[Fro]

Hey!

I'm probably going to buy a Powerbook "17 but I have also been looking at Dell's Inspiron and I need some advice. I prefer OSX but I think windows is ok. I mostley run Adobe CS.

Powerbook:
1 GB DDR333 SDRAM
100 GB 5400
8x SuperDrive (DVD±R/CD-RW)
1,67 GHz PowerPC G4
17" 1440 x 900


Inspiron:
1 GB DDR2 SDRAM
100 GB 7200
8X DVD+/-RW
2,13 GHz Intel
17" 1920 x 1200

Will I see a big difference in performance?

What about the CPU, 2,13 vs 1,67?
Hdd 5400 vs 7200??

[budster101]

The Dell will crash 1000 times more often per year.... there is your performance difference.

If you think Windows is ok, then get your head checked.... Just my not-so-humble opinion.

Max out the Ram and get the 17". You can get up to 2 gigs of ram in it... you'll have a permanent smile on your face.

If you want games, then get Xbox or another console... for $450.00

[evildede]

Windows is not that bad. I've used it all my life and even though some Mac users may complain about it Windows XP is a really good OS. SUre, it might lack some of the features that make Mac OS so much better, but it's still good nonetheless.

As for your question, it's kind of a tough decision. What's the processor: Pentium M or P4? If it's a Pentium M then it could prove to be a good choice as I'm quite sure it costs a lot less than the powerbook. If money is not an issue though and that you really prefer Mac, I'd go with the powerbook. That's what I'm planning to do myself in just a few months.

[Helmling]

I've got to disagree with evildede on this one. I just came home from work where Acrobat crashed my system and brought down my remote desktop software in my computer lab. It wasn't a big deal, but that's Windows for you.

For me, Mac vs. PC isn't about performance, but about experience. I've never been as happy with a machine as I am with my Mac. I'd give my right eyeball for the system you have up top and would sell the Dell immediately if someone gave it to me.

[Maflynn]

The two laptops are close hardware wise but I'd give the edge to the PC because the clock speed.
How's dell battery compare to Apples?

A couple of other things to consider. Do you already own Adobe CS2 for the Mac or the PC? That will help dictate which ones to buy?

Also OS stability, virus, spyware and adware. All issues with XP.

Overall I like OSX, it does what I want it to and I think the Apple hardware is cooler

Mike

[budster101]

Put the Dell and the Mac on a table next to each other. Connect them to the web without a firewall and start browsing the net...

Which one will be filled with adware, spyware, malware, and possible trojans (1 at least) 2 days later?
Not to mention all the junk files you will accumulate over a period of time with the windows machines.

The Dell will be a dog in 3 months time.
The Mac will be just as good as when you bought it.
My 17" is just as good as the day I bought it 2-1/2 years ago. It is incredible. I just worked on a Dell that was dogging big time......

BTW: On that table, if you left them alone for 20 minutes unobserved, which would be most likely to be stolen?.... That Dell will sit there as long as the Mac is, but the Mac will go first....

[chesterpl]

I bought a Dell Inspiron 6000, had it for about a week, then sent it back for a refund so I could buy a Powerbook. There wasn't anything *wrong* with it - it was just very uninspiring. The Inspiron design isn't anything special, and it weighed more than the Powerbook does. There was also the all of the XP virus/spyware issues. On the plus-side, the Dell screen was very nice.

I couldn't say which is better performance-wise, because I didn't get very far with the Dell before it got the boot. I definately don't regret my decision.

[Timan]

Well, I just recently bought my mother an Inspiron 6000, was one of those 750$ deals, Can't beat that price. Before I bought it, all I heard was people saying, "DUDE DELL SUX" type crap, anyway went ahead and got it... then one day it showed up. I was shocked. Besides the crap they install on it (recommend a fresh install the second you get it), the laptop was fantastic, the screen is amazing, blows the ibooks (not sure about powerbook line if they use the same panels or not). Right out of the water. You could see the screen outside, where on the iBook G4 (which is the only mac laptop I have) u can't. So I can't really compare it to a powerbook but I can compare it to an ibook. If you need windows, go for it. If you want osx, go for the power book, I'm sure is good.

