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Student laptop?

0098386

0098386

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Original poster
hey everyone, im a PC user at the moment but i have seen the light i suppose you could say! im ready to sell it now and coupled with my student loan i have a nice tidy sum of £1140 i can spend 🙂

anyways ive been interested in buying myself a little 12" PB since october but decided to hold out for an upgrade. BUT! now everyones talking about there possible upgrade this week i've asked myself; do i really want one?

my original reason was because it would run CoreImage and video, and it had a line-in, slightly more powerful video card (i wont be playing many games but Halo is a certainty), and it looks beautiful in that aliminium case.

only now i hear that the iBooks graphics card is totally possible to run CI and CV, this alone planted a seed of doubt in my mind. leaving me with 2 options;

1) wait for this PB update, i kinda need a mac computer. Windows keeps crashing on me, well not windows but Photoshop, Word etc. it would be a 12" model with no extra options just yet.

2) buy an iBook at the weekend and be done with it. sell it off for half its price or whatever to some random relative/mate and use that to help buy a rev B G5 PB next year or whenever.

im a multimedia student so id be doing a lot of image editing, sound production and video editing. which is why the PB attracted me firstly with its slightly faster speeds. it would have to be a 12" machine because i do a lot of travelling too 🙂
...and i get things VAT free (sometimes help out in a local computer shop and instead of paying they just let me buy things 17.5% cheaper 🙂 ) so things are already pretty cheap.

SO! my advice to you is what would you do in my situation?
 
I'd go with the 12 inch powerbook. I have one and it's awesome! Especially for what you're doing, you're gonna need every bit of power you can get. As much as you take that faster ram for granted, it will affect your performance. I have owned both an ibook G4 and a powerbook G4 (with the same amount of ram). Let me tell you, after switching to the powerbook i noticed a significant improvement in load time. Powerbooks also have better resale value if you think you're gonna sell it sooner than later. Hope this helps! 🙂
 
my next project starts around mid-feb, incidently its a team one too and my probable crew include 3 iBook users so to be connected to them wirelessly *sigh* 🙂

if they dont update till then ill probably just get the current model 12" PB. until G5 or Dual Core there probably wont be any major speed boosts... right?
 
raggedjimmi said:
my next project starts around mid-feb, incidently its a team one too and my probable crew include 3 iBook users so to be connected to them wirelessly *sigh* 🙂

if they dont update till then ill probably just get the current model 12" PB. until G5 or Dual Core there probably wont be any major speed boosts... right?
Click to expand...

There will be one before the G5 hopefully. 🙂
 
Hey, im kinda in the same pickle as you. I'm looking to get one for graphic design and to replace my old tired Blue and White G3 300. From what ive seen so far, from playing with them at the CompUSA, the 17" is HUGE. Nice, beautiful, but HUGE. Not somethin you'll wanna be dragging around to all your classes (plus then the battery probably wouldnt LAST that long), 12", is ultraportable, good battery life, pretty impressive, but the screen is too small to run like Photoshop on, its even hard to browse the 'net with it. 15", from what ive used, is like if the 12" and the 17" got married and had a baby. It has the best of both worlds. Decent battery life, widescreen, upgradeable VRAM, faster G4, higher RAM limit, etc. Its a fantastic machine. But thats my opinion. Hope this helps 😎
 
i have the 12 inch Ibook and i run photoshop and final cut pro on it and i really think it's faster than my 3200 mhz windows pc with the same amount of ram..sounds awkward but it really feels faster...donno why though! 🙂 and anyone that really needs more speed than that should go for the powermac i think..!
but i'm n ot a pro user so i donno how much speed a real photoshop or finalcut session needs.. i have 512 ram and i would want to have a little more..so u should probably get the ram maxed out to either one of the *books!
 
12"

get the 12" powerbook. the 17" is just too big to lug around everywhere. Sometimes I get tired carrying my 12". In my program everyone brings a laptop to every class and the 17"ers just look ridulous (may be just because they're pcs....). Seriously, 17" is just too damn heavy and the 12" is perfect sized.

Make sure to buy a good case.
 
cheers for all the help everyone 😀

ive just ordered some 512mb RAM from Crucial so 768 should be plenty in a PB *guessing*, and from all the feedback here i probably will opt for the PB too.

heres to an update soon! 🙂
 
I would do go with the 12" PB, its great for moving around and will do the job you want done. Tell us how it goes.
 
