[PoisonTooth]

Just curious. I am on the verge of selling my 2.4GHz P4 PC and using my TiBook as my one and only computer. The nice thing here is that I will be able to connect it to my 20.1" Dell 2000FP for dual-monitor goodness.

Before I go this route, however, I'm wondering: does anyone else use the TiBook SD as a true desktop replacement system?

[Mr Heliums]

I'm planning to do the same.

[Landos Mustache]

I use the Ti 667 as my main desktop computer at work. I am the designer and use this computer for web and brochure design. It is awesome.

The only thing I have found that it is not good for is colour correction. I have to do that on a CRT or desktop LCD.

What do you use your computer for?

[maxed-out]

I use my TiSD 1gb at my office, hooked up to a 20'' monitor all day, running Photoshop, GoLive, Word, Illustrator, Entourage, Suitcase, Acrobat and Quark all launched continuously in OSX. It never crashes, is significantly faster than my G4 450 is.

At home it's linked to a 19" monitor doing the same type of work. I would NEVER buy a desktop again!

[romeosc]

I use my as my main computer.... I still use my G4 450 desktop as a print server & to burn back CDs etc.... Keeps from having to unplug & plug in TI. I use airport to comunicate with the G4 450 & my wifes Ibook.

Works great.... I wish there was a cheap way to turn on a laserwriter 610 from remote. I now use a "clapper" to turn on laserwriter to print if I don't want to use one of the HP inkjets.


Steve

[purplehaze04]

my new TiBook was just that! i was working on a beige G-3 tower and felt the need to upgrade...finally! so, once the 1Ghz superdrive was announced, it was a no brainer for me. get this machine as your desktop replacement and you won't be sorry.

well, 3 weeks into the relationship with my TiBook, i am very happy and glad i made the right choice.

i'm an art director and work in multiple graphics apps at a time. so far no crashes, no bugs, no problem!

[Over Achiever]

I'm also planning to do the same. Even though I know my SDPB will be outdated in a year or so, I plan to have it as my main computer for at least three years. I believe the 1 GHz processor is fast enough to last me four years, the superdrive will keep me current until DVDs are replaced with holographic storage, and the 15.2" LCD will keep me satisfied and the backlight will last three years.

As a desktop replacement, I plan on connecting to an external LCD for moniter spanning...I have moniter spanning with my current PC laptop and I'm glad I have it.

The only reason I'm getting the SD instead of the combo drive is the fact that I plan to use it as a desktop replacement...otherwise I don't need to burn DVDs on the road. Without another computer with a faster superdrive, I'll live with the powerbook. No harm done.

[starman]

This is what I want to do as well, but I do a lot of video work and I can't get any Superbook benchmarks, so I don't know WHAT to do!

Mike

[Kestral]

I use an iBook 500 right now as my one and only computer. Before that a Pismo 500, before that a Wall Street 233. I haven't owned a desktop machine in years. I'm seriously considering the 867 mhz TiBook right now. Had a chance to test drive an 800 mhz. Even the 667 mhz would be a machine I'd be happy with, so for you to get a 1 ghz would be super sweet.

[Dr. No]

10-4 on the replacement issue. I'm using my new 1Ghz SD PB as my desktop replacement for my beloved G4 Cube...hooked it up to my Cinema Display and it's awesome...you'll love it and never look back. I will (probably) never buy a true desktop again...

Have fun with your new PowerBook!

D.

[sworthy]

My PBSD is a desktop replacement for a dell dimension 8100 (year and a half old) 1.7 GHz 512mb RDRAM. The powerbook actually has twice the video ram of the older desktop.

The only thing I have to get used to is the smaller hardrive (though my desktop originally came with that as well).

Go for the gig of ram... everything is very responsive.

Overall, I'm very happy I gave up my p4 box. There is nothing I can't do with this (except play as many games). And regardless, laptop speeds today (mac or otherwise) are fast enough to be true desktop replacements, and are more convenient. And with the superdrive, you'll have all the hardware that you'll need for the life of the computer.

[starman]

Can you keep the PB closed while you have it hooked up to a monitor, and then use an external keyboard?

