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mrwalker · May 22, 2002, 06:43 PM

Hi all,

I can't afford a desktop & notebook at the same time. I work as an architect, web / graphic designer, programmer depending on what day it is.

I've used AMD / win 2k / XP systems for a while now and frankly I'm sick of them. I was going to sell the lot buy a single powerful notebook.

Will I survive the transition from wintel to MAC? Is the powerbook going to be anywhere near as powerful as my AMD 1700+ desktop? I know it'll be prettier but I'm really worried about performance.

- thanks for your responses, mr walker

Rich Jercha · May 22, 2002, 07:10 PM

Originally posted by mrwalker:
Hi all,

I can't afford a desktop & notebook at the same time. I work as an architect, web / graphic designer, programmer depending on what day it is.

I've used AMD / win 2k / XP systems for a while now and frankly I'm sick of them. I was going to sell the lot buy a single powerful notebook.

Will I survive the transition from wintel to MAC? Is the powerbook going to be anywhere near as powerful as my AMD 1700+ desktop? I know it'll be prettier but I'm really worried about performance.

- thanks for your responses, mr walker

I am almost positive that any responses you get on this website will tell you how amazing and fast mac's are, but let me give you an illustration.
they performed calculation tests on the processors for Intel/AMD/compatables and mac processors. The 1 ghz pentium 3 got trounced by the 500 mhz mac processor easily. The processors in the new mac laptops are up to 800 mhz, and should be fast enough to run whatever you want. Of course any desktop will be more powerful than a laptop with the same type of hardware, so you should think about what you need. If you need a laptop, the powerbook is far superior to anything you can get in its price range. Don't quote me on this, as I haven't read newer research, but I am pretty sure that the powerbook will outperform your amd desktop (I have nothing against amd, both of my windows computers are AMD and they are FAR above the other pc chips, but they don't even compare to the high end mac desktops). Make sure you go to different stores and try out macs to see if they suit what you need. Why are you sick of AMD / win 2k / XP machines? hope this helps,
Rich Jercha

gmsmith · May 22, 2002, 07:16 PM

Well having just made this transition, I can tell you that my new TiPowerbook 800 is just a fabulous machine. Everything works beautifully. For the time being I am using Dave to mount the Windows shares (my entire office is Win2k), I can't wait for Jaguar...

I haven't found anything that I am missing.

Good luck!

Greg

rampant · May 22, 2002, 09:09 PM

Performance will be much lower, but the OS and looks are much better.

seanyepez · May 22, 2002, 09:52 PM

The TiBook will definitely not be as "snappy" as the Athlon system. However, as aforementioned, its looks and the operating system make up for its lack of desktop performance.

rek · May 22, 2002, 11:45 PM

Originally posted by rampant:
Performance will be much lower, but the OS and looks are much better.

I can second this -- I went from a P4-1.6GHz desktop machine to a TiBook 667 (with a PII-400 notebook when in 'transition'), and don't regret it. It's easily not as fast as what my P4 was, and web browsing was faster even on the PII notebook. I don't use my computer heavily for graphics-type work, though, which seems to be where the G4 shines brightest. If the programs you do work on are optimised for Altivec, then I'd say you have a chance of being in a similar performance ballpark. I'm extremely sceptical of some of the G4-P4/AMD comparisons that I hear...

IMO the Mac's trump card is its ease of use and other user experience factors, not its raw speed.

The TiBook is more sluggish than both Windows machines interface-wise (until Quartz Extreme sees the official light of day), but everything just seems to work *better* on the Mac, and is generally nicer to use. I had nothing at all against Win2000, it's an excellent OS, but it was just boring, and I needed a change.

(You know you need the change when you accidentally kill your ThinkPad when a drink tips all over it, and the first thing that comes to mind is, "I have to get the memory SODIMM out quickly -- it'll work in a TiBook!")

torifile · May 23, 2002, 12:21 AM

While most of the replies have been about speediness of a Tibook vs. your previous systems, I'm going to reply from a usability standpoint. If you are a graphic/web designer and programmer, you really can't go wrong with a mac right now. I'm in the same line of work (albeit on the amateur side), and OS X is without a doubt the best platform for web design/development. Especially if you are going portable. You can program and test all your websites locally. You install your database, php, java w/tomcat, etc and your set. And you can look cool doing it in a coffeeshop.

Believe me, it's worth it. Right now is a great time to be a mac web programmer

You won't be sorry.

ps - i've got a Tibook 667 (previous rev) and I love it.

milhous · May 26, 2002, 05:20 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by mrwalker:
Hi all,

I can't afford a desktop & notebook at the same time. I work as an architect, web / graphic designer, programmer depending on what day it is.

I've used AMD / win 2k / XP systems for a while now and frankly I'm sick of them. I was going to sell the lot buy a single powerful notebook.

Will I survive the transition from wintel to MAC? Is the powerbook going to be anywhere near as powerful as my AMD 1700+ desktop? I know it'll be prettier but I'm really worried about performance.

- thanks for your responses, mr walker<hr /></blockquote>So it doesn't look like you have an immediate need for a new system. I suggest that you adopt a wait and see attitude towards the end of the summer and make your decision then. Seeing that OS X 10.x will be much more optimized and faster along with Microsoft's commitment to making IE faster and bringing it to parity with it's Windows counterpart are all good news for OS X users. Plus, there's a good chance you'll see some new hardware announcement at MacWorldNY.

Just sit tight and see what happens.