New 15" Powerbook - One Week's Impressions

[Cordless_Drill]

All these delicious descriptions pushed me over the edge. I ordered a 15/1.33 today -- with the COMBO DRIVE and an extra 512 ram.

Thanks for ending my indecision for me.

This Pismo 400 has been a worthy soldier. He's been on California beaches, a beach in Maine, the prettiest church I ever saw (Providence, RI) and in right field at Pac-Bell Park. Never failed me. Not once.

 

[Chip NoVaMac]

All these delicious descriptions pushed me over the edge. I ordered a 15/1.33 today -- with the COMBO DRIVE and an extra 512 ram.

Thanks for ending my indecision for me.

This Pismo 400 has been a worthy soldier. He's been on California beaches, a beach in Maine, the prettiest church I ever saw (Providence, RI) and in right field at Pac-Bell Park. Never failed me. Not once.

Congrats, any Powerbook is a winner.

 

[xgsrpg]

I just got my 15" SuperDrive PowerBook yesterday. I am very happy, and mostly agree with what Anticipat3 said. Except, I got the 128MB video card.

I have been very pleasantly surprised at how well the new laptop games. I've played several games of Warcraft III at the full 1280x854 resolution and high detail with no chop to speak of

How do you do this? When I put it at 1280x854 and high detail, it is very choppy. I even have the faster processor and better video card. Could you mind telling me the exact Video/Audio settings you had? Thanks.

 

[Akira]

Yay! I just recieved my new Powerbook, and celebrated with playing Warcraft III, and it runs perfect!

I had al the videooptions maxed and it still ran flawlessly

 

[Anticipat3]

Sure-

Be sure to update OSX, and be MORE SURE to fully patch Warcraft III and TFT!

 

[xgsrpg]

Sure-

Be sure to update OSX, and be MORE SURE to fully patch Warcraft III and TFT!

The first thing I did was update OS X to 10.3.4 and install the Warcraft updates. This is bugging me because on my $1,000 Dell I got over 2 years ago works better than my laptop (but besides that I am 200% satisfied . To test WC3 what I did was used cheat codes to amass 12 flying units. I grouped them and did a move command to the other end of the map, and the squadron moves perfectly smooth for a few seconds then jumps. Do you have every option maxed out?

Thanks, xgsrpg

 

[sethypoo]

Very thourough and informative. Thank you very much!

I second that. Wonderful review, I'm forwarding that to my girlfriend, who is still trying to save up for a 15" PowerBook.

On qualm: I own a Rev. A 12" PowerBook, and Warcraft III runs flawlessly on it, even while running iTunes, Word, and iChat along with it. This may be because I have the RAM maxed out at 640 MB.....did you have that much installed?

Anyway, great review, keep it up!

 

[xgsrpg]

I second that. Wonderful review, I'm forwarding that to my girlfriend, who is still trying to save up for a 15" PowerBook.

On qualm: I own a Rev. A 12" PowerBook, and Warcraft III runs flawlessly on it, even while running iTunes, Word, and iChat along with it. This may be because I have the RAM maxed out at 640 MB.....did you have that much installed?

Anyway, great review, keep it up!

Unfortunately, I only have 512 right now. I plan on getting another 512MB stick from Crucial when I amass the money to bring it up to 1GB. It's kind of hard to get money when I'm not even in high school yet. Hopefully that should fix the problem. I just hope the thing will run WoW when it comes out...

 

[KenDawg]

This is all great reading so far, but I have one question for all of you who have previously used "newer" PCs, as in 2-3 ghz. How do normal programs (internet, PS, etc.) run on these 1.33/1.5 powerbooks compared to on the PC? Now I will still use my PC for gaming, but i am considering the powerbook for the portability and especially for the OS. Thanks.

 

[Anticipat3]

xgsrpg - I have 768 at the moment... that may be what's making the difference, though I'd doubt it. The Powerbook is NOT chop-free if you're doing something that's graphics-insane like tower wars. Turn down the spell effects a little and It's fine even for that though.

sethypoo - Apparantly you have not experienced "fine." I also had my 12" PB maxed out at 640MB, and it did NOT run WC3 fine at full detail. Again, I have a big bad PC that I game on, so I have a concept of what "fine" is .