Mike

[benb]

Originally posted by starman:
Can you keep the PB closed while you have it hooked up to a monitor, and then use an external keyboard?

Mike

I have been wondering the same thing. The manual states:

You can use your PowerBook with the display closed if the computer is connected to an external monitor, keyboard, and mouse, and the power adapter is plugged into the PowerBook and an outlet... Important Keep the PowerBook's display open at a 90-degree or greater angle when your PowerBook is attached to an external display and running in dual display or video mirrioring mode. This allows for proper air circulation over the keyboard and assists with heat dissipation."

This sounds a bit contradictory to me. So which is it? Closed or open? If closed was harmful to the computer, I doubt that Apple would make it run when closed.

Regards,
Ben

[starman]

Originally posted by benb:


I have been wondering the same thing. The manual states:



This sounds a bit contradictory to me. So which is it? Closed or open? If closed was harmful to the computer, I doubt that Apple would make it run when closed.

Regards,
Ben

Seems like it's closed for a SINGLE display, open for DUAL monitor display.

Thanks for that info. Very helpful.

Mike

[seanyepez]

I use my PowerBook as a desktop replacement. I do have desktop PC's, but all they do is play Quake and Unreal.

[seanyepez]

It's strange Apple is recommending we keep the display open for mirroring or dual-display mode and the display closed for single-display operation. The difference in heat generation is minimal.

[cruise]

Originally posted by starman:
This is what I want to do as well, but I do a lot of video work and I can't get any Superbook benchmarks, so I don't know WHAT to do!

Mike

As soon as I get my Panasonic AG-DVX100 and shoot some video, I'll give you some benchmarks (I'm assuming Final Cut Pro 3?)...

[mrmister]

I use mine as a replacement, with no complaints.

[azark]

I use mine as a desktop replacement too.

Mainly for audio (Pro-Tools LE, cubase, VSti, etc.) in Os 9 (no choice for now), and for all the rest in OS X (email, surf, website maintenance, a little photoshop, games, etc.)

I bought the Ti-550 as a second computer and it replaced my desktop quickly (G4 400 AGP).
Then I sold it for the ti-Ghz combo and now it replaces my sampler too...I still have the G4 400, but it sleeps most of the time.

Now I have a sampler, 10 keyboards and a 24 track Recording/editing station in a backpack. (Ti+Mbox+midisport)

Except for the numpad and a few shorcuts (command+1,+2, etc.), I even prefer the Ti keyboard...

[starman]

Originally posted by cruise:


As soon as I get my Panasonic AG-DVX100 and shoot some video, I'll give you some benchmarks (I'm assuming Final Cut Pro 3?)...

Yes, FCP3 but I think you need DVD Studio Pro for the MPEG-2 output component.

Mike

[TheIceMan]

Originally posted by starman:
This is what I want to do as well, but I do a lot of video work and I can't get any Superbook benchmarks, so I don't know WHAT to do!

Mike

Try this link http://macspeedzone.com/html/hardwar...ok/index.shtml

It's "The SpeedZone: The New G4/867 MHz PowerBook Compared To 9 Current & Previous PowerBooks & iBooks" at Macspeedzone.com

I know it's not the 1GHz, but their info might be helpful.


I use my 667Mhz w/ 512 RAM G4 PowerBook as a desktop replacement. It suits me just fine. I'm a student and use my powerbook for web surfing, word processing, chatting online, and listening to music. So I may not be your best person to benchmark from. Good luck.

[ngrundy]

I actualy have a combo 1ghz but that's not a show stopper

two weeks ago I replaced a dual p3 866, 1gb ram, 2x40gb hdd, matrox g550 video desktop computer with my 1ghz powerbook.

since that day I've had my desktop on for about 4 hours total to get data off of the machine, hopefuly my icecube case should arrive in a few days so i can put one of the 40gb hdd's into it and get myself a bit more space on the powerbook.

my pb is configured as such
1ghz/40gb/1x512mb/combo
(i dropped the disk space to get a single stick of 512, easier upgrade path later on)

Screen wise i've gone from 2 17" CRT's running @ 1152x864 to the LCD in the powerbook.

and belive you me I'm not missing the desktop machine at all!

randomly a pic of my desk can be found at http://ids.org.au/~njgrundy/pb-at-desk.jpg

i apologise for the poor quality

[starman]

IceMan,
Thanks for that link!! So far it's the closest to what I was looking for.

