The Right Stuff??

[MILESAR]

So, This is 7 years in the making for me... If you have trouble waiting a few months for updates on a powerbook, iMac, powermac etc., try enduring 7 years of staring at apples through the windows (haha, thats a pun). Even better, try being an art major that works with them constantly, but can never work with them at home, ahh.

Well this is all about to end, and now I am faced with the decision of what I am going to get as far as Macs go, after all this time of try so desperately, its finally going to happen and I am going to get a Mac. So what to get?

I decided on something a month ago or so, and really have not questioned if its the correct thing for my needs, until now. With you guys being a good source of information, I thought I would try at seeing what you thought about my decision.

15" Powerbook, Superdrive, 1.67Ghz. no BTO

Heres what I am going to be working with...
(and will be working extensivly in Photoshop, Illustrator)
Adobe Photoshop CS
Adobe Illustrator CS
Adobe InDesign CS
Adobe GoLive!

As well as Microsoft office for the boring stuff (ugh)

I am also going to be doing some mild video editing later on once I am able to obtain Final Cut Pro, but it will not be its sole purpose.

Why a Labtop you ask? I spend my summers in Thailand running photography trips, so I need the mobility. This also means that the computer will be loaded with photos.

any insight would be great.

Also, what about portable harddrives? any reccomendations?

 

[h0e0h]

if i were you i would go BTO and up the RAM. Then i would add a firewire external HD... you can get one from ebay for pretty cheap. Then, if this is going to be a desktop replacement, i'd think about the BT 500 mouse from RadTech.us and an apple bluetooth keyboard. I would also add an iCurve to bring that puppy up to eye level, especially since you are going to be doing photo/vid editing. Good luck, and i use all of that stuff, so you can ask any of the questions you need...

 

[flyfish29]

Glad to hear you will get one of your own- but know the usual will happen

In a month plus 1 day there will be some sort of update to the powerbook you chose or a price drop. Wether you wait 7 months or 7 years (in your case) it will happen.

No really, great to hear this news- but you might really want to wait and see about the G5 powerbook if it ever really comes out. What you chose is super fast etc and if you really need it soon then go for it. I would up the RAM considerably and max out the internal hard drive so you don't have to worry about an external while traveling and use the external to back up - Of course while traveling so much with it I guess you should back up often to an external so I have just convinced myself you should travel with the firewire drive. Duh! What about an iPod Photo? Could use it to upload photos to directly maybe (didn't I hear apple released a cord for this earlier this week?) and be able to view them as well as play music and back up you photos?? Just an idea

Are you still a student? Make sure you get the student rates on your software (as well as the P-book) if you are.
good luck!

 

[mcgarry]

It might be too obvious, but don't forget that you can get RAM from someone other than Apple, even Crucial sometimes, for less. So if RAM is all you'll change, you can still get the stock model, not BTO, buy RAM elsewhere, and install it yourself. It's easy to do yourself, if you can use a (small) screwdriver. Instructions are here.