Convince me not to buy a Powerbook...

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K

KingNothing

Diamond Member
Apr 6, 2002
7,141
1
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I know there's already a thread about the new powerbooks, but I decided to make a new one to address this specific issue.

Cost is not an issue for me. I'm looking at powerbooks because I want to play with OSX and I think they're really cool. Backlit keyboard? That's awesome!

Right now I'm waiting for Tiger to come out before I buy one. Someone in the other thread mentioned that G5 powerbooks would be coming out soon. Is there any significant reason to wait for that? The most processor intensive task I can think of is possibly running Virtual PC, although I have a WinXP desktop so I dunno why I'd be running that on my laptop.

I'll be using the laptop for development, watching DVDs, and word processing mostly. If the garage band software is cool I might use it to make recordings of me playing my guitar or something. I'd like the laptop to last for at least 3 hours on battery if possible.

The biggest concern I have is the cost of software, I suppose. How's the free software offerings for Macs? I know there's good free code development tools out there, but what about productivity apps? I'm not so in love with Office that I wouldn't use something else as long as it produced and read Office-compatible files.

What about replacing the hard drive or adding RAM? Any different on a Powerbook than my Dell Inspiron?

So...without using price as an argument, convince me to not buy a Powerbook.
 
T

Tab

Lifer
Sep 15, 2002
12,145
0
76
Yea, I need convincing as well...

I know someone who already has a ADC account... Whats 2 Grand these days anyway...
 
jpeyton

jpeyton

Moderator in SFF, Notebooks, Pre-Built/Barebones
Moderator
Aug 23, 2003
25,375
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Wait for the G5 PB.
 
LtPage1

LtPage1

Diamond Member
Jan 15, 2004
6,311
2
0
go away, troll. youre not wanted here.

im getting a powerbook for college, but i may force myself to wait as long as it takes for apple to put a g5 in. the g4 is unnacceptably slow for gaming.
 
K

KingNothing

Diamond Member
Apr 6, 2002
7,141
1
0
I'm absolutely not going to be gaming on this laptop. Is there any other reason to wait for the G5? For as much as it costs I want the laptop to be snappy, but most of the time that's more a function of RAM and hard drive speed than processor speed isn't it?
 
O

OulOat

Diamond Member
Aug 8, 2002
5,769
0
0
Originally posted by: LtPage1
but i may force myself to wait as long as it takes for apple to put a g5 in. the g4 is unnacceptably slow for gaming.
Click to expand...

Oh the irony.
 
C

Cristatus

Diamond Member
Oct 13, 2004
3,908
2
81
i was considering the G4 powerbook as well, but when someone mentione the G5 powerbook being release in Q2, i was just like, wtf.

My options right now are either wait for a G5, and sell the current notebook after the price falls like a b1tch, or go for the G4 sell, off the current notebook, and when the G5 comes out, i should sell the G4, and get the G5
 
A

agnitrate

Diamond Member
Jul 2, 2001
3,761
1
0
I doubt a G5 powerbook will come soon. Very very hot. Isn't it factory watercooled?

-silver
 
M

Merlyn3D

Platinum Member
Sep 15, 2001
2,148
0
0
If apple refreshed the G4's just now, chances are you won't see a G5 powerbook for a little while.
 
T

tweakmm

Lifer
May 28, 2001
18,436
4
0
There is not going to be a G5 powerbook for a long time. The rumor was a G5 coming out in Q2 and after this update, they are not going to update again. Apparently Apple is still having major issues surrounding the heat and power consumption of the G5 chip. If there is ever a G5 powerbook it will probably have been rebuilt from the ground up for a portable environment ala the Pentium-M.

Your best time to buy a Powerbook is right now, after the update.
 
D

digitalsm

Diamond Member
Jul 11, 2003
5,253
0
0
Originally posted by: logic1485
i was considering the G4 powerbook as well, but when someone mentione the G5 powerbook being release in Q2, i was just like, wtf.

My options right now are either wait for a G5, and sell the current notebook after the price falls like a b1tch, or go for the G4 sell, off the current notebook, and when the G5 comes out, i should sell the G4, and get the G5
Click to expand...

Theres speculation about a Q2 release, because their OEMs, AsusTek and Qaunta have claim to have G5 notebook commitments in Q2 2005. Apple's website(s) have been riddled with PowerBook G5 mentions as well.

All indicators have IBM working feverishly to get a new version of a low-power PowerPC 970(G5) out by mid year. Which would go a long way towards making a PowerBook G5 happen.

