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Rev c 12" powerbook or Rev A g5 powerbook?

S

Soc7777777

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 12, 2004
123
0
now here is my problem... i AM going to buy a powerbook in the next year and a half... i can wait that long, but not longer... right now i am choosing between the version now and the first g5 version (which SHOULD be out in a year from now)... what i am worried aboujt more than performance is heat... i know the g5s will be hot and i dont want to have to worry about using it while on my lap... so...

1. how hot do your powerbook 12"s run at?

2. how hot do you suspect the new g5s will run.. (think about rev A g4)

3. do you know of any software i could use for my windows notebook to check internal temp so that i have a basis for comparison becausee i have no idea what 50 degrees Celcius feels like on my lap.. but i do know how this dell feels (which i think its a good temp).

thanks for the help
 
oh yeah and what is considered 'normal' running temp for powerbooks... and what is the highest it can get without hurting it?
 
dopefiend said:
There will not be a powerbook g5. ;)
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yeah your right... i was at the apple store the other day and steve came in... i overheard him telling one of the managers at wwdc that the next powerbook revisions along with the powermac revisions are both coming at wwdc.... he said that the powermac was coming as at 2.4 2.6 and 2.8 ghz (all duel) and the said that the powerbook G5 is coming out at wwdc!!!!!!!!! he said that its coming out in a carbin form factor and come with 8x duel layoring superdrives and the 12" will sport a 2 ghz g5 and 15" will be either 2.2 or 2.6 and the 17" will be a duel 3 ghz g5!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GO APPLE STORE ST. LOUIS!!!!!!!!!
 
seriously though

can somone answer my serious question? and NOT talk about the release date of the g5 powerbook
 
Soc7777777 said:
can somone answer my serious question? and NOT talk about the release date of the g5 powerbook
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My 12" 1.33 only runs REAL hot when I play MOH. It can COOK. But the fan runs and seems to do a good job of dispersing the heat. Aside from that game and UT2003, it does not get very hot at all. Just my 2 cents.
 
there will be powerbook G5's much later this year like september since apple just updated the powerbooks in april
 
thehuncamunca said:
there will be powerbook G5's much later this year like september since apple just updated the powerbooks in april
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I am not putting anyone down or attacking anyone's intelligence, but G5 Powerbooks are not going to be released in September. They are not going to be released in December either. When Steve Jobs said "some time" he was referring to "some time" passing before they would have the ability to have liquid cooling to cool off the g5 in the Powerbook. It amazes me when people expect and say that the G5 PB will be out in "2 weeks", "in September", "at Christmas", "tomorrow". A year and a half or longer doesn't transpire in 4 months time. Patience is your virtue.
 
my 2 cents

i have a rev a. 12" PB and i have a few comments:

1) don't know how hot pc chips run but heat issues have been more of an issue with the more recent chips and the only reason the PBs feel so much hotter is b/c of the AL casing. I honestly wouldn't worry about heat as an issue... apple knows how hot these things run and i feel like they will learn from this generation of PBs

2) i would take other factors into consideration such as engineering or build quality. apple does some revolutionary stuff and takes a lot of risks in their designs... the early rev A 12" PBs had a problem with screw falling out of the display bezel! The early 15" PBs had a problem with white spots on the screen (a result of, i believe, the aluminum used in the casing, but i digress).

if you can, i would wait until the rev As come out and see what the initial user reviews are... then you could buy a state of the art PBg5 or a tried and true PBg4
 
Do you really need the power of a G5? If so, get a new PowerMac after WWDC. If not, buy a PB G4 now.

As far as when the PB G5 will come out? Who knows. But it is likely that it will be an entirely different chip than the 970 merely titled "G5." It may even be a Motorola Freescale chip.
 
titaniumducky said:
Do you really need the power of a G5? If so, get a new PowerMac after WWDC. If not, buy a PB G4 now.

As far as when the PB G5 will come out? Who knows. But it is likely that it will be an entirely different chip than the 970 merely titled "G5." It may even be a Motorola Freescale chip.
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that would be ideal
for once i think that apple should try to... uh oh... copy *cough* intel with their pentium m processor... i would pay ALOT of money for an apple powerbook running tiger with a processor as fast and as powersaving as the pentium m... it would be liek the best of 2 worlds.
 
