[Eli33]

Hi,

finally going to ditch MS and move to Mac, but I have a few specific questions prior to purchase of powerbook.

1. I have an educational discount, is it better to buy through Apple Store (reasonably close to my house) or through Apple's online store (i live in Toronto, canada). My concern is in terms of service, if there is a problem do you have to send it back via courier or can you get it exchanged in Apple store (even if you bought online?)

2. Debating between 17 and 15 PB. I know this has been covered before, but my specific question is NOT about portability or screen (I am also purchasing 20 cinema display) etc, but about repair history. Is the 17 more reliable due to less cramped internals? Which (if any) is more prone to hardware failure?

3. Will I notice a big difference between 1 or 2 Gig or RAM if I am doing basic video editing (home movies from miniDV)?

4. Beyond blue tooth mouse + keyboard, as well as wireless router (either apple or other G) are there any essential extras I have not thought of?


thanks for your help.

eli.

[jokarak]

1. The apple store will definitely service your PB, even if you bought it online. I don't know how readily they would be willing to "exchange" a defective unit, unless it was pretty new, because Apple is somewhat notorious in their policies (14day return, restocking fee, repair rather than replace, etc). If you are considering the 15" PB, definitely get it online, because it is the only way you can get the 128M video card - it takes about 10day to get it on your hands, so keep that in mind.

2. Having just bought my 15", I can't vouch for the service record. If you search through the threads, though, I believe the 17" was less likely to have the unresponsive trackpad...possibly because of more internal space (i.e. components will get less heat from each other), but don't really know if heat is the main reason for defects. I'm personally very happy w/ the 15", even though when I opened the box, it was bigger than I expected (I had actually looked at quite a few PBs at the apple stores around town, but actually putting it on your lap and usiing it makes it seem bigger than at the counter at the store). I suppose if you are mainly going to use the laptop as a desktop replacement it won't really matter, although the 17" is humongous (you'll lose a lot of desk space unless you place it under the desk).

3. The mantra has always been "memory good"....get as much as you can afford and you won't regret it.

4. Possibly an iSight and an airport express...it is pretty nifty to listen to streamed audio in the living room; of course the AE is pricey (about 130 bucks as opposed to the Linksys G router that goes for about 80 bucks), but as toy to stream audio, it is a cool little toy. I haven't really used the AE as an wifi extender, but then again, it wouldn't make much sense given the price, unless you really would like the portability.

One last thing...if you aren't willing to completely ditch MS, and you haven't got XP Professional, you might want to consider shelling out the extra 80 or 90 bucks and use Remote Desktop from your mac to control your windows machine. True, it sounds like a waste of money, but it comes in handy if you don't to switch back and forth between two machines or if you are tight in space, you can pretty much lock up the windows box somewhere, not even plug in a monitor, and purely access it remotely. It is weird to see the windows desktop on your PB, but it works, no emulation required, and you can still run all of your windows programs, abeit w/ a little refresh delay. I personally find it to be better than running an emulation program, specially considering that whatever windows program you run will basically have zero impact on your PB performance.

[chse]

Originally Posted by Eli33

Hi,

finally going to ditch MS and move to Mac, but I have a few specific questions prior to purchase of powerbook.

1. I have an educational discount, is it better to buy through Apple Store (reasonably close to my house) or through Apple's online store (i live in Toronto, canada). My concern is in terms of service, if there is a problem do you have to send it back via courier or can you get it exchanged in Apple store (even if you bought online?)

I would say it does not matter, since if you have to get it repaired the "online" service is better anyway - it always took them less than a week to send my computer back normaly about 2-3 days (and it takes 24h to get the box to send it in, compared to PCs thats lightning!). Our local apple store has anoying waiting lists though -and!!! believe it or not: for 50$ extra they put you on top of the list-- THE MAFIA!!!
Our edu-store here has special offers, normally we get the 3 yr care included for the same price as the already reduced edu-version online.

Originally Posted by Eli33

3. Will I notice a big difference between 1 or 2 Gig or RAM if I am doing basic video editing (home movies from miniDV)?

4. Beyond blue tooth mouse + keyboard, as well as wireless router (either apple or other G) are there any essential extras I have not thought of?

Get the 3 year protection plan! It is a must, the repair prices are robbery- If you can not spare the money rather forget about the RAM.
Be aware that the mouse is one-button no scroll-wheel (not very nice for a exPC user, maybe another thing apple should finally get from the intels...).

[jstein]

Originally Posted by Eli33

Hi,


2. Debating between 17 and 15 PB. I know this has been covered before, but my specific question is NOT about portability or screen (I am also purchasing 20 cinema display) etc, but about repair history. Is the 17 more reliable due to less cramped internals? Which (if any) is more prone to hardware failure?

3. Will I notice a big difference between 1 or 2 Gig or RAM if I am doing basic video editing (home movies from miniDV)?

eli.

Hey Eli, welcome to the club. Actually unless you go with a bto 15 inch pb the 17 inch pb does have a few more features, 128MB of graphics memory and dual-link DVI functionality offers native support for the massive 30-inch Apple Cinema Display which you may add one day down the line... plus the Combined optical digital input/audio line in.. all which can come in handy will editing....

For some the 17 pb inch is to much to haul around for others it is not. You cannot go wrong with either size....

As for the RAM, everyone is right more RAM is always better... Also look into purchasing an external hd or two.

[Eli33]

Good point about 17, but if I buy the 15 I will get it w/ 128VRAM, 100G HD and 2G RAM, making it technically equivalent to 17. Right?

Is the digital audio output/input only found on 17? This seems to be a difference between the two. Does it matter?

eli.

[jstein]

Originally Posted by Eli33

Good point about 17, but if I buy the 15 I will get it w/ 128VRAM, 100G HD and 2G RAM, making it technically equivalent to 17. Right?

Is the digital audio output/input only found on 17? This seems to be a difference between the two. Does it matter?

eli.

I am not quite sure, but I do think that the digital audio I/O is only on the 17 inch... not 100%

[jokarak]

Besides the digital audio input/output, the apple website lists "two built-in stereo speakers" as a 17" feature (don't really know what that means). Digital audio in/out only matters if you are going to hook up the PB to a receiver that has digital audio in/out - I guess you could record something w/ digital quality into your PB or have the playback be "digital" quality via receiver/speakers. We all know that playback quality depends heavily on the receiver itself, and if the sound source itself is of reasonable quality, you shouldn't notice much of a difference between digital or analog outputs. When recording, digital inputs are nicer.

Maybe if you have a lot of LPs or tapes that you want to digitize, having digital inputs could be a nice feature to have, but depending on the quality of said analog media, it is debatable whether you'll have marked difference between a file that was created via analog or digital inputs.