Should I buy a current Powerbook?

[whoson1st0]

I currently have a G4 1.2 Ghz (Upgraded from Sawtooth 400Mhz) with 896mb RAM/standard 16MB vid card, 200gb internal hd (between 2 HDs). I use it mostly for internet/mail/office/iLife apps (iphoto, imovie) - I dont' really play too many games, but I do like a computer that feels fast when using and moving between standard apps

I haven't used it much lately since it's set up in my bedroom and I spend most of my free time downstairs and in the living room so I have been using an old P3 Thinkpad which I have grown to hate. I REALLY want to get a 15" Powerbook, and I have $1700 from my tax return to use towards it, but I'm having doubts:

1)I am planning to move at the end of the summer, but I dont know how my new place will be set up (i.e. if my mac end up in the bedroom, I will use it much less than if I have it downstairs in the living room near the TV). I could end up buying the Powerbook just to end up using my desktop more!

2)Should I just wait till the next PB revisions? I know there is no way to know exactly when they will come out, what they will feature or what they will cost, but I'm one of those people who is always thinking their computer is obsolete the minute they buy it.

3)I could get a dual G5 for a similar price, perhaps that's the better investment? though truthfully I'm not sure if I need it...

Basically the left side of my brain wants the fun cool laptop that I've never had, and the right side thinks it's foolish to spend the money on a laptop that's not significantly faster than my current desktop but could significantly drop in value after the next revisions.

Can anyone offer me some advice to put me at ease??

Thanks!

 

[Erendiox]

1)I am planning to move at the end of the summer, but I dont know how my new place will be set up (i.e. if my mac end up in the bedroom, I will use it much less than if I have it downstairs in the living room near the TV). I could end up buying the Powerbook just to end up using my desktop more!

If thats the case you might want to wait till you move to decide. The powerbooks may be updated on WWDC June 6th (though it appears very unlikely). It seems more likely they will be updated at Macworld Paris in the fall.

2)Should I just wait till the next PB revisions? I know there is no way to know exactly when they will come out, what they will feature or what they will cost, but I'm one of those people who is always thinking their computer is obsolete the minute they buy it.

I know exactly how you feel. I've been contemplating a 15inch powerbook myself for some time now and through all the reading i've done on these forums, this is the general message i've gotten about the current powerbooks. The G4 chips are quick processors but they're being dragged out by apple in the powerbooks (which is supposed to be the professional level portable) because of the heating issues of putting a G5 inside. Right now, the powerbooks are excellent machines, but people seem really set on the day when they stick a dualcore G4 or G5 in there to really put the processing power behind the great software and features the powerbook provides. Unfortunately, like you said, theres really no way of knowing for sure when things are going to be releaced. The powerbook updates have taken a jump from their previous update pattern. We could see high speed powerbooks in a month or a year from now. No way to know.

3)I could get a dual G5 for a similar price, perhaps that's the better investment? though truthfully I'm not sure if I need it...

Basically the left side of my brain wants the fun cool laptop that I've never had, and the right side thinks it's foolish to spend the money on a laptop that's not significantly faster than my current desktop but could significantly drop in value after the next revisions.

It really depends on what you'd be doing on your computer. The current powerbooks will handle most tasks with flair. I have a friend that has the latest 15 inch with a gig of ram and the only time I see it ever slow down at all is handling and encoding huge movie files with iDVD. You wont be dissapointed with one. It also comes down to whether or not you really need the portability. With the powerbook, you're paying alot for portablility and sacrificing power. If you don't need it to be portable, you'll be getting alot more for the same amount of money in a desktop.

 

[Piarco]

Wow.. exactly what he said! I've had several of teh most recent powerbooks, and have been immensely happy with them. My current 15" has 1GB and as Erendiox mentioned about his friends 15", I can see no slow down at all. I mainly use my PB for the regular stuff - surfing, iTunes/encoding - and some work stuff, which is usually major spreadsheet work/database... and I'm very happy with it. If Apple did release some dual core PB's next month (or whenever they do) I'll be upgrading again, but I will be avoiding any G5 PB releases at least for the first 2 revisions - the heat aspect does scare me.

I recently sold on an iMac G5 (1.6ghz 512MB) and to me my 12" 1.5ghz PB with 768MB was nippier.... maybe just me!

I would say wait until the 6th (obviously!) and get a PB then. It'll do you proud until at least the new models come out, and if they do arrive in the autumn and are a completely new design, it'll be good until they release a Rev B

 

[MonkeySpank]

...it'll be good until they release a Rev B

It will still be good after they release a Rev B!

The only way to shake the feeling of your PC being out of date the instant you get it out of the box is to step off that treadmill.

I was exactly the same; never completely satisfied. The whole Intel-driven, Faster-Is-Better mantra affected me for years too.

Then last year I put another 1GB RAM into my 1.3 GHz P4 and saw it fly. It literally injected another year of life into that machine, and I still use it. And I still use my 800MHz P3 laptop, again with maxed-out RAM. Between them, they both still run Windows XP, Cakewalk, Reason, Office 2003, Dreamweaver, Eclipse IDE and Visual Studio.NET responsively enough not to get on my nerves. And I do get easily annoyed.

So, in retrospect, the urge to keep up-to-date was more of an addiction than a requirement for me.

I'm still waiting the delivery of my brand new 12" PowerBook, and Power Mac too, giddy in the expectation that I'll use the ass out of them over the next 3~4 years and feel I've got my money's worth. The almost-certain fact that the PB and PM will be superceded later this year bothered me quite a bit before I took the plunge. But I found it very liberating to just not give a damn any more. I must be getting old.

Hope this helps.

 

[whoson1st0]

Thanks for your advice! I actually bit the bullet and bought it today without worrying about what may or may not come down the line and for what price. It's amazing how great it looks when it's actually sitting on your lap vs those quasi-counters at the apple store.

Tiger didn't come pre-installed but it came with the install CD so I'll be doing that tonite...can't wait!

 

[TreeHugger]

Congrats on your new computer Enjoy it.

 

[MonkeySpank]

Thanks for your advice! I actually bit the bullet and bought it today without worrying about what may or may not come down the line and for what price.

Are you nuts! Don't you know there are even faster Macs coming any day now??

 

[oriol]

Are you nuts! Don't you know there are even faster Macs coming any day now??

i don't know why people care so much about what is coming. if u buy a car today tomorrow is going to be a 2006 model and if u get the 2006 model a 2007 is coming so...when u want/need something just get it, dont wait for future maybe is not a tomorrow for u. enjoy life today.

just got my PB friday OMG! amazing computer

 

[MonkeySpank]

...when u want/need something just get it, dont wait for future maybe is not a tomorrow for u. enjoy life today.

~chuckle~ That's what I said too.

just got my PB friday OMG! amazing computer

I'm still waiting for mine. It is included in an order with a new Power Mac and the whole shipment is late because of manufacturing delays on the Power Mac.