Powerbook Cost Justified? |
Thu 3 Feb 2005, 15:19
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Newbie Group: Members Posts: 4 Joined: 03-Feb 05 From: Regina - CA Member No.: 59,724 |
It has finally come time for me to upgrade my hardware. I have been currently been using an old PIII 500mHz with 512Meg of ram and a slow hard disk. I use Tracktion for my host and with a lot track freezing, it becomes somewhat usabe (but just barely)...
Up until recently I had been considering staying on the Windows side, but with the recent introduction of the Mac Mini I decided to take a more serious look at what Apple could offer, so I've tried to do a bit of comparison. I'm committed to purchasing a notebook and I tried to target $2500 (Cdn) for cost. This is what I have come up with... On the Apple side: Powerbook G4 combo drive 15.2-inch TFT Display 1280x854 resolution 1.5GHz PowerPC G4 512MB DDR333 SDRAM 80GB 5400rpm Hard Drive ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 (64 MB DDR) Backlit keyboard Gigabit Ethernet FireWire 400 & 800 Analog audio in/out DVI & S-Video out Cost is $2499 (cdn) On the PC side: Dell Inspiron 9200 Intel® Pentium® M 755 Processor (2GHz/400MHz FSB) 17" ultrawide xga+ 1 gig sdr ram 128MB ATI's™ Mobility Radeon™ 9700 24X CD-RW/DVD Combination Drive 60GB 7200rpm Hard Drive I might be wrong on this, but it seems to me that from a performance perspective, Dell would be the better option. In addition, there seems to be a greater number of low cost / free plugins for thw Windows side verses the Mac side (but I might be totally wron with respect to this as my experiience to date has been solely limited to the PC side). I am really trying to justify the move to Mac but its been a difficult journey. Hopefully this forum can help provide me with some added insight. Thanks. |
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Mon 7 Mar 2005, 08:16
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Newbie Group: Members Posts: 17 Joined: 01-May 04 From: Coeur D'Alene - US Member No.: 42,280 |
20-year Win-to-OSX switcher comments:
I switched to a G4 667 Titanium Powerbook about two years ago after years working in the Windows gloom. I actually look forward to using my computer for the first time in many years. Build quality: the PAINT (I thought it was titanium) is peeling off the hinges on my Powerbook. The newer aluminum pbooks had lines in the displays, and my TiBook has developed a vertical bar down the screen. I'm no longer impressed with build quality. Stability: I've used PC OS's since before Microsoft had one. OS X is THE reason to go Mac. Follow the minimal advice above (repair permissions) and you should be happy. EVERY version of Windows has acted up on me, even on factory-fresh systems. I have noticed, however, a disturbing trend to resist OS X upgrades. I always waited on Windows upgrades, often not upgrading for a year. Until Panther (OS X 3) I happily installed every free OS upgrade. No longer. Recent updates have had their problems. It's starting to feel a little like Windows feature-bloat and update-death lately. Powerbook vs. G5: in 2 years my one-notch-under the state of the art Powerbook (667Mhz,1 Gig memory) is struggling to run crucial apps (Sibelius 3, Live 4.1, Absynth 3) at all and won't even install Garritan Personal Orchestra. Apparently Logic 7 Pro (at $1000) still runs well on G4 systems. I wouldn't risk it. I'll be going to a dual G5 desktop system withing six months. No point waiting for G5 Powerbooks, the software needs dual processor systems. I'm staying with OS X, regardless. Good luck, GitGeezer -------------------- Quad G5, 4 gig memory, internal and external drives, MOTU Traveler, Logic Pro 7.1.1, Sibelius, Reaktor 5, Absynth 3, Live 5, OS X 4.4
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Posts in this topic
darcyb62 Powerbook Cost Justified? Thu 3 Feb 2005, 15:19
Dustan Hi! There... It's always hard to compare ... Thu 3 Feb 2005, 16:47
darcyb62 Thanks for the response Dustan... Stability is on... Thu 3 Feb 2005, 17:36
editbrain apple customer care is not really nice to there us... Fri 4 Feb 2005, 07:44
mfroman I bought my first PowerBook back in 2000, after af... Fri 4 Feb 2005, 22:31
peabreu IMO it all ends up with what you feel better with.... Sat 5 Feb 2005, 00:24
lepetitmartien Peabreu, are you saying that FreeBSD is not a matu... Sat 5 Feb 2005, 01:14
jeffca The biggest reason you buy an Apple laptop is buil... Sat 5 Feb 2005, 05:50
Narayan Hi, I have been using PC and a music composer who ... Sun 27 Feb 2005, 17:51
editbrain Jeffca, I own a 12" powerbook 867mhz, and a d... Mon 28 Feb 2005, 04:47
simmac Hi Narayan I used the PC for 10 years and about 2... Tue 1 Mar 2005, 17:13
Narayan Hi Simmac, Thanks for the encouragement. Still I a... Wed 2 Mar 2005, 18:17
citypigeon hi, Its capturing the incoming analog audio thats... Wed 2 Mar 2005, 18:51
midnitremedy Hi my name is Jeremy (email midniteremedy@gmail.co... Thu 3 Mar 2005, 05:19
simmac Hi Narayan So,if you don't work with audio re... Fri 4 Mar 2005, 01:05
Narayan Hi Simmac, Thanks for clearing my doubts. Yes, I... Fri 4 Mar 2005, 09:08
simmac Hi Narayan You are right.You know everything is p... Sat 5 Mar 2005, 11:32
cludinsk QUOTE Powerbook vs. G5: in 2 years my one-notch-un... Mon 7 Mar 2005, 21:26
GitGeezer Quite correct. When I bought the TiBook I decided... Tue 8 Mar 2005, 05:48
Dustan Hi! There... It's always hard to compare ... Thu 3 Feb 2005, 16:47
darcyb62 Thanks for the response Dustan... Stability is on... Thu 3 Feb 2005, 17:36
editbrain apple customer care is not really nice to there us... Fri 4 Feb 2005, 07:44
mfroman I bought my first PowerBook back in 2000, after af... Fri 4 Feb 2005, 22:31
peabreu IMO it all ends up with what you feel better with.... Sat 5 Feb 2005, 00:24
lepetitmartien Peabreu, are you saying that FreeBSD is not a matu... Sat 5 Feb 2005, 01:14
jeffca The biggest reason you buy an Apple laptop is buil... Sat 5 Feb 2005, 05:50
Narayan Hi, I have been using PC and a music composer who ... Sun 27 Feb 2005, 17:51
editbrain Jeffca, I own a 12" powerbook 867mhz, and a d... Mon 28 Feb 2005, 04:47
simmac Hi Narayan I used the PC for 10 years and about 2... Tue 1 Mar 2005, 17:13
Narayan Hi Simmac, Thanks for the encouragement. Still I a... Wed 2 Mar 2005, 18:17
citypigeon hi, Its capturing the incoming analog audio thats... Wed 2 Mar 2005, 18:51
midnitremedy Hi my name is Jeremy (email midniteremedy@gmail.co... Thu 3 Mar 2005, 05:19
simmac Hi Narayan So,if you don't work with audio re... Fri 4 Mar 2005, 01:05
Narayan Hi Simmac, Thanks for clearing my doubts. Yes, I... Fri 4 Mar 2005, 09:08
simmac Hi Narayan You are right.You know everything is p... Sat 5 Mar 2005, 11:32
cludinsk QUOTE Powerbook vs. G5: in 2 years my one-notch-un... Mon 7 Mar 2005, 21:26
GitGeezer Quite correct. When I bought the TiBook I decided... Tue 8 Mar 2005, 05:48
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