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Trygve · Feb 26, 2006, 12:04 AM

So I am about to buy a 15" PowerBook 1.67. You see, I need FW800 (and the better SuperDrive is a real plus) and since the majority of my apps are not Universal Binaries yet, I am not interested in the IntelMacs... at least for a while.

Apple seems to have killed it.

Is this temporary or permanent? I just can't believe that I have to take a step backwards in screen size, connectivity (FW800) and get a lower-grade SuperDrive when buying a new machine.

:-(

At least they could have waited until the Intel 15" was better than the existing PowerBook.

PeterKG · Feb 26, 2006, 12:19 AM

Originally Posted by Trygve

So I am about to buy a 15" PowerBook 1.67. You see, I need FW800 (and the better SuperDrive is a real plus) and since the majority of my apps are not Universal Binaries yet, I am not interested in the IntelMacs... at least for a while.

Apple seems to have killed it.

Is this temporary or permanent? I just can't believe that I have to take a step backwards in screen size, connectivity (FW800) and get a lower-grade SuperDrive when buying a new machine.

:-(

At least they could have waited until the Intel 15" was better than the existing PowerBook.

You can still purchase from the Special Deals section at the Apple store, plus there are still many available from re-sellers. But your arguements have been hased over to death. The new Macbook Pro IS already better than what it is replacing.

Trygve · Feb 26, 2006, 12:28 AM

When I can get FW800 on the Intel (either natively or with a card), then I will agree...

mduell · Feb 26, 2006, 01:53 AM

What do you do that makes FW800 so important? Audio?

Trygve · Feb 26, 2006, 02:02 AM

I have two large (300GB) external drives and am adding a 1TB drive. These are all LaCie drive and I regually work with very large files. There is a very noticable difference in performance on my ALBook between 800 and 400. As PhotoShop is one of my primary apps, I'd like to see a native version but that seems to be a ways off yet.

mduell · Feb 26, 2006, 03:45 AM

Originally Posted by Trygve

I have two large (300GB) external drives and am adding a 1TB drive. These are all LaCie drive and I regually work with very large files. There is a very noticable difference in performance on my ALBook between 800 and 400. As PhotoShop is one of my primary apps, I'd like to see a native version but that seems to be a ways off yet.

Since it's for drives instead of devices, why not use eSATA? The enclosures are cheap ($20-25 for a good one) since there is no changing busses and the performance is unbeatable (3 times the bandwidth of FW800, no added latency).

edit: D'oh, there don't seem to be any EC/34 SATA cards... why couldn't Apple go with /54?

Trygve · Feb 26, 2006, 03:48 AM

I beleive the LaCie FW800 drives I have actually have two drives in each enclosure, so I would need 6 eSATA enclosures. Could I hook all those ina chain like I do with FW800? Not sure it would really work w/o reformatting since the LaCie does internal RAID on the two drives.

tooki · Feb 26, 2006, 04:34 PM

Either way, the lacking features in the MacBook Pro have been discussed a bazillion times over and over. There is really NO need to discuss it again.

tooki

Maflynn · Feb 26, 2006, 04:46 PM

Originally Posted by Trygve

When I can get FW800 on the Intel (either natively or with a card), then I will agree...

Well since apple removed this feature from the new MBP, I'm guessing that it may be gone for good. too bad because I too have some external firewire drives.

b33faroni · Feb 26, 2006, 06:07 PM

Well I heard that their making a FW 800 card for the new slot on the MBP, but thats just what I heard

mduell · Feb 26, 2006, 06:10 PM

Originally Posted by Trygve

I beleive the LaCie FW800 drives I have actually have two drives in each enclosure, so I would need 6 eSATA enclosures. Could I hook all those ina chain like I do with FW800? Not sure it would really work w/o reformatting since the LaCie does internal RAID on the two drives.

Are your 300GB externals really 2 drives each?

No, you can't chain SATA.

I've only seen 2-port SATA PC Cards and ExpressCards, so you'd need external enclosures with multiplexors in them.

mrmister · Feb 26, 2006, 06:47 PM

"Either way, the lacking features in the MacBook Pro have been discussed a bazillion times over and over. There is really NO need to discuss it again."

And this from our charming and vivacious moderators--what a load of crap.

Tooki, it keeps getting discussed because it is an issue, and you should expect it to keep getting discussed for at least another six to twelve months, because they are big issues. It's not a bug, it's a feature--that's actually what internet bulletin boards and forums are for.

You find the threads boring? Fine, don't read them--get someone else to do your job and patrol the boards. But it's a real issue when a new product replaces an older one and has less ports, less flexibility and less range--and to handwave that away after a few weeks of discussion is inexcusable.

Velocity211 · Feb 26, 2006, 07:30 PM

I bought my Powerbook 15in in the past month, I had a choice to go with the PB or MBP but I went with the powerbook because of the MBP's lacking features. Plus it was extremely cheap.

fisherKing · Feb 26, 2006, 07:37 PM

i remember when apple went to usb, from scsi days; everyone was in an uproar:
"there ARE no usb peripherals!".

then, shortly thereafter...

several manufacturers have announced upcoming firewire 800 cards for the new express slots,
so all will be well (eventually).

Chuckit · Feb 26, 2006, 08:14 PM

Hey, if anyone wants to buy a MacBook Pro and trade me for my 15" PowerBook, I'll be more than happy to take the "step backwards" so they can get a PowerBook.

Trygve · Feb 26, 2006, 08:58 PM

My LaCie drives (d2 Big Disk Extreme) are two disks in each enclosure. They have internal circuitry to tie the two drives together as a RAID and the Mac can only see it as a single drive. So there is no way to remove both drives and maintain the data if there were hooked up individually. So in essense I have 6 external drives... 150GB x 4 and 500GB x 2.

It seems expensive and difficult to move these to SATA... now if I could get a PB with 2TB of hard drive space I might be able to lose the externals but not otherwise.

mrmister · Feb 26, 2006, 11:00 PM

"i remember when apple went to usb, from scsi days; everyone was in an uproar:
"there ARE no usb peripherals!".

then, shortly thereafter..."

That's appropriate--because when USB showed up for SCSI, it was entirely too slow, and people should have been in an uproar. It was actually the introduction of FireWire shortly thereafter that began to make things right.

In this case we've lost the fastest transfer standard, and until something appears, shipping, in an actual Apple portable that is as fast or faster than FW800 I won't consider the gap filled.