I'm personally a fan of rev B and C's on all Apple Product lines.

There always seems to be issues with Rev A's especially in the first few batches.
-The 12 in Rev A screw issues come to mind
-the 15in Rev A (AL) splotch on the screen and not closing issues.
-the Awful early Ti paint chipping & I don't know how many broken hinges pop up on ebay for the Ti's

Generally Apple Rev A Products (and i mean generally) tend to be exciting yet have Hardware issues that only get addressed in the next revision or require the owner to return it to apple for a few weeks. Stick with a Rev B & C inmho.

cheers
 
The PowerBook is designed to operate at any amount of processing for any amount of time. It feels very hot because it has a metal casing - BUT this does a good job of dissapating the heat from inside. Therefore the case is hot, allowing it to be cooler inside (note I'm not saying the chip is cooler than the casing, i'm just saying it would be a lot hotter if the case wasn't metal).

It'll be fine. And my rev B 12" PB doesn't get that hot anyway. No need to worry.
 
cdp788 said:
i have a rev a. 12" PB and i have a few comments:

1) don't know how hot pc chips run but heat issues have been more of an issue with the more recent chips and the only reason the PBs feel so much hotter is b/c of the AL casing. I honestly wouldn't worry about heat as an issue... apple knows how hot these things run and i feel like they will learn from this generation of PBs

....
if you can, i would wait until the rev As come out and see what the initial user reviews are... then you could buy a state of the art PBg5 or a tried and true PBg4
Click to expand...

So in other words, don't get a rev A Powerbook G5. ;)

Seriously, don't. Putting a G4 in a new laptop casing wasn't all new. Putting a G5 into a PB casing would definitely be.

And just buy a 12" PB now, use it for 1.5 years, or 2+ years if waiting for the rev B, and make use of it now. No point wasting time for something better. There's always something better.
 
I thought you had a light weight little dell with an external optical drive that you were in love with. What happened?
 
Soc7777777 said:
now here is my problem... i AM going to buy a powerbook in the next year and a half... i can wait that long, but not longer... right now i am choosing between the version now and the first g5 version (which SHOULD be out in a year from now)... what i am worried aboujt more than performance is heat... i know the g5s will be hot and i dont want to have to worry about using it while on my lap... so...

1. how hot do your powerbook 12"s run at?

2. how hot do you suspect the new g5s will run.. (think about rev A g4)

3. do you know of any software i could use for my windows notebook to check internal temp so that i have a basis for comparison becausee i have no idea what 50 degrees Celcius feels like on my lap.. but i do know how this dell feels (which i think its a good temp).

thanks for the help
Click to expand...

My PB does not feel excessively warm/hot except when I access the hard drive alot (e.g. moving my music library over from my PC, installing software, etc.). Definately get more RAM - it dramatically reduces the hard drive access.

Regarding PC temps, Intel has a utility on their website. However, most OEMS disable the temp sensor. It doesn't hurt to try it out though.
 
tamara6 said:
I thought you had a light weight little dell with an external optical drive that you were in love with. What happened?
Click to expand...
contrary to popular belief on this website... it is possible to enjoy using both macs and pcs... i know how to take care of windows so it DOESNT crash on me... thats right doesnt crash and i dont get virus's... pcs are a tricky concept... if used correctly they are great machines... but only 1 percent of the populatoin knows hot to use one correctly... (plus i have adobe premiere pro 7.0 and studio mx with flash pro and i need a computer to use those on)... i plan on using two computer at the same time... im just waiting for wireless firewire to work out so i can access a hard drive from anywhere in my house and i dont have to have it plugged into a computer on the network.... thats going to be fun...

some healthy competitoin between macs and pcs are great... hell if it were not for the creation of the pentium m apple wouldnt have very much pressure to get a g5 in a laptop.... they might have had another 2 years of g4 powerbooks, but now they are getting their a$$es moving...

also, were it not for windows xp, apple might have been satisfied with jaguar till longhorn came out... but... xp came out and apple decidced that they HAD to have a better OS... so they have worked hard on it...

btw... dont make fun of me because i use a dell... make fun of me because my dell is lonely and needs a powerbook to play with...
 
What if there is a revision d of the current powerbooks before a G5 unit comes out. Especially the 12 inch unit, it seems like the 12 is always lagging behind the other 2 models. Seems all like a moot point considering "heat" discussions are about a product with no public plans yet.


