Wanna help me decide?

Hi Guys...I am a new switcher from Windows machines to Mac. I have an iMac G5. I have suckered...uh, talked a friend of mine into buying my laptop from me and will use that money to go out and get a Mac notebook. Just not sure which one yet. That is why I am asking now...Let me tell you what I want to use it for and you can advise me -

I am a photogapher (wedding, portrait) and use my PC to transfer files from my CF cards and store them on the laptop while on location at the weddings. While on the laptop, I will burn them to a DVD at the wedding so I have three copies of the images...my cards, the laptop and DVD (you can never back up enough)...anyway, that is the extent of the use of the laptop other than doing everyday things like surfing the web, word processing, etc. No heavy PS use as that is reserved for the desktop machine.

So, knowing that, do I NEED a powerbook? Can i get buy with an iBook? I was thinking 12 inch with an airport card so I can use it wirelessly. Anyone wanna run some advice by me and help me decide?

TIA!

If you want a dvd burner, you're going to have to go with a powerbook...and since you're traveling around with it a lot, I would suggest the 12" powerbook. I have one...an older one..and I tell you, great machines. That's my two sense worth anywho.

Well, I dont NEED a DVD burner. i can burn CD's. They are more economical as well. As long as I am backed up, thats all I care about. I will also pull the images from the book to an external hard drive (probably a LaCie 160 gig). So, DVD isnt a necessity at all. Once I get them backed up to the CD's and External, I will load them on the desktop for editing and will delete them from the notebook.

If that's the case, then I think the iBook would be just fine. The PowerBook is faster, and has bigger HD options, but the iBook should be fine as a temporary photo repository. And web browsing, WP, etc. will not be noticeably different on either machine.

I, too, would highly reccommend the PowerBook 12". I have the newest 12" with SuperDrive and 512MB RAM, and let me tell you, it's the best thing on this earth. I use it every day, it rocks.

My mom has a 12" iBook, and it's OK, but PowerBooks are so much better. More room for expansion, better keys (more solid, in my opinion), AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth built in, a faster processor (.33GHz DOES make a big difference)... It's perfect, in my opinion. The small screen doesn't bother me at all.

But, since you've already got an iMac G5, you might not really need the processing power. You could just get a souped-up iBook. But in my opinion the PowerBook just feels more solid than the iBook. Nothing creaks, the keys are less plastick-y, the brushed metal looks much better than the plastic iBook. I would go with the PowerBook if you can afford it. It doesn't really sound like you need it, but it's a more solid machine than the iBook and I would highly reccommend it. Plus it has a bigger hard drive, etc. meaning you won't have to get a new laptop for at least 4 years.

Good luck, just my 2 cents.

hmmm...things to think about. Ya know, its only a few measley hundred dollars difference. Im going to have to think long and hard about the powerbook thing. Dont you just LOVE having GOOD problems? Like which computer to choose?

Yeah, good problems are... well... good!

I wish you luck in choosing, man. It was difficult for me to choose

Ok - here I am thinking outside of the box. Depending on how often you'd want to back up, perhaps would you want to instead of investing money in CD's to invest money in a removable hard drive? Perhaps an ipod would do the trick? Or perhaps I'm completely nutters. In which case get that supadrive!

If you want to back-up, get an external drive. I do also recommend the extra "few measly dollars". What you mean tyler money, you CAN get a superdrive for the iBook.

I think I will NOT burn the cd/dvd at the weddings (I dont do that now) as I have heard that the burning with the books is extremely slow. I can just do what I do now and bring the book home and uload to the G5 OR, take an iPod and use it as another drive and upload my images to it. So, the burning the cd/dvd problem is solved.

Yeah, it's only 4x whereas you can buy external ones that are 16x and 'double-layer' your disc with data, meaning you get 8.5GB of data instead of 4.7.

I got the SuperDrive, but I'm sorta regretting it. I didn't know it was so slow . And you'd definitely want to get an external CD-RW, because the ones in the Combo/SuperDrive only burn 24x, whereas you can get ones up to 52x now. I'm probably going to get an external CD-RW.

Good luck!

adiliegro said:

hmmm...things to think about. Ya know, its only a few measley hundred dollars difference. Im going to have to think long and hard about the powerbook thing. Dont you just LOVE having GOOD problems? Like which computer to choose?

Click to expand...

I have a Powerbook 12" with 768 RAM, and it does rock, as a previous poster mentioned. I had an iBook a while back, wasn't impressed with the keys either. Although you can get iBooks with a Superdrive in them, but IMHO it's better to go the extra distance and get the Powerbook, you'll be quite pleased.

r/
-Ian
(PC convert - computer programmer/network engineer, and I have several Mac systems now)