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Powerbook 12 or 15

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xfactor11391

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 18, 2005
22
0
I can't decide whether to get a 12 inch or a 15 inch powerbook. I will be surfing the internet, playing World of Warcraft, word processing, and sometimes watching movies. I would max out the ram on the 12 inch, 1.25 gb, upgrade hard drive to 100gb, and add superdrive. On the 15 inch I would upgrade ram to 1 gb, upgrade video card to 128mb, and uprade to 100 gb hard drive, with a combo drive. Any suggestions?


P.S. Anyone know where to get ram for models and should I get low power ram?
 
I have sed both PB's and i can tell you everythign you need. First, do you have an external monitor that you could use with the PB? if so then it does not matter which one you get since you could play it on a big screen. If you dont have the extra screen then teh 15" would be a better pick. I cant play WoW on my 12", the screen is very small for it, i do play on my 17" andi have no problem what so ever. My friend has the 15" and he is does not mind, he told me that it runs ok with the 15". If i had to pick one i would go with the 15", the extra screen space will help.

+ I think i read somewere that the 15" is has a better res then the 12", thou i am not sure.
 
Get the 15".

I just saw my friends 15"pb that he got on Friday and that screen is a lot nicer than my ibook 12" that I got in Nov (which people have said is the same screen as the 12"pb). Even wiht the 15" pb at the lowest brightness setting, it was almost like putting my ibook at the highest.

And the illuminated keybaord thing is just totally cool. Yesterday was my first time seeing it in person.
 
Get the 15. The 12 will seem too small. Are you going to be using this as a desktop or are you actually going to be traveling? If it will be stationary more of the time, it's even more worth it to get the 15. And for the ram i would also recommend www.crucial.com it seems to be a favorite on these boards.
 
idle.... chit chat..... search.... forums....

p.s. The 12 in screen (I own one) is really too small for text intensive work. The capacity for text editing or browsing is really limited compared to the 15.
 
I will mostly be using it stationarily, but I am going to Italy this summer and I don't want the battery dying with 10 hours left on the flight. Anybody know about low power ram?
 
I bought the 15" because of obvious reasons: good price, better features, and excellent screen size. I used a 12" for a few minutes and the screen was way too small for things that I do. I edit a lot of video and burn DVD's using DVD Studio Pro so the screen would be way too crowded.

I considered the 17" but in the end was out of my price range. Not to mention it's not as easy to carry around as the others. I settled on the 15" and I am very happy with it. The screen size is perfect for editing in Final Cut Pro HD and making my DVD's. Watching movies is great, the screen is big and bright, and the backlit keyboard is sooooo cool.
 
I do not have an external monitor right now but could possibly get one with 12 inch. Is the 128 mb video memory worth it in the 15 inch?
Also I just found out that you can order the 1.67ghz without a superdrive, would drop cost $160
 
xfactor11391 said:
I can't decide whether to get a 12 inch or a 15 inch powerbook. I will be surfing the internet, playing World of Warcraft, word processing, and sometimes watching movies. I would max out the ram on the 12 inch, 1.25 gb, upgrade hard drive to 100gb, and add superdrive. On the 15 inch I would upgrade ram to 1 gb, upgrade video card to 128mb, and uprade to 100 gb hard drive, with a combo drive. Any suggestions?


P.S. Anyone know where to get ram for models and should I get low power ram?
Click to expand...

Hi XFactor,
I would definitely recommend getting the 15" PowerBook. I initially purchased a 12" PB with the idea that the portability aspect would be great, but it turned out that I was extremly unhappy with the display quality and size. From personal experience, the 12" screen quality turned out to be very sub-par, and if you want to play WoW on your laptop, the superb display on the 15" would suit your needs very well. Also, with the increased screen real-estate, you will appreciate having the 15" over the 12", unless you prefer having your Priestess of the Moon to be granular in size. Since monetary concerns don't seem to be evident here, my recommendation is to go with the 15". This seems to be the popular sentiment among other posters for this thread, as well. If you have any questions, feel free to message me. Good luck!
 
Jon'sLightBulbs said:
idle.... chit chat..... search.... forums....

p.s. The 12 in screen (I own one) is really too small for text intensive work. The capacity for text editing or browsing is really limited compared to the 15.
Click to expand...

You're right. 🙂 I think this is the 3rd thread in just a few weeks on the very same subject and probably one of 50.

You'll like the 15.2 inch. I chose it over the 12 inch.
 
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