Or we can all wait and dream for the mactel powerbook + new screens

[thereubster]

How much is the dell? Seriously though, I think you will find Adobe CS to be better on the Pentium M than on a G4, assuming they both have similar graphics cards. Can I suggest a 3rd option? If you are going to spend that kind of money go for a laptop with an AMD Turion CPU, they are proven to be faster in Photoshop etc than the P-M.

[mad cow disease]

Evildede, you had it nearly right. Windows 2000 (XP's older cousin) is a great OS. XP itself is a bloated piece of WIn2K that's been metrosexualized.

Of the two machines running Photoshop, the Inspiron is a no-brainer. As any person using photoshop knows, screen real estate wins every single time and you'll get more of that with the Dell. You will also experience quite a performance boost with the faster hard drive, although it will eat the battery alive.

The kicker, though is the 1GB of DDR2. This is infinitely faster than PC2700, which as far as technology goes is generations out of date. Throw in the top-of-the-line P4M, which will perform like a 3GHz desktop model (roughly) and you have a winner. For crying out loud, the powerbook you're talking about is nearly seven months out of date, and at that point the technology was already old!

The downsides? The Dell has a LOUD fan, looks ugly, and will undoubtedly be thick and heavy. But in my eyes, these are small prices to pay for the significant speed/performance boost you will experience...and spyware and viruses are a non-issue as long as you're not a complete moron, clicking on every single banner ad out there. I used Windows for the last seven years, NEVER got a virus and had minimal spyware/malware issues.

[mad cow disease]

Originally Posted by thereubster

How much is the dell? Seriously though, I think you will find Adobe CS to be better on the Pentium M than on a G4, assuming they both have similar graphics cards. Can I suggest a 3rd option? If you are going to spend that kind of money go for a laptop with an AMD Turion CPU, they are proven to be faster in Photoshop etc than the P-M.

Dell does not offer AMD CPUs in their machines, and going with an AMD usually means you'll have to travel a route offering inferior build quality for the price (not that Dell is wonderful either). Dells are solidly built for the money, in my experience. You get steep discounts (like their insane 50% off of $1500 deals) and in exchange you get tech support from India and cheaply built computers with decent components - but they are cheap, no doubt about that.

[budster101]

Nonsense. Is you machine connected to the web?

[Pennstate]

If you decide to go with a PC laptop, PLEASE DO NOT go with an Inspiron. Dell notebooks suck compared to IBM, Toshiba, or even HP.

Frankly, why do you want to buy a monster laptop when you can get a desktop + a smaller laptop or a laptop+a nice LCD for the same price.

[Darthmaul4114]

Originally Posted by Pennstate

If you decide to go with a PC laptop, PLEASE DO NOT go with an Inspiron. Dell notebooks suck compared to IBM, Toshiba, or even HP.

Frankly, why do you want to buy a monster laptop when you can get a desktop + a smaller laptop or a laptop+a nice LCD for the same price.

exactly. i have a powerbook, and my couple-year-old 2.4C P4 (800mhz FSB) with a gig of PC3200, 9800pro, 120gb SATA drive (at thats what my boot drive is), and a 17" dell LCD. the PC does what I need it to do, and the PB does what I need it to do. it is really nice to have a desktop and a laptop at the same time, especially when they are both pc and mac. then you can run everything (i.e. mac programs and windows programs) without worrying about compatability. you have the powerhouse desktop that does all the serious crunching, and you have the laptop to take with you. id say get a nice cheaper end pc desktop or a mac mini or something, and then a 12" ibook. best of both worlds for less than a 17" pb with the memory upugrades.

[havocidal]

whats up with windows crashing... ive had my windows machine for a long time and it has never crashed since... it may occassionally hang... but that's the worst of it all.... i tink itz the problem with mac users who think way too highly of macs... im a mac fan... but not a blind one...

anyway there IS a difference between photoshop performance on a mac and on a pc... and i am not just talking about the speed... if you make a 1:1 comparison... you will notice that the macs can resize images better than a pc... making it more suitable for printwork too...

