New 12" pb advice?

[lpie]

Within the last month I bought a new 12" combo-drive G4 powerbook. Don't need the superdrive, have it at home on another MAC. Bought the portable because I'm about to depart on a year-long fellowship to India. My work-research is partly analouge (painter) and the rest is with the assistance of digital "stuff". I use photoshop w/many filters, will be using a video editing program as well. Put in maximum memory, don't need airport card, 'cause no where to use it for now in India and I can always update at a time when it is needed.

I took the book out of the box less than 1 week ago. Then the newest version came out! I called the store because that was quite something and they'll do one of 2 things. They'll either exchange it (nice, I bought it on my educational discount)but the restocking fee is 10% of pre-discounted price or do a price equivalent and reimburse the essential devaluation. I don't know what to do?

Questions:

Is there enough difference besides the usb ports and graphics card to merit the $159 restocking fee? (Yes airport stuff is now hyper fast too)

What do you think of the titanium vs. the aluminum case?

The RAM specs are the same so I could use my 512 chip in new book, is this true?

I would only be getting the 40mhz hard drive again, since others are built to order and I have to do this at the Apple shop. Is it worth it?

Please advise, thanks.

 

[iJon]

Re: New 12" pb advice?

Originally posted by lpie
Within the last month I bought a new 12" combo-drive G4 powerbook. Don't need the superdrive, have it at home on another MAC. Bought the portable because I'm about to depart on a year-long fellowship to India. My work-research is partly analouge (painter) and the rest is with the assistance of digital "stuff". I use photoshop w/many filters, will be using a video editing program as well. Put in maximum memory, don't need airport card, 'cause no where to use it for now in India and I can always update at a time when it is needed.

I took the book out of the box less than 1 week ago. Then the newest version came out! I called the store because that was quite something and they'll do one of 2 things. They'll either exchange it (nice, I bought it on my educational discount)but the restocking fee is 10% of pre-discounted price or do a price equivalent and reimburse the essential devaluation. I don't know what to do?

Questions:

Is there enough difference besides the usb ports and graphics card to merit the $159 restocking fee? (Yes airport stuff is now hyper fast too)

What do you think of the titanium vs. the aluminum case?

The RAM specs are the same so I could use my 512 chip in new book, is this true?

I would only be getting the 40mhz hard drive again, since others are built to order and I have to do this at the Apple shop. Is it worth it?

Please advise, thanks.

you have your facts wrong man. you are comapring alot of this to the new 15 inch powerbook. your powerbook already has the aluminum enclosure, as well as the new airport. there really isnt to many differences between the new ones. they added. really the only new differences between them is new usb 2.0 and a tinsy bit better graphics card, nothing spectacular. also they bumped the speeds of it to 1ghz. i dont think its worth the 149 dollars, just enjoy what you have, not really much different.

iJon

 

[whfsdude]

Yeah… I really see no reason to upgrade

 

[lpie]

thanks very much. You both confirmed what I sensed.
Facts? Yeah, they may be confused. Just quoting what the telephone sales dude told me.
Ps, yes your right, unfortunately many people in India do starve. The problem is huge and complex with or without PC's.

thanks for the advice.

 

[iJon]

yeah i know, its just for humor, some guy already got mad at me on the board about it and told me to change it. i dont think its a big deal and its just for fun.

iJon

 

[PixelFactory]

If your planning on using a digital LCD monitor, the new 12" has mini DVI out. A conveter for the rev A 12" is about $400. May be worth the restocking fee.

 

[lpie]

LCD monitor

Yes, this is a good point and i thought about it as often we work collaboratively.

But as I understand it (and indeed may have my "facts wrong") as it stands now, I could hook my current book into a monitor (tv), is this correct. I think I have a VGA adapter and don't think I need a converter for that? So it is not so much that I need the screen to work on the project as much as a monitor for eventually viewing the piece. don't mean to sound so uncertain, but I am an artist that recently started working digitally and collaboratively w/other artists in the world. This little and powerful metal box full of electronic cyber stuff is entirely new to me.

 

[PixelFactory]

Yes, you do have adapters for VGA and an RCA/S-Video out. The new 12" has DVI. You will find as you start working with Photoshop that screen realestate becomes very important, there are a lot of palettes that can fill the screen leaving you very little workspace. If you want to hook your Powerbook to a CRT you are all set to go. But if in the future you wanted to hook into an apple display you would need the converter box. As far as performance, it will be interesting to see how the new Powerbooks perform with double the L2 cache.

 

[lpie]

Yeah, your right. I do most of this photoshoping stuff on my mac at home w/17" screen. But what exactly is the L2 cache? I saw that, but what could be the result from the difference. Otherwise, I know my little fellow already works. I will literally pick this new one up if I go for the trade and be off the following day (they come in the 27th). I'm a little reluctant to take it for a spin 1/2 way round the world a discover it doesn't function as expected, thus be stuck there for a year and not be able to work. What do you think?