Life of my Powerbook

Hi there...

I'm planning to buy a PowerBook this November (for my Birthday). I know it's far away, and by then maybe, hopefuly, the G5 Powerbooks will be here...

My main concern is the Life Span of this thing. In current Powerbooks, what deterierates with time? I'm getting this for my 18th, and need it through college, so at least till am 23. Will it life that long and let me do the usual stuff?

I might want some video editing too, is the g4 good enough for small time home videos?

your battery is the one that will most likely die first within the 5 yr period.. followed by may be a hard drive failure..

if u keep good care of your laptop it should last for 5 yrs.. - make sure u keep it clean and dont get it all banged (esp. the powerbooks, they can get damaged easily cuz of hte aluminum chassis and the lcd screen is the most important thing you have to becareful of) getting it cracked = new laptop)..

a good investment for a laptop is a good padded laptop bag - dont be stingy and just use your good old backpack.. since u're going into college i would also get a laptop lock cable.. and lastly you may want to consider getting insurance for your laptop (especially when u live in school res)..

good luck..

pkny said:

your battery is the one that will most likely die first within the 5 yr period.. followed by may be a hard drive failure..

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Every month or so you should drain your battery down to zero so your computer will 'go to sleep.' Plug it in again and let it charge back up, and your battery will recalibrate. This is one way of making your battery last longer. And, always, always make backups of your data, no matter what computer you use.

pkny said:

if u keep good care of your laptop it should last for 5 yrs.. - make sure u keep it clean and dont get it all banged (esp. the powerbooks, they can get damaged easily cuz of hte aluminum chassis and the lcd screen is the most important thing you have to becareful of) getting it cracked = new laptop)..

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The aluminum is actually quite strong, its the plastic on the iBooks you have to watch out for a tad more. And yeah, be careful with that screen.

pkny said:

a good investment for a laptop is a good padded laptop bag - dont be stingy and just use your good old backpack.. since u're going into college i would also get a laptop lock cable.. and lastly you may want to consider getting insurance for your laptop (especially when u live in school res)..

Click to expand...

I'd recommend against a laptop bag, really. It's asking to have your computer swiped. I put my PowerBook in a pillowcase and put it in my backpack, and it's absolutely fine (no scratches/dents) and nobody suspects that I have anything other than schoolbooks and a sweater in there. I've never found a good reason to buy a lock cable and/or insurance - just use common sense and don't leave your laptop out at a party where it could be stolen or doused in mass quantities of alcohol.

Thanks for those helpful tips. I'll probably get myself a laptop-backpack which can house both my books and my PB safely...
The last thing was if I should go for a 15" or a 17". I'll upgrade to 1Gig of Ram, but I'm not sure about a 128 Graphics Card... will it help run the heavy GUI of Aqua better? Or is it really only if you use stuff like Motion or other 3D type software...?

64MB is enough to run OSX at the moment. Get the 128 upgrade if you want to future-proof your laptop a bit more because eventually (or not) OSX may beef up the GUI/features even more and require more power/memory (ie. current iBook's ATI 9200 32MB card won't be able to take advantage of new features in Tiger)

another consideration is if you're going to use an external screen with a high resolution, you may need the extra memory in that case as well.

I wouldn't plan on the G5 powerbook out when you plan to buy them

trpnmonkey41 said:

I wouldn't plan on the G5 powerbook out when you plan to buy them

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Yeah what's the story on that?

I am on the market for a PB17 and I would HATE seeing a PB G5 coming out right after I get my G4.

The salesman in charge of my account at my office told me spring 2005, punk salesman at the Apple store basically told me "not anytime soon"....

Just because I chose the PB17 over an iMac G5 20 and I sure would like the power reserve of the G5...

Also I have a Toshiba P35 17 with a P4 3.2, that thing is a good Windows desktop replacement (and my media center) but it is HEAVY, BULKY (and UGLY) and has 2 inner fans plus 3 outer fans that make more noise than my bathroom's heater.

I love the current PB's slick and silent poise, if fitting a G5 in a PB had to come with 3 2" fans, I'd pass...
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Service Plan

I do not know much about apples applecare so i cant speak for it. I do know that best buy's performance service plan covers battery's for four years. they also cover normal wear and tear. e.g. hard drive failure. So i would look into that.

Apple Protection Plan

If you bought the protection plan from Apple, and your laptop gets stolen..what happens to your protection plan? its just void?