[Link]

On windows:
*I've never gotten a virus in my own machines in the 9 years I've owned windows machines (up to today)
*I've done the "plug into naked broadband line and see how long it takes for the computer to restart itself" -- test.. It took a record 10 seconds, as I sat in the dinning room I heard the windows shutdown sound
*I've gotten more crashes than you can shake a stick at, for many many reasons

On Mac OS X:
*I've run into several cases of hardware-><-software clashing that apple tried to deny existed, took forever to fix, and then when it was finally fixed, sometimes got broken again later on (think iSub!)
*I've gotten more crashes than you can shake a stick at, for many many reasons
*I've used this as my primary OS since 2001 and still do

Just experience/opinion there -- many of my OS X crashes were/are for pushing my stuff to the limits and beyond (hacked extensions, odd hardware configs, etc) -- most recently Widowserver froze on my PB in front of a class while giving a speech on *you guessed it* how great OS X was!

I bought a 15", 1.5ghz powerbook back in April, spent $1800 on it and would have easily spent more had it not been for the ADC discount. Having said that, I've also seen ~$900 Dell laptops that spec-sheet-wise offered almost every single thing my PowerBook had and then some... kinda looked like this..

2ghz Pentium M
Radeon X300
17" 1650x1080 screen
DVD-RW drive
512 ram (or was it 1gb?)
Random other things..

Compared to my
1.5ghz PPC G4
15" somethingxsomething I forgot screen
COMBOOO drive
512 ram

Okay.. spec wise -- but what about feature wise...?
*checks* ah yes.. the inspiron 9300.. that was it! ..... You know, Dell's website makes it awfully hard to find the WEIGHT of the notebook.. *clicks more details* uh.. prices. *looks around* *clicks customize it*

Who the hell designed this thing?
*enters inspiron 9300 in search box*

AHA! *hits tech specs*

Okay got it!

"Weight: Starting at 7.85 lbs. (3.56 kg). Weight shown is with 17" WXGA+ display, optical drive and 53Whr 6-cell battery.4"

Even if I had gone with the 17"er, we're talking about 1.3lbs more! Geez.

Okay let's be fair, the 700m... No that has a 12"... eeewww the 600m! Ah finally, the 6000! it has a 15" screen!

"Weight: Starting at 6.65 lbs.4 (3.01kg) configured with integrated graphics, 6-cell battery, 30GB hard drive and DVD-ROM"

You mean if I config it to be even MORE PATHETIC than an ibook, it weighs just as much as a powerbook 17"?

[Master Ken]

PLS STOP BS!

I'm sure, evidence never used a Dell laptop before, or only seen others use it, or used it at work, and cant really compare it to personal use. People really should stop lying about Dell... and other manufacturers, these inflammatory statements should stop, unless there is evidence to support it. I sold my iBook, and never been more happy.

I for one am writing right now on a SONY VIO, and have been for about 8 months, and it has never crashed ONCE. Its not the hardware, its the OS, and apps on it that screw up. To date, XP has locked up, but force quit has resumed it. And I’ll tell u; OS X has locked up many times as well.

I will buy another Mac, when Mac’ Intel comes out.

[itguy05]

I'm sure, evidence never used a Dell laptop before, or only seen others use it, or used it at work, and cant really compare it to personal use. People really should stop lying about Dell... and other manufacturers, these inflammatory statements should stop, unless there is evidence to support it. I sold my iBook, and never been more happy.

I deal with PC's every day to make my living and anything is betteer than Dell. It's a pure fact. Their desktops are junk, built from the cheapest crap Dell can find. You will have issues with a Dell because of the cost cutting. Ever wonder why most come with only a 90 day warranty? It isn't because there's quality built in....

Dell's Laptops are even worse. They are built VERY CHEAP. After about 6 months it will squeak and moan and bend if you pick it up by a corner. Then it may last year 2-3, but it will be a pile of garbage by then.