Mike

[davidflas]

I upgraded from a G4/466 Digital Audio and am not sorry at all. Even with all the upgrades I made, the pb seems much snappier.

[baglunch]

Originally posted by starman:
This is what I want to do as well, but I do a lot of video work and I can't get any Superbook benchmarks, so I don't know WHAT to do!

Mike

For light video work, the tibook is excellent. But if you're planning on doing long form editing in FCP on the tibook, the internal drive will be too small and too slow. An external firewire drive(s) will also probably be somewhat slow, i've experienced alot of dropped frames on my friend's setup due to the firewire drive (7200rpm, w/ oxford911 chipset), but then again we were editing 2 hours worth of footage. What might work, for serious work with the tibook is getting a pcmia scsi card, and an external scsi disk array. Otherwise, personally I think i'd stick with a powermac with a crap load of 8mb buffer large eide harddrives for the best performance. I wouldn't worry about after effects performance really, because it's dual processor support sucks and won't see "that" much increase in performance for the price.. and since frame rate isn't really important in AE itself, the drive speed shouldn't be an issue.

I'm actually in the same boat as you.. i'm looking to buy a new system and have been really considering getting a tibook. But i think what i'm going to wind up doing is getting a powermac (whatever's the latest and greatest after macworld sf or spring) and saving up for a 12" ibook later on just for presentations and light mobile work.

[craigthomas]

I've used 3 Tibooks (500, 800, GhzSD) as replacement desktops and will never go back to a desktop. At work I have a 22 Cinema w/DVI. Home I use the PB display as normal with Airport/DSL. I'm a designer and use Photoshop, ImageReady, Illustrator, InDesign, GoLive, Flash MX, OfficeX in 10.2, Quickbooks 5 beta, and classic for Quark and Distiller only. In Photoshop I've seen an incredable increase in speed from the 800DVI in large files over 300MB.

I haven't taken a PowerMac for a spin since my 466, but I am very satisfied with the performance of this 1Ghz Tibook under OS X. Burned my 1st DVD backup of my iPhoto library this weekend on a $1 disc. Sweet!

[starman]

Originally posted by baglunch:


For light video work, the tibook is excellent. But if you're planning on doing long form editing in FCP on the tibook, the internal drive will be too small and too slow. An external firewire drive(s) will also probably be somewhat slow, i've experienced alot of dropped frames on my friend's setup due to the firewire drive (7200rpm, w/ oxford911 chipset), but then again we were editing 2 hours worth of footage. What might work, for serious work with the tibook is getting a pcmia scsi card, and an external scsi disk array. Otherwise, personally I think i'd stick with a powermac with a crap load of 8mb buffer large eide harddrives for the best performance. I wouldn't worry about after effects performance really, because it's dual processor support sucks and won't see "that" much increase in performance for the price.. and since frame rate isn't really important in AE itself, the drive speed shouldn't be an issue.

I'm actually in the same boat as you.. i'm looking to buy a new system and have been really considering getting a tibook. But i think what i'm going to wind up doing is getting a powermac (whatever's the latest and greatest after macworld sf or spring) and saving up for a 12" ibook later on just for presentations and light mobile work.

*sigh*

Here's the thing. I don't do HEAVY work. Backups of tapes, backups of laserdiscs, and lots of home movies. I hear from one person that Firewire drives are fast enough, and from another person that they're not. I don't know what to belive and nobody I know actually HAS one.

I finally got around to doing some encoding with a Dual 1.25 GHz Mac and it's quite fast, but I'm still not convinced it's worth the money. I thought that a dual 1GHz would be OK (it's $1000 less) until I looked at the benchmarks and saw the dual 1.25 kick the crap out of the dual 1.0.

Then there's the portability issue. I don't need to go into that - everyone knows how much more convenient a portable computer is.

I don't know. I'm so on the fence with this.

