Which Is The Better Buy: Titanium PowerBook vs. 12" PowerBook

[LaMerVipere]

My Video Production teacher basically uses her laptop for doing grades, surfing the web, and that's about it, and its in perfect cosmetic condition. She has:

15" PowerBook G4 (Titanium)
1GHz processor
1GB of Ram
60gig HD
Superdrive
Airport

She says she would sell it to me if I wanted it, and the price she is asking is the same price (with edu discount) as a new 12" PowerBook G4.

Which would be faster?

I couldn't afford to put a lot of ram in my 12" PowerBook at first if i opted for that, and the larger screen on her PowerBook is soooooo nice.

Which do you think would be the better buy? Thanks in advance!


–LMV

 

[quagmire]

I would say the 12 inch. Great for portability, you don't have to worry about the paint chipping. I would think the 12 inch would be faster.

 

[yoda13]

In my opinion, the case on the aluminum powerbooks is tougher than the case on the Tibooks as well. I have had both at some point, and my 12" PB seems to be holding up much better. Just my two cents

 

[Bhennies]

Get the 12"...you can always get an external monitor if needed (and this is coming from a 15" owner). From what I have gathered on this site, the 12" screensize is sufficient for just about anything but serious pro-apps (graphics, music and video). I almost bought a 12", but then upgraded because Pro Tools needs much screen space.

 

[virividox]

get the 12; the 15 is a great machine but not worth the new 12s

 

[neonart]

For the most part these two machines will perform similarly. Technically the Ti has 256 L2 and 1MB L3 with a 64MB Radeon 9000. The 12" has 512MB of fast L2, but no L3, and uses a 64MB Fx5200 Go.
Because it's newer technology and it's pushing less pixels, the 12 may feel (and actually be) slightly faster. But make sure both have the same optical drive.

Here is the main things to consider:
15" TiBook:
Larger Screen, Higher Pimp Factor

12" AlBook:
More Portable, More Sturdy, Newer Technology

 

[wide]

get the 12 inch. it's faster and newer, and comes with one year of free applecare. your teacher's tibook probably doesn't have any warranty left.

Or, you could try to talk her down to 1200 maybe, and then sell it on eBay and get possibly 2000 for it. Then you could get a maxed out albook 12 inch or a lower end 15 inch.