05-31-2004, 05:04 AM

hi

Sorry for my lack of apple knowledge (soon to be learning) but i am also thinking about switching from a pc to a powerbook. After browsing and some much reading, i decided to ask this...how would a g4 1.33 par up to a say a 1.6 pentium M? I remember reading in a thread that a 867 was higher than a p4. I was configuring both windows and a 12" powerbook out and really torn between them.

Also another concern was windows emulation. Ill be taking c++ next yr for college(second yr now) and highy think that there is no c++ program for apple. So how does the emulation actually work? im still kind of unsure of how the emulation would work.

Thanks for all your help

edit: also iv read from the 12" specs that it only has 2 usb 2.0 and 1 firewire. is this true?

edit: also i have an external hdd with all my videos and music and i would have to convert that to support mac format right? would i have to lose all my files or is it just a matter of changing format (like fat32 to ntfs)

05-31-2004, 02:23 PM

When the G4 first came out the 867 in tests was shown beating a 1.7ghz P4.
I have a 867 powerbook and a 2.2ghz P4 and for most tasks that I do (Video Editing, DVD Creation, Photo editing) my powerbook is faster than my desktop P4.

I am pretty sure you do not need to buy anything extra to use c++. I am pretty sure it can all be done in Terminal or X11 which come with the macs. If it doesnt you would have to get VirtualPC (if there is nothing available). VPC loads like a program and it emulates a Windows OS so you can install Windows programs in it. These programs can be sluggish if you don't have enough memory and 3d rendering is not supported.

Powerbooks have 2 USB 2.0 ports, 1 FW400 and 1 FW800 Port

You can not just change the format of the HD. When you reformat it loses all the data on it. You would have to transfer the files off of the HD to something else before reformatting. I haven't changed my HDs in a while but I am pretty sure OS X can read FAT32 disks but I am not positive

05-31-2004, 03:18 PM

You can't really compare the two, it's like comparing apples to oranges.... The macs use a different architecture than PC's so they operate differently in how data is moved. I have seen posts saything that a much slower mac (mhz) is around 3 times faster than on a pc.

VPC with Win2000 runs pretty good on mine. I need it for Autocad from time to time (when Out of town on business). XP can be a huge drain on VPC and even on a 1ghz iBook (a friend has it set up like that) and XP Pro and it is slow, slow, slow..... But if you can live with 98SE or Win2000 then it works pretty good.

Yes only two USB and one Firewire. I know that there are USB hubs that you can use and I imagine that there are also Firewire so if you need more ports....

The mac can read PC formated disks without any problems. PC's can't normally read Mac formatted disks but there are programs that will do this, Transmac comes to mind and there are others if you do a search. On the mac there is no need for another program....

05-31-2004, 04:01 PM

can ntfs drives be read by macs? havent sorted my external hard drive out yet.

05-31-2004, 04:01 PM

alright so my drive is still fat32 cause i never got around to make it ntfs so tahts good.

also i realize that u cant compare macs to pc processors and you answered my question in high regards and i thank u for that. basiclly what i would use any notebook for it seems that a mac would suit my purpose better, flash dreamweaver, music, word processing etc.

the emulation question is settled and thanks to u two i can use the needed programs.

next: some of my friends have macs and they were complaining about how the new powerbooks are still using the old g4 whereas they should have come out with a g5. are the powerbooks upgradable cpu wise? like would the new powerbooks be g5 capable?

on a side note i have though about that reading like trpnmonkey41 said how a 867mhz was still faster or as fast to at the time current p4s so the speed difference wouldnt be much from a g4 to a g5

05-31-2004, 04:10 PM

Im not really sure about NTFS being read by OS X but I am not sure

G5 is a great processor but I don't really think the total power of it is useful yet. When Tiger comes out it will probably be optimized for 64bit which is where the power will really take over. Right now the only program not made by apple that has 64 bit optimization (to my knowledge at least) is Photoshop. I know FCP has 64 bit optimization and I haven't looked into all the new programs (Shake, DVD Studio etc)

05-31-2004, 05:10 PM

I'm almost positive the Mac developer tools support C++.

06-01-2004, 07:49 AM

Just found out that NTFS can be read by OSX, but it's read only, so hopefully i can transfer all my video footage onto my powerbook, reformat the external hard drive and transfer it all back.

