New iMac 20" vs. PB 17"

Hello,

I cannot decide on my own between the two. I can change my PB 17" 1.5Ghz 2GB ram for a brand new iMac 20" with 2.5GB of ram for only 200$. The only reason im want to change is to see a performance difference in watching movies, photoshop and flash. Though I will be sacrificing the portability ofcourse. Aswell I prefer having a larger screen and the new front row option seems cool. Can anyone please suggest if I should go ahead and change or hold on to my PB until the new Intels come out in late January?

Thanks.

I wouldn't suggest waiting until June to get a new computer, the new Intels are going to be fast and have great battery life, but the architecture will still be all new for OSX and would probably still have a lot of bugs to be worked out.

As for the "switching" of computers, I wouldn't recommend it. I've worked on both laptops and desktops and can tell you now, the only big difference you'll see in "speed" is video/audio rendering. Photoshop would run a little bit faster, but not fast enough to justify losing the portability of a laptop. Plus, you can now hack a Powerbook to run FrontRow. I don't think it's exactly legal, but that's all up to you. Search around on Google for that stuff, not here.

Stick with the 17".

I recently purchased the iMac G5 20" (iSight) model. I increased the RAM to 1.5 GB. I haven't used PhotoShop on it yet, but I can say that flash and DVD playback on this model is smooth as silk. The display besides being a large, bright widescreen is drop-dead gorgeous on everything (web-browsing, movies, games, applications). I would venture to say that the graphics card on the iMac is a little beefier than on the Powerbook. (both have 128 MB ATI card, but the iMac video card is on a PCI-express video bus). The PB17 is a beautiful machine, but my gripe with laptops (I own a new Sony VAIO) is that usually the fastest standard hard drive on them is a 5400 rpm ATA. The iMac has a 7200 rpm SATA drive which is day & night faster than the PB. You will really notice it on system bootup, launching apps and opening files on disk. If that doesn't bother you or you really need the portability, go with the PB. The iMac on the other hand has a very small footprint, and is easily moved from room to room. I have used mine in different rooms of the house depending on what I needed to do. Go to an Apple store or dealer where you can play with both for a few hours. I did and it helped me decide what I really wanted and needed.

you can get a 100GB 7200RPM HDD right from apple, so I dont know what you are talking about.

DigitalN. said:

you can get a 100GB 7200RPM HDD right from apple, so I dont know what you are talking about.

Click to expand...

Sorry. I didn't notice that it is an available upgrade on the PB. In fact it is a no charge upgrade. I'd recommend getting the 7200rpm HD. That would make the PB a beautiful, fast laptop.
One other thing that the PB has that the iMac doesn't is the ability to connect to an external 30" cinema display. Except for the higher price, I'd say the PB looks like the best package if you really want a laptop.