Maybe if I could persuade work to give me the DP500 PowerMac we're not using I wouldn't feel so bad about getting the PowerBook. I'd just have to replace that useless DVD-RAM drive with something else.

My friend told me to get the 40GB drive and then replace it with a new 7200 RPM internal drive later. How would that work out?

Mike

[Eug]

For light video work, the tibook is excellent. But if you're planning on doing long form editing in FCP on the tibook, the internal drive will be too small and too slow. An external firewire drive(s) will also probably be somewhat slow, i've experienced alot of dropped frames on my friend's setup due to the firewire drive (7200rpm, w/ oxford911 chipset), but then again we were editing 2 hours worth of footage.

Hmm... I don't use FCP but my undereducated 2 cents:

Considering that an Oxford 911 chipset with a fast 7200 rpm drive maxes out at speeds of well over 30 MB/s. The drive and chipset should have no problems with capture. How much other crap was on the drive and how fragmented was it? If you could do a sequential capture onto the hard drive, it would seem to me that even a fast 4200 rpm drive (like the new Fujitsus) can handle the data rate when couple with the Oxford 911 chipset. OTOH, a partially filled up heavily fragmented 7200 rpm drive would lead to lots of dropped frames.

Is it possible to have a totally clean Firewire drive on his system before you do any capture? Even if necessary, purchasing a second Firewire drive?

I use my PowerBook as a desktop replacement. I do have desktop PC's, but all they do is play Quake and Unreal.

Ironically, with an external keyboard and mouse, Quake III is better on my GigaBook than on my PC. However, that's because I only have a Celeron 800 and Radeon 7200 on the PC.

randomly a pic of my desk can be found at http://ids.org.au/~njgrundy/pb-at-desk.jpg

Here is a pic of my TiBook desktop replacement setup. External DVI LCD, wireless keyboard, wireless mouse, Firewire DVD-RAM/-R, Firewire 24X CD-RW.

[k2director]

If you're working in DV video, as opposed to uncompressed, there's absolutely no reason you can't use fast Firewire drives for editing (7200 rpm, and the Oxford 911 chipset, which they pretty much all use these days). Whatever problems you might have with dropped frames would stem from a very fragmented drive, a very full drive, or a faulty drive. Or perhaps Final Cut wasn't getting enough cpu bandwidth at the moment (lots of open apps in the background?). I guess there's one other factor that can lead to dropped frames on a Firewire drive, and that's doing a ton of single frame cuts--ie, one frame from one video clip followed by another frame from another clip, etc. etc.--ie, the kind of stuff used occasionally in commercials and music videos. But you'd have to have a whole long string of these kind of cuts to give a good drive problems, and there are workarounds anyway (like rendering...).

Also, a Tibook and firewire drives will handle long form work in Final Cut just fine. I've worked on everything from 2 minute trailers to a 3 hour film. A longer form project, provided you organize your project file properly, won't impact a TI/Firewire system any more than a short form project would. It handles both equally well (the only difference is that you need a lot of drive space for a long project, but 120-200 gigs, which a single drive can store these days, is usually enough for most people).

Working with uncompressed video is a different story. You'll need faster drives than Firewire models, and probably need a dedicated card for playing the video in real time--ie, the realm of desktop Macs.

[icruise]

If my pismo can capture DV without dropping frames, I would certainly hope the new Tibook can.

[seanyepez]

I don't want to get into this, but CRT monitors are better for playing games because they more accurately display colors and have lower response times.

I think it's time for me to don my flame-proof suit. I have evidence to back my claim!

[mjlukich]

I am happily using my new Powerbook 867 as a desktop replacement. I moved our Dell desktop into the den and haven't touched it in the last month.

[seanyepez]

It's hard to believe that this release has been out for a whole month already!

[mdcarter1]

Originally posted by seanyepez:
I don't want to get into this, but CRT monitors are better for playing games because they more accurately display colors and have lower response times.

I think it's time for me to don my flame-proof suit. I have evidence to back my claim!

Lets not forget that you can also use them in any resolution and not have it look like crap.

[Over Achiever]

Originally posted by seanyepez:
I don't want to get into this, but CRT monitors are better for playing games because they more accurately display colors and have lower response times.

