[jindrich]

hi, im typing this from a Ti550. I've been waiting ages for apple to update the powerbook. Now that they're here and I finally decided to buy, I thought I'd better skip the 1.25 model and go for the 1ghz, because the €700 saved will help buying me a dual G5 (the machine I really need) in 6 months or so.

But now i realized that, besides some cosmetic changes and a few addons, the 1ghz alu is basically the same computer the Ti was 11MONTHS AGO!
And i remeber at that time it wasnt the fastest laptop around, so what about today? and how will it perform in 1 year??
Should I pay the 700 more for the 1.25 (i dont think the difference will be that much, not compared to a G5).
I'm a power user (but in need of a laptop now): Photoshop, logic audio, web, flash, mysql and VirtualPC to check webs in explorer for windols. What machine would you buy? Please tell me the 1ghz will be enough -for now at least.

And BTW, now that the euro has been changing for around 1.20 dolars for nearly a year, why is Apple the ONLY company that hasn't adjusted its prices accordingly? (specially since we have way higher taxes in europe)

[SEkker]

A 1 Ghz G4 with a 7200 rpm HD will be much better for you than a 1.25 GHz G4 with a stock Apple drive.

You'll notice the speed hit from the slow drives the second you try to do some heavy photoshoppin', even with 1GB of RAM.

[Drakino]

Keep in mind that €700 difference is not just to go to 1.25. It also doubles the memory, increases the hard drive to 80GB from 60, adds Airport Extreme, and a backlit keyboard.

Though if you are planning on getting a G5 shortly, the 1ghz should be fine for mobile work. It will still be faster then what you have now and should hold you over for the desktop.

For me, the Powerbook is going to be the fastest Mac I have for a while, so I paid the $57 it cost to go from a 1.0 to 1.25 gHz processor.

[ae86_16v]

Remember the doubling of L2 cache too. . . if you are just looking short term, go for the 1GHz, but since you are doing heavy duty work you should upgrade the stock 256mb of ram.

[dennis88]

Originally posted by ae86_16v:
Remember the doubling of L2 cache too. . . if you are just looking short term, go for the 1GHz, but since you are doing heavy duty work you should upgrade the stock 256mb of ram.

And the new ati9600 64mb.
And bluetooth.
Faster ram.
And airport exteme support.
Usb 2.0.
++

[gomariners]

Originally posted by jindrich:
hi, im typing this from a Ti550. I've been waiting ages for apple to update the powerbook. Now that they're here and I finally decided to buy, I thought I'd better skip the 1.25 model and go for the 1ghz, because the €700 saved will help buying me a dual G5 (the machine I really need) in 6 months or so.

But now i realized that, besides some cosmetic changes and a few addons, the 1ghz alu is basically the same computer the Ti was 11MONTHS AGO!
And i remeber at that time it wasnt the fastest laptop around, so what about today? and how will it perform in 1 year??
Should I pay the 700 more for the 1.25 (i dont think the difference will be that much, not compared to a G5).
I'm a power user (but in need of a laptop now): Photoshop, logic audio, web, flash, mysql and VirtualPC to check webs in explorer for windols. What machine would you buy? Please tell me the 1ghz will be enough -for now at least.

And BTW, now that the euro has been changing for around 1.20 dolars for nearly a year, why is Apple the ONLY company that hasn't adjusted its prices accordingly? (specially since we have way higher taxes in europe)

I played this game at the apple store where I took the 1ghz and upgraded all the features to the level of the high end (so I didn't upgrade the 1.25ghz, but I added the backlit keyboard, airport extreme, superdrive, etc.)

1ghz US $2542
1.25ghz US $2599

If you do this at the education store prices you get
1ghz US $2288
1.25 ghz US $2299

You can downgrade everything on the 1.25 except the keyboard the extra .25 isn't that expensive.

[jindrich]

thanks for your replies.
I had already decided to trade my ti550 for a new alu, but I'm worried the 1Ghz won't be as capable as I'd like, and the 1.25 too expensive (3rd laptop in 3 years).

anyway, i think i'll get the 1ghz model, because the €700 difference can get me a cheap but fast desktop PC if I desperately need top cpu performance. It is so sad we still have reasons to complain about powerbook performance (check barefoot's comparison against centrinos).

I was ready to pay ANYTHING for a G5 Aluminium powerbook, but it's still one year away. Thus my main concern of paying (again) top dollars/euros for a *not capable enough* top of the line 1.25 G4 powerbook.

And i still think the 1ghz powerbook is last year technology -yes there's 64mb vram, usb2, firewire800, airport54 and bluetooth, but raw cpu power remains the same

edit: oh, and i cannot BTO ,because i need the powerbook before end of october, as i'm travelling in november to Praha-Germany to study

[gomariners]

Originally posted by jindrich:
thanks for your replies.
I had already decided to trade my ti550 for a new alu, but I'm worried the 1Ghz won't be as capable as I'd like, and the 1.25 too expensive (3rd laptop in 3 years).

anyway, i think i'll get the 1ghz model, because the €700 difference can get me a cheap but fast desktop PC if I desperately need top cpu performance. It is so sad we still have reasons to complain about powerbook performance (check barefoot's comparison against centrinos).

I was ready to pay ANYTHING for a G5 Aluminium powerbook, but it's still one year away. Thus my main concern of paying (again) top dollars/euros for a *not capable enough* top of the line 1.25 G4 powerbook.

And i still think the 1ghz powerbook is last year technology -yes there's 64mb vram, usb2, firewire800, airport54 and bluetooth, but raw cpu power remains the same

edit: oh, and i cannot BTO ,because i need the powerbook before end of october, as i'm travelling in november to Praha-Germany to study

I ordered mine Oct 1, BTO, arrived Oct 8, and that was with 5 day shipping.

If I were you, I would still order the 1.25ghz BTO (downgrade whatever you need to, the superdrive is the most expensive thing) and if it doesn't ship in time, cancel your order and get one in a store. Can't hurt and you might get a much nicer machine. At worst you go a few days without your machine.

I'm typing on mine right now and _extremely_ happy with it.

Enjoy Prague - go to Shakespear & Sons (except Sons is in czech) a friend of mine owns it with some other dudes. It's a fab place to hang (coffee,bar,bookstore) where many expats and Czechs hang out. Maybe by now they have wireless, I don't know.

[jindrich]

------q
I ordered mine Oct 1, BTO, arrived Oct 8, and that was with 5 day shipping.
------/q

In Europe powerbooks are under short supply right now. In my apple certified store (in mallorca-spain) i've been told the channel is empty (all sold out), and BTO could even take more, like a month.

btw, does the powerbook's superdirve write dvr rw? an external lacie dvd burner is not much more expensive than the superdrive option and it burns everything. And much faster.

I can afford any machine, which doesn't mean it makes sense to buy blindly and carelessly.

thanks for the advice on the caffe-shop in Praha. I'll definetely check it out

[dialo]

Originally posted by jindrich:
I'm worried the 1Ghz won't be as capable as I'd like, and the 1.25 too expensive (3rd laptop in 3 years).

The 1Ghz will be more than twice as fast as your extra slow 550. Those were extra slow even when they were first released.