Smart people stay well away from Dell, desktop or laptop.

If you want a great laptop on the PC side, IBM, Fujitsu, Toshiba, and even Compaq make great laptops. But a PB will still keep up. My 15" 1.67 keeps up fine with the IBM A31 I use for work (p4 2.0, 1GB).

[Link]

Hey KenMasters! How's the Mac trolling going for ya? I thought you were baninated!

Lesson #1: Before accusing people of lying, GET YOUR DAMN BRANDS right. It's spelt VAIO and pronounced "vio", not VIA! Ironically, Sony wanted to originally make macs but couldn't get the licensing from apple -- and they've helped with the original powerbooks so I have to say they're about as apple as PCs get

That said I have a Sony from 1996, still runs strong for the most part although I've modded it to heck and back -- it's a FrankenVaio.. and it runs fine..

I've never been impressed with Dell's hardware -- it's like promising a concert sound system, V6 engine, leather-quality seats, and plenty of leg room in a car when you deliver a 120HP V6 car with vinyl seats, no back seat and the front seats back all the way -- and a Peavey sound system in it.

[Thresher]

The deciding quality for me has always been build quality.

The Dell is made out the cheapest plastics they could find. It will actually twist if you pick it up from one corner. It makes creaking noises that the Powerbook never makes. If you look at the bottom of one, there are all sorts of wierd bumps molded into the plastic.

I have a 12" Inspiron 700m for work and my personal computer is a 17" Powerbook. I'm not an OS X fanatic, although I do like it more than Windows, I find them both to have their issues. But if you were to have both models in front of you, there would be no question in my mind which one to take. The Powerbook is sturdier, has better build quality, and doesn't have odd stickers, lumps, and just "feels" better.

[havocidal]

well... powerbook may be nicer in terms of designs but its design does have its limitations as well... as that is one thing i see mac zealots seem to fail to weigh out... besides the wonderful design.. u gotta think about problems such as the aluminium case bending... or uneven gap when closed which seems to be a common problem... and i have friends who own the 17 inch..... yes... the thickness (or rather thinness) i must admit is sexy... but it has its own shortcomings as well... being incredibly thin... it bends easily too...

Another problem would be the fact that it is made of aluminium. Although this is more of a personal opinion, it does get awfully warm at times, and since I'm living in a tropical region... this gets uncomfortable.

Then there is also the problem of corrosion at the wrist areas after prolonged use. A wrist rug may help... but what is the point of putting pads and protection all over your powerbook? it defeats the purpose of the design.

hope that as much you guys love the powerbook design... you should consider the shortcomings that come with it as well...

[nickmjones]

I can speak with first hand knowledge about the Inspiron 9300. A client recently bought one for me to debug a large project in IE. Mine is almost exactly the one you described. I'm comparing it to a 15" Powerbook Aluminum, which I use every single day for web development and graphic design in CS.

When I got the Inspiron and opened the box the first thing I noticed was it's size and weight. It's massive in both regards. And really, it's sort of imposing. I flipped it around in my hands trying to get an idea of what kind of build quality Dell put into these things. Unsurprisingly it's pretty poor. The whole thing is bead-blasted plastic, and most of the mold lines are irregular and don't quite meet. Worst of all is the "Arctic White" trim, which looks like it was masked off and shot with Krylon in someone's basement.

Powering up for the first time I was greeted with all the usual Windows threats. Mind you, I don't hate Windows; I think it does a handful of things pretty well, albeit none better than Mac OS X. Now I should say that a few years ago I was pretty impressed with the speed of PCs over their Macintosh counterparts. I never felt this more accutely than when Apple was constantly crowing about "roasting Pentiums". Windows felt snappier than the Mac did, and I was always jealous tos ome degree. But this thing crawls. Windows bootup is pretty fast, but once the OS gets through initial startup on this machine it just takes a nap for about 60 seconds. It doesn't take my input and gives no visual indication of just what the hell it's doing. Frustrating.

