Which Powerbook

Hi all,
I wonder if someone can give me some advise. Recently I decided that I need a laptop. Now I've been thinking of getting a Mac for some time now. Whilst out browsing for my new buy I started playing around with the powerbooks. Now I have a few questions about them.

Firstly, I've been told that it takes an age to burn a dvd on the superdrive with the PBs. As I already have a dvd-writer with my PCs I think I can get away without the superdrive. Is the superdrive a good option? How long does it take to copy a full dvd? (for personal use only). Also is the speed difference between the 2 different 15" PBs worth the extra cost?

Secondly, as I have an existing PC network at home that the rest of the family uses, it is quite important that I can netowrk the mac with the PCs to share the internet connection. I've heard this is easy but can anyone who has already done this tell me how easy it is? (The PCs are running XP pro). Do i need to purchase any additional software for either the PCs or the mac to enable easy networking?

Playing games isn't a big issue for me, but just for my info, can you get any good games on the mac?

Thanks in advance

Def make the switch, you sound like a perfect canidate. (And I don't throw that to everyone)

I don't have a dvd burner as I opted for the Combo drive. But my cd burner burns quickly! I can get a cd in minutes. And have made data disc with 700 mb in minutes.

So unless DVD burning is super important to you, I'd go with the combo drive!

Well I swear to you IMO you cant tell enough difference in .25 GHZ. But the bakc lit keyboard and dvd burner might make it worth it to you... If so I guess its worth it, but the SD is/was too much for my pockets.

Yes they can network, but the rest of the questions in networking I know nothing about. Leave that to someone else.

Games? Absoutly! We have Halo, Star Wars: Series, Sims, Unreal Tournament, Myth 3, Medal of Honor, Warcraft, Return to Castle, Ghost Recon, Alien vs Predator, Tomb Raider, Tony Hawk, Diablo, Quake 3, Rainbow Six, Madden, Doom, Duke Nukem,

Ganda1f said:

Firstly, I've been told that it takes an age to burn a dvd on the superdrive with the PBs. As I already have a dvd-writer with my PCs I think I can get away without the superdrive. Is the superdrive a good option? How long does it take to copy a full dvd? (for personal use only). Also is the speed difference between the 2 different 15" PBs worth the extra cost?

Click to expand...

One question: a laptop only has one optical drive, how exactly do you intend to *copy* a DVD on it?
And I agree with Former - the speed difference may not be noticeable, but a backlight keyboard, Bluetooth, and USB 2.0 may very well be.

Ganda1f said:

Secondly, as I have an existing PC network at home that the rest of the family uses, it is quite important that I can netowrk the mac with the PCs to share the internet connection. I've heard this is easy but can anyone who has already done this tell me how easy it is?

Click to expand...

1) Plug Mac into router.
2) Umm... there really isn't a "2".

Ganda1f said:

Playing games isn't a big issue for me, but just for my info, can you get any good games on the mac?

Click to expand...

I always recommend Windows (or consoles) for hardcore gamers, but if gaming isn't your life, there are more than enough games to get by on. Blizzard's games are all hybrid discs, and a lot of other games are ported.

[/QUOTE] I've been told that it takes an age to burn a dvd on the superdrive with the PBs

it take about 45 min to burn DVD in superdtive if you use toast & or disk utility.
I made the test. i used to DVD studio pro to create the dvd, 4,2 gigs. it takes 15 min if I burn using this software. same with iDVD. but when i tried to burn same VIDEO_TS folder using toast six or disk utility it took 45 minutes.
I dont realy understand why.

if you have the possibility, buy external DVD burner with multiple media suport. (DVD-R, DVD+R...)
superdrive only suports DVD-R media.

If you don't want to play games, why don't you get a iBook?