[orlando12]

Just had a few questions for all those who are willing to answer.

I have been thinking about switching to a mac for a long time now for numerous reasons (design, lighter weight, and the lack of blue death screens)

I currrently own a Dell Inspiron 1100 with 2.2ghz Celeron, 384mb ram, and win xp, which runs ok... but not great.


How much of a difference in terms of being able to smoothly run applications like office, photoshop, or running dvd's would I see on say the 1ghz 14in ibook with equal ram?

Thanks for the responses/opinions.

[The Placid Casual]

Running DVD: Very smooth.
MS Office: Again, fine.
Photoshop: With a 1 Gig G4 and lots of RAM you will be fine for most stuff unless you are totally Pro.

I run a PC too, (Athlon XP2600+ OCed etc etc) and I hate the way stuff runs on it even compared to my Dual G4 450 Powermac!

The iBook should be fine... they are slick machine.

Is it possible you could try one out before you switch to be sure... I'm sure resellers would be obliging!

Good luck!

Marc

[turtle777]

Originally posted by orlando12:

How much of a difference in terms of being able to smoothly run applications like office, photoshop, or running dvd's would I see on say the 1ghz 14in ibook with equal ram?

Thanks for the responses/opinions.

What do you mean by smoothly ?
Fast ? No glitches ? No blue screen of death ?

Well, as for speed, OS X, especially the finder, sometimes feels a little slower than one would wish.
That being said, the overall experience on a Mac is great, you will like OS X very much.

Don't forget: speed is NOT everything.

-t

[ghporter]

Our iBook has been far more stable than any of our PCs. Everything on it runs smoothly, and we have yet to have a real "crash" after six months of figuring it out on our own.

I recommend putting in as much RAM as you can, since things start and quit faster, and boot and shut down are also quicker. We just recently put a new 512MB module in, (had to remove a factory 128MB module to do it) for a total of 640MB. Wonderful! But don't buy the extra RAM from Apple; they're "proud" of it. Crucial is a good source, at about $100 for 512MB. Order your iBook with a single 256MB module (you'll pay a little more, but it's worth it) so you can bump it up to 768MB by adding a 512MB module.

[ginoledesma]

I have an iBook G4/800 with 640MB of RAM (I added 512MB to the built-in 128MB). DVD playback is very smooth, both at full-screen or at quarter-screen, even on battery mode. I've never had problems playing DVDs even on older Macs, like my PowerMac G4/400.

I would recommend having at least 512MB of RAM on any Mac, just because Mac OS X performs much better with more memory.

I use Microsoft Office X occasionally, but I'd have to admit that MS Office on the PC is almost always faster. PowerPoint and Excel are especially much "snappier," but I guess that's just because of Microsoft's tight integration with their OS. As for Photoshop, I've a friend who has a PowerBook G4/1GHz and she tells me that some functions (e.g. blurs) are much more responsive on the PC, but overall performance on the Mac is good enough.

I'm quite pleased with my iBook G4/800. I use it for programming, presentations, and (LaTeX) publishing most of the time. I do wish that the Finder and some apps were more responsive now and then, but all in all, it does the job well.

[galarneau]

Originally posted by orlando12:
How much of a difference in terms of being able to smoothly run applications like office, photoshop, or running dvd's would I see on say the 1ghz 14in ibook with equal ram?

I'd like to chime in with an opinion. Having owned both Mac's and PC's (particularly a Dell Inspiron 8000 laptop), I'd like to point out that Dell laptops do not ship from the factory in a state that I would call efficient.

Both myself and a friend (who bought an Inspiron 8500) found that our machines were just full of extra software that slowed our machines down significantly.

Right now, I'm on a WinXP machine and after booting, it has 21 processes running (including an antivirus). By comparison, I'm betting that your Dell will have over 40 processes running.

Do a google search for "msconfig" for tips on how to streamline your OS.

I think you'll find that XP can run quite well, even on slower hardware (I ran it on a ThinkPad T20 Pentium III 700 just fine)

If after that, you still want to make the switch, then by all means good luck. I think you'll find the Mac OS much easier for people who just want their machines to work out of the box and run with a minumum of hassle.

