[vutenor]

Hi all. I'm just looking for some support from Pismo owners. I just bought one of the reduced price Pismos to replace my original iMac DV SE. I was looking at the Ti's, but I'm a student and the $1600 Pismo was right in my price range. Will this computer serve me well for 3 or 4 years? (Those of you that have them.) Did I get a good deal or should I have waited and bought a Ti? I figured the Pismo was pretty much the same thing as my iMac and that has served me well for 2 years and still does everything I need it to.

[gorgonzola]

Moving this to the Powerbook forum.

thanks

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[davidski]

$1,600? Nice! Can I sell you a one year-old Pismo for $2,400?

I have been extremely happy with my Pismo 400. Absolutely nothing has gone wrong with it, and while it may not be as fast or flashy as the new TiBook, I think you were very smart to save your money. Anyway, I've upgraded the ram to 384MB and the drive to 20GB, and I'm sure this will last me another year or two.

It's very fast with OS 9, and I would say decent with OS X. I had OS 9 and X on separate partitions with PB, but with final I put them on the same partition and things seem to be going well, especially with the 4L7 update.

So whether you'll be happy with it in a couple of years is I guess how much premium you put on having the lastest and greatest. But, I do think you'll love your Pismo. Good luck!

[fisherKing]

also just got a pismo 400...
upgraded IMMEDIATELY to 9.1, everything's running beautifully, even w/a lot of hacks, custom extensions etc

an really excellent mac, should last as long as you want it to...

[Timo]

I think you'll find a lot of people around here who really like their Pismos. I orginally thought I wanted a desktop system, but my Pismo has worked out well as a main computer. And it can drive another monitor! That's super cool.

--T, the happy Pismo owner

I got the $1600 400 a month agao and although I love it...my keyboard feels like mush....does Apple fix that?

Don't know how long I can stare that Ti in the face and not have her though..next rev and my Pismo's gettin the booooooooot!

[tmophoto]

I will bet that this is the last of the processor upgradable laptops that apple will ever produce.

To all pismo owners, nag (nicely) Powerlogix to make a g4 upgrade. the more that do it the better the chances are that this will actually happen. The pismo is a better, more expandable machine, (you can have 96 GB of internal storage in a pismo, charge 2 batteries at once if you want, you can get 1 gb of ram for 400 bucks etc. etc.....). When the ti gets a better graphics card then there will be a reason to upgrade, but only one...

tmophoto

Yes, I have had my pismo 400 for about 2 weeks now. I love it. I ran OS X on it for a week, but OS X is egregiously bad for laptops (no power management, antialiasing looks like crap on a TFT, incredibly slow on a G3, etc...)
I agree, everyone needs to bug powerlogix for a G3 or G4 processor upgrade. I am thinking G3 600 Mhz, or maybe a PowerPC 7410 (or even 7415) 400 or 500 Mhz.

[Mac_Nacho]

I already been bugging PowerLogix to make a Pismo upgrade. I specifically asked and they answered this:
"Thank you for your interest in the PowerLogix BlueChip family of
processor upgrades for Apple PowerBooks. While it is certainly
PowerLogix's goal to offer an upgrade solution for every PowerBook owner, at this time we do not have a product for Pismo PowerBooks.
Please keep checking back on our website for announcements of new products as they become available."

So I re asked...
"Hi XXXXX, thanks for your prompt response.
I understand you don't have (currently) an upgrade for the Pismo PB G3. But can we expect an upgrade in the future? I mean, it is something that could eventually happen?
thanks again & regards
ignacio"

The response was:

"Hello again, Ignacio.

I understood your question. I was trying to be polite. I can't
comment on what you've asked. It is standard PowerLogix procedure not to discuss the future development or possible availability of
products that do not appear on our price list.

Thanks for understanding."

I bet that next year there WILL be an upgrade. I agree with Tmophoto, this is going to be the last upgradable PB that will come out from Apple. If we compare TiPB with Pismo, sure, the TiPB has more impressive features but Pismo is by FAR more expandable.
DVD/ CD / CD-R/ Zip / Another Batter, Porcessor Upgradable, Two Firewire ports and cheaper ram.
In addition, you get the same Video Chipset.
Regards
Ignacio

[Kestral]

I used to think that upgradeability was important in buying a Mac. But looking back at all my machines (Centris 610, Powermac 6100/60, Powermac 7300/180, Wall Street 233mhz 14.1" TFT, and now a Pismo 400), whenever I've done the math on whether to upgrade the current machine or sell and buy a brand new, the sell and buy brand new has always made more economical sense. For example, when I sold my Wallstreet to get the Pismo, I did the math - to get a 400 mhz G4 upgrade card would have cost just as much as if I were to sell the Wall Street to get the Pismo, yet with the Pismo I get a better graphics card, bigger hard drive, faster processor bus, USB, Firewire, dual monitor support. So as you can see, it made much more sense to buy new. Currently, the Ti book in its present incarnation doesn't add enough value to me to make it worthwhile to sell the Pismo and buy the TiBook, but at some point it will (ie. Radeon or nVdia card, UMA2 motherboard with USB2 and faster Firewire, CDRW/DVD combo drive, much faster than 500mhz G4) and that's when I'll buy a new computer.