06-01-2004, 11:00 AM

If you have a external HDD, so you just need to flug your HDD in your Mac to coy files to your Mac.
Else if you have A PC and Mac connect to a Local Network, you just simply share your C or D, and connect your Mac to your PC. Then transfer files to your Mac, this way takes more time than the first one, but it is easiest way to do this.

To connect to PC , go to finder click on "Go" menu then select "Connect to Server". After that type in smb://pc ip address (eg. 192.168.0.3) in the address bar. Then click connect, select share folder and OK. Now HDD on PC is mounted to your mac as Network Drive. Browse your file same as you are on your PC. If you enable all permissions for your HDD (In the sharing settings) you can even delete files & folders even your disk is NTFS.

I think this should help.

06-01-2004, 03:20 PM

Right, according to a few reports i've read, pentium-m's do run at a lower speed than a pentium 4, but they have more processing power. I've known for a long time clock speeds dont determine how fast a computer runs, i've seen pentium 1.5's crap all over 2.8's many a time, thats down to other components such as RAM, etc. All i can say is that you'll never see a p4 with a clock speed higher than 3.6, intel have said they've hit a brick wall with the heat output and power consumption, plus they dropped work on two new chipsets to concentrate on the P-M's, and ahem, dual-core processors, hmm, now where have i seen this idea before?

All i can say is, Apple have always been ahead in the game, doesn't suprise me that others want to copy something so good, and before some of you say anything about how biased i am, i'm a long time user of windows, a short time user of mac, but always been a long time mac fan, just took me time to get my powerbook.

Ezekel, Pentium-M's may have a slower clock speed but thats because it doesnt use so much power, but that doesnt mean it's faster than Pentium 4's/Athlon Amd's. My Acer runs with a Athlon 2.8 chip, this beats my friend's Pentium-M 1.7 by a good mark, but my 1.33GHz Powerbooks beats my 2.8 Acer Aspire by a good mile. And this is the opinion of a regular windows user, soon to be regular mac user.

06-01-2004, 04:19 PM

right i knew the pentium-M's always ran at a lower clock speed depending on what processes u are using. thanks for the great info everyone.

currently im configuring a 12" powerbook with 80gb hdd for about 1515 with student discount, and i have a coupon for the apple store.

the wifi comes standard on the powerbooks right?

06-01-2004, 05:50 PM

yes they do.

06-02-2004, 11:45 AM

Yeah, if you're planning to switch from a 1.6 Ghz P4 PC to a Powerbook, it's definitely possible that you might not get a faster computer, but maybe rather a slower one. And, if you're getting a Powerbook, it's probably best to avoid the 12.1" model. Look at this: http://reviews.cnet.com/Apple_12_1_i...pn=1&fb=2&ob=0


Out of twelve reviews, not a single positive one! I remember some people saying bad speakers....The bigger Powerbooks can fix that problem. They probably improve on other stuff as well.


I know, these reviews really disturb me as well.

06-02-2004, 11:56 AM

I usually don't go by reviews on those sites but the 12" PB is one product I have heard several bad experiences with.

Problem with those sites is whenever somebody has a problem they have to tell everybody about it so they all post their complaints......there are 12 people with neg responses there and probably countless with no complaints

You notice this a bunch on internet boards whenever this a problem with their product everybody talks about it and it makes it seem like all the products are shoddy.

06-02-2004, 12:36 PM

Originally Posted by trpnmonkey41

I usually don't go by reviews on those sites but the 12" PB is one product I have heard several bad experiences with.

Problem with those sites is whenever somebody has a problem they have to tell everybody about it so they all post their complaints......there are 12 people with neg responses there and probably countless with no complaints

You notice this a bunch on internet boards whenever this a problem with their product everybody talks about it and it makes it seem like all the products are shoddy.

Hmm, I see what you're saying. Unfortunately, however, at the top of the page they say there have been 102 comments, 87% being negative and 13% being positive. But, of course, the question is, is 102 people really a large enough sample to make a fair judgment?


Then again, on second thought, when I look at ALL the comments, a really great deal of them are positive! OK, never mind

OH, WAIT A SECOND! I READ WRONG! 87% are positive, and 13% are negative! HOLY ****! OH, I AM SO SORRY FOR THIS MISHAP!!!

But still, the battery power isn't great, and everyone can agree on that :p