[Thraxes]

Well that Dell is only running on 384MB RAM. You will find that any computer with ANY modern OS, be it OS-X or Win-XP runs much better with 512MBs or even more to work with. To really hum along both OS's need between 768MB and 1GB. Win-XP might be a bit more forgiving than OS-X when doing simple things like Web-Browsing. But even then, do many "simple" things at the same time, add in some file copying over the network and that poor hardddrive will be begging for mercy. Same on OS-X.

As I am loathe of spending money unnecessarily I will recommend that you upgrade the DELLs RAM and clean out the default DELL WinXP installation. Sounds like the system has 128MB integrated and a 256MB module that is upgradeable. i would exchange the 256 module for a 512MB module and see how it flies.

If you still don't like it and really want to move to the mac then get yourself the iBook that you want... all the more tastier because the Dell Inspiron 1100 and Apples G4 iBooks run on the same type of memory!! (PC-266 CL2.5) Simply take the new 512 MB module from the DELL and put it in the iBook, reinstall the old 256MB module and sell the DELL.

This way you are absolutely sure that you got the best deal and didn't spend any $$ or €€ more than needed.

[galarneau]

Originally posted by Thraxes:
If you still don't like it and really want to move to the mac then get yourself the iBook that you want... all the more tastier because the Dell Inspiron 1100 and Apples G4 iBooks run on the same type of memory!! (PC-266 CL2.5) Simply take the new 512 MB module from the DELL and put it in the iBook, reinstall the old 256MB module and sell the DELL.

This way you are absolutely sure that you got the best deal and didn't spend any $$ or €€ more than needed.

That's good advise Thraxes. I should also mention that I have found OS X to have much better multitasking than Windows XP. If you work with multiple programs simultaneously, switching back and forth between them, OS X will be more "smooth".

When I used to do video encoding on my Athlon 1800, it would take 5-10 seconds for a minimized IE window to be maximized and redrawn.

On my old G3 iBook 800, no such problems.

[Dr.Michael]

I think you will find the Inspiron to be a faster machine compared to an iBook.

But the iBook is a MUCH nicer machine considering ergonomic design, overall usefulness and of course OS. I had my worst Notebook experienes with a Dell Latitude. I will never try this sh*t again.

I won't hesitate with the iBook.

[mbryda]

Dell = GARBAGE of the PC world. They are cheap because they are build incredibly cheap. Typically they are among the slowest PCs out there (or barely in the middle of the road).

So, an iBook will be a step up from any Dung-pile that Dell makes.

I do much more and am much more efficient on either my 800Mhz G4 iMac or my wife's 800Mhz G3 iBook than I am on my 2.0 Ghz P4 IBM Laptop that work provides me. Things just run smoother and better on OSX. You won't go wrong with any of the current Mac's.

My only advice is load it with RAM - the wife's iBook is @ 256MB and it's sort of slow wit Panther. I need to get her up to at least 384-512MB. My iMac is @ 512MB and it runs fine. (Hmmm, 512MB SO-DIMM for me and she will get my old 256MB SO-DIMM...

Just get the Mac and don't look back. I know I don't.

[orlando12]

Thanks for all the opinions on my question...


I have a buyer for my dell laptop and will probably switch to the 1 ghz ibook 14'... maxed out ram of course, and I am sure I will enjoy it...

One more thing... How come mac's always seem to have so much of a brighter/crisper display in terms of graphics and video, compared to say a pc...

Is it the type of lcd/video card?

Thanks.

[Lancer409]

Originally posted by orlando12:
Thanks for all the opinions on my question...


I have a buyer for my dell laptop and will probably switch to the 1 ghz ibook 14'... maxed out ram of course, and I am sure I will enjoy it...

One more thing... How come mac's always seem to have so much of a brighter/crisper display in terms of graphics and video, compared to say a pc...

Is it the type of lcd/video card?

Thanks.

i've heard plenty mac users complain about the displays compared to pc displays. i recently switched to a powerbook .. and despite a wierd finder problem (which may be due to haxies .. lol)

i have had NO problems with osX and it's fantastic that programs dont crash out all the time. what bugged me the most in xp is internet explorer crashing out once or twice a day .. when u have a bunch of windows open, it sux when it crashes and you have to find those sites again. a pain. it's just nice not having a computer that crashes a bunch.
and no .. i am not biased.. i still use my pc for gaming (what it's built for) .. it'sjust refreshing when u dont see any crashes ..

