ibook vs. powerbook: any suggestions?

[jgpippin]

i've been a hard-core windows user for 7 years. my office recently upgraded to win xp, however, and the experience was so traumatizing that it drove me into a mac store. when i asked the sales rep why i should pay $1600 for a powerbook when i could get a comparable pc laptop for $800, he said, "because it's not comparable. macs actually work."

so, about two weeks worth of research later, i'm ready to pump $2000 into my first mac.

i'm considering two computers:

14" ibook 1 Ghz
640 mb ram
combo drive
60 GB hard disk

12" powerbook 1 Ghz
512 mb ram
superdrive
60 GB hard disk

the powerbook is, per my configurations, about $200 more. i could slice that off, i suppose, by getting a combo drive.

the primary conflict is this:

increased screen size and 128 GB more (ibook) ram or...
increased performance, more expansion, superdrive (pbook)

i realize this is a personal choice, but i wanted to know what you guys, the hard-core mac users, would buy.

i do the following:
-web design
-digital photography (6.3 MP in TIFF using PS 7 and PS Elements 2.0)
-internet, email, word processing, and other low-end apps
-the sims (well, my fiance plays the sims, but i want it to work for her, too)
-watch dvds
-record tv on my laptop (using an input device)
-other miscellany

any input would be greatly appreciated. i'm kinda lost in the mac world. if there are other factors i'm ignoring (such as durability, battery time, etc.) please let me know. thanks!

 

[hokiethang]

i've been a hard-core windows user for 7 years. my office recently upgraded to win xp, however, and the experience was so traumatizing that it drove me into a mac store. when i asked the sales rep why i should pay $1600 for a powerbook when i could get a comparable pc laptop for $800, he said, "because it's not comparable. macs actually work."

so, about two weeks worth of research later, i'm ready to pump $2000 into my first mac.

i'm considering two computers:

14" ibook 1 Ghz
640 mb ram
combo drive
60 GB hard disk

12" powerbook 1 Ghz
512 mb ram
superdrive
60 GB hard disk

the powerbook is, per my configurations, about $200 more. i could slice that off, i suppose, by getting a combo drive.

the primary conflict is this:

increased screen size and 128 GB more (ibook) ram or...
increased performance, more expansion, superdrive (pbook)

i realize this is a personal choice, but i wanted to know what you guys, the hard-core mac users, would buy.

i do the following:
-web design
-digital photography (6.3 MP in TIFF using PS 7 and PS Elements 2.0)
-internet, email, word processing, and other low-end apps
-the sims (well, my fiance plays the sims, but i want it to work for her, too)
-watch dvds
-record tv on my laptop (using an input device)
-other miscellany

any input would be greatly appreciated. i'm kinda lost in the mac world. if there are other factors i'm ignoring (such as durability, battery time, etc.) please let me know. thanks!

Congrats on the decision. As for which you should choose, im not sure. I have not used a new iBook to be able to tell you, but I have a 1Ghz 15 inch powerbook and it runs Photoshop fairly nicely. A bump in ram would make it very nice on my machine. If you do a lot of web design I would suggest the powerbook, not necessarily because of the power, but because I believe the 12 inch powerbook has a higher resolution so you can see more of the pages you are working on. The iBook may be better for DVDs simply because of the bigger screen. Im not sure, what are the most important things you need the machine to do, because either of them can handle the tasks equally as well. I would go with the powerbook simply because there is the space to expand should expansion be needed. I do network administration, and use my powerbook for that, its a nice versatile machine.

 

[George]

Congrats on the decision. As for which you should choose, im not sure. I have not used a new iBook to be able to tell you, but I have a 1Ghz 15 inch powerbook and it runs Photoshop fairly nicely. A bump in ram would make it very nice on my machine. If you do a lot of web design I would suggest the powerbook, not necessarily because of the power, but because I believe the 12 inch powerbook has a higher resolution so you can see more of the pages you are working on. The iBook may be better for DVDs simply because of the bigger screen. Im not sure, what are the most important things you need the machine to do, because either of them can handle the tasks equally as well. I would go with the powerbook simply because there is the space to expand should expansion be needed. I do network administration, and use my powerbook for that, its a nice versatile machine.

If you can afford to choose, go for the powerbook without a doubt!

 

[unl33t]

i'll admit, i havn't used an ibook to date, but a friend of mine has.
with the tasks you have listed, i'd go with the pb.
i've been very happy with mine

 

[Aristarchus]

for the tasks you listed, I think you'll eventually want to expand your RAM. I would probably go with the PB.

 

[Murlyn]

Ok I voted PB, but after reading your info again.. Im beginning to think maybe the iBook or pay a bit more and get a 15" PB.. with web design, watching dvd's etc.. you're going to want to bigger screen. I don't know if you have already purchased, but.. I would definitely consider paying a little more and still going with the powerbook, but with a bigger screen.

Cheers!