12-02-2004, 10:33 PM

Looking for your advice on buying Powerbook. I am new to Mac and tired of rebooting my Win Me everyday.

My needs:
1. Internet.
2. Photoediting by Photoshop CS.
3. Some DV editing.
4. Word/Excel
5. DVD burn for photos backup and DV.
6. Portability, may bring it on vacation to store photos, I shoot a lot.

Concerns:
1. I found 512M very borderline for running PSCS, I am using 1G ram and feel just ok. Upgrading needs an extra HK$2400, do people editing photos do the same? Or they upgrade by themselves?
2. Is 17" that portable? Or should I buy the 15"?
3. Some says the Powerbook is going to upgrade soon, should I wait for that?
4. It seems the high den era is coming, TV, DV, do you think I should consider this or is it just too distant to consider now?

Thanks a million.

12-03-2004, 12:21 AM

I suggest you wait until January. That's whe Apple's going to announce the new updated PowerBooks. Also, 512MB of RAM should be just enough, but if you want to be safe and go with the high specs, go ahead. You won't be making any mistakes. I would suggest the 15inch as that is what I will be getting soon, as well. The 17inch in my opinion is too big. The 15inch is just right, and powerful, hence its name. And yes, especially after the upcoming update.

12-03-2004, 01:41 AM

Originally Posted by Lasha

I suggest you wait until January. That's whe Apple's going to announce the new updated PowerBooks. Also, 512MB of RAM should be just enough, but if you want to be safe and go with the high specs, go ahead. You won't be making any mistakes. I would suggest the 15inch as that is what I will be getting soon, as well. The 17inch in my opinion is too big. The 15inch is just right, and powerful, hence its name. And yes, especially after the upcoming update.

Don't get your hopes up... I doubt there will be PowerBook updates in January.

12-03-2004, 03:56 AM

I visited a local dealer today, he "seems" certain that G5 update will be in or around June 05.

12-03-2004, 08:22 AM

I bought a 15" PowerBook 3 weeks ago and love it. It's the 1.5GHz model. I upgraded the RAM to 1GB, the videocard to the 128MB ATI card and the HardDrive to 80GB and this thing is quite powerful but very portable.

I can use Photoshop, Flash and Dreamweaver all running at the same time with no slowdown (no beachballs).

All the talk about the PowerBooks getting an upgrade in January are just rumors. Apple themselves have even speculated that a G5 PowerBook won't be likely until late next year if even that early. If there are any upgrades it most likely will only be a speed bump with the procesor from 1.5 to 1.67 or 1.7GHZ and a small price cut like they did with the iBook just recently. This is just my opinion of what I've seen and heard from various sources but I took the plunge and the PowerBook now as I needed a laptop and I don't regret it one bit.

Just my 2 1/2 cents.

12-03-2004, 08:43 AM

Yeah, the upgrades are just rumors, and I am under the definite impression that there are not going to be G5 PB updates in January. Maybe speed boost or a dual-core G4. I just decided that the update wasn't that big of an impact on the performace for me, so I went ahead and bought a 12" PB, and I love it. For your needs, I would recommend the 15. I do a lot of the same stuff, but I do it when I am at home and I use a separate 17" monitor to span across.

12-03-2004, 02:51 PM

I have the 17in and find it to be very portable. I also upgraded my RAM to 1.5 from newegg.com (it was only 217 dollars).

12-03-2004, 08:32 PM

Thanks for all the imput, I think I am going to get the 15" PB before Christmas. The dealer has a promotion of HK$1000 for a iPod 40G with photo viewer if I buy the 15"PB, I just not sure whether it is a good deal.

12-06-2004, 09:06 AM

If/When the G5 is released will how much will they drop the prices of the old stock of G4's? I also heard from the Apple Store that rumor has it July 2005 a G5 may be released and there was rumor a slight upgrade to the G4's this Feb.

But I'm wondering by next summer when/if the G5 is released will there be a price drop for the PB g4's and if so how much? I know last year they did that with the iBooks because they wanted to move the old stock out and they did it with the iMac G4's this past summer...

12-06-2004, 11:57 AM

IIRC, the price drop on the iBooks was only like $100. The iMac G4, they stopped selling about a month before the actual release of the new iMac G5.

01-04-2005, 06:04 PM

Originally Posted by danger_boy_13

Yeah, the upgrades are just rumors, and I am under the definite impression that there are not going to be G5 PB updates in January. Maybe speed boost or a dual-core G4. I just decided that the update wasn't that big of an impact on the performace for me, so I went ahead and bought a 12" PB, and I love it. For your needs, I would recommend the 15. I do a lot of the same stuff, but I do it when I am at home and I use a separate 17" monitor to span across.

u just said maybe just a duakcore g4 ummm thats a huge improvement and that will totaly cream his powerbook g4 1.5ghz if its is at 2ghz do u knoiw how fast that thing can go and do u know that a dual core g4 is faster than a single g5 actually way faster cause if a 1.42ghz dual g4 is faster than a single 1.6 at all things except for few and faster than the g5 1.8ghz single ant many things imagine it at 2ghz hahahah i would have wait but ur right no powerbook g5 untill a looooonnnngggggg time. But w.e. maybe im just crazy hahahah orrr maybe im just excited and cant wait till what apple realases.

01-04-2005, 07:41 PM

You do know there is a good difference between 'dual core' and 'dual processors' -- right?