[ginoledesma]

Originally posted by orlando12:
One more thing... How come mac's always seem to have so much of a brighter/crisper display in terms of graphics and video, compared to say a pc...

Is it the type of lcd/video card?

I guess it depends what you are comparing them to. I've found that some laptops, in particular the IBM Thinkpad X series, the Sony Vaios, and Fujitsu Lifebooks have sharper screens and better contrast. Some find the iBooks and PowerBooks LCDs a tad too dim (lacking on the brightness/contrast controls). So I guess it boils down to how you prefer the display.

In general, I find the Mac's color screen a bit "warmer" whereas Windows is what I call "cooler." I find the former more comfortable to deal with, but that's not to say one is better over the other. Color scheme is, after all, a personal taste.

[new_apple]

Originally posted by orlando12:
Just had a few questions for all those who are willing to answer.

I have been thinking about switching to a mac for a long time now for numerous reasons (design, lighter weight, and the lack of blue death screens)

I currrently own a Dell Inspiron 1100 with 2.2ghz Celeron, 384mb ram, and win xp, which runs ok... but not great.


How much of a difference in terms of being able to smoothly run applications like office, photoshop, or running dvd's would I see on say the 1ghz 14in ibook with equal ram?

Thanks for the responses/opinions.

Since I just switched, I understand what you are saying. You know all those posts where Mac users say how "smooth" the machine is? Well, it is the right word. I was really worried about the speed of this thing (beeing my first Mac), but after 5 minutes I didn't care. This little beauty can actually multitask better than my 2,4GHz P4 at work. Speedwise it's definately feels much faster than my AMD 1,33GHz T-bird. I just installed an extra 512MB RAM, and now it flies. I've installed Dreamweaver, Photoshop and Office 2004 - no problems. I'm using these apps for hours at a time, and speed is not an issue.

When I finally took the leap and bought the machine, I decided that I could sell it if I didn't like it. Now I wouldn't part with it if a 6'4" kickboxer walked up to me and tried to take it.

[rhansen_x]

I use both a 12" iBook and a Dell D600 laptop for work. I would not be able to do my job without either. That being said, I prefer to do most of my work on the iBook, but some functions are just not there yet... I cannot get Entourage to view calendars properly for scheduling and some of the software I use is specific to Win2k for telephone PBX management. I am not sure if I'm brave enough to install it using Virtual PC.

Otherwise, I think this little iBook is pretty cool.

[ChrisB]

With an iBook, a lot of the performance of that model has to do with hard drive speed, and at what interval you have it set to put the hard drive to sleep (this goes for any Apple laptop). You can run OS X 10.3 with 384MB of RAM really well. The Finder will be very snappy. Office will run well. Photoshop CS, with a 4200RPM hard drive, on a laptop, will not run that great, especially when working with larger documents and only 384MB of RAM. And even if you added more RAM, you will notice a performance with with that hard drive.

If you are keen on using Photoshop, I would strongly suggest getting a PowerBook with at least 512MB of RAM and the 80GB 5400RPM hard drive option.

My two cents...

[kcomer]

I bought my first mac in November a 1.25Ghz Powerbook with 512 MB ram and the super drive. I had no expirience with OS X, but I did know Linux and Unix very well. I mostly program, but sometimes I dable with Photoshop and lgiht video editing. I can't say enough about the performance. I had a p4 as my home computer and sicne I purchased my powerbook I have gievn away almost all of my pc's to family members or friends. I kept the monitors since they are sony trinitrons. I haven't had a single issue with my laptop sicne day 1. When I was thinking about buying it a friend who I talk to online told me "the nice thing about OS X is, if it's not dead simple to do, it can't do it" While this isn't 100% true, it is a pretty good description of OS X and its usability. That being said I constantly tweak things using the command line, even though it's not neccasary at all.

[Paul Huang]

The spindle speed is not the only factor in operational speed.

If you pit a three-platter 60GB/5,400 RPM drive against a two-platter 60GB/4,200 RPM drive, I can assure you that the 4,200 RPM drive will be much faster than the 5,400 RPM.

Added cache will also make the drive snapper in most situations.