Im waiting for a G5 based powerbook, and realistically I doubt it will make it until Q4 at the earliest.
 
halik

halik

Lifer
Oct 10, 2000
25,696
1
0
g5 powerbooks won't happen any soon,
apple has a ton of open positions on monster.com looking for senior thermal engineers. They can't figure out how to make the chip run cool enough so it won't cause 2 degree burns on your lap...

But yeah,
they *JUST* bumped the powerbook specs up, so unless you wanna wait for tiger i say go for it.
 
A

amol

Lifer
Jul 8, 2001
11,680
3
81
Originally posted by: agnitrate
I doubt a G5 powerbook will come soon. Very very hot. Isn't it factory watercooled?

-silver
Click to expand...

only the 2.5GHz

apple would probably put a 1.6GHz or 1.8GHz in the PBs
 
O

Ornery

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
20,022
17
81
Cost is not an issue for me.

The biggest concern I have is the cost of software...

Go away! :disgust:
 
L

Lorn

Banned
Nov 28, 2004
2,143
0
0
Alright.

I don't think the G5 Powerbooks will be coming out any time soon, but I could be wrong! I say this for three reasons:

1) The G5 needs POWER. This thing is power hungry believe me, I'm running a dual processor PowerMac G5 right now and it sure does need its food. I'm guessing it would need some new battery technology to keep the machine up and running for a usable amount of time. Most on-the-go professionals don't want an hour battery life when working with CPU intensive applications like Photoshop and Quark.

2) The G5 runs HOT. This was a big big issue for Apple in which they are still trying to overcome. The heatsinks on each of the processors in my system are about the size of a brick and each have their own large fans (with automatically regulated speeds i.e. hotter cpu/faster fan). Apple was even looking into a water cooled option like IBM has done but this still was not fully sufficient for the heat of the G5.

3) Apple just tried to revamp their G4 Powerbook. They have now released a "new set" of upgraded G4 Powerbooks which, I'm guessing, are to keep their laptop profits up so people like you may give up "waiting for the G5 Powerbook". They have to keep the public interested and try to convince them that yes, our laptops still perform well. So they upped the ram, hard drive space. "All new PowerBook models come with faster PowerPC G4 processors, half a gigabyte of memory, and 5400-rpm hard drives."

If you just want a new toy why don't you look into the newer iBooks?

P.S. VirtualPC sucks, no matter how fast your G5 system is. The hardware emulated by it is around 500MHz with an S3-Trio graphics unit. Try getting anything done on XP with that.
 
D

digitalsm

Diamond Member
Jul 11, 2003
5,253
0
0
Originally posted by: NOLOVE
Alright.

I don't think the G5 Powerbooks will be coming out any time soon, but I could be wrong! I say this for three reasons:

1) The G5 needs POWER. This thing is power hungry believe me, I'm running a dual processor PowerMac G5 right now and it sure does need its food. I'm guessing it would need some new battery technology to keep the machine up and running for a usable amount of time. Most on-the-go professionals don't want an hour battery life when working with CPU intensive applications like Photoshop and Quark.

2) The G5 runs HOT. This was a big big issue for Apple in which they are still trying to overcome. The heatsinks on each of the processors in my system are about the size of a brick and each have their own large fans (with automatically regulated speeds i.e. hotter cpu/faster fan). Apple was even looking into a water cooled option like IBM has done but this still was not fully sufficient for the heat of the G5.

3) Apple just tried to revamp their G4 Powerbook. They have now released a "new set" of upgraded G4 Powerbooks which, I'm guessing, are to keep their laptop profits up so people like you may give up "waiting for the G5 Powerbook". They have to keep the public interested and try to convince them that yes, our laptops still perform well. So they upped the ram, hard drive space. "All new PowerBook models come with faster PowerPC G4 processors, half a gigabyte of memory, and 5400-rpm hard drives."

If you just want a new toy why don't you look into the newer iBooks?

P.S. VirtualPC sucks, no matter how fast your G5 system is. The hardware emulated by it is around 500MHz with an S3-Trio graphics unit. Try getting anything done on XP with that.
Click to expand...

Apple said today they arent saying when the G5 Powerbooks will make it, but it wont be Q2. You're right on all three counts. Except IBM is working on 1 and 2. Apple is working on 2 as well. As soon as they can manage to stuff a G5 chip into a 1" Powerbook body, one will be released. Its going to happen its just a matter of waiting and hoping IBM can pull off a cooler/low power chip by mid-late year.
 
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