Powerbook 15' recommendation?

[AgentUnknown]

HI. I like the look of Mac's new powerbooks. Do any of you that have it recommend it? I know that my PC software won't work with it. But is it worth getting for word processing, and educational uses? If not, what PC laptops can u recommend that look as slick as the Powerbook widescreen laptops?

 

[GL]

I recently switched from using XP/RedHat Linux full time to using an iBook. And I couldn't be happier. OS X is just great. I would have loved to get a Powerbook but for now, they are out of my budget. Though, I see today that there were price drops on the 15" and 12" Powerbooks. If you're considering a 15" Powerbook, I would recommend waiting a couple of weeks. It is widely expected that Apple will unveil an upgraded 15" Powerbook at the WWDC in two weeks. It will no longer come in the Titanium case but an Aluminum one. This is good as the Ti case could chip (it was painted), hindered Airport reception and was not as sturdy as the aluminum cases. You'll probably find the new 15" will have Airport Extreme, FireWire 800, an Nvidia GF4 420 or 440, a faster G4 CPU, DDR RAM (which is useless for current G4s as the memory controller does not make use of DDR's greater bandwidth), and hopefully the cool glowing keyboard of the 17" Powerbook. All in all, the new 15" model should be a nice upgrade from the current 15" - definitely worth waiting for. At the very least, when the new model comes out you may find really nice deals on the older 15" model if you decide you don't need the new features. One tip though - get at least 512MB RAM. Apple charges a premium, so you may want to do this yourself. On my iBook upgrading the RAM was extremely easy.

 

[XBoxLPU]

Read/Follow this WWDC thread

The DDR has no real advantage with Macs currently

I would suggest the 12 inch AL combo drive model. If you are just going to be doing word processing than it will be great for that.

If you are going to be doing games and or video edting than I would sugesst the 15 inch SuperDrive. The extra L3 Cache + faster CPU really does help.

In any case, max out the memory and you will be fine

I also suggest you visit and or ask questions here... it is more of a Mac place ...

 

[AgentUnknown]

Hi. Thanks for the info. Anyone else have any recommendations? Negatives and positives? Is there a lot of software for Mac? I have been using a PC since dos 6.0.

I just like the sleek metallic look of the powerbooks. And need one to do word processing, play some games, and internet.

 

[JackHawksmoor]

I've been kind of switching back and forth for the last two years. Kind of using Windows more, just because one of the programs I do devlopment in is only for Windows.

On the whole I like Mac OS X a LOT. Only real downside to the Mac is there may not be as many weird specialized programs available (like what I have to use), and there aren't as many games. Game support is a lot better than what most people realize, and would be good enough for me between it and my different consoles. You might have to wait a few months to a year for a game to get ported though (and occasionally they come out at the same time in the same package-like Blizzard's stuff has been).

Office and Word are file compatible between the Mac and Windows versions, and work basically the same, so that's not a problem.

Those price drops on the 15" models make them a lot more tempting to me... But yeah, they've been expecting a new Aluminum model to match the 12" and 17" ones. Note that the Radeon 9000 in the current 15" model is better than the Geforce 4 GO 4x0 that it might get replaced with, but prices might drop further when the new one comes out. And who knows, it could have a Radeon 9600 or Geforce FX or something in it. Apple's been pretty good about getting high-end video chips in their systems pretty fast.

 

[mosco]

macnn.com has some good forums to ask people questions. There is not as much software for the mac but there is enough to most things you will need to do. Browsing = Safari, IE, Mozilla, Chimera(built on moz) Email = Entourage (Outlook for the mac, made by MS), Mail (built into osx) Typing = Appleworks (might come with machine), Office (made by MS, beautiful port) OpenOffice, Koffice(if you install KDE on mac os x) Games = game are always a weak point on the mac but there are some games. check out http://www.macsoftgames.com/ and http://www.macplay.com/ and http://www.westlakeinteractive.com/ and http://www.aspyr.com/ for mac games. Music = Itunes, Audion, xmms

 

[AgentUnknown]

Thanks for the help. Is the current Powerbook 15' titanium? Or are all powerbooks that are widescreen titanium?

 

[mosco]

The 15.2 inch models are still Titanium. The 12.1 inch and the 17inch are aluminum. Check out Macrumors.com if you want "rumors" on when new models are coming out. Also take advantage of the apple ed pricing, if you know someone who teaches or if you are in college.

 

[AgentUnknown]

Yup. NYU College of Dentistry discount for me! Thanks for the help. Just saw the thread about bundles with the ipod to save even more money.