As far as the hardware itself goes, it's pretty mediocre. The screen is bright but overly so, giving everything this washed out eye-popping glare. I've tried every trick I know to get it to look even half as good as my Powerbook or 20" Studio display, but no such luck. It also has a bizarre viewing angle and gets dimmer at the corners. The trackpad is utterly unresponsive. Sometimes I have to click on it three or four times before anything happens, which is irritating. The sound system is probably the best thing, delivering really lifelike stereo imaging in a really small space. The little subwoofer packs quite a punch too. I'd really like something like this in the next Powerbooks. My only complaint is that the sound rattles the cheap keyboard and the plastic panels when you have it turned up loud enough to hear from any distance away. And it's nice to have the DVD drive too, but all the software included for using it (to burn CDs or watch movies) is terrible and essentially forces you to go out and buy replacements.

Battery life is pitiful but that's not too shocking. Powering a screen this size--as well as the two fans--is pretty draining, even for the Powerbook 17".

Honestly a lot of my problems have to do with Windows. For instance, when I plug my two button mouse into my Powerbook it immediately starts working without any delay whatsoever. After pluggng it in to the Dell I'm treated to a parade of little popup word balloons in the taskbar that lasts for a couple of minutes before the mouse does anything.

Oh, the machine hybernates at random too. Still haven't figured that out.

Overall, I would take another Powerbook over this thing any day. In fact, I'll definitely be getting one in the near future. If you're looking for a nice big desktop replacing PC laptop I think the Toshiba Qosmio or even a Gateway would be a much better choice. After some quality time with the Dell I see that all the bad press is true, and that really is profoundly mediocre. I can't imagine using it for any design work at all, and it's all I can bear to write code and use IE on it.

[SamGuy]

After using macs as long as i have i find it really quite difficult to use windows. I can use windows but i believe that the operating system is the most important factor. (The fact that the PC laptops performance may have surpassed the macs is purely coincidental.)
Owning a Mac is so much more easy and enjoyable ESPECIALLY in the long run.

[budster101]

Windows / PC = Convoluded, it's computing's equivolence to premature e...
OS X / Mac = Easy to use and a pleasure, it's computing's equivolence to sex

[capprentice]

I always pick Up dell Latitudes for all the people at my company,
You can knock allot of what del does, Rewiring there desktop power supplies and such.

But there laptops are top, We have had everything you can shake a stick at, And the only 2 I recommend are dell and Toshiba, Both of them are build solid, AND Dell has one of the best standard warranties out there, Next and same day part replacement for there desktop, Same day within hours tech support for there servers, and I cant comment about there laptop service, Because I have not had any of there laptops go down in the 4 years here. I wont touch HP laptops, Have not had one in years that last more then 1 1/2 years.

These older laptops of the late 90s early 2k were lighter weight, Just like all laptops were back then, And I had some that were squeaky with age(1999), but even they still work,.

[havocidal]

i guess it depends on what you are doing. For me as a designer, i feel that macs are definitely better in many aspects... and i mentioned earlier on... photoshop has clearer transformations on mac than pcs... my friend who is a hardcore programmer told me that as much as he loved mac's interface... a windows is somehow better for programming... i do not know much abt programming... but yea... that's what he said... so it boils down to what you are doing...

[budster101]

Depends on what you want to do really.

Do you want to work on your COMPUTER?
or
Do you want to get WORK DONE on your computer?

I'd rather own a Powerbook for that reason, no matter what I'm doing on the computer.
Design or Programming.

[itguy05]

Originally Posted by capprentice

But there laptops are top, We have had everything you can shake a stick at, And the only 2 I recommend are dell and Toshiba, Both of them are build solid, AND Dell has one of the best standard warranties out there, Next and same day part replacement for there desktop, Same day within hours tech support for there servers, and I cant comment about there laptop service, Because I have not had any of there laptops go down in the 4 years here.