BEN
 
Soc7777777 said:
also, were it not for windows xp, apple might have been satisfied with jaguar till longhorn came out... but... xp came out and apple decidced that they HAD to have a better OS... so they have worked hard on it...
Click to expand...

um, i don't think so. xp is nothing more than colored up version of 2k. apple was developing OS X on their own time. see how panther came out within a year and a half of jaguar, and probably a similar senario for tiger? xp probably didn't even make apple flinch. it just wasn't that big of a deal to apple.

if anything, M$ realized 2006+ is too late for longhorn, given the increasing prominence of linux and to a smaller degree, OS X. if anything, it's M$ having to move up their OS developmental cycle because of OS X, not the other way around. apple makes hardware, unlike M$, which wouldn't be in business if Office and windows weren't the cash cow they are now.
 
saabmp3 said:
What if there is a revision d of the current powerbooks before a G5 unit comes out. Especially the 12 inch unit, it seems like the 12 is always lagging behind the other 2 models. Seems all like a moot point considering "heat" discussions are about a product with no public plans yet.


BEN
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12" Powerbooks were released in sync with the 17" models the last 3 times. Only the 15" has had a slightly different release schedule since the first 15" Aluminum came out last September. Given Powerbooks and iBooks both were updated in April, the next expected update probably won't be until September at earliest, and maybe not till January. I've seen 9 month waits on Powerbook updates before.
 
*A LOT*, and I mean *A LOT* of things will happen in a year and a half's time. If you can afford it, buy the new computer NOW, and then resell it when it still holds most of its value when what you REALLY want is released. There is no point struggling along on old technology just for the sake of getting whats new. Heck, I just bought an iBook G4 in March, and I'm considering selling it and upgrading. Not because I dont' love it, but because it still has most of it's value, and I can upgrade to a much better machine without hardly spending a thing.

Dont' wait, buy it, then sell it, then buy what you want.

Now, if you can't afford it and you're just dreaming: I'd say get whatever you want. :)
 
michaelrjohnson said:
*A LOT*, and I mean *A LOT* of things will happen in a year and a half's time. If you can afford it, buy the new computer NOW, and then resell it when it still holds most of its value when what you REALLY want is released. There is no point struggling along on old technology just for the sake of getting whats new. Heck, I just bought an iBook G4 in March, and I'm considering selling it and upgrading. Not because I dont' love it, but because it still has most of it's value, and I can upgrade to a much better machine without hardly spending a thing.

Dont' wait, buy it, then sell it, then buy what you want.

Now, if you can't afford it and you're just dreaming: I'd say get whatever you want. :)
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i know it's personal choice, but i strongly disagree with the sentiment of frequent reselling and upgrading. it's a lot of time and effort involved and above all, it will never end.

i don't understand the sentiment about "struggling along on old technology" when you have an iBook. the least you could have done is get a powerbook - iBook was an old technology when you bought it because there were machines around that are better the moment of your purchase..?

i personally like to get what i like (with no re-selling in mind) when i like it and use it until something significantly greater/better comes out and getting it as a replacement in a few years time. incremental upgrading is a big drain on the time and money for what amounts to fairly minute upgrade in technology.

i have a rev. A 12" PB - i'm gonna use it until G5 is in a 12" PB and it's in rev. B. that will be a few years.
 
yeah your right... i was at the apple store the other day and steve came in... i overheard him telling one of the managers at wwdc that the next powerbook revisions along with the powermac revisions are both coming at wwdc.... he said that the powermac was coming as at 2.4 2.6 and 2.8 ghz (all duel) and the said that the powerbook G5 is coming out at wwdc!!!!!!!!! he said that its coming out in a carbin form factor and come with 8x duel layoring superdrives and the 12" will sport a 2 ghz g5 and 15" will be either 2.2 or 2.6 and the 17" will be a duel 3 ghz g5!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GO APPLE STORE ST. LOUIS!!!!!!!!!
Click to expand...

you... are.... wow. just... wow. please don't ever say something like that again, if you want to maintain any level of respect for yourself. or atleast say that you're kidding. there will not be a powerbook g5 in 2004. the powerbooks now are phenomenal. so take your pick. an awesome notebook, or waiting indefinitely for something thats not that much more awesome.
 
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