[No One]

My friend is selling his tiBook G4 with some extras, including some extra memory, the airport card, and case....$800

Other option is a G5, but some questions:

Which would be best for regular use of Illustrator, Photoshop, Lightwave, InDesign, Quark and various other word and graphics programs?

Which g5 should I get - single or dual processor and how much RAM is ideal for those applications? And is a single processor upgradeable to a dual?

I know the g5 is much faster and pretty much the best out right now, but how much better? Is it $1500 better? How long would the powerbook last me vs the g5?

Thanks

[Luca Rescigno]

No one can possibly answer that question until you've told us exactly what TiBook he's selling. What processor speed? A 550 MHz, for example, will be much slower than a 1 GHz. How much RAM? You say it has extra RAM, but we have nothing to base that on.

Anyway, if he's selling it for $800, it sounds like it would be a fairly early model, like a 500 MHz or 550 MHz. Let us know, though.

And if you want to get a G5, get a dual if you can afford it. They're a lot better, and the dual processor is what sets them apart the most from the single-processor laptops.

[Lateralus]

Let me put it this way: If you don't need portability, you have no reason to be looking at a TiBook.

The common consensus is that the only good G5 is a Dual G5. And with RAM as cheap as it is right now, I recommend 1GB per processor, as in... 2GBs, especially if you're doing as much design work as it appears you will be.

The single processor G5 will almost certainly be upgradeable to Duals in the future, regardless of what most people think. Just because the G5 single processor boards only have one processor bank does not mean much. The Dual G4s shared the one processor bank on all G4 boards. Some upgrade company in the future will develop a Dual-G5 card for single processor G5 owners. It is probably just going to take a while.

And you need to determine how much better it is, how much more it is worth. I couldn't live on any notebook, but not because I think they are too slow. I find they are too confining when it comes to storage space, and I don't feel like having external drives everywhere, it defeats the purpose of a notebook.

[No One]

Originally posted by Luca Rescigno:
No one can possibly answer that question until you've told us exactly what TiBook he's selling. What processor speed? A 550 MHz, for example, will be much slower than a 1 GHz. How much RAM? You say it has extra RAM, but we have nothing to base that on.

Anyway, if he's selling it for $800, it sounds like it would be a fairly early model, like a 500 MHz or 550 MHz. Let us know, though.

And if you want to get a G5, get a dual if you can afford it. They're a lot better, and the dual processor is what sets them apart the most from the single-processor laptops.

Sorry I'm new to Macs and thought that G4 indicated only one processor speed, and I think my friend is confusing MHz with RAM, because he told me it had 867 RAM and a 667 processor, and after some research I believe he's mixing those up...so does a 867 MHz / 667 RAM sound right? would that change anything regarding your advise?

And one small plus of the tiBook would be to use it instead of my school's computers (finishing up my graphics bachelors degree) - which are also G4's but they are very poorly maintained. And with the Book I could use it in class and at home.....but its really not that big of an issue and that would really be the only use of portability.

Thanks

[Lateralus]

Well, certainly doesn't sound like your friends knows much more about Macs than you do.

My advice would be to look at the PowerBook yourself. Once it is booted (Assuming it is running OS X), go to the Apple menu, and then to 'About This Mac'. A window will pop up telling you what version of the OS is running, what processor speed the machine has, and how much RAM is in the system.

[No One]

To be honest I think he is still running some version of OS 9 on it . He lives 3 hours away and all the info I've got on the computer was from him on his cellphone driving to work the other day. He used to use it about a year ago for sound engineering but has no use for it now. He said when he got it (maybe 1.5 years ago) that it cost him close to $3000 and that it was top of the line back then...if that says anything

Another very good question would be - which graphics card if I get the G5? I see that Apple offers GeForce FX 5200 as the base and the Radeon 9600 and 9800 as upgrades.

[Lateralus]

Well, next time he is at the notebook, if he is still running OS 9, tell him to go into the Apple menu and then to Apple System Profiler. He'll see a rundown of the hardware there as well.

If you get a G5, most people agree that while the GeForce FX may be sufficient, the Radeon 9600 is more than worth the upgrade cost. The Radeon 9800 will be overkill unless you are a heavy gamer.