I think it's time for me to don my flame-proof suit. I have evidence to back my claim!

lol I agree CRTs are better than LCDs in gaming. However, LCDS have been released that have excellent response times (15 ms or about 67 fps), and I expect that they will be affordable in a couple of months. So even then LCDs will do fine for gaming, be even brighter than CRTs, and emit much less radiation.

[baglunch]

Originally posted by k2director:
If you're working in DV video, as opposed to uncompressed, there's absolutely no reason you can't use fast Firewire drives for editing (7200 rpm, and the Oxford 911 chipset, which they pretty much all use these days). Whatever problems you might have with dropped frames would stem from a very fragmented drive, a very full drive, or a faulty drive. Or perhaps Final Cut wasn't getting enough cpu bandwidth at the moment (lots of open apps in the background?). I guess there's one other factor that can lead to dropped frames on a Firewire drive, and that's doing a ton of single frame cuts--ie, one frame from one video clip followed by another frame from another clip, etc. etc.--ie, the kind of stuff used occasionally in commercials and music videos. But you'd have to have a whole long string of these kind of cuts to give a good drive problems, and there are workarounds anyway (like rendering...).

DV capture is fine. But the reason it dropped frames was because of the number of large clips which were imported into the project. We were working with a large number (100-400) of clips from the drive.. The drive was attached to a dual 1 gig with 1.5 gb of ram, so the mac itself wasn't the issue. When editing with a small number of clips (under 50) there weren't any issues. As I said, for "heavy" use, firewire drives aren't ideal.. since use is relative, for me it's not really an option for a full replacement of internal drives.

[Eug]

Originally posted by seanyepez:
I don't want to get into this, but CRT monitors are better for playing games because they more accurately display colors and have lower response times.

I think it's time for me to don my flame-proof suit. I have evidence to back my claim!

Well for hardcore gaming you'd want a PC anyway, and colours are not that important.

As for response times, I agree, but gaming on my Samsung with <25 ms pixel response time is fine. The main problem as somebody said is non-native resolutions. (I don't like running at 1280x1024 since it drops the frame rate vs. the perfectly acceptable 1024x768.) Sometimes you can get around it by running with a black border. You lose some screen space, but the clarity remains excellent.

[seanyepez]

It takes a bit of getting used to, but I agree. Colors are not important.

ViewSonic's projected 9-millisecond response times turned out to be lies. Their final product has a 25-millisecond response time.

Anything below 20 milliseconds is good enough for me.

[riverfreak]

Originally posted by seanyepez:
It's strange Apple is recommending we keep the display open for mirroring or dual-display mode and the display closed for single-display operation. The difference in heat generation is minimal.

Maybe this recommendation isn't about heat dissipation at all. Obviously, to use dual displays, the display has to be open. Yet for people wishing to use an external display AND an external keyboard, then they may be very likely to want the display closed as well. You can, after all, use an external keyboard and mouse and an external monitor with video mirroring and the display open if you wish.

By the way, if the computer is asleep with the display closed, and you connect, say, a USB mouse, the machine will wake up, but the display remains off. So perhaps there is some internal switching that sets video out to mirroring mode automatically if the display is closed.

[kemph]

I just purchased my Ti SD and I wanted to say YES, I plan on this beast to be a replacement to my current PC.

Now I'm just waiting on iSync or PocketMac to support my Dell PDA.

Kemph

[RMXO]

instead of gettin the PBSD, i stuck with my 800 DVI & bought my GF an iBook instead & yes i use my 800 DVI as a desktop replacement. havent touched my XP/Gentoo desktop in over yr since i have been using my Dell c600 laptop (sold) then 800 DVI...

plus, ever since i been using MS RDC, there is no need to sit infront of my desktop anymore.....

[SuperGroove]

I use my Powerbook 667DVI as my main computer. It's terrific except i'm looking DOWN at the keyboard. My back gets fatigued after a while and my eyes are so far away from the screen.

I'm wondering if I should get a new monitor or if I should get one of those Griffin iCurves.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated. At this rate I'll be purchasing:

Griffin iCruve: $40
Apple Pro Keyboard: $59

I really want a flat panel display, but I only want a Studio Display, unless there are any other solutions out there.

