powerbook buying advice for a pc user...

[recoilfx]

okay, i never thought this day would come, since i have always been a pc fan but recently i have been more and more impressed by os x, and since i am currently pissed of @ my centrino, i am looking to buy a powerbook...

I am thinking of getting the 15", 1.33ghz with combo drive for $1799(with educational discount )

I have couple questions...
first, how warm do the palm rests get? This is the reason why i am gettign rid of my current centrino, the palm rests run too hot for me(especially in this summer heat), i feel like my entire body is sweating when i touch those palm rests....

second, i have a 60 gig 7200prm hard drive from my current laptop, can the powerbook's hard drive be replaced with that without voding my warrenty?

third... has there been any doom 3 benchmarks released for macs yet?

edit: oho yeah, how fast is the reponse time for the lcd?

 

[BakedBeans]

okay, i never thought this day would come, since i have always been a pc fan but recently i have been more and more impressed by os x, and since i am currently pissed of @ my centrino, i am looking to buy a powerbook...

I am thinking of getting the 15", 1.33ghz with combo drive for $1799(with educational discount )

I have couple questions...
first, how warm do the palm rests get? This is the reason why i am gettign rid of my current centrino, the palm rests run too hot for me(especially in this summer heat), i feel like my entire body is sweating when i touch those palm rests....

second, i have a 60 gig 7200prm hard drive from my current laptop, can the powerbook's hard drive be replaced with that without voding my warrenty?

third... has there been any doom 3 benchmarks released for macs yet?

edit: oho yeah, how fast is the reponse time for the lcd?

palm rest heat - ok, it depends what your doing... if your doing some reallly graphics intensive work then you might feel the heats a fair bit, however, if your searching the net, writing a document things like that then you wont feel them (or at least i dont)

hardrive- i dont think YOU can do it with out voiding the warrenty, however your not going to be able to use any of the stuff you got on there even if the h/d does work...so that will probably a no no...(feel free to correct me guys)

doom3 - if you want to use doom3 alot the next step up to the 15inch superdrive with the 128mb graphics card would be alot better suited, powerbooks are not really gaming machines, although the new ones are getting very good at it...

tell me what will you be using the powerbook for mainly

 

[recoilfx]

mainly for work.... illustrator, photoshop, indesign and etc....

about not beign able to use anything on it.. r u saying i cant install panther with it? or that all my pc data is not useble, the first would be fatal, the latter is non-issue

well i know that doom 3 runs decently on my 1.7ghz pentium 735, 512mbs, mobility radeon 9700 128mb... if a 1.33ghz g4 can match a 1.7ghz p735, doom 3 should be no problem running at low detail mode... i hope, fingers crossed!

 

[paxtonandrew]

okay, i never thought this day would come, since i have always been a pc fan but recently i have been more and more impressed by os x, and since i am currently pissed of @ my centrino, i am looking to buy a powerbook...

I am thinking of getting the 15", 1.33ghz with combo drive for $1799(with educational discount )

I have couple questions...
first, how warm do the palm rests get? This is the reason why i am gettign rid of my current centrino, the palm rests run too hot for me(especially in this summer heat), i feel like my entire body is sweating when i touch those palm rests....

second, i have a 60 gig 7200prm hard drive from my current laptop, can the powerbook's hard drive be replaced with that without voding my warrenty?

third... has there been any doom 3 benchmarks released for macs yet?

edit: oho yeah, how fast is the reponse time for the lcd?

Palm rests, well as it is winter here in Australia i like to heat my PowerBook up before i use it, as the Aluminum is cold to touch when the computer is cold, but when warm, never been to hot, and i Fold, so my CPU is always on 100% use.

I have never felt the 80 gig 5200 rpm Hdd to slow in my computer, and if there is a 7200 rpm 80+ gig Hdd out soon, I will upgrade. The warranty, well, if you get a qualified person to do it, the warranty should be good.

