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Windows and Mac mix???

J

jrbsman

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 4, 2005
42
0
I've been coming to this site for about a year now and its always great to see the great advice you people give... so now I come to you in my moment of need.
I will be going to university next year but in 2nd and 4th year it is a joint program with a college in broadcasting. There are lots of Macs available at the school to use for projects but it would be nice to also have them on my computer, as well as being able to edit my own personal fun videos.
So, I am looking for a laptop to use on campus for typing and basic work that doesn't necessarily need to edit video. I also need a machine that will edit video.

My three options I'm considering are:
$1899 Canadian A) 12 inch PB with Superdrive, when I start getting into a lot of video next year i can get an external moniter and either span or mirror without a hack
$1891 B) 14 inch iBook with Superdrive, once again, can get another moniter but only can mirror without hack... and hard drive is only 60 GB and slower but more monitor space
About $1899 in total C) Get an eMac with Superdrive for video as well as cheap Windows laptop for light work.

These are my three ideas, if you want to give an opinion on any of them or make any other suggestions that would be great.

Thanks
 
Option A. The 12 incher provides ample power for what you need to do, and the external monitor will make it a better computer than the eMac, spec wise. As for the 14 inch iBook, the CPU is slower, graphics worse, resolution the same, and so much more. Get the PowerBook, and you will most definately not regret your decision. Oh, and if you get some money, I would suggest upgrading the RAM to 768 or 1.256. Good luck!!!
 
OryHara said:
power book, definatly

you wont want to do any real video editing on the emac
Click to expand...

I am curious why you say that?
Looking at the specs the 12" PB and an eMac w/ Superdrive are very similar

They have similar video cards (64MB) the eMac has a fast bus and harddrive. The Superdrive on the eMac is a dual layer and the PB is not.
The PB has a 1.5GHz PPC and the eMac is 1.42GHz. The big difference is can you live with a CRT screen. I would choose option A.
 
skubish said:
I am curious why you say that?
Looking at the specs the 12" PB and an eMac w/ Superdrive are very similar

They have similar video cards (64MB) the eMac has a fast bus and harddrive. The Superdrive on the eMac is a dual layer and the PB is not.
The PB has a 1.5GHz PPC and the eMac is 1.42GHz. The big difference is can you live with a CRT screen. I would choose option A.
Click to expand...
i used to love my old eMac 1.25 Ghz , it was dam fast at doing video as well

but too big too much noise and i just wanted a Powerbook hehe
 
You don't get any more monitor space with a 14" iBook, they have the same res as the 12" PowerBook and iBook, just that the pixels are bigger.

So a window that takes up 80% of the screen on a 12" 'Book will take up the same percentage of the screen whilst displaying the same amount of information.

The only advantage is that things look a bit bigger but I think the 14" screen is no where near as sharp and easy to look at as the 12" screen due to the size of the pixels - it all looks a little bit fuzzy.

Go for the 12" PowerBook and grab a nice and big external display - best of both worlds.
 
Price

Switzermac said:
why dont you get a 15 inch powerbook instead of the external monitor and 12 inch pb
Click to expand...

The price difference for me is just too much. As well, I was looking at the different models the other day and the 15 incher just seemed too big to carry around every day. I've got two 14 hour days each week at school so I want my computer but not to be bogged down. As well, if I get the extra monitor I can spread the cost out over two year and have screen spanning.

For everyone else, thanks for your help... I think the Powerbook is looking really, really good right now.
 
And now I have to decide again

Well I was all ready to go out and get the Powerbook this week and then Apple has to go and update the iBooks. Now I can get a 14 inch iBook with superdrive, 1 GB of RAM and 80 GB HD for only $1759. The only real shortfall I can see is a slower harddrive. I will be be getting an external HD for when I get into real video editing so I don't think the 4200 RPM will be a problem. I dont' really need the screen spanning that the PB gives you and there is a hack available anyway.

