Ready to buy, but...

I'm currently in the procces of saving up for a new PB. I'm waiting until OSX Tiger comes out but had some questions in the meantime. For all you PB owners, what are some things I need to make sure I get/buy (RAM, hardware, accesories, etc.) in order to have a pleasurable PB experience. I'm willing to spend a good amount of money to accomplish this, however I'm not the most savy computer guy. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Which model are you planning on purchasing?

Hopefully the 17"

I have a 17". I love it. If you buy now, Tiger is only $10, so you might as well just put in an order if you can.

I do lots of graphic design, and video/audio editing. I'd recommend bumping her up to 1GB ram with another 512 mb chip. JUST DON'T BUY IT FROM APPLE. WAYYYYY OVERPRICED. With 1GB total, i've yet to feel like I maxed out the computer.

If you aren't doing multimedia or other high memory applications, the Standard 512mb is fine. I would't bother with 1.5GB or 2GB, those big chips will slowly come down in price, and really, as of this moment, I have no need for more than 1GB.

The Powerbook comes loaded with lots of cords and stuff for you to play around with, as well as adapters for different types of displays. You have the wireless built in, so... there's really nothing to upgrade/buy that is necessary.

If you have high speed internet or another computer in the house, or if you want to wirelessly print, I'd suggest some wireless equipment. An Airport Base Station, although more expensive than competitors, is really the easiest way to set everything up.

If you want to Video Chat with people, you could get a firewire webcam. Once again, you can't beat the Apple iSight, but it's more expensive than the competitors. The iSight has a mic built into it, and so does the Powerbook, so a mic isn't necessary.

If you don't already have some, get some blank CDs and DVDs. That way your hard drive doesn't get too cluttered. Don't buy them at full price though, with a little looking, you can probably find these for free after rebate.

Oh yeah, a big thing you should get. You'll need a case. Make sure it can fit the 17" though, there are many out there that can, but you'll see the most designed for 15" or smaller.

A wireless mouse is a nice thing to have.

Where are you planning on working? You don't really need a desk, but it is nice to have one.

Do you travel a lot? I have a few DVDs saved to my hard drive (I fly a couple tiems a month)

A have two audio cords that didn't come with the PB, one is a digital out to digital out, and the other is a digital out to a left and right splitter. I use both of these to hook into the sound system wherever I go. I also have an adapter so I can plug things bigger than the little sound cords in.

You may want just a standard RCA composite cable to plug into your TV to use that as a monitor.

A second battery would be nice. I can get a good 3 hours of wireless internetr surfing, or an average of 2.5 hrs. of DVD playback. You can set some powersaving options, but I have my processor set to maximum.

I saw some cool stuff in newsweek. A Pixma iP90 Photoprinter: it prints photos via bluetooth and is portable. Some JBL On Tour Speakers, a portable speaker system. An Iomega Portable Hard Drive, 80 GB, small enough to fit in your pocket. An APC UNIVERSAL NOTEBOOK BATTERY, power your laptop for 8 hrs according to them. An OptiSlim m12 scanner, pull a piece of paper through it and it scans it, also very portable.

EDIT: I just noticed you already have an older iMac, so a lot of what I suggested you may already have.

Thanks so much. I do plan on doing some pro tools work with it howerver, it is only pro-tools le. I'm really just gonna be using it as a desktop replacement. Not to much picture or video editing but I would like the ability to. I just don't want to get myself in a place where I'm limited due to prior, uninformed decisions.

I have an external hard drive so I don't think I'll need to much extra disk space. I would eventually like to keep most of my projects on external drives in order to keep my computer as free as possible. Does that have any effect on computer speeds or is that all the ram? Hmm, don't know but still probably a good idea any way. Thanks again for all the advice!

Computer speeds are really based on many factors. I don't think that how full your Hard Drive is has much effect on the speed of the computer. The more important things are Processor, Ram, and Video Memory.

A faster processor just tends to make everything run faster. Not somethign that can really be upgraded easily...

More Ram will speed up the computer, when it needs it. It only uses Ram as it needs it, if you don't already use up the current 512mb, more Ram will do nothing. Only add it if you need it, I've found that about 1GB tends to be the perfect amount.

Video memory can really effect the speed of rendering of things, and that kind of stuff. However, in a laptop, it's really not upgradeable.