[faithfulanchor]

Ok, everyone who has input, please give it to me.
I am a college student about to enter a graphic design program.
So I'll be running design oriented programs (i.e. quark and photoshop)
Also, I would be lying if I said I wasn't going to be playing a lot of world of warcraft with this thing.
I am also ready to buy my first mac. Its def. going to be a powerbook.

Heres my predicament...

I have roughly 3000 dollars to spend... Should I...

Buy a 12 inch powerbook w/superdrive
1.25 GB
100 GB hard drive

15 inch pbook w/superdrive
1 GB memory
100 GB hard drive
128 MB Vram

17 inch pbook w/supdrive
1 GB memory
100 GB hard drive
128 MB Vram

Here are the pros and cons that are making my decision tough.

With the 12 inch, the performance suffers somewhat, and the screen size is considerably smaller.
But, great portability and lots cheaper, leaving me money for much needed accessories. (Also, I could later on get an external monitor)

The 17 inch is a real beast, but would pretty much max out my budget. But, I could just save some more money and get those accessories later on.
On another note, I'm worried about the portability of the 17 inch, Does anyone have trouble with it being to big ever?

Finally, the 15 inch. The 15 inch is a good mix of portability and power, but... It's only a little bit more money to get the bigger screen, and it also is close to the edge of my budget.

Anyways, sorry it's so long, but EVERYONE, PLEASE give me your input. I've got to decide in the next day or two.

[sworthy]

I configured each of the three models for education prices with your specs from Apple (note that you'd rather buy your RAM upgrades from other vendors, so these prices are a little higher this way).

12" 1972
15" 2414
17" 2534

As a graduating college student, I've found that I love my 12" powerbook with 20" display at home. This is also the scenario I recommend for you. The $442 you save from the 15" can be used towards a nice, big lcd (Dell 2005FPW can be found for as low as $550).

The CPU speed and graphics cards are nice on the upper models, but I'm not convinced that they are so much better that they are worth the extra expense. If you do decide to go for the 15" or the 17", go with the 17". It's only $120 and you most likely will not need an extra screen.

[tictactoe]

Originally posted by sworthy:
I configured each of the three models for education prices with your specs from Apple (note that you'd rather buy your RAM upgrades from other vendors, so these prices are a little higher this way).

12" 1972
15" 2414
17" 2534

As a graduating college student, I've found that I love my 12" powerbook with 20" display at home. This is also the scenario I recommend for you. The $442 you save from the 15" can be used towards a nice, big lcd (Dell 2005FPW can be found for as low as $550).

The CPU speed and graphics cards are nice on the upper models, but I'm not convinced that they are so much better that they are worth the extra expense. If you do decide to go for the 15" or the 17", go with the 17". It's only $120 and you most likely will not need an extra screen.

I concur.

[faithfulanchor]

keep'em coming everyone.

[striker100]

I'm in the same quandry. I've had both the 17" and 15" Powerbooks but not the 12". When I had the 17" Powerbook I felt the keyboard was too recessed, if I wore a watch it would scratch up the whole palm rest area. Then I had the 15" Powerbook but was not happy with the performance of the 4200rpm hard drive so I sold it for very close to what I paid for it. I now miss not having a Powerbook and am trying to decide which one to get, I've gone to the Apple Store a couple of times this week and am really not sure. I really like the portability of the 12" Powerbook and now that it has the 5400rpm hard drive and can easily be used with an external display I'm kind of leaning towards it. I think it would be a great Powerbook to take on the road and to Starbucks while I wait for my wife and just hook up to an external display when I'm home. You would be surprised how much more portable the 12" is over the 15" PB. The one downside might be the display itself, I don't think the 12" Powerbooks display is as bright as the 15".

[KP*]

I recommend the 15" because:
1. Doing graphics work you'll appreciate the screen real estate over the 12"
2. If you're worried about portability enough to even consider the 12", I'm guessing the 17" will be too big for you.

The 17" is kind of like something between a laptop and a computer that's more portable than a tower. If you're going to be lugging it around campus with books and other stuff, it will probably take up too much space and weight. It also doesn't fit in most computer bags, so you'd need a pretty big bag just to carry it around. And it will also take up a lot of space on a desk.

I have a Rev. A 1.25gHz 15" with 1GB RAM, and I wish it had a faster processor and hard drive, but the newer model does have a bit of a boost. I just ran a quick check on Apple's site and a maxed-out 15" runs about $2850. You would even have some money left over to buy a stick of 512 RAM from Crucial ($140). All that stuff would give you the same performance as a maxed-out 17" but without the bulk. And if you got an external monitor you could work on your projects on the big screen at home and have the portability when you need it.

Hope that's given you some ideas.

[ar1550]

Get an ADC student developer account ($99, but free Tiger) and use that discount. I believe a stock 17" is $2159, and add another $90 for a Crucial 512MB stick. Or you could get a decked-out 15" for $1999 (don't bother to use the developer discount on the 12" because you don't save as much). Either way you still have $700 or so for other stuff. I'd recommend the 80GB HD instead of the $100, you'll save $80 or so. I can't imagine absolutely needing that extra 20GB of space at all times; most people would probably be better off putting the savings towards an external drive (lots more space and faster than the internal drive).

[Voch]

Don't skimp on RAM. At the top end factor in another $200-$250 into your purchase for a 1GB module (especially for the 12" model as it has only one RAM socket) or on the low end another ~$100 for a 512MB module. My plan is to get a 12" something (iBook or PowerBook) and max out the RAM immediately.

Voch