[gun_street_boy]

I'd like to preface this by saying that I am not a professional in the strictest sense of the word.(I don't really make any money at this is what I mean)I'm not working for a company, so time isn't money or anything. Most of my work involves blending different media (real paint, photos and scans with some computer stuff) and no video at all. I've been using a Celeron PC with windows ME and 512mb ram running photoshop 6 and a little bit of Illustrator 10. They've always run OK (not great, a little slow, occasional crashes and lost some work once, but mostly OK) but I'm in the market for a new computer now and I've been looking at the MACs. Here are the things I want to do with my computer:

Photoshop for some photo editing
Quite a bit of Corel Painter 8
Large files for output to a plotter
Some Illustrator
Word processing
A little bit of web page creation
Plus, I'm in school for environmental science and will probably eventually use it for GIS work (I know arcview hasn't been putting things out for mac lately, but maybe one day.)

NO video
No music editing
NO DVD creation
I don't really play computer games that much

So, I was looking at the PB12" and I LOVE the portability of it and it seems to be pretty good as far as ram and HD go. The problem is, there are no stores that sell apple around here, and I don't really know anyone with a mac. I DON'T KNOW CRAP ABOUT HARDWARE!

I figure if I go with the 12, it would be the full 1.XXX gigs of RAM and the 80gb hard drive.

I hear the screen for the PB12 isn't so hot, but I would be getting a bigger external display for any of my art stuff so that doesn't concern me too much.

What about the graphics card? The 12"'s Nvidia is half the power of the 15"'s ATI. Is this even important for the kind of stuff I want to do?

What about that Altivec stuff? Apparently the 12" doesn't have any. Can anyone help?

Is a 1ghz G4 12", 1.xxGB RAM 80gig HD strong with an external display strong enough for what I want to do? Or do I have to get the bigger 15?

Can I actually call apple and ask them about this kind of stuff or will they send a customer support person over here to punch me in the face for being such an idiot?

Any help would really be appreciated here. Thanks

[Tariq-1]

I had the 12" PowerBook 1GHZ briefly and it has plenty of power to do everything you mention AS long as you have it hooked up to a second monitor. It's a G4 so it does have Altivec. The Graphics card has half the Vram of the 15" But that does not mean it's half as good. I found it to be plenty fast, certainly enough for 2D work and it can pretty much drive any resolution on any second monitor you hook to it. Personally, I would Not spend the $500 or so on the 1GB Ram chip but would instead buy the 512MB chip for around $130. Unless you are dealing with 300+MB files, you will not need the extra Ram and it will no doubt come down in price over the next few months if you do need it later. The one and only reason I returned my 12" was the poor quality of the LCD which was a big deal for me when viewing Photos on Location with a client. I also reasoned that the screen would also Always bother me when watching a DVD with my Wife say on a trip as the viewing angle would not let Both of us enjoy a movie together. Other than the Screen quality, I think the 12" is Perfect.

Tariq

Originally posted by gun_street_boy:
I'd like to preface this by saying that I am not a professional in the strictest sense of the word.(I don't really make any money at this is what I mean)I'm not working for a company, so time isn't money or anything. Most of my work involves blending different media (real paint, photos and scans with some computer stuff) and no video at all. I've been using a Celeron PC with windows ME and 512mb ram running photoshop 6 and a little bit of Illustrator 10. They've always run OK (not great, a little slow, occasional crashes and lost some work once, but mostly OK) but I'm in the market for a new computer now and I've been looking at the MACs. Here are the things I want to do with my computer:

Photoshop for some photo editing
Quite a bit of Corel Painter 8
Large files for output to a plotter
Some Illustrator
Word processing
A little bit of web page creation
Plus, I'm in school for environmental science and will probably eventually use it for GIS work (I know arcview hasn't been putting things out for mac lately, but maybe one day.)

NO video
No music editing
NO DVD creation
I don't really play computer games that much

So, I was looking at the PB12" and I LOVE the portability of it and it seems to be pretty good as far as ram and HD go. The problem is, there are no stores that sell apple around here, and I don't really know anyone with a mac. I DON'T KNOW CRAP ABOUT HARDWARE!

I figure if I go with the 12, it would be the full 1.XXX gigs of RAM and the 80gb hard drive.

