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as2 · Sep 18, 2003, 07:56 PM

I'm thinking of finally upgrading my iMac after 3 years to the new 15" Powerbook.

I am going to get the 1.25Ghz model, as I can just about stretch to �2k money wise, but I have a dilemma....

Do i stick with the superdrive, or downgrade to the combi and get an airport base-station.

At the moment I've got broadband in my house, and it's networked, so the whole family have it in their respective rooms/offices but I am thinking about my own useses.

I will probably use it in my room 90% of the time while at home where I can just plug it in, but for the occasional use in the garden, or in other rooms is the airport woth it.

Any comments/suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks.

btw: the other machines being used in the house are 2 new 15" iMac's, a PC Laptop and a 400mhz iMac (which my sister will have when I get my new Powerbook although there is no ethernet in her room.)

cc_foo · Sep 18, 2003, 08:08 PM

If you already have broadband, and have networked your house; you should only need a cheap 3rd party Wireless Access Point added to the network, rather than a full wireless router that the Apple Base Station is. A 802.11b wireless access point (as opposed to 802.11g) would be even cheaper (but slower).

The Apple one has more features, but would be unnecessary for you in your current network.

BTW, wireless is quite worth it.

Can anyone correct me if I'm wrong? Thanks.

as2 · Sep 18, 2003, 08:12 PM

I think I would definily want the faster airport, as I tend to stream a lot of files across the network - especially as my brother allways seems to be listening to my music or visa-versa.

NYCFarmboy · Sep 18, 2003, 09:15 PM

There are much less expensive wifi options than airport extreme. Linksys for example.

Do whatever you have to do to have a superdrive, its amazing how much I use mine.

I dabble in imovie and have burned at least 150 DVD's since February, and I'd have NEVER guessed I've have burned that many.

Now that they are 2x burning its a must have in my opinion.

moonman192 · Sep 19, 2003, 02:04 PM

I would definitely get the superdrive now. You can always get an airport base station in the future, but it would be more of a pain if you wanted to upgrade from a combo to a superdrive. I would recommend a Netgear or Linksys 802.11g router, they are about $150 cheaper than the apple base station and work just as good if not better.

moonman192 · Sep 19, 2003, 02:19 PM

Originally posted by cc_foo:
If you already have broadband, and have networked your house; you should only need a cheap 3rd party Wireless Access Point added to the network, rather than a full wireless router that the Apple Base Station is. A 802.11b wireless access point (as opposed to 802.11g) would be even cheaper (but slower).

The Apple one has more features, but would be unnecessary for you in your current network.

BTW, wireless is quite worth it.

Can anyone correct me if I'm wrong? Thanks.

This is my understanding, please let me know if I'm up in the night, but I'm pretty sure you need a base station (wireless router) to network wirelessly and not just a wireless access point. The access point functions as an adapter to send and receive data through the wireless router. You would connect an access point to another computer to access the wireless network witch the router would provide. If you had 30 computers you would need 30 access points and one wireless router.

Podolsky · Sep 19, 2003, 02:26 PM

I bought a refurbe airport extreme base from Apple knowing full well that I was paying a premium, albiet a reduced premium. Now I am buying the new 15 and this will be great investment that will last quite a while. For something as important as networking, I wanted to go with all Apple and while there are still issues with this technology I would much rather deal with
Apple issues and Apple than with third party issues and other vendors. I have a Linksys hub and the problems I have had were not compensated by the low price - Apple doesn't make hubs. For networks - I say go Apple.

schk · Sep 19, 2003, 02:35 PM

Originally posted by moonman192:
This is my understanding, please let me know if I'm up in the night, but I'm pretty sure you need a base station (wireless router) to network wirelessly and not just a wireless access point. The access point functions as an adapter to send and receive data through the wireless router. You would connect an access point to another computer to access the wireless network witch the router would provide. If you had 30 computers you would need 30 access points and one wireless router.

If you already have a wired router and have free ports, then you can just add a wireless access point to it. An access point basically adds wireless capability to a wired network or as a bridge. Wireless routers are basically a wired router with a built in wireless access point combined in one unit. So it's either a wired router + access point, or just a wireless router that is required. Something you should note is that access points tend to retail for more than a wireless router, so you might be better off just replacing your current router with a wireless router.

Anyways, save the money for the superdrive, and forget about the AE base station. The third party routers offer more features for significant savings in price and there's really no need to go with the AE base station.

tarkap · Sep 19, 2003, 02:38 PM

I went for the airport extreme instead of superdrive in my 12" powerbook and I think definately made the right choice. I keep the laptop in my room most of the time, but I bring it into the living room, or to work where they have wireless and its great to not have to worry about another wire to plug in. I don't think I'd ever need to burn a dvd 'on the go' so having the superdrive in the laptop isn't really that necessary for me.

The SuperDrives in the powerbooks only burn at 2x and are DVD-R only, and Apple seems to really try to hide this - in all their website pages for the powerbooks, they never mention the speed of the driveexcept at the bottom of the tech specs.

There are tons of options for external dvd burners. If you're keeping it in your room most of the time, getting an external burner for dvds shouldn't be that big a deal. I bought an internal one for my PC and am sort of regretting that I didn't get an external one so I could burn dvds easier with osx too.

I bought the Plextor 705A internal one for my PC and its great.. burning dvd's at 2x is kinda slow though (about 30 minute for 4.7gb at 2x). The Plextor also burns 2x DVD-RW, 8x DVD+R, 4x DVD+RW, and 10x CDR/ 24xCDRW. There's an external model of this (705UF) but I don't think its shipping yet. We have 2 of the multiformat external Sony dvd burners at work and they're great on both the PC and Mac.

rambo47 · Sep 19, 2003, 04:34 PM

AirPort Extreme offers no benefits over standard AirPort unless there are 2 AE-equipped Macs sharing files. Although I love Apple's hardware and have an AirPort Extreme Base Station myself, I don't think the extra money over a Linksys wireless router is worth it. What made me get the AE Base Station was the USB printer port on the unit so all the Macs in the house can print wirelessly to my Epson printer.

In my mind, the best thing about the SuperDrive is the added resale value of the computer down the road. I don't plan to burn a DVD on my PowerBook, but I have burned CDs and watched DVDs.

as2 · Sep 19, 2003, 07:18 PM

The AE base-station will be plugged into the switch that serves the rest of the network, so speed is important with respect to sharing files with those machines on the network.

Also, my dad's iMac has a superdrive so I could use that if necessary - not that he's used it since he bought it.

The broadband is plugged into the switch, so I'm thinking this is my best option.

Also, I have to agree that I would prefer to go with an all apple solution for my WiFi, purely for support/compatibility issues. I know there arent any at the moment, but you never know.