KenDawg - I much prefer my Powerbook even to Big Bad PC for daily stuff. I use Firefox/Thunderbird on my PC, and I find that Camino/Mail.app is superior, and I also haven't found any IM clients that I like better than Adium for any platform. Gaim is OK, and Trillian is almost OK, but iChat is nicer than either, and Adium is better yet. Photoshop stuff is (perhaps?) a little slower on the Powerbook than on the PC, but A lot of that feeling is load time (5400 RPM laptop HD vs. 10,000 RPM Raptor in the PC). I don't do heavy print photoshop work, but I do a lot of web graphics, and aside from the slightly longer load time, It works just as well on the Mac. Just be sure you don't try to use Dreamweaver or Photoshop on a 1024x768 screen... it's no fun. All the Office 2004 stuff is also plenty snappy, except for the first couple loads (when it installs all the fonts) Word 2004 Mac is just as fast as Word 2003 for XP. iTunes, XChat, etc. are of course also very snappy on OSX.

 

[TreeHugger]

I just got my 15" SuperDrive PowerBook yesterday. I am very happy, and mostly agree with what Anticipat3 said. Except, I got the 128MB video card.



How do you do this? When I put it at 1280x854 and high detail, it is very choppy. I even have the faster processor and better video card. Could you mind telling me the exact Video/Audio settings you had? Thanks.

A: in System Preferences go to energy saver and change it from Automatic to highest performance. Might help, might not, sorry I can't test it myself since I dont have that game, but I think it is something that might be easily overlooked.

This is all great reading so far, but I have one question for all of you who have previously used "newer" PCs, as in 2-3 ghz. How do normal programs (internet, PS, etc.) run on these 1.33/1.5 powerbooks compared to on the PC? Now I will still use my PC for gaming, but i am considering the powerbook for the portability and especially for the OS. Thanks.

It blows my PC (Pentium 4 2ghz 512 ram) out of the water. Apps open much faster, and in Photoshop it also runs much better. On a +400 mb file (yearbook cover, full tabloid spread at 300 dpi) it applies the filters only slightly faster (PC Photoshop had more RAM allocated - only noticed later), but more importantly it ran a lot smoother on the powerbook. whenever I would try to move something on my PC, like a whole layerset it would get scetchy. For the Powerbook on the other hand it was just the other way around. Much much smoother...
Internet browsing with safari is great, although I have found that my download speed (cable) decreases after a few days of browsing. Reseting the WEP encryption on my linksys router always fixes the problem, but it comes back after 3 or four days. I am sure there is a fix for this, sofar I just did not have time to call AppleCare for a solution. If anyone else has an idea, I'd appreciate it.

 

[Nspace]

Try installing the latest firmware for your router. I had similar problems with my Dlink router, and the firmware fixed the problenms.

Glad everyone likes their powerbook. Good to hear after spending the money. Mine is almost here. Frustrating thing is that it is going to arrive in my city tonight, and I am going to have to wait until after the weekend to get it!!!

Tom

 

[rareflares]

does the 5400 RPM drive REALLY make that big of an improvement? What exactly does a faster hard drive do for your the performance of the computer? Does it make games run faster?




for $113 it's not exactly a cheap upgrade.

 

[TreeHugger]

a faster hard drive will make saving and opening documents go faster and opens applications quicker too. I don't think it has a big effect on games! for that you need to upgrade the graphic card.
I did the upgrade of the harddrive and gfx card when both were still $45 witht the educational discount...

 

[Anticipat3]

Yeah, effect on games will be minimal, but your system boot time and application load times will decrease noticibly. I also wanted the extra storage, and It will also help out if you're doing any video editing on the road and need to use your internal HD as a scratch disk.

For me, it was mainly the faster app load times that would make it worthwhile. I hate waiting for thigns to load .

 

[rareflares]

a faster hard drive will make saving and opening documents go faster and opens applications quicker too. I don't think it has a big effect on games! for that you need to upgrade the graphic card.
I did the upgrade of the harddrive and gfx card when both were still $45 witht the educational discount...

Apple changed the prices in late June to $90 from 64 MB VRAM to 128 MB VRAM and $113 from 60 GB to 80 GB 5400 RPM drive.

that's educational pricing too.



I guess it really isn't that necessary. If I need the extra space in the future, I could buy a faster external hard drive at a cheaper price. Right?

 

[iEric]

Apple changed the prices in late June to $90 from 64 MB VRAM to 128 MB VRAM and $113 from 60 GB to 80 GB 5400 RPM drive.

that's educational pricing too.