HELP!

[TheIceMan]

Originally posted by starman:
IceMan,
Thanks for that link!! So far it's the closest to what I was looking for.

Mike

Glad to help Mike.

[TheIceMan]

Originally posted by SuperGroove:
I use my Powerbook 667DVI as my main computer. It's terrific except i'm looking DOWN at the keyboard. My back gets fatigued after a while and my eyes are so far away from the screen.

I'm wondering if I should get a new monitor or if I should get one of those Griffin iCurves.

Think about it this way SuperGroove, the iCurve is $40 while a new Apple Studio display costs hundreds of $$. Is there an Apple Store in Boulder or some other computer store where you could try out the iCurve before buying one. Cuz I would hate for you to get the iCurve and find that it sux. My motto is to always (whenever you can) test drive before you buy.

[Eug]

Or you could just find a simple monitor stand in the store for about $20. They usually have inserts so that you can adjust the height. The only problem is the colour. Most of the ones I've seen are ugly beige, but black ones do exist.

I do recommend the Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop though. Includes wireless keyboard and wireless mouse and excellent OS X.2 software for both. It's about $75 and the silver/black is a pretty close match to the TiBook.

That way you can move about freely without worrying about pulling your laptop off the stand.

The Samsung 172T is arguably a better display than the Apple Studio Display, costs MUCH less, doesn't require an DVI->ADC adapter ($$$), aesthetically matches the TiBook almost exactly (if you get the silver one), and takes up much less desk space. In fact, the Samsung 172T can even be wall mounted if you desire, and comes with wall bracket for that purpose. (The Apple Studio Display matches the Cube, the PowerMac, and maybe the iBook, but it definitely doesn't match the TiBook, if that matters to you.)

See the pic of my setup, which I posted earlier in this thread.

[SuperGroove]

Eug,

thanks for the setup pic. That's the directly I find myself going in, I think. I like how the display looks, but I'm not liking the Wireless idea. How long is battery life for the keyboard? I have an Intellimouse Explorer 3.0 as is and I love it.

Very sharp looking display

[starman]

Eug,
I finally took a look at your setup. I, too am curious about that Bluetooth keyboard/mouse. I'd like to hear about your experiences in using it with a Mac. Are you using the Bluetooth adapater that came with them?

Mike

[Eug]

It's not BlueTooth. The BlueTooth one is $$$ and doesn't support Mac.

Mine's the usual RF wireless one. Less money, and supports Mac with excellent drivers. (Well, I've only tried the OS X drivers. I don't use OS 9 so I haven't yet installed the OS 9 drivers.) They include a RF transmitter with it, which is about the size of an oblong hockey puck, with a USB connection.

I dunno how long the batteries last. I've been using it for only two weeks.

[starman]

Oh, OK. It looks a lot like the BT one. Thanks for that info.

Mike

[photoeditor]

In response to PoisonTooth's original post I'm with romeosc; I am keeping my G4/466 around for printing, scanning, CD burning, but also if I have a lot of heavy typing to do in a hurry and for any purposes I need a 19 inch CRT monitor for. With specific regard to PoisonTooth's situation, it depends whether you need the Pentium 4 PC for Windows only work like checking out web browser compatibility if you do HTML (or for software vendors who are a day late and a dollar short with their Mac updates ).

As for seanyepez's observations on whether or not to have the display open, it's worth pointing out a silver lining to the PowerBook's overly aggressive cooling fans; they mean less risk of heat damage than, say, with an iBook, when it comes to having the laptop display closed and the nice big desktop one running. Though, as PoisonTooth should note with his two page display, with, as far as I know, a maximum of 75Hz output on the Powerbook at any higher resolution, you're really better off with an LCD. With an LCD all you need for flicker-free performance is 60Hz. I will post again on this once I can fully determine whether the 75Hz limitation applies at the high end to the new Powerbook.

In short, you should make sure that you're physically comfortable with every aspect of your laptop setup before you sell your desktop. Some people and some monitors do better at 75Hz than others. I've seen a number of monitors that did fine at 75Hz; but every Trinitron display I've ever used needed 85Hz.