Powerbook

daram

I just about have enough money to buy a laptop and Im probably gonna go for a 12" powerbook. Anyone any thoughts on whether this is oor isnt a good idea?

My main uses for a laptop are pro-audio recording, video editing, digital photography, website design, games, internet and for college (so portability is a must).

RE*AC*TOR

daram wrote:

Anyone any thoughts on whether this is oor isnt a good idea?..............games

well mac's aren't much use for games, seeing how 99% of games are windows only.

daveJAM

RE*AC*TOR wrote:

well mac's aren't much use for games, seeing how 99% of games are windows only.

Oh dear, you didn't just say that did you?

Lets see if I can list some mac games off the top of my head.

Battlefield 1942 Deluxe
C&C Generals
Halo
Age of Mythology
Doom3
Call of Duty
Splinter Cell
Quake 3
Halflife

There's loads more and it's been a while since I checked so there's probably even more now. Check out www.aspyr.com

One of my favourite quotes from the mac board is:
If you buy your software in Tesco, then, no there aren't much programs available for the mac.

daram

I've considered the whole gaming thing, and decided that its not that important to me. I wouldnt mind being able to install counterstrike. But apparently you cant. Its not that big of a concern for me.

Fenster

daveJAM wrote:

Oh dear, you didn't just say that did you?

Lets see if I can list some mac games off the top of my head.

Battlefield 1942 Deluxe
C&C Generals
Halo
Age of Mythology
Doom3
Call of Duty
Splinter Cell
Quake 3
Halflife

There's loads more and it's been a while since I checked so there's probably even more now. Check out www.aspyr.com

Lets not forget Wine either...

RE*AC*TOR

daveJAM wrote:

Oh dear, you didn't just say that did you?

Lets see if I can list some mac games off the top of my head.

Battlefield 1942 Deluxe
C&C Generals
Halo
Age of Mythology
Doom3
Call of Duty
Splinter Cell
Quake 3
Halflife

There's loads more and it's been a while since I checked so there's probably even more now. Check out www.aspyr.com

One of my favourite quotes from the mac board is:
If you buy your software in Tesco, then, no there aren't much programs available for the mac.

sorry... 95% so.

anyway, mac are good for all the other things you listed, plus they look really nice, but for the money you'd probably get a fantastic pc laptop. Choice is yours, I'm not a mac or pc fanboi, for the primary reason of more available software, i'd buy something like an acer aspire with an AMD 64 and a ATI 9700 mobile gpu.

Chalk

just for fun i went to amazon
4441 pc games
221 mac games

so that would split it 95:5

daveJAM wrote:

Oh dear, you didn't just say that did you?

Lets see if I can list some mac games off the top of my head.

Battlefield 1942 Deluxe
C&C Generals
Halo
Age of Mythology
Doom3
Call of Duty
Splinter Cell
Quake 3
Halflife

There's loads more and it's been a while since I checked so there's probably even more now. Check out www.aspyr.com

One of my favourite quotes from the mac board is:
If you buy your software in Tesco, then, no there aren't much programs available for the mac.

RE*AC*TOR

Cheapest powerbook: (apple.ie)

Eur 1,813.79
(Eur 1,499.00 ex VAT)
Image
12.1-inch TFT Display
1024x768 resolution
1.33GHz PowerPC G4
256MB DDR333 memory
60GB Ultra ATA/100
NVIDIA GeForce FX
Go5200 (64MB DDR)
Full size Keyboard
10/100BASE-T Ethernet
FireWire 400
AirPort Extreme Card & Bluetooth built-in
Mini-DVI out


High(ish) spec laptop (elara.ie)

ACER - (LX.A2005.060)

Aspire 1622LM Pentium 4 3.0Ghz, Microsoft« Windows« XP Home, 512MB (2*256) DDR, 60GB, DVD-RW (Dual), ATi Mobility Radeon 9700 64MB VGA, 15.0" XGA, Modem, LAN,

€1,275.80 (inc vat)
€1,054.38 (ex vat)

So with the pc you get twice the ram, a better GPU, a bigger screen, and a dvd writer. For a person on a budget (like me) there's only 1 choice. There are other considerations though, like software, the processors aren't directly comparable, but I'd put my money on the 3.0ghz P4.

daveJAM

Chalk wrote:

just for fun i went to amazon
4441 pc games
221 mac games

so that would split it 95:5

Yeah, but most of the popular ones, i.e. the ones you're going to want to play are available for Mac.

Capt'n Midnight

Fenster wrote:

Lets not forget Wine either...