Apparently you have not used a Thinkpad. IBM makes the best laptops period. They are sturdy and reliable and the service is top notch. I've seen 3-4 year old Thinkpads that are still ticking and have taken their lickings. No creaks, they don't bend when you pick them up (like Dell), and are generally rock solid.

Dell OTOH are garbage. Pick up a 1-3U Dell serer by a corner and watch it bend, flex, and almost snap. Pick up a 1-3U IBM in the same spot and it's a rock. Then open them up. See how Dell uses cheap junk and it's just packaged in there. Then look at the IBM and you will see higher quality stuff with better arrangements.

Call Dell for support and either you'll get Habib (no offense) or have to argue with them to send the parts. Been there done that. Call up IBM and you'll talk to someone who speaks English, and will get the parts within hours (if that's the warranty you bought).

No thanks, I'll stick with reliable old IBM for my servers. Dell can go to the wayside and the trash heaps where everything they make should be.

[budster101]

IBM is the only computer outside of Apple that I have the least bit of respect for. Rock Solid, too bad the OS sucks.

[theTechyDork]

Haha, budster. So true... You just say it like it is.

[hypnognosis]

Quite honestly if you *really* want a laptop I'd get a Pentium-M, unless you absolutely had to have OSX. If you have the money the iBook and nice PC option would probably be a nice bet, assuming you get an athlon 64/Opteron from a reputable company. I know a lot of people here believe the G4 is some amazing chip, but in all truth unless you are doing something that requires specific vector operations the G4 quite frankly doesn't even attempt to keep up with the Pentium-M.

As of right now my Ti 1Ghz G4 is 3 years old, I have maxed the ram and purchased a 7200 rpm seagate hdd, but the data formating, database queries, simulations, and analysis for a personal project I am working on are going to take ten days to finish at 80-95% cpu utilization 24x7. The last time I ran a similar project on my old 2Ghz Pentium 4, that I gave to one of my sisters, it took about three days.

So I am also in dire need of a new machine, and unfortunately the lucklaster performance of the current PB line up really has me looking into alternatives. I love OS X for it's functionality and *nix'ness, but I really need power. I really don't have any desire to use windows, and I seriously think several people here are blowing the virii and malware concerns out of proportion. I believe any person who takes some form of vigilance in keeping his system secure, virus/mal-ware detectors up-to-date, firewalls on, and perhaps uses firefox and a non-outlook email client would fail to suffer any miserable fate. You could argue however, that a responsible software vendor would not have such a pre-requisite, but you do far less to your automobile to ensure it's functional and safe... at least I hope so.

I think my solution for now is just to buy a Ultra 20 from Sun. They are relatively inexpensive workstations from a reputable commpany, and with solaris I should be able to remotely run most-to-all of my simulations from them. I don't use CS at all, I think a hand drawn dendogram is my greatest artistic achievement, so I am unsure of your performance requirements or platform dependancies.

I hope you make the decision that will aid you the most, and ignore a lot of this subjective banter

Cheers

[theTechyDork]

Haha, budster. So true... You just say it like it is.
---
For the original poster, I say just get the PowerBook. It will be more stable, more fun, and pretty powerful. More portable too. You'll love it. Definately, PowerBook.

[Link]

Originally Posted by budster101

IBM is the only computer outside of Apple that I have the least bit of respect for. Rock Solid, too bad the OS sucks.

Yep, my battered up 486 thinkpad is still my 1st laptop, and it kicked butt back in the day.. too bad the outer casing was brittle after a while, lol.

[itguy05]

Originally Posted by hypnognosis

As of right now my Ti 1Ghz G4 is 3 years old, I have maxed the ram and purchased a 7200 rpm seagate hdd, but the data formating, database queries, simulations, and analysis for a personal project I am working on are going to take ten days to finish at 80-95% cpu utilization 24x7. The last time I ran a similar project on my old 2Ghz Pentium 4, that I gave to one of my sisters, it took about three days.

No offense, but comparing a 3 year old system that, at BEST is equivalent to that 2Ghz P4 (and more likely a 1.5 Ghz at average) is unfair. Especially if the P4 is a desktop.