SO for $150 cheaper, from what I can tell, I am getting a better laptop than the 12 inch PB with superdrive.

Someone convince me to stick with my original choice.
 
jrbsman said:
SO for $150 cheaper, from what I can tell, I am getting a better laptop than the 12 inch PB with superdrive.

Someone convince me to stick with my original choice.
Click to expand...

I'm not totally familiar with the iBook specs but if you are going to be editing video I would double check the amount of video RAM the iBook has. I thought that the Powerbook has substantially more dedicated vid Ram than the iBook.
 
For video editing go with the Powerbook! The iBook is a great little machine, but it is the "consumer" laptop line, not meant for serious media editing. So if power over protability is what you want, go for the 15" PB, if it is the other way around, I'd go with the 12". But in the end it is still your choice.
 
12" Powerbook and virtual PC for $199 will suit your needs, I would go for the education discount price though. If you have enough money I would upgrade the ram for more multitasking....but that is about it.
 
iBook wins this round

Well after considering all your replies I was all set for the Powerbook but this latest update to the iBooks is just too good to pass up. I'm getting the 14 inch iBook with superdrive, upgrading the HD to 80GB. If it works fine for me then that's great, if not I will buy a 1 GB stick of RAM and it is still $150 cheaper than the PB.
HD speed isn't worrying me at this point since all real heavy video work will be using an external HD.

Order goes in tomorrow night hopefully and I will have officially switched to Macs forever.
 
Order is in

Well I put my order in tonight, can't wait to get it. I go on vacation this weekend for a couple weeks so I'll have a great gift waiting for me when I get home.
 
I am using it

Well I got home, had a great time opening the box, and starting it up. The size and speed are great. I even think the RAM is fine right now, and if later I want to I will upgrade it to 1.5 GB. Thanks for all your advice.
 
If you want a 12" Powerbook, I would wait for Paris in 3 weeks. That should be the model of Powerbooks that gets the most updates (ATI GPU, 512MB soldered on, etc).
 
Glad you are happy with your purchase. You can't go wrong either way, everyone just has their personal preferences in some cases. As long as it will do what you want, and you are happy, well then you are ahead of most everyone in the world. :)

Woof, Woof - Dawg
pawprint.gif
 
Kirbdog said:
I'm not totally familiar with the iBook specs but if you are going to be editing video I would double check the amount of video RAM the iBook has. I thought that the Powerbook has substantially more dedicated vid Ram than the iBook.
Click to expand...

Actually, video editing has pretty much nothing at all to do with the video card. Lots of video editing machines have pretty basic video cards. They're only used for playback. All of the editing work is done by the CPU. Hard drive speed and RAM also rank much higher for editing. The graphics card is just about the least significant concern, hardware-wise.

The PowerBook is probably a worthwhile purchase over the iBook, just for the faster hard drive and system bus. But neither is leaps and bounds better than the other, so go with the one that you prefer (price/appearance, basically). You'll need an external hard drive or two, and an external display at the very least. Keep in mind your only video input will be Firewire on the notebooks.
 
It just keeps working

Well I've been using it for the past day, bought a d-Link wireless router and its workign great and am currently finishing transferring over all my files, music, videos, etc. Multitasking is great, I can play nanosaur while doing heavy duty transferring, iPhoto is great, widgets are fun, I love it all.
Firefox for Mac seems a bit buggy but maybe I just have to get used to it.
My greatest moment came though when I did the simple task of burning a data DVD. I had bought a burner and DVD+RW discs last summer to user with my Windows computer and installing was hard enough but then it never burned a single DVD. The software sucked, it always crashed, it just didn't work. I popped the DVD in the Superdrive today, put 100 pictures on the disc, burned it and it worked! Went over to the DVD player, popped it in, and it worked! I've used eMacs at school for editing and thats how I found my love for them but you don't realize a lot of things until you truly own your own and can just use it in everyday life.
 
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