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tvfollower · Sep 4, 2003, 09:45 PM

So, I want to buy a PowerBook for college next year. Now, if the PowerBook G4's stick around, I'd be happy with one...but I don't want a situation in which I fork out $3000 for one, and then all of a sudden the amazing PowerBook G5's appear. So, I have a simple question:

What is Apple's release schedule like? Would they ever release a PowerBook right after the back-to-school period (July, August, September), or do they know that's stupid?

What are the chances of the PowerBook G5's coming out before September 2004? And if the chances are slim, do you think they would wait at least until 2005 to release them, so as to not torture the college students who just bought PowerBook G4's?

Naz · Sep 4, 2003, 10:01 PM

Originally posted by tvfollower:

What are the chances of the PowerBook G5's coming out before September 2004?

the chances should be very good when you say Sept 2004!

tvfollower · Sep 4, 2003, 10:23 PM

I don't understand your point. I said "college next year," as in, the year after this year...as in, September 2004...

ae86_16v · Sep 5, 2003, 12:09 AM

Originally posted by tvfollower:
I don't understand your point. I said "college next year," as in, the year after this year...as in, September 2004...

Huh? He/She is saying that there is a good chance that it'll be out by Sept 2004. Who knows, maybe even the G6 will be out then . . .

tvfollower · Sep 5, 2003, 12:40 AM

I thought he/she thought I meant to say 2003

.

G6? Okay, now we're going a bit too far...

mixin visuals · Sep 5, 2003, 01:01 AM

everyone wants to know this secret

ryanbrown345 · Sep 5, 2003, 01:17 PM

I am also going to go to college next year. I have an imac right now and would be getting a powerbook for college. I have a gut feeling the the G5 will be released at the Paris Show since steave jobs will be there. But yo never know I know for sure they should be in the notebooks by Sept 2004 that is very likley but who knows. If you were to buy a computer today, I would get a desktop G5 and then when yo uneed the portability in college either get a 12" powerbook when they are discounted a lot, and have the powerful G5 in your dorm. But I wouldnt get a notebook now for college next year you will be disapointed that the G5's will be in notebooks and yo have a G4. So hope this helps good luck.

Link · Sep 5, 2003, 01:38 PM

I wouldn't be surprised if a powerbook g5 was introduced before the end of the year HOWEVER I doubt the 12" powerbook will get it.

the 12" is already a hot machine. A PPC 7457 will fit it perfectly in the heat/battery use range as they should equally be about half that of the current g4 processor used in the 12"

In the 17" or 15" there shouldn't be much added heat at all, considering a 1.2ghz powerpc g5 uses about the same amount of power and outputs about the same amount of heat as the current g4 in the powerbook uses.

HOWEVER the majority of heat problems in powerbooks is typically caused by the hard drive and not the CPU.

To finish this thought the powermac g5 desktop uses huge heatsinks and a mesh system to make it not just quiet - but inaudible in normal use. The fans run at a very low speed (perhaps 20 rpm at most), when in average <30% cpu use.

A powerbook with a good cooling system should work just fine with a g5, especially considering the g5 case was designed for the *dual 2ghz* model, which uses about 4x the power and probably outputs nearly 5x the heat (heat buildup!!) then a single 1.2ghz processor would use.

THESE my friend are good facts of speculation to think about

A laptop with a 600mhz bus would be nice, as apple would quickly have one of the nicest laptops on the planet. A portable 64bit machine? While I doubt you'll be able to make the ram 16gb I'm sure there will be at least 2 ram slots (maybe 3?!) and you'll be able to stick 2gb, if not 3 or 4gb in it (perhaps they'll make it compatible with upcoming 2gb SO-DIMMS so the max capacity can go up to 4gb in the future.