New PowerBooks this Week?

[mrgreen4242]

Well, I really hope that they improve the 12" as well as the top of the line systems. They don't really even need to increase the 12" cpu speed, just go to the 166mhz fsb and 333mhz ram, and also upgrade the video card (the GeForce5200Go is pretty weak, imo). Would be nice if they changed from 256megs onboard to 2-DIMM slots as well. Basically I want the current 15" in a 12" case. Of course, a 1.25ghz or something wouldn't be completely unwelcomed...

Rob

 

[eclipse525]

If it's true, it's lame. I'm tired of all these stupid little performance increments. It's all marketing bullCrap to squeeze out as much of the G4 line as possible and people get sucked into that marketing trick. I say they shouldn't bother and wait alittle longer till it's something substantial. Let's say, like the "G5 PB". IMO...


~e

 

[Tomaz]

Would be amazing if that were true. I much rather want a truly optimized PBG4 than the first version of the PBG5. And I wanna buy now, not in a year.
Just hope for quicker superdrive, quicker HD, ATI9700 and 1.5 GHz.
Is the new IBM G4 Chip less energy consumptive? Can we expect more battery life?

Anyway, Yippeee! (hopefully )

 

[morkintosh]

Seems like the 12inch is already near its heat dissipation limit -

I love my 12" for all nighters, when the sun start coming up I just fry my eggs on the left-front side and keep on working ...

 

[eSnow]

Actually based on that, Apple could have enough processors for a while. I mean how many batchs of 10,000 would they need to meet production demands?

Roughly one per day .
According to this Think Secret link , Apple was selling around 216.000 laptops in Q2/03 - I believe numbers should be higher now.

Of course, as shown by the iPod mini where they obviously bought one or two 10K hard disk batches, one never knows with Apple - but the more likely thing is they wait for volume production to release products based on those chips.

 

[johnnyjibbs]

I would have thought something new will arirve tomorrow. Either PowerMacs and PowerBook G4s, or Power Macs followed by PowerBooks and iBooks soon.

 

[_pb_boi]

Argh!

I'm going to the USA on 13th April, and what'll I be picking up? A pb 12in while I'm there. I'm well scared now - they're gonna update within weeks after, even if it's only a minor speed bump - should I go ahead with the purchase? It's only because of the exchange rate between USA and UK that I can afford it. What do you reckon? Or should I wait, and swallow the 90USD minimum shipping charge to the UK? I'd probably order from macmall.com if I order online.

Andy

 

[mrgreen4242]

I love my 12" for all nighters, when the sun start coming up I just fry my eggs on the left-front side and keep on working ...

rofl. That hot is it? I've heard they were scorthers, but haven't used the 12" PB myself.

Isn't the new Moto G4 supposed to run cooler at hight clock speeds?

Rob

 

[DreaminDirector]

I, too, am going to by the next update with or without the G5. And I agree with Tomaz which I'd rather buy an optimized problemless Rev C G4 PB instead of a buggy Rev A G5. I just wish that one of these rumors of updates were true.....

 

[mrgreen4242]

I forgot to ask, but do you guys think that the price structure will stay the same, go up, or go down? I'm guessing it would go down slightly, as this won't be a huge upgrade, so alot of the compenents (case, psu, screen, memory, etc) won't change, and should go down in price. (Hm... if it went down just a tad I sould afford a 12" combo, 15gb iPod, and a 512MB aftermarket ram upgrade!)

Rob

 

[tangenjm@mcmast]

. . . of course!

The powerbook trade-in program ended on the 27th of March - of course they will upgrade the PB line tomorrow! As well, the consumer laptop line is far too close to the pro line right now. All signs point to a speed bump tomorrow.

 

[klaus]

I just wish that one of these rumors of updates were true.....

True, everytime a rumor about a possible update comes to my sight.. I get my hopes up, and to this date, none came true (except the drop in displayprice, but not completely -> rebate when purchased with G5).

It makes me tired.. off course, this isn't apple's problem, since they have nothing to do with these rumorsites..but still

 

[atari1356]

Here's my speculation on what the new SuperDrive models will be. (hopefully with faster SuperDrives, and a small drop in price as shown)

12" SuperDrive
$1,699.00
12.1-inch TFT Display
1024x768 resolution
1.25GHz PowerPC G4 (Motorola 7447, 167MHz FSB)
512K L2 cache
256MB DDR333 SDRAM
40GB Ultra ATA/100
ATI Mobility Radeon
9600 (64MB DDR)
Backlit keyboard???
10/100BASE-T Ethernet
FireWire 400
AirPort Extreme Ready
Mini-DVI out


15" SuperDrive
$2,499.00
15.2-inch TFT Display
1280x854 resolution
1.42GHz PowerPC G4 (Motorola 7447A)
512K L2 cache
512MB DDR333 SDRAM
80GB Ultra ATA/100 (5400RPM)
ATI Mobility Radeon
9700 (128MB DDR)
Backlit keyboard
Gigabit Ethernet
FireWire 400 & 800
AirPort Extreme built-in
DVI & S-Video out


17" SuperDrive
$2,899.00
17-inch TFT Display
1440x900 resolution
1.5GHz PowerPC G4 (Motorola 7447A)
512K L2 cache
512MB DDR333 SDRAM
80GB Ultra ATA/100 (5400RPM)
ATI Mobility Radeon
9700 (128MB DDR)
Backlit keyboard
Gigabit Ethernet
FireWire 400 & 800
AirPort Extreme built-in
DVI & S-Video out

 

[Snowy_River]

I would have thought something new will arirve tomorrow. Either PowerMacs and PowerBook G4s, or Power Macs followed by PowerBooks and iBooks soon.