[romeosc]

It is smart to compare the feasability of an upgrade vs. buying a new computer. Some incarnations that come from Apples drawing board do not offer enough improvement for the money! The Lombard was not worth upgrading to from a wallstreet, but going from a wallstreet to a pismo was a smart decision. To add a DVD, better graphics card, usb, and firewire would have cost much more than a new computer. The differance between a pismo and Ti is not worth the cost difference.


Steve

[romeosc]

It is smart to compare the feasability of an upgrade vs. buying a new computer. Some incarnations that come from Apples drawing board do not offer enough improvement for the money! The Lombard was not worth upgrading to from a wallstreet, but going from a wallstreet to a pismo was a smart decision. To add a DVD, better graphics card, usb, and firewire would have cost much more than a new computer. The differance between a pismo and Ti is not worth the cost difference.


Steve

[Kestral]

Originally posted by romeosc:
It is smart to compare the feasability of an upgrade vs. buying a new computer. Some incarnations that come from Apples drawing board do not offer enough improvement for the money! The Lombard was not worth upgrading to from a wallstreet, but going from a wallstreet to a pismo was a smart decision. To add a DVD, better graphics card, usb, and firewire would have cost much more than a new computer. The differance between a pismo and Ti is not worth the cost difference.

Steve

Steve, that was exactly my thinking process! When the Lombard came out, I didn't even blink! It's as if I didn't care it existed! Truth be told, I'm actually not that impressed with Mercury, what we now know as a TiBook. I was hoping that Mercury would be designed with the look of the Cube, translucent lucite, white underlay, graphite Apple logo, so it was pretty anticlimactic for me when Steve Jobs pulled the little piece of cloth that revealed what looked like an overgrown women's makeup kit. Nonethless, while the looks changed dramatically from the Pismo to the Mercury, I'd argue that internally, the change from Wall Street to Pismo (or heck, even Wall Street to Lombard) was a much bigger jump. The Rage 128 graphics card was a disappointment. Motherboard-wise, Pismo and TiBook are almost identical, less 1 Firewire port on the TiBook, the bigger screen is ok but I'm very concerned as I don't like how OS X anti-aliasing and pinstripes look on the Powerbook LCD (whether it's Pismo or Mercury). In any case, when the OS X thing settles down and there's another rev of the Mercury with a lot more new features/value, that's when I'll jump. Until then, I'll just drool over the TiBook's looks while "slumming it" with my Pismo 400 lol!

Kestral

I planned this out a bit:

Initial Investment: 1600 USD
Cost of PowerBook G4 500: 3500 USD
Money left over for upgrades to pismo: 1900 USD
Now, even a fraction of that 1900 will extend the pismo to Ti Capabilities, especially if powerlogix ever develops a processor upgrade module. Thus, the only thing one loses is the extra wide screen (which is a shame, but, what is one to do?)

[Kestral]

Originally posted by Riemann Zeta:
I planned this out a bit:

Initial Investment: 1600 USD
Cost of PowerBook G4 500: 3500 USD
Money left over for upgrades to pismo: 1900 USD
Now, even a fraction of that 1900 will extend the pismo to Ti Capabilities, especially if powerlogix ever develops a processor upgrade module. Thus, the only thing one loses is the extra wide screen (which is a shame, but, what is one to do?)

You also don't get the k-rad slot loading DVD. But otherwise, yeah, as you said, the value is not there. That being said, for me, the tax equation also figures into things because I can depreciate or use lease expense as a deduction in my situation. The funny thing is, if I had spend an extra 2K last year, I wouldn't have had to pay taxes. Spending to save, go figure!

[Kestral]

Originally posted by Kestral:
Currently, the Ti book in its present incarnation doesn't add enough value to me to make it worthwhile to sell the Pismo and buy the TiBook, but at some point it will (ie. Radeon or nVdia card, UMA2 motherboard with USB2 and faster Firewire, CDRW/DVD combo drive, much faster than 500mhz G4) and that's when I'll buy a new computer.

Are you gonna eat your hat now, Mr. Kestral?


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[MacCube]

Originally posted by Kestral:
Are you gonna eat your hat now, Mr. Kestral?

Correction: the above was actually written by MacCube, in response to Kestral's about-face.


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