Hi, I was just wondering if any of you know if the quality issues with the 15" powerbooks have been addressed. I am talking about the latch, uneven lid, uneven battery, and the white spots on the screen. If they have not been fixed, do they all have that problem or is it only a certain percentage of them. Lastly, is there going to be a big percentage difference between the 1GHz and the 1.25GHz G4 processors in the two powerbooks. I don't really need a backlit keyboard, and I am planning on buying an external LaCie DVD burner, so I don't need the superdrive. In otherwords is it worth the extra cash for .25GHz. Any opinions would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
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Question On 15" PowerBooks???
- Thread starter jumpman25
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jumpman25 said:
See this thread:
https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=750093#post750093
Which contains a list of benchmarks printed in the December 2003 edition of Macworld. It compares the 1GHz 15" PowerBook (both the old TiBook and the new AlBook) with the 1.25GHz 15" and the 1.33GHz 17". The extra 250MHz does make a difference (or put it another way, the CPU is a full 25% faster in core clock speed), but whether that difference is big enough to warrant the price difference for you is a question only you can answer.
Other things to consider are that the 1.25GHz 15" PowerBook also includes AirPort Extreme as standard (it's an option on the 1GHz model), comes standard with 512MB RAM (only 256MB on the 1GHz) and has an 80GB hard drive standard (versus 60GB on the 1GHz). When you consider the costs of these things (plus the extra 250MHz clock speed, the SuperDrive and the backlit keyboard), you might decide that the 1.25GHz machine is actually better value. You would need to upgrade the 256MB RAM on the 1GHz machine straight away if you wanted to do any serious work with it...256MB is OK on Mac OS X for light use, but you'll quickly be into swap if you have more than a few serious programs running at once.
Apple has a way of deliberately structuring their price points and gradually increasing the included components so that you naturally tend to drift upward in what model you are prepared to pay for...very clever (or cynical) marketing, depending on your point of view.
Sorry I can't comment on the quality issues with the 15" PB...haven't owned one, or used one except to play around with one at an Apple dealer (and as you can tell from my sig, I went with the 12" model anyway
)
if you purchase it new on apple.com you can opt to downgrade your 1.25ghz Powerbook from a Superdrive to a Combo drive (it will adjust your price to save $200)
unfortunately you can't opt out of the backlit keyboard.
you can also reduce the HD size to 60GB and save $75.
i think the 80GB is worth the extra coin,
as oingoboingo mentioned, you will need 512MB anyways, the airport built in is worth it, and 25% more CPU can only be a good thing.
so a new 15" 1.25ghz with a Combo drive and a 60GB HD would cost $2,324 at apple.com at least you can configure it closer to your budget, and retain the CPU power.
and if you are a student or federal employee.. you'll save a few hundred dollars more.
unfortunately you can't opt out of the backlit keyboard.
you can also reduce the HD size to 60GB and save $75.
i think the 80GB is worth the extra coin,
as oingoboingo mentioned, you will need 512MB anyways, the airport built in is worth it, and 25% more CPU can only be a good thing.
so a new 15" 1.25ghz with a Combo drive and a 60GB HD would cost $2,324 at apple.com at least you can configure it closer to your budget, and retain the CPU power.
and if you are a student or federal employee.. you'll save a few hundred dollars more.
jumpman25 said:
I bought one right after xmas and its working fine, get the backlit keyboard, you might not think you will need it but it makes a big difference at night, its great. You need a superdrive if you want to use iDVD if not than don't get it. The more power the better, you can never have to much power in your processor.