As a student myself, I can say that the ibook is very rugged. I have heard (not witnessed) that powerbooks will scratch easily. I have an iBook and have no complaints as far as the speed or anything. I would agree that the powerbook will have better resale value, and is a little faster. I can tell you as a recent switcher to mac, switch as soon as possible. Macs are great because everything just works so much better. 🙂 🙂 just my .02
 
lfielder06 said:
As a student myself, I can say that the ibook is very rugged. I have heard (not witnessed) that powerbooks will scratch easily. I have an iBook and have no complaints as far as the speed or anything. I would agree that the powerbook will have better resale value, and is a little faster. I can tell you as a recent switcher to mac, switch as soon as possible. Macs are great because everything just works so much better. 🙂 🙂 just my .02
Click to expand...

I've owned both, and I can say from experience that the ibook scratches much easier. Mine had like a gazillion scratches on it from just putting it down on hard surfaces 😱! My powerbook, however, after having it for about the same amount of time, doesn't have one! Of course if you smash both against a rock, i think the ibook would sustain less damage. But who's gonna do that…I'm almost afraid to ask. 😛
 
The iBook would be fine, but you might want to wait a week or 2 to see what happens with the P'Book. The 12" will probably just get a speed bump to 1.5, but it may get a better video card and price drop. Especially if you get the combo drive model, it will be worth it over the iBook.

Otherwise, Apple US has a 10 day return policy. You can either return it for a 10% restocking fee or get a credit for what you payed over the new cost. So if you buy at $1599 (not sure what it is in the UK), and the new model is $1499, dropping your model down to $1399, they'll credit you $200. You'll have to ask them for details though, this is not a well advertised policy for obvious reasons.
 
solvs said:
The iBook would be fine, but you might want to wait a week or 2 to see what happens with the P'Book. The 12" will probably just get a speed bump to 1.5, but it may get a better video card and price drop. Especially if you get the combo drive model, it will be worth it over the iBook.
Click to expand...

I agree, the current Powerbooks have been end of lined, which should mean an update is due soon. I agree with the above that it is likely to be a G4 speedbump only, I don't think we will see a G5 in the powerbook until either the 4th Quarter or next January.

I would suggest you wait a couple of weeks
 
raggedjimmi said:
my original reason was because it would run CoreImage and video, and it had a line-in, slightly more powerful video card (i wont be playing many games but Halo is a certainty), and it looks beautiful in that aliminium case.

only now i hear that the iBooks graphics card is totally possible to run CI and CV, this alone planted a seed of doubt in my mind. leaving me with 2 options;

1) wait for this PB update, i kinda need a mac computer. Windows keeps crashing on me, well not windows but Photoshop, Word etc. it would be a 12" model with no extra options just yet.

2) buy an iBook at the weekend and be done with it. sell it off for half its price or whatever to some random relative/mate and use that to help buy a rev B G5 PB next year or whenever.

im a multimedia student so id be doing a lot of image editing, sound production and video editing. which is why the PB attracted me firstly with its slightly faster speeds. it would have to be a 12" machine because i do a lot of travelling too 🙂
Click to expand...

Firstly, you won't notice a speed difference between the current 12" iBook and 12" PB. None. I don't even know why you'd pay the difference to get the PB right now, and this is coming from a 12" PB owner. The difference between when I bought MY 12" PB around 1.5 years ago, and your situation is that there is so little difference in specs between the 2 current systems. 400 quid is a big cost difference.....around $950 Canadian.

I'd wait for the update, but chances are that the 12" goes 1.5GHz G4. Believe it or not, there isn't a huge difference in real world performance between a 1.2GHz and 1.5GHz G4. It may save you 1 or 2 seconds on a large processing task. Also, the screen resolution is the same between the 2 systems. If the 12" gains the ability to upgrade the video card to something better, AND you upgrade to the faster HD, then paying for the 12" PB may be worth it.

But it sounds like you want the stock 12" PB, and the price difference for the stock 12" PB isn't worth it over the 12" iBook. With the 400 quid you'd save by getting an iBook now, you could sell the iBook in 1.5 years, take the 400 quid you saved to pay the difference between the sale of your old iBook, and a new, faster iBook in thats better than any PB you can get right now.
 
iLove my 12" PowerBook. iDo PhotoShop work on it. iConnect it to an external monitor sometimes, but other times iJust deal with it and use Exposé. Which doesn't work out too bad. And it is so SMALL its great. You bring it everywhere and its five. 5:30 max out of my battery. I've seen iBooks with less. And the keyboard is great... I upped the RAM to 768MB total, and it flies.

This was bought before the iBooks were so good however...
 
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