Wine on a MAC , I'm impressed
[basilisk]

RE*AC*TOR

daveJAM wrote:

Yeah, but most of the popular ones, i.e. the ones you're going to want to play are available for Mac.

smile and nod. smile and nod. back away slowly dougal....

daveJAM

Jeez. Ok, lets just agree that there are quite alot of mainstream games available for the Mac, not just crap ones like most Mac bashers would have you believe.

deevey

How about an Ibook maxed out instead, Its a much more durable machine, espessially if your going to be carrying it around alot.

for the 600 euro difference ... get yourself

1 gig of ram (from shop4memory and you'll need it for music) bout odd
Airport extreme (yeah i know builtin with the PB) bout 79 with apple order

spend the extra 250-300 on a tasty outboard soundcard or midi equipment (I like the new behringer soundcard / midi controller)

I was in this dilemma up till last week till I did a lot of soul & google searching .. and finally decided i'd take the plunge with one soon instead of a PB and retire my aging powerbook from intensive work

yes you'll sacrafice 32 megs of video memory, TBH doesnt sound like you'll need it.

my $0.02

Steve C

heggie

Dont mind the mac haters here, they are brilliant laptops. I'm mainly a pc user, but have a 12" powerbook and it is sweet. dont go by the numbers either, a 1.33 G4 is alot more powerfull than most if not all of the intel chips u can get. Build quality is fantastic, no bits sticking out of them either, slot loading cd drive, great screen.

As for ibooks, had the g4 one of them before too, and its fairly similar, u dont get the addons like bluetooth, airport extreme (wifi) but if yer not gonna be stressin it out then that would probably do ya. Oh, and if u can wait u might be better waiting a month or so, cos theres a new version of OSX soonish out and I reckon the 12" will be upgraded to a 1.5 ghz soon too (all speculation on the cpu tho)

daram

Sounds sweet. Ill probably wait a month anyway cause I havent got the cash. Im gonna go for the powerbook one cause i like the bluetoothness and the wifiness. I just seems to do everything. And its small. The only problem I have with the acers is that they're quite big. Gonna stick with the 12".

deevey

Hrm, just did some comparisons ... and I'm still feeling the Ibook comes out tops p.s added an 80 gig drive to both..

Ibook 12' G4

1 GHz PowerPC G4
12-inch TFT Display
1024x768 resolution
256MB DDR266 memory + 1 gig from third party +300 euro
80GB Ultra ATA drive
DVD/CD-RW drive
Full size Keyboard
10/100BASE-T Ethernet
Firewire 400
ATI Mobility Radeon 9200 32MB DDR video
AirPort Extreme Card & Bluetooth built-in

Eur*1,716.99 pushed as far as you can push it !


Powerbook 12' G4

12.1-inch TFT Display
1024x768 resolution
1.33GHz PowerPC G4
256MB DDR333 memory
80GB Ultra ATA/100
NVIDIA GeForce FX Go5200 (64MB DDR)
FireWire 400
DVD/CD-RW drive
Full size Keyboard
10/100BASE-T Ethernet
Mini-DVI out

1,995.29 - without any ram upgrade! and 256 is just not enough

Not going to try to put you off the powerbook if you really think you need the extra .33ghz, pcmcia, 32 megs on the video, they are loverly machines ...but sounds as though you have some sorta budget simply looking at possibly better performance options for your cash

laters

Steve

daram

If you buy third party ram do you have to install it yourself...

monkeyfudge

I have 7 of the 12" iBooks in work here. They are lovely little machines. But they don't have the audio Line In that you have on the PowerBook. And also with a PowerBook if you are hooked up to a projector or external monitor you can use the display on the powerbook to mirror the other display or act as an extension, I don't believe you can do this with the iBook.

I use a 15" PowerBook myself. I love the light up keyboard... hehe...

RE*AC*TOR

yes, but installing ram is no more difficult than putting a cd in the cd drive, you don't have to take the laptop apart or anything, there's usually just a small slap that comes off the back, put in the ram, flap back on.

deevey

yep, installing ram is simply a matter of lifting the keyboard (2 switches in the top of the keyboard) and putting it in the slot, yes you can do the same in the PB as well, but an extra 300 on top of the base price brings it to whopping 2300 euro and not even a DVD-R In sight yet!

The Ibook will happily do dual monitor spanning (just do a seach for "ibook spanning hack" in google) and mirroring as standard, to present the second screen onto TV / LCD etc...spanning is only a feature disabled in the driver to make the PB look even more attractive than its gleamy shell already is :P

Agreed - no line in, but if your anyway serious about recording (note: "pro-audio recording" on first post) you'd get a decent external soundcard / midi controller for the difference, somthing you'd need to do for the PB anyway as well.

Also consider the 80 gig drive, or you'll soon find you need more space, and unless your fairly handy with a screwdriver and dont mind invalidating your warranty i'd do it from the get-go espesially if your doing audio or video ,I'v managed to half my 40 gig in just a few weeks with video, and had to move my audio to an external drive.

laters

daram

I already have an external 24bit soundcard. So the line in isnt a neccessity. But better to have it all the same.