For a few dollars, I would go with 7,200--if you are going through all the trouble of cracking open anything other than the titanium. The Titanium is the only silver/white Apple portable that allows easy hard drive change (less than five minutes).

[ChrisB]

I agree with Paul. I've opened up a few iBooks for hard drive sways and it is not the most fun experience. (make sure you keep track of those screws)

[historylme]

Originally posted by new_apple:
Since I just switched, I understand what you are saying. You know all those posts where Mac users say how "smooth" the machine is? Well, it is the right word. I was really worried about the speed of this thing (beeing my first Mac), but after 5 minutes I didn't care. This little beauty can actually multitask better than my 2,4GHz P4 at work. Speedwise it's definately feels much faster than my AMD 1,33GHz T-bird. I just installed an extra 512MB RAM, and now it flies. I've installed Dreamweaver, Photoshop and Office 2004 - no problems. I'm using these apps for hours at a time, and speed is not an issue.

When I finally took the leap and bought the machine, I decided that I could sell it if I didn't like it. Now I wouldn't part with it if a 6'4" kickboxer walked up to me and tried to take it.

THAT IS SO AWESOME... I FEEL THE SAME WAY ABOUT MY IBOOK. Poor thing, it's the 600 G3, but it's has all my life in it and I'll take on any monster that tries to take from me.

[darcybaston]

Originally posted by Thraxes:
To really hum along both OS's need between 768MB and 1GB.

Although I can't dispute how much better the user experience is with that much, isn't it hillarious that we are more and more motivated to max our ram just to turn the damn machines on?

LOL! I remember that being the most amusing article in late 80s/early 90s Mac/PC/Amiga discussions. You could turn the Mac full GUI OS on with LESS than 512k Ram, and Win3.1 needed at least 4MB to feel 'useable'.

Remember the good ol' days when RAM was for apps and media maniuplation and not just to list files and folders? *shakes head in wonder*

[ChrisB]

I know what you mean. I started out with Macs with the LC 1 in 1993, and System 7.0.1 would load into 1MB of RAM, and the Mac could run on 4MB. ClarisWorks 2.1 would hum along with maybe another 300KB of RAM.

It was great. Still love my LCII at home that I keep for nostalgia's sake.

As far as Photoshop, I work on documents that are sometimes up to 36" by 108" at 150 to 300dpi, so an iBook would choke for me, especially with a 4200rpm drive.

[macaddict0001]

Originally posted by new_apple:
Since I just switched, I understand what you are saying. You know all those posts where Mac users say how "smooth" the machine is? Well, it is the right word. I was really worried about the speed of this thing (beeing my first Mac), but after 5 minutes I didn't care. This little beauty can actually multitask better than my 2,4GHz P4 at work. Speedwise it's definately feels much faster than my AMD 1,33GHz T-bird. I just installed an extra 512MB RAM, and now it flies. I've installed Dreamweaver, Photoshop and Office 2004 - no problems. I'm using these apps for hours at a time, and speed is not an issue.

When I finally took the leap and bought the machine, I decided that I could sell it if I didn't like it. Now I wouldn't part with it if a 6'4" kickboxer walked up to me and tried to take it.

I'm not supprised that it multitasks better. I got one its awesome their beasts unless you decide that you want to do highend video editing then your better off with something with pure speed but the g4 is incredibly efficient compared to the G5. it is faster at the same clock speed, and it can multitask way better than a pentium generally more responsive than almost anything out there at that price even for a desktop. faster memory and a better video card would be the best upgrades it could get(even better than processer). in my opinion, on paper macs look bad a 1.2ghtz processor sounds bad but i say, yeah but it will beat out a 2.4 celeron. you'll be very happy with your new computer.

[Simon]

Originally posted by macaddict0001:
but the g4 is incredibly efficient compared to the G5. it is faster at the same clock speed, and it can multitask way better than a pentium generally

?

The G5 is faster than the G4 at the same clock speed. But the G4 tops off at 1.5GHz. That's about where the 970/970fx start...

[macaddict0001]

Originally posted by Simon:
?