Well, given the current discounts, etc., I really wouldn't hold your breath for the PowerMac being updated too soon.

 

[eSnow]

Here's my speculation on what the new SuperDrive models will be. (hopefully with faster SuperDrives, and a small drop in price as shown)

Can you say "lackluster"?

 

[atari1356]

Can you say "lackluster"?

"Lackluster" compared to the current models... yeah, just some minor improvements.

"Lackluster" compared to my 500MHz Pismo? Not at all, I'd buy the 15"

The current 15" just doesn't seem like that good of a value, but those improvements would be enough for me to drop the cash on one.

 

[rdowns]

Here's my speculation on what the new SuperDrive models will be. (hopefully with faster SuperDrives, and a small drop in price as shown)

12" SuperDrive
$1,699.00
12.1-inch TFT Display
1024x768 resolution
1.25GHz PowerPC G4 (Motorola 7447, 167MHz FSB)
512K L2 cache
256MB DDR333 SDRAM
40GB Ultra ATA/100
ATI Mobility Radeon
9600 (64MB DDR)
Backlit keyboard???
10/100BASE-T Ethernet
FireWire 400
AirPort Extreme Ready
Mini-DVI out


15" SuperDrive
$2,499.00
15.2-inch TFT Display
1280x854 resolution
1.42GHz PowerPC G4 (Motorola 7447A)
512K L2 cache
512MB DDR333 SDRAM
80GB Ultra ATA/100 (5400RPM)
ATI Mobility Radeon
9700 (128MB DDR)
Backlit keyboard
Gigabit Ethernet
FireWire 400 & 800
AirPort Extreme built-in
DVI & S-Video out


17" SuperDrive
$2,899.00
17-inch TFT Display
1440x900 resolution
1.5GHz PowerPC G4 (Motorola 7447A)
512K L2 cache
512MB DDR333 SDRAM
80GB Ultra ATA/100 (5400RPM)
ATI Mobility Radeon
9700 (128MB DDR)
Backlit keyboard
Gigabit Ethernet
FireWire 400 & 800
AirPort Extreme built-in
DVI & S-Video out

Just where are the 1.5 chips coming from? The 1.4s are shipping in sample quantities only and the 1.5s are not supposed to ship until late summer.

 

[DreaminDirector]

True, the updates may be lackluster, but they're also a new update, which I'd rather buy over a model that has been sitting around for over 6 months.

 

[Stoffel]

Yea, come on. I _need_ a 12" with backlit keyboard. The sooner the better. The g4 is a good cpu. I don't bother about a g5 in the pb. This will not happen this year, I guess.

 

[atari1356]

Just where are the 1.5 chips coming from? The 1.4s are shipping in sample quantities only and the 1.5s are not supposed to ship until late summer.

Just hopeful I guess. If the 15" models go from 1.25GHz to only 1.33GHz, that would be pretty disappointing. I don't see why they don't just put the fastest processor available in all 3 sizes of PowerBooks, or at least make it a build-to-order option.

 

[ZildjianKX]

Motorola did release the 1.5 GHz 7447A not too long ago, so I wonder if Apple will be able to take it to 1.6 or 1.7 GHz?

Ya mean overclock them like they did the powermacs?

 

[Bear]

Apple does not overclock CPUs

Ya mean overclock them like they did the powermacs?

The CPUs that Apple use are rated (and marked) for the CPU speed they use them at.

Go read up on how processor chips are tested (been discussed at length in other threads previuously) and then speed rated.

 

[Bear]

Roughly one per day .
According to this Think Secret link , Apple was selling around 216.000 laptops in Q2/03 - I believe numbers should be higher now.

Of course, as shown by the iPod mini where they obviously bought one or two 10K hard disk batches, one never knows with Apple - but the more likely thing is they wait for volume production to release products based on those chips.

If you presume all 216,000 laptops are Powerbooks and will all use the new chips, then it's rought 10,000 pieces every 3 or 4 days. I suspect with that many laptops, it's probably 10,000 every 10 days or so. So, they may be able to get enough in sample batches to go 2 or 3 months until volume production kicks in.

 

[ffakr]

Based on the speculation of no new PowerMacs upgrades to the portable line make sense. For the upper level PowerBooks which are already on Radeon Mobility 9600s the only realy upgrade is to a Mobility 9700. This is not really a lot faster.

This is actually quite uninformed. The Mobility 9700 is quite a bit faster than the Mobility 9600. The Mobility 9700 competes very favorably with the Deskop Radeon 9600 cards.. making it, by far, the fastest mobile video chipset.
http://www.tomshardware.com/mobile/20040203/index.html

In some of the benchmarks at Tom's Hardware, the Mob 9700 was marginally faster than the Mob 9600, but in quite a few others it was 25% to 30% faster than the Mobility 9700. In gaming, this can often be the difference between smooth and annoyingly unplayable (which it proved to be)

 

[ffakr]

The CPUs that Apple use are rated (and marked) for the CPU speed they use them at.

Go read up on how processor chips are tested (been discussed at length in other threads previuously) and then speed rated.

It's almost fruitless to try to explain this at some point. Some people just insist on believing that Apple shipped overclocked machines when the chips in the Macs were properly graded by Moto at Apple's published speed.

The reality was, Moto was publicly announcing availability of one speed level to buyers (1.3 I believe) but shipping 1.42s to Apple. No one bothered to consider that Apple got ALL the 1.42s because of Moto's poor yields and Moto didn't need to advertise an unavailable speed grade to other potential customers.