[jyen]

I'm thinking about ditching my G5 1.8 single powermac for a new 1.67 17" PB. I mostly use it for the iLife apps and the G5 is hooked up to a 24" Dell LCD. Not sure if I would keep the display.

Any advice?

[harrisjamieh]

I would say go for it. The single 1.8's were horrible machines - I use one almost everyday and I cant stand it - it constantly crashes and freezes and just dies. I guess it depends if you need the portability or not, and remember you would have a max of 120 GB in the PB, opposed to the 2x160's you have at the moment. Saying this, for iLife apps, the PB should be more than adequate for your needs, just make sure you have 1 gig of RAM or more. I would keep the Dell monitor, as its always nice to have an external monitor, if only to close up the powerbook and use it as though it is a desktop machine with external screen, mouse and keyboard. The graphics card is an ATI mobility Radeon 9700 if im not mistaken, with 128 mb of RAM, so it should be more than capable of running the 24" screen.

Good luck with what ever you decide on!

[mdc]

I am typing this on one of the new 17" powerbooks with 1.5gb ram.
My previous mac was a 15" powerbook and a 17" 1.8ghz g5 iMac. I have not found this powerbook lacking in the speed department.
iPhoto with 7684 photos takes 15 seconds to load.

My advice is to go for it, this powerbook is awesome.

[jyen]

Just wanted to update on my decision. Went for the 17" powerbook stock with the new display. I have to say I love this thing. Seems like I have the old G5 setup in a beautiful portable package.

Am waiting for 2 gigs of RAM to arrive and am shopping for a case or sleeve for this thing.

Verdict: LOVE IT!!!!

[SpaceMonkey]

Originally Posted by harrisjamieh

I would say go for it. The single 1.8's were horrible machines - I use one almost everyday and I cant stand it - it constantly crashes and freezes and just dies.

Good luck with what ever you decide on!

Did you install the firmware update?

http://www.apple.com/support/downloa...acosx1043.html

[jyen]

Originally Posted by SpaceMonkey

Did you install the firmware update?

http://www.apple.com/support/downloa...acosx1043.html

No need. My 1.8 G5 is a 1st gen which was originally released with a 900mhz FSB. Later in the year, they revisioned and changed the FSB to 600mhz. Which is the unit that people have complained about.

[polkakiller]

that was stupid , you should have waited a bit and gotten a mactel PB...man youre going to kick yourself in the arse...

[jyen]

on the contrary. Mactels will need to be revisioned several times before I would buy. The pb is a mature product and is absolutely great!

[mduell]

Originally Posted by jyen

The pb is a mature product and is absolutely great!

Have you looked at the PowerBook forums lately? Plenty of gripes about the DDR2 revision!

[lars-man]

Originally Posted by jyen

Just wanted to update on my decision. Went for the 17" powerbook stock with the new display. I have to say I love this thing. Seems like I have the old G5 setup in a beautiful portable package.

What about the performance of the PowerBook compared to the G5? Do you think they're on par or is the PowerBook substantially slower (or even faster)?

Regards, Lars

[jyen]

With 1.5 gigs of RAM it is very comparable to the G5 when working in the iLife apps. Perhaps by spec and benchmark it is substantially slower, but for real world usage it is very nice. My plan is to replace the 512 with another 1 gig and have 2 gigs total. I have to say that the only thing that i would have done differently would have been getting the 7200 rpm 100gig HD over the 5400 120 gig HD. But for my uses it is fine and very comparable.

[Moon Potato]

Originally Posted by mduell

Have you looked at the PowerBook forums lately? Plenty of gripes about the DDR2 revision!

Yeah... mine's going straight back to apple as soon as the semester's over. The display lines are annoying, and it hard freezes about every 30 minutes while doing anything aside from web/email.

[Kenstee]

Originally Posted by polkakiller

that was stupid , you should have waited a bit and gotten a mactel PB...man youre going to kick yourself in the arse...

The only ones kicking themselves in the arse will be those getting the Rev A or B Mactel PBs. The real powerhouse chips - Memron - won't come out until late '06. The initial Yonah chips are just a stop-gap measure until the good stuff gets online.

Anybody care to bet on the amount of complaints and issues that will be on this board when Rev A hardware and 1.0 software is released? It also seems to me that Apple is rushing to get this out for January. I wouldn't touch this initial release even if I had your credit card.

[Kenstee]

Originally Posted by mduell

Have you looked at the PowerBook forums lately? Plenty of gripes about the DDR2 revision!

I have seen gripes and issues here and elsewhere about ABSOLUTELY every piece of hardware and software Apple has ever released!

Forums are the emergency rooms. All you see are the "sick" patients.

[mduell]

Originally Posted by Kenstee

I have seen gripes and issues here and elsewhere about ABSOLUTELY every piece of hardware and software Apple has ever released!

Forums are the emergency rooms. All you see are the "sick" patients.

I agree, but the volume of posts for the most recent rev doesn't seem to be much different than that of a first revision.

[jyen]

Again, to reiterate I have had absolutely no problems with my new 17" pb and have zero complaints with the screen or performance.

[hickey]

jyen, does the 17inch have the display lines like so many of the 15inchers?

Glad your happy with your new purchase.

[jyen]

Originally Posted by hickey

jyen, does the 17inch have the display lines like so many of the 15inchers?

Glad your happy with your new purchase.

None that I've noticed.

[Kenstee]

Originally Posted by jyen

Again, to reiterate I have had absolutely no problems with my new 17" pb and have zero complaints with the screen or performance.

The same with my 15"