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Went to the dark side...

Wuzup101

Wuzup101

Platinum Member
Okay, so after debating what laptop to get for almost 6 months I decided on an Apple Powerbook. I was also considering a IBM T42; however, the price for the model I wanted was significantly more than I wanted to pay (Read: $3000). I figured since I'll still have this PC desktop (see sig) at school that I mise well see what Apple was offering. After playing around with a mac in the computer lab for a few weeks while still at school I decided it wouldn't be too bad of an Idea. Anyway I just purchased my first Powerbook. A shiny new 15" with a 1.5ghz G4, 80gb 5400rpm HDD, Mobile Radeon 9700 with 128mb v-ram, and 512mb pc2700 (which will be upgraded soon w/ another 1gb stick). I ended up paying just a hair under $2k which was my goal (not including taxes). The machine shipped out today and will be here wednesday the 21st. I'll make sure I give you all an update on how much I'm loving it sometime around then!
 
No offense intended at all, but I personally don't understand why people buy powerbooks with radeon 9700's in them.... correct me if i'm wrong, but aren't there only 3 or 4 games for the mac that can really take advantage of this card (UT2k4, WC3 are all I can remember)? Every other time you'll be wasting the graphics power on word processing, movies, programming or photoshopping. Is it really worth spending the $2k to buy a gaming machine just to play 2 or 3 games that aren't necessarily optimized for macs anyway? Once again, no offense as I've seen powerbooks and believe their design and beauty to be second to none... I'm just questioning why many people buy powerbooks with high-end graphics solutions rather than saving a decent amount of money and going with the much cheaper versions (Radeon 9000, Geforce Go etc.).
 
Originally posted by: SigmaB
where exactly did you configure that pbook for under 2g's?
Click to expand...

Apple's student discounts are a beautiful thing 🙂

Originally posted by: Connoisseur
No offense intended at all, but I personally don't understand why people buy powerbooks with radeon 9700's in them....
Click to expand...

Mostly because the 1.5ghz powerbooks come standard with the 9700m. Also because video is important for anything you do. Might as well have the best picture possible. Dosen't just apply to games



OP: Enjoy that Powerbook. I LOVE mine!
 
Originally posted by: DarkAmeba
Originally posted by: SigmaB
where exactly did you configure that pbook for under 2g's?
Click to expand...

Apple's student discounts are a beautiful thing 🙂

Originally posted by: Connoisseur
No offense intended at all, but I personally don't understand why people buy powerbooks with radeon 9700's in them....
Click to expand...

Mostly because the 1.5ghz powerbooks come standard with the 9700m. Also because video is important for anything you do. Might as well have the best picture possible. Dosen't just apply to games



OP: Enjoy that Powerbook. I LOVE mine!
Click to expand...

Also, it aids in photoediting, or animation, or 3-d rendering.
 
When I try to configure a powerbook with the same specs as your and with the education discount it doesnt come out under $2000. What college do you go to? Maybe your college has a bigger discount....
 
No my college doesn't have a bigger discount. I joined the apple Student Developers plan for $99/year. Basically it entitles you to a 1 time larger discount on a machine and some programming tools and free software. It also will include the newest OS releases, so I'll get a copy of OSX 10.4 "tiger" when it comes out. For me the money was well worth it as I like to code.

Also, no offence taken, but I don't plan on using this as a "gaming" machine. Certainly I am going to buy a copy of UT2k4 for it as it's one of my favorite games, and I will also be getting a copy of world of warcraft for it. Doom 3 is also promised for the OSX platform. I have a fairly powreful PC that I like to play games with (where i'll probably get doom3 for). Still the PB is more than capeable of holding its own if I decide to play something in the library instead of doing work... but it wont be a primary use. The nice thing is Apple only puts 9700ms in their 15 and 17 inch books. They come standard with 64mb of ram and I chose to upgrade to 128 for like $80 more to future proof myself (I had some extra money left in my budget). Also, I'm big into photo editing/web page design/etc... so extra v ram is always a good thing.

For me the video card wasn't exactly the biggest selling point, still it's nice to have, especially for video editing/photo editing programs that are optimized for the mac!

🙂

BTW if anyone wants to know... here is the ADC membership ordering info...

Go to the Hardware Purchase Program Store Link

Developer Main Page
 
Thanks for the info! I was able to configure a PB for a little over $2000 that was 15",80GB 5400rpm, 1.5ghz, 512mb Ram, Superdrive, 9700 (64mb). Of course I will have had to pay $100 for the membership, but it would still come out to about $150 cheaper then just going through the education store.

I don't think theres any point in me getting a 128mb 9700 because I dont plan to do any gaming on this computer, ide rather do that on a desktop PC. Thanks
 
Hey no prob... yeah you should save atleast $150 if not more. All the options (IE Superdrive, larget v-mem,etc...) are also cheaper with the ADC discount. Basically the more you spend the more you save! And like I said, tiger is supposed to be out within a year. So if you get your ADC membership now you should get a free copy of tiger when it is released!
 
BTW, I recieved the PB a day early (got it this morning). My initial impressions can't even be written with words. The machine is absolutely stunning. The keyboard is amazing. I can type just as fast on it as I can on my desktop Logitech MX keyboard. The screan is great and the machine was a breeze to setup. I booted into OSX for the first time, internet already connected (wireless). Great stuff. I can see i'm really going to love this little machine!
 
My student info was processed in less than 12hrs. Check your email for confirmation.

As for gaming, there seem to be more games coming out for the mac lately. There are quite a few games that are developed on linux and then ported to windows. Because OS X has a *nix base (darwin), porting these same games to OS X is becoming more popular.
 
Originally posted by: alisajid
What does *nix have to do with gaming? 😕
Click to expand...

What TJ69 is saying that the games are developed on linux, and THEN ported to windows. Porting these linux made games into another *nix enviornment is a lot easier.
 
I'd love a powerbook, but I can't see spending that much money on another enviornment I don't know that much about (OSX). I do think OSX is an amazing OS though from the screenshots i've seen. Plus the fact that it has a unix core makes it more appealing. If only apple didn't charge so darn much i'd probably have one of those puppies too! 🙁
 
I thouhght about that too... but there really is so much you can do with OSX and it's so easy to learn. Both my parents, who have only used PCs all their lives, were easily able to use my PB the day I got it for basic stiff. A little reading is all it takes... and you'll know everything you need to know.

Also to answer the above... I got my student status "verified" by scanning a copy of my schedule w/ my ID on top of it. I just emailed them the pic and it was done within 12 hrs.
 
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