Hi.. I am a college student looking to purchase my first mac.
I currently own a pretty solid Thinkpad that could continue to be my mobile system if need be (would need new battery and maybe extended warranty though, so about a $250 expense).
I have narrowed my choices down to the iMac and Powerbook 15" because I do like laptops (used them exclusively for last 5 years), but feel that the processors/video card/screen size/HD speed/bus speed difference between iMac and Powerbook must be quite large. I am not sure exactly how to quantify it though for my needs as I am not that knowledgeable in mac hardware. I am going into my senior year, so I could see myself getting an iMac because it is more powerful, but still easily transportable for the various times I will be moving in the next 12-14 months (winter break -> home, winter break -> college, graduation -> home, home -> new job location).
My most intense use would be Photoshop, and whichever system I get I would max out the RAM to 2GB. Along with this would be my film scanner. I shoot a lot of pictures and handle a lot of scanning and then post-processing work in Photoshop using my Wacom tablet.
At the same time I am a bit of a 'power user' in that I am a CS major and find my life/work revolving around my system. I almost always have a browser (with about 4 tabs open)/chat client/file explorer window/music player all open at once, on top of anything else I may be doing such as photoshop or writing code locally/ ssh'ing to run it.
I have not installed a computer game on my system since high school and don't plan to now. I do not do any video work, nor do I plan to. I do webdesign work occasionally in dreamweaver, and very rarely some Flash work. I do frequently back up my data to an external HD, and will also be burning DVDs with some frequency (weekly/monthly). I would be getting the iWork suite on either system for Word Processing + Presentations.
I guess my question in this whole mess is... will a 1.67ghz G4 15" powerbook w / 2GB of RAM cut it...or should I go for the 2ghz G5 17/20" iMac w/ 2GB of RAM?
Also, if the Powerbook would suffice...what purpose would the $90 upgrade of video RAM server for me, as a non-gamer, if any? I know in windows systems as of right now, it would have very little effect..but what about OS X with Core Image?
Of course my purchase will not be until august so I have my fingers crossed for even a slight powerbook upgrade (every ~6 months??) to make my decision easier...
I currently own a pretty solid Thinkpad that could continue to be my mobile system if need be (would need new battery and maybe extended warranty though, so about a $250 expense).
I have narrowed my choices down to the iMac and Powerbook 15" because I do like laptops (used them exclusively for last 5 years), but feel that the processors/video card/screen size/HD speed/bus speed difference between iMac and Powerbook must be quite large. I am not sure exactly how to quantify it though for my needs as I am not that knowledgeable in mac hardware. I am going into my senior year, so I could see myself getting an iMac because it is more powerful, but still easily transportable for the various times I will be moving in the next 12-14 months (winter break -> home, winter break -> college, graduation -> home, home -> new job location).
My most intense use would be Photoshop, and whichever system I get I would max out the RAM to 2GB. Along with this would be my film scanner. I shoot a lot of pictures and handle a lot of scanning and then post-processing work in Photoshop using my Wacom tablet.
At the same time I am a bit of a 'power user' in that I am a CS major and find my life/work revolving around my system. I almost always have a browser (with about 4 tabs open)/chat client/file explorer window/music player all open at once, on top of anything else I may be doing such as photoshop or writing code locally/ ssh'ing to run it.
I have not installed a computer game on my system since high school and don't plan to now. I do not do any video work, nor do I plan to. I do webdesign work occasionally in dreamweaver, and very rarely some Flash work. I do frequently back up my data to an external HD, and will also be burning DVDs with some frequency (weekly/monthly). I would be getting the iWork suite on either system for Word Processing + Presentations.
I guess my question in this whole mess is... will a 1.67ghz G4 15" powerbook w / 2GB of RAM cut it...or should I go for the 2ghz G5 17/20" iMac w/ 2GB of RAM?
Also, if the Powerbook would suffice...what purpose would the $90 upgrade of video RAM server for me, as a non-gamer, if any? I know in windows systems as of right now, it would have very little effect..but what about OS X with Core Image?
Of course my purchase will not be until august so I have my fingers crossed for even a slight powerbook upgrade (every ~6 months??) to make my decision easier...