I guess it really isn't that necessary. If I need the extra space in the future, I could buy a faster external hard drive at a cheaper price. Right?

its wierd cause the canadian prices are cheaper..like its only $60 to change the HD and $75 to change the VRam.

 

[charlesc]

Hello, thought I'd jump in this cool powerbook discussion.

We ordered a new 15"/1.5ghz/128vram/combo on 7/21 at 2 a.m. thinking that would be enough time for a bto to arrive by the time my new classes start 8/1. Original ship date was on/before 7/28. Or course last night just before midnight I get the sorry letter from apple. New date is 8/3.....

How long has it taken you other guys to get your bto 15" (the ones who opted for the 5400, or 128vram, backlighted keys on 1.33, etc)?? From the date you ordered to the time it was delivered?

 

[Nspace]

I ordered my Powerbook 15" 1.5 ghz with downgrade to combo, upgrade vram, and 5400 rpm hd.

This was on the 21st. It shipped on the night of the 22nd. Received the package after the weekend on the 26th. This was with expedite shipping option.

Unfortunately I cannot say the same for my ipod, I am still waiting.

I have used OSX before but only on computers in my high school doing graphics and pre-press work. I am still a big fan of windows but I am really like the powerbook, I got it for studying Graphic Design in university in september.

The compactness of it, and lightweight makes it so nice for doing work anywhere in the house on the wireless network. Expose is really nice, i am really starting to get used to that. Also picked up a Kensington laptop backpack for it. Networking between my Xp machines and this as well as printer sharing was a breeze. Have not done any gaming on it though.

 

[charlesc]

I ordered my Powerbook 15" 1.5 ghz with downgrade to combo, upgrade vram, and 5400 rpm hd.

This was on the 21st. It shipped on the night of the 22nd. Received the package after the weekend on the 26th. This was with expedite shipping option.

Unfortunately I cannot say the same for my ipod, I am still waiting.

I have used OSX before but only on computers in my high school doing graphics and pre-press work. I am still a big fan of windows but I am really like the powerbook, I got it for studying Graphic Design in university in september.

The compactness of it, and lightweight makes it so nice for doing work anywhere in the house on the wireless network. Expose is really nice, i am really starting to get used to that. Also picked up a Kensington laptop backpack for it. Networking between my Xp machines and this as well as printer sharing was a breeze. Have not done any gaming on it though.

Man.... I'm jealous!!!! I ordered my PB on 7/21 as well (at 2 a.m.) and live just down in San Diego.... Damn apple. However I have already recieved my 40gig iPod ALL THE WAY from Shanghi for cripes sake!!!! The phone rep told me the PB was being put together in Northern California and would go out of Sacramento...... That is only an eight hour drive..... I need this thing for my classes starting on 8/1. The guy I spoke with today was rude and told me "well they only shipped the iPod from shanghi, it wasn't a custom ordered PB".... I asked to please upgrade my shipping to overnight and they said they couldn't do it..... Man this sucks. Been a dedicated apple freak since '91. First ever problem like this I've had.

BTW, use Apple/Shift/arrow keys in safari to switch between tabs... makes browsing so much easier with multiple tabs up.

 

[yayfrogs]

PB 15" jumpy framerates

I also just got a 1GHz Radeon 9600 PB 15" and I notice that when playing games and running OpenGL demos there are sudden choppy pauses. My Rev A. PB 12" 867MHz with GeforceMX 420 Go graphics was smooth and didn't have this problem.

I put Energy Saver on Highest but the chop is still there. Reading the posts here I see others have this problem even with the 1.5GHz and Radeon 9700. Has anyone with a Radeon PB fixed this choppy frame problem?

 

[vraxtus]

I just bought a 1.5 gig 15 inch PB w/ superdrive, 512 ram, etc.

You guys are mostly right about the difference between the 1.33 and 1.5 being somewhat minimal for the huge price increase. The big differences are more out of box ram, bigger HD, backlit keyboard standard, and superdrive.

My justification? This computer will need to last me for 4 years of college, and a .17 percent increase in performance wont seem like much now, but in 4 years when everyone is running 5 ghz G6s, every little bit of performance/specs will be helpful.