I use a 2Ghz P4 IBM a31p for work and it's a tad slower than my 15" G4 1.67 Powerbook.

I'd say most of your work (databse queries) is going to be disk bound rather than CPU bound. You may want to try your stuff on a more modern Mac (iMac, eMac, or PB).

[hypnognosis]

No offense, but comparing a 3 year old system that, at BEST is equivalent to that 2Ghz P4 (and more likely a 1.5 Ghz at average) is unfair. Especially if the P4 is a desktop.

I use a 2Ghz P4 IBM a31p for work and it's a tad slower than my 15" G4 1.67 Powerbook.

I'd say most of your work (databse queries) is going to be disk bound rather than CPU bound. You may want to try your stuff on a more modern Mac (iMac, eMac, or PB).

I understand what you are saying, and the P4 was my desktop machine before I bought my 1Ghz Powerbook (new). I was just trying to point out my old P4 as a performance reference. Now, most modern intel laptops would easily outperform my old P4, but a new G4 laptop would most likely be slightly slower.

As far as my work goes, most of the queries tend to be more cpu intensive than disk-bound. I have some queries that are disk bound as well, but I don't run them too often. During a normal run my cpu utilization is almost always capped, but I never seem to transfer much more than 10mb/s sustained.

I am just disapointed in what apple is offering, if apple offered a G5-mobile, or a dual core free-scale I would be quite happy. But when a modern PB has the same performance as a MDD from 4 years ago (except I guess for video card), it's kind of lame... Things will be a lot better when they release the intel macs, but for us who are ready for an upgrade now it really isn't worth it.

[mitchell_pgh]

No question... designers use Macs.

Raw speed has very little to do with good design. It's not like you will be converting thousands of RAW files. If you are smart, you will buy a Mac. Go to any printer and ask what they like.

[betasp]

I work for a LARGE label maker and our graphics dept. uses only Macs. It all depends on what your uses are going to be. I work in IT and have a Powerbook 12" and a Thinkpad 13.1" and love them both for what they do. I use the powerbook for all of my clerical tasks (reports, email, surfing) and use my thinkpad for network monitoring and PC troubleshooting.

[urrl78]

I frankly like both. I've owned a 1.5 Ghz 17" a few years now and bought a little 10.6" screen Sony Vaio T250 about a year ago. As far as XP vs OSX, the OSX looks better but I find XP very reliable also. I have had two virus attacks but only by fooling around in places I shouldn't have, and having tossed Norton for AVG free antivirus software, I dispatched those viruses without a problem.

I like doing the real video work on my Powerbook and yet being able to work better with the majority of the PC population using my Sony. I decided against the iBook because of no PC slot, which I needed to get on the net anywhere without routers or base stations with Verizon wireless Broadband PC5220 card. Sorry, don't know about Dell but my little Sony is very dear to me.

http://homepage.mac.com/bhardy3/PhotoAlbum38.html

I take it literally everywhere (weighs 3 Lb.) and leave the 17" home for the heavy video work.

http://homepage.mac.com/bhardy3/PhotoAlbum34.html

Sure, others may hate the reflective glare of the Vaio screen but I truly don't mind it at all. The brightness more than makes up for this downside IMHO but it is user preference here. If you hate it don't buy it.

The little 1.2 Ghz Sony plays 720p video smoothly, an added bonus, while the 1.5 Ghz Powerbook has quite a bit of flicker, but I suspect this is because of different codecs and such in Quicktime vs Windows Movie Player. All in all I love my Mac/PC combo and don't plan to upgrade any time soon.

My advice is to research into Dell more if you are not sure about quality, not just on a Mac forum, and not just on a Dell forum; some opinions can be biased despite good intentions, but I suspect you know this already.

[Fro]

Thanks for all answers. Maybe my question should be if Adobe CS2 will run smoothly on the powerbook. Having photoshop (50-100mb files), illustrator and indesign running at the same time.

I have also been looking at 15", maybe its enough for the road.