Powerbook

LundiMardi

Just applied for a 15'' Powerbook by finance via CompuB, over E2000..

Have i made a good decision, i was thinking of getting a 14'' ibook for a fraction of the price, but... but... it's not a powerbook:)

What do ya'll think? What are my other options? This will be used for music recording and editing, as well as the usual stuff, so i do need a rather hi-spec machine

LundiMardi

actually, thinking about it, the iMac G5 looks like a beast of a machine compared to the powerbook and it's cheaper, but i guess the portability is an issue too.

WexCan

The iBook is pretty sexy IMO. Had a friend in the same situation recently, he went for the iBook in the end.

Then again I'm not an Apple user so...

Chewbacca [14-12-2007]

Powerbooks are absolute beasts and If you can afford it, for editing they are second to none. I mean, you need FCP and if you need portability...you've made the right choice.

Thumper Long

woyld you not go for the macbook pro, it looks like it will be the future as the 15 inch powerbook will be discontinued very soon, and soon all the apps will have binaries that allow them to run native on the dual core setup

WexCan

Ah, there's that too. Typical me thinking about how sexy a particular inanimate object is

LundiMardi

Thumper Long wrote:

woyld you not go for the macbook pro, it looks like it will be the future as the 15 inch powerbook will be discontinued very soon, and soon all the apps will have binaries that allow them to run native on the dual core setup

would the mac book be a big improvement on the powerbook? i don't see a huge amount of difference in specs? although i'm not 'up' on macs tbh...

WexCan

LundiMardi wrote:

would the mac book be a big improvement on the powerbook? i don't see a huge amount of difference in specs? although i'm not 'up' on macs tbh...

The PowerBook would generally be considered the better of the two, I would have thought.

rainbow kirby

Well in terms of reliability, then definitely PowerBook over iBook. If you're looking for something right now, I'd also go with the PowerBook over the MacBook Pro, because the vast majority of applications you'll be using are native PPC.. not Universal binaries, which means that on the MacBook Pro they'll be running under Rosetta. This saps any performance advantage gained by the Intel processor.
When you're ordering, just make sure that you go for the minimum amount of RAM possible from Apple, then order from somewhere like Shop4Memory, because you'll save a fortune.

Thumper Long

All the main apps will receive intel driven binaries so that they wont need to be emulated under rosetta, the PPC based apps will essentially be redundant with very little future development on the PPC platform as apple are switching all the systems to intel based processors, the macbook pro is a far faster machine than the powerbook and will only show its true potential with the recompiled apps

LundiMardi

mmmm, Can anyone answer in English please?:D PPC, PVC, DVD, all means the same to me!

WexCan

LundiMardi wrote:

mmmm, Can anyone answer in English please?:D PPC, PVC, DVD, all means the same to me!

PPC is the traditional Apple processor type. Intel procs and Apple procs (PPC - PowerPC) are built differently and operate differently. Basically what they're talking about is the compatibility of differnt applications with either proc type.

LundiMardi

so, at the end of the day i would be better off with a macbook because the powerbook will soon be 'obselete' and the macbook is the 'new boy in town'.

Is that the general jist?

WexCan

LundiMardi wrote:

so, at the end of the day i would be better off with a macbook because the powerbook will soon be 'obselete' and the macbook is the 'new boy in town'.

Is that the general jist?

Pretty much, basically what rainbow Kirby is saying is that some apps might only be available for PPC, so to run them on a macbook they would have to be run using an emulator which would slow performance back down again. Thumper Long on the other hand is saying that most apps will be rewritten so this won't be a problem.

LundiMardi

macbook pro it is so:D

WexCan

LundiMardi wrote:

macbook pro it is so:D

As I said before though, see if you can give one a go first and see what ya think. MacBook is probably the "future" now anyways.

LundiMardi

to be honest, i've never owned a mac, use one yes, used one extensively no... I think using a mac, regardless of the model for the first time would be a tad confusing anyway, so i doubt it would make much difference to my final decision.

Ah sure twill be grand sure;)

LundiMardi

ok, it doesn't look like i'll be getting finance through Compu B as they usually want people who are homeowners or small business's etc...

So what else is there that i could get?

WexCan

Homeowners? For something so small? Jeez.

Try a couple of different stores, ask what their finance is like. Maybe look at a personal loan from a bank or else just save.

david

Save! I never ever would get a loan for something like a laptop, a mortgage? yes, but not a laptop. By the time you have the loan payed off youll have paid a couple of hundred in interested and the machine will hardly be worth half of what you paid. Rapid depreciating goods like consumer electronics and loans do not mix. It's much more satisfying knowing that you paid for the laptop anyway rather than having yourself in €2k+ of debt.

LundiMardi

i can't really take a loan out at the minute, finance is just the easiest option tbh... I'd have it paid off in months though so the interest wouldn't really matter..

WexCan

LundiMardi wrote:

i can't really take a loan out at the minute, finance is just the easiest option tbh... I'd have it paid off in months though so the interest wouldn't really matter..

Try shopping around then, I'm sure someone will take ya

LundiMardi

yeah, not a huge amount of places selling macs though, I might take a trip to PC World in Liffey Valley tomorrow, but the one time i've been there they didn't have a wide variety....

WexCan

LundiMardi wrote:

yeah, not a huge amount of places selling macs though, I might take a trip to PC World in Liffey Valley tomorrow, but the one time i've been there they didn't have a wide variety....

PC World rarely do. Kinda a no-win situation really.