The G5 is faster than the G4 at the same clock speed. But the G4 tops off at 1.5GHz. That's about where the 970/970fx start...

no depends what your doing. this is very arguable because the g5 starts at 1.6 and the g4 ends at 1.5 but in most cases a 1.5 powerbook can beat a 1.6 g5

[Simon]

Originally posted by macaddict0001:
no depends what your doing. this is very arguable because the g5 starts at 1.6 and the g4 ends at 1.5 but in most cases a 1.5 powerbook can beat a 1.6 g5

I'd like to see the numbers supporting that statement. Link?

On this BareFeats page you will see that a 1.6GHz G5 is roughly about one and a half times as fast as a 1.33GHz G4. If you were to just look at the clock, it shouldn't be more than 20% faster.

[macaddict0001]

multitasking is better and in a thread on macnn somewhere someone said that final cut pro renders are faster is it so hard to beleive that in theory if they were at the same speed that the g4 is faster in some ways.

apple only switched to the g5 because the ceiling was much higher and the g4 had no room for expansion.

[darcybaston]

It was also good marketing to have a 64-bit thing to lure consumers.

[mangacool]

Originally posted by orlando12:
Just had a few questions for all those who are willing to answer.

I have been thinking about switching to a mac for a long time now for numerous reasons (design, lighter weight, and the lack of blue death screens)

I've worked with both Apple laptop computers (plus I use a Powerbook) and Windows laptops of various brands, so I have experience on both sides of the fence.

Weight: You will find that the iBook is much lighter than the average Windows laptop for the price (unless you're coming from an expensive ultra-light Toshiba or Sony) and much better balanced. What do I mean by that? With the top open, many Windows laptops, when carried, want to tip over. Powerbook and iBooks remain stable even when carried atop one hand. Seems like a stupid thing to be concerned about, but it proves to be important when you actually use it on your lap.

Speed: You will most likely start out slower on the iBook as you get used to the new GUI and Mac interface elements, and it will feel like you're working slower. But after a while, you'll adapt, and if you return to Windows after that it'll feel like you're working with both hands tied behind your back. Seriously. And I say that as someone who compares an 800 mhz G4 to a 2.2 ghz AMD. The problem isn't speed, as a 2.2 ghz AMD is faster than an 800 mhz G4. It's lag. Windows multitasks conditionally, meaning that you spend quite a lot of time waiting for tasks to complete because the computer becomes too unresponsive to continue. It's frustrating when you get used to a Mac, which is able to fully multitask all the time.

DVD's: DVD's have played smoothly on iBooks and Powerbooks since the days of the 300 mhz G3. Usually you will be able to watch an entire 2 to 2.5 hour movie on battery power alone.

MS Office: The Windows version loads a bit faster, but only if you're going to time it with a stopwatch. Otherwise the two office suites are about on par with each other. Advantage for the Mac here: You can save in more formats (it's done to ensure backward compatibility, which Mac users demand) and print to PDF.

Photoshop: Photoshop runs about as well on Mac as it does on Windows. The big difference is that MacOS X has much better memory management, which means gigantic files that Windows Photoshop becomes unresponsive with will load on Mac Photoshop, albeit slowly.

Other: The Cool Factor is definitely a plus. Nobody cares if you're using a Dell laptop in a public place. Try and open an iBook and you'll start attracting attention. No crashes is another plus - I usually only reboot MacOS X when I've installed a system software update. And one of the best parts nowadays is that there are Apple Store outlets all over the country. If you ever have a problem or question just walk into one and ask. Apple stands by its products for much longer than Wintel hardware vendors do.

[driven]

Originally posted by turtle777:
What do you mean by smoothly ?
Fast ? No glitches ? No blue screen of death ?
-t

As for the BSOD ...

I've been running OS X since the very first version came out and I installed it on my G4 Cube. (The modern iBooks are much faster...) Since that day (When was it guys? Late 2000, early 2001?) I have had only 1 single system crash, EVER !!!

With Windows 2000 this was about twice a week, with XP it's about 2 times per month. (That's still 24 times per year as compared with 1 crash ... EVER)

Granted a lot of the stability has to do with the vendor (Apple) controlling both the hardware and the software platform, but isn't that a good thing when it comes to stability?

Any which way you look at it, I'm happy!

I'd get a Mac laptop to go with my desktops as well if I could get my cell phone to work as a modem with them. :-)
(I'm sure that too will happen in due time)