iBook + Video Gaming + Photo/Website Editing

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mnm2004bft

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Hey guys,

I'll be buying a 14.1" iBook with a combo drive tommorow and it'll have upgraded RAM to 256 on-board and 256 external, total of 512 RAM.

I was just wondering if the ATI 9200 Card with only 32MB of video/graphics RAM would be good enough for the eye candy and looks of Mac OS X Tiger. Also, will the graphics card be able to handle intense gaming such as Halo? I'll be planning on doing Halo Multiplayer and not much singleplayer, so give me your thoughts on the quality of the gaming.

Also, will Splinter Cell:Chaos Theory be compatible with the graphics card? I was wondering if it was since the game rejects most of them.

I'll be getting my iBook for mostly Photoshop, Flash, and FrontPage since I'll be doing website designing and editing. Will 32MB of VRAM and 512MB of CPU RAM be enough?

Please answer as soon as possible since I'm eager on getting my iBook! :)
 
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sounds like you are gonig to be pretty graphic intensive and that is more of a powerbook thing

if you go the route of the ibook, max out the ram with non-apple ram to save money

someone else should be able to chime in about the other things and say what i said in a more better way ;)
-chris
 
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mnm2004bft

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I can max it up to 1.256GB on RAM.. I wish I could get a Powerbok 15", but can't, budget wise. Is the iBook going to be enough with 32VRAM, 512RAM, and 9200 Graphics card for Photoshop, Flash, and Frontpage? Its a G4 at 1.33GHz...
 
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mnm2004bft said:
Photoshop, Flash, and Frontpage

Photoshop and Flash will do fine, I didn't even think they made Frontpage for OS X.

Ram is cheap now, I would say add at least a 512mb stick, its only about $55.
 
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20" iMac C2D 2.16ghz, 13" MacBook 2.0ghz, 60gb iPod vid, 1gb nano
Nope no Frontpage for mac
 
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embries

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Halo is doubtful. 32 meg vid card is a little weak for that puppy, particluarly multiplayer. You may be able to get it running with a decent framerate by lowering ALL the settings to the lowest quality, but it'll be a stretch.
 
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Your Mac's Specs
Ibook g4 1.33, 768 ram
i would say defiantly not go with a ibook if you plan on doing any graphically intense. my ibook, same one you want to get, but with 768 of ram can not run sims. you should wait and get the powerbook. or, you should do what i am planning on doing, getting a pc just for gaming in the future. you can not use the ibook for games.
 
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ibook g4, 14'', 1.33 Ghz, 60gig, 768ram, Mac OsX 10.4.3
my ibook(768ram) runs fine with photoshop, flash, dreamweaver etc.. It works good for graphic application.
For games it might be slow.
 
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hey mnm, I'm just wondering the following:

- how intensive are you when doing graphics stuff?

Coz for me, graphics, flash and frontpage do NOT mix...coz of Frontpage of course.

Anyway, I REALLY advise you to drop that 256mb external RAM and go for 512mb. do NOT buyb the extra mememory from apple...buy from a third party developer...you can get a good stick of RAM fit for Apple iBooks for less than $100 Canadian.

I have the 14.1" iBook, 1.33 ghz and it used to have 256 RAM...it was working fine, except when switching applications, it used to lag a bit.

I added a stick of 512mb recently and there has been a world of difference. However, I do attribute the faster booting to Tiger [I upgraded that too].

I normally run dreamweaver MX, photoshop, Transmit [FTP client] and mail at the same time. I turned off all my widgets coz I found them useless and resource hogs.

The iBook should suit your needs, however, for Halo...I dont know if it will work. It works VERY well for World of Warcraft though. I play it almost everyday.
 
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EvoMac

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If you would like to play Halo at all (I'm not sure of min specs) you are going to need to nearly max out the RAM on your powerbook. Especially for multiplayer which is a real resource hog on a game like halo get the 1gb stick of ram and put it into your iBook.
 
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mnm2004bft

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I'll be getting my iBook today.. ummm yes, I'll be getting more than 512.. considerablly 768 MB... I wish i could up the VRAM :( ... ummm office doesnt come with frontpage??!!! lol. is there any way to get it for mac? umm... im not doing like really intense gaming.. just stuff like battlefield 1942 etc.

whats the range for airport extreme? also, is there a backlit keyboard in the 14.1" combo drive? Thanks, Mohammad.
 
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Battlefield 1942 is pretty intense gaming. There is NO Frontpage for mac

There are no backlit keyboards on iBooks
 
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mnm2004bft said:
I'll be getting my iBook today.. ummm yes, I'll be getting more than 512.. considerablly 768 MB... I wish i could up the VRAM :( ... ummm office doesnt come with frontpage??!!! lol. is there any way to get it for mac? umm... im not doing like really intense gaming.. just stuff like battlefield 1942 etc.

whats the range for airport extreme? also, is there a backlit keyboard in the 14.1" combo drive? Thanks, Mohammad.


If you REALLY need to run FrontPage your only option on the Mac is to run it through VirtualPC.

-Chris
 
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man, do yourself a favour...step away from frontpage.
 
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mnm2004bft

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What else am I supposed to use other than FrontPage for webcoding? Is there any other alternative for Mac?...

512 RAM is about $55.. how much would 1GB for the 14.1"?

I'm new to Mac so is VirtualPC free?

NO BACKLIT KEYBOARDS? I thought 14 inches had em
 
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EvoMac

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Macromedia's Dreamweaver or Adobe's GoLive are the two mainstream programs used.

Virutal PC is far from free unfortunatly. You need to purchase the program itself, and then purchase a valid windows license to use the program.

Backlit keyboards are only part of the powerbook line as with the double finger scroll option on the trackpad.
 
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You will find yourself much more satisfied if you wait and buy a Powerbook. No doubt, the iBook is a great machine, but if you want it to last for years to come, I would highly recommend waiting some more time until you have enough money to get one. The 12" Powerbook is a great machine.
 
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mnm2004bft said:
I'm new to Mac so is VirtualPC free?

NO BACKLIT KEYBOARDS? I thought 14 inches had em

No it is not free
No iBooks have backlit keyboards only PowerBooks
 
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mnm2004bft

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Is the Mac KeyNote next month going to have new versions of the ibooks/powerbooks?

12" is too small.. atleast 15.2 inch... if new versions of either the iBook or the
PowerBook come out in the KeyNote presentation next month, they might be cheaper.

The point is, if new ones DO come out next month, then I'm probably gonna be stuck with an outdated processor with less RAM, VRAM, and costed me a lot more...

I guess I'll have to wait...

In the mean time.. anyone interested in professional/personal websites? lol

Mohammad
 

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