only an option on the 1.5 machine.
 
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