Doom 3, well barefeats has nothing on Doom 3, so I can't tell you, but if you did get the 1.5 gig with the 128 meg Graphics card, i believe that it will run very nicely. I got the 1.33 ghz because the 1.5 seemed needless to me, as i didn't need all the power, and I couldn't find the use for a SuperDrive ( I have a Lacie external DVDrw, which is faster than the Superdrives, and mine is also a Dual Layer)

The screen is very nice, fast and better than my work Dell LCDs (and they are connected to workstations) so that is saying something. I believe it to be fast and smooth without drawing too much power.

I hope this helps, and know that you will be very happy with your PowerBook, whichever way you go.

 

[brap]

I hope this helps, and know that you will be very happy with your PowerBook, whichever way you go.

Hm, I'm not so sure. Doom 3? Doesn't that tax the hell out of the PCs it's played on? I'd not be comfortable saying "Sure, it'l be great!" when we all know that Macs, especially G4s really suck for gaming. Being brutally honest, while the 1.7GHz Centrino is supposed to be around the same performance as the 1.5 G4, it's not - especially in the gaming department. You have DirectX, and a heck of a lot more software optimisations for the PC you simply don't get on the Mac. You'll not notice a slowdown in Photoshop, Indesign, Flash, Quark, or whatever pro app you want to mention, but for games... you'd be better off buying a cheap PC desktop.

 

[gekko513]

I'm using the previous revision of the 12" powerbook and the palm rests can get quite warm.

I dont't know about the new revision though. From what people say, it seems like the new processors with better powertune technology don't get as warm.

 

[JCT]

As in "in-progress" switcher, I agree with brap 100% . I own a Voodoo PC centrino laptop, haven't booted the thing since I took delivery of my 17" PB . A recent PB is an excellent intoduction to the world of Mac and OS X . Just be prepared to give up on WinXP (except for gaming). Doom3 has not been released for the Mac and current souped-up PCs can struggle with it. I would not depend on a PB for serious gaming, at home we now have a "gaming-only" PC. RPGs and RTS games run great on my PB and even on my daughter's iBook. For my old laptop drives I have purchased external Firewire enclosures. They make some small, fast ones. I use one for backup and Photoshop scratch. Works great. One of the greatest things about PBs (as opposed to PC laptops) is the excellent array of powered ports. REAL 6-pin FW, none of the usual unpowered 4-pin PC FW crap that requires yet another power adapter. Go for it! JT

 

[jsw]

about not beign able to use anything on it.. r u saying i cant install panther with it? or that all my pc data is not useble, the first would be fatal, the latter is non-issue

He's just saying that you'll need to reformat it.

As others have said, you can install it yourself, which voids the warranty, or have an authorized Apple repair shop do it, which doesn't. However, as was also mentioned, the 5400 RPM drive is pretty nice (Barefeats likes it), and means no possibility of messing up your new PB.

 

[SolidGun]

A lot of you are concerned with your palm burning. You should consider Targus Chillpad (coolpad?) I use it now and it is keeping my PB cool (it is the latest revision so I guess it may be cooler than others' to begin with).

If you want to play Doom 3, you should consider the current line of powerbooks with Radeon 9700 for mobile computers. As good as they are, Doom3 is designed to push the graphics card, not all processor. If you want intense gaming, you want a desktop if you want stable computing on the go, you get Powerbook/iBook.
I do recommend 15" over 17" from what I have seen at the Apple store. I don't think 17" would fit in my Ogio Capitalist backpack.

As for your other HDD, I would get a hardshell case for it to be a Firewire/USB2.0 external HDD. If you have the 2.5" HDD, you can pick up a good aluminum case with connectors for like $20. I use all my old laptop HDD's for this and I have quite a collection of portable HDDs.
Just upgrade the HDD to 5400rpm BTO when you place your order. Also, don't get the Apple RAM (except the built-in one upgrade since you can't do this yourself).

 

[recoilfx]

thanks for the replies guys...

i checked the 5400rpm upgrade @ apple'sstore is over $130.... man.... thats wayy too much... ive been blessed by 7200rpm, i dunno if the slowpoke 4200rpm will drive me insane where can i find a apple service center, i poked around @ the apple's site, but no info... do all the stores that carry macs are automictally service centers?(im thinking of compusa...)

if worse comes to worse(since i am really trying to get evertyhng under $1900), i might get a 12" instead... from what i know, the last revision for the 12" was really hot, what about the current one?