I hear the screen for the PB12 isn't so hot, but I would be getting a bigger external display for any of my art stuff so that doesn't concern me too much.

What about the graphics card? The 12"'s Nvidia is half the power of the 15"'s ATI. Is this even important for the kind of stuff I want to do?

What about that Altivec stuff? Apparently the 12" doesn't have any. Can anyone help?

Is a 1ghz G4 12", 1.xxGB RAM 80gig HD strong with an external display strong enough for what I want to do? Or do I have to get the bigger 15?

Can I actually call apple and ask them about this kind of stuff or will they send a customer support person over here to punch me in the face for being such an idiot?

Any help would really be appreciated here. Thanks

[BookWurm]

Sounds like this is to be your only Mac, your workhorse computer.

I have a 12"revB PB. I also use Painter, Photoshop, and a number of other productivity apps.

I wouldn't dream of using these apps on the 12" PB's 1024x768 screen. A lot more screen space is needed. You will definitely require a larger outboard monitor. Or a different computer. And I would not think that the GeForceFXGo5200 GPU with only 32MB video memory would be as well suited to running a large external screen as would the 64MB faster GPUs on the larger PowerBooks.

I also have a desktop G4 which has two large monitors for my Photoshop and Painter work. All this screen space is a huge plus with these productivity apps. Where are you going to put all your toolbars and palettes on your 12" screen? There'll be no room left for your work document.

My 12"? It serves me well because of its portability, but it is only used for notes, and for having my data files with me. This PB's main use is for a place to empty my digital cameras into while away from base.

If you want a portable computer and it's your only computer, get nothing less than the 1.25GHz 15" PB.

Don't get me wrong. I love my 12" Al-Book, but I don't expect to use it for serious stuff long-term, that is better suited to a desktop Mac.

I hear there were some screen issues with the revA 12" PB. I dunno what those problems were but the revB 12" has no problems with its screen that I have noticed. In fact, the screen is very good with a usably wide viewing angle and great brighness and contrast. I turn my brightness down a little to save the battery but it is still almost too bright.

Regards

[Fellow2000]

I can just tell you my personal experience with mine.

I do most of the stuff that you do and a little more. I do quite a bit of web design so I am always using bbedit and other such apps. Also dreamweaver but just for coding, no wysiwyg.

I came from an Athlon xp 1800 at 1.47ghz, 512mb of ddr2700 ram. I went to a 12 pbook 1ghz with 256ram.

I was planning to go have the ram updated right after I bought it. You never buy ram from apple, it's just a rule, it is way overpriced and the same stuff you can get at any PC store.

Surprisingly though, I have not updated the Ram yet. why? Cause I have not needed to. Everything I do, the 256 is fast enough. I am sure that if I added more then I would notice a speed change, but compared to my PC, this thing smokes it no contest.

The answer is bluntly 'yes.' It will be plenty if not overkill for you. You could even get along with an ibook no problem.

Also, be sure you are not comparing mhz with PC's. A 1ghz powerpc chip is quite a bit faster than a 1ghz x86 proc. I would say at least double, but I don't have the actual stats.

Trust me, this machine will be more than enough for you, especially compared to what you have now.

PS.. i also hook mine up to a 21 inch trinitron when working PS and dreamweaver and it works great. I use clamshell mode and there is no slow-down whatsoever.

[coolmacdude]

Originally posted by gun_street_boy:
What about that Altivec stuff? Apparently the 12" doesn't have any.

LOL, that's the first time I've heard that one.

All G4's have Altivec, the 12" has a G4, so...

[gun_street_boy]

Originally posted by coolmacdude:
LOL, that's the first time I've heard that one.

All G4's have Altivec, the 12" has a G4, so...

Thank you. Not only have you completely not answered my question, but you've also managed to make me feel stupid. I've been trying to get decent information on these computers and I've read everything from "its a godsend" to "its a paperweight" so I hope you'll understand if some of my information is a little off. I already said I don't know anything about the hardware stuff. I really don't care how high the number on the processor or HD or whatever is. I just want to know if it will let me do what I want.

P.S. Thank you to everyone else who have actually given me something to think about. Some of the options I'm looking at will cost me more than my car did so I am being a little careful with this purchase.