Eh, whatever. I got a 90 dollar printer for free (itll be on ebay soon...) and a 15 gig ipod for 70 dollars (ditto on ebay), and the 200-300 I make off those, combined with the EDU prices I already got for the PB, will get close to closing the gap in the difference of prices.

If you want a computer to last you 4 years... a Powerbook is not the way to go.

I'm assuming you're going to be a college student? I'm currently going to be a 4th year student, and within that time I'm on computer #3. I've had several PBs throughout my lifetime, and as for lasting... I wouldn't recommend them.

I suppose I'm just more picky because I like to have a powerful machine. That said, the first gen dual USB iBook I bought in late '01 to take to college was a horrible mistake. It lasted me about 2 years before I got fed up with it's total lack of power. Prior to that, I had a 266 PB G3, which had more hardware problems than I could count. Failed HD, broken LCD light and hinge, broken CD drive, broken sound/power card, you name it. Prior to that, I had a Duo 280C, which at the time had to click pads, and one broke. Personally, I really enjoyed that machine the most. It was a decent speed, and extremely portable.

But now I've realized, if you need desktop power.... just get a desktop!

Laptops just don't retain the life that a desktop would, for the sheer fact that they are non-upgradeable... that and batteries need to be replaced every 2 years or so.

I have a 1.8 SP G5 that I absolutely love. I just bought a 12" refurb Rev B (1 ghz) which I find is GREAT for mobility ONLY. A 15" IMO is just not worth it in terms of lasting. It is however very convenient for on the road work, and if you are travelling between the office and home very often. For me the 12" has served well for the week or so I've had it, save for a billion kernel panics. But personally... if you REALLY want a computer to last... get a desktop.

 

[vraxtus]

a faster hard drive will make saving and opening documents go faster and opens applications quicker too. I don't think it has a big effect on games! for that you need to upgrade the graphic card.
I did the upgrade of the harddrive and gfx card when both were still $45 witht the educational discount...

You're partly correct.

http://www.barefeats.com/pb12.html

Since Mac's keep a fairly large part of the HD available for virtual mem, a low RAM system might see a significant speed increase with a faster HD in game performance. This is going to be due to faster page in/outs to the HD as used for virtual mem. The faster the boot drive access, the faster the machine will run, essentially. Graphics chips do matter, however VRAM doesn't always. A Radeon 9800 Pro 128 runs much faster than a Rad 9000 128, but they have the same VRAM.

 

[vraxtus]

Unfortunately, I only have 512 right now. I plan on getting another 512MB stick from Crucial when I amass the money to bring it up to 1GB. It's kind of hard to get money when I'm not even in high school yet. Hopefully that should fix the problem. I just hope the thing will run WoW when it comes out...

WoW Beta Reqs are:

1.0 GHz or higher, G4 or G5 processor.
512 Megabytes RAM or higher. DDR RAM recommended.
ATI or NVIDIA video hardware with 64 MB VRAM or more.
3 Gigabytes or more of available hard drive space.
MacOS X 10.3 ("Panther") or better

I'd personally be more concerned about running Doom 3... I'm betting my G5 won't be able to run it well at all, even with my Rad 9800 Pro SE 256 -_-

Also, after having had so many laptops... mobile gaming is a joke. No FSAA and AA really sucks!

 

[vraxtus]

Man.... I'm jealous!!!! I ordered my PB on 7/21 as well (at 2 a.m.) and live just down in San Diego.... Damn apple. However I have already recieved my 40gig iPod ALL THE WAY from Shanghi for cripes sake!!!! The phone rep told me the PB was being put together in Northern California and would go out of Sacramento...... That is only an eight hour drive..... I need this thing for my classes starting on 8/1. The guy I spoke with today was rude and told me "well they only shipped the iPod from shanghi, it wasn't a custom ordered PB".... I asked to please upgrade my shipping to overnight and they said they couldn't do it..... Man this sucks. Been a dedicated apple freak since '91. First ever problem like this I've had.

BTW, use Apple/Shift/arrow keys in safari to switch between tabs... makes browsing so much easier with multiple tabs up.

Well you should know that typically CTO orders have a lag time of about a week. You can't expect them to magically "make" your PB instantaneously. Don't forget, PB architecture is all integrated... they can't swap OEM parts so easily as you can a desktop... furthermore OEM parts also take longer to make and aren't always as readily available.

And I've been a dedicated Apple freak since the Apple IIe

btw what Univ in SD? I go to UCSD.