[noiroi]

looking at the specs of powerbooks in applestore website ,i've noticed that there are two specs that are common to the 12" and 17" but different in the 15" .

1. both 12" and 17" have nvidia geforce 4 while the 15" has ATI mobility radeon 9000.

2. the hardisk in 12" & 17" is ultra ATA/100
, and in the 15" is ultra ATA/66.

anybody knows what do these differences mean ?

[seanyepez]

The latest 15-inch PowerBook was released a few months before the 12- and 17-inch PowerBooks were introduced. The 15-inch PowerBook also doesn't support DDR memory.

[marumari]

1. The 15" Powerbook's Radeon 9000 is usually a bit faster than the nVidia cards in the 12" and 17" Powerbook.

2. Not much performance wise, really. Don't worry about it.

[noiroi]

thanx guys,

that helps.

i guess it's really basic , but can someone tell me what's the difference between ATA/100 and ATA/66, and what in DDR sdram ?

and one other thing : if the 12" & 17" have a newer and somewhat more advanced feature set, would't it make sense for apple to upgrade the 15" with the new features ?
it might not be the falgship powerbook ,but it's probably the most popular.

[Alpha-sphere]

Originally posted by noiroi:
thanx guys,

that helps.

i guess it's really basic , but can someone tell me what's the difference between ATA/100 and ATA/66, and what in DDR sdram ?

and one other thing : if the 12" & 17" have a newer and somewhat more advanced feature set, would't it make sense for apple to upgrade the 15" with the new features ?
it might not be the falgship powerbook ,but it's probably the most popular.

ATA/100 and ATA/66 are the connections "speeds" to the Hard drive and optical drives. ATA/100 is faster (Duh)

DDR is shall we say kind of like the successor of SDRam
SDRam can go up to 133MHz <-- right?
And DDR can go well up to 400MHz <-- Faster

And i would make sens for apple to upgrade the 15" powerbook and they will. Everybody here is waiting for it to be announced. We all hope that apple will announce it at the Macworld CreativePro � New York expo wich is held from Jul 14 till Jul 18

[SEkker]

In addition to the differences you listed, the 17" has a firewire 800 (updated FW) port, airport extreme (updated wifi), updated keyboard (which I personally prefer over TiPB), and built in bluetooth.

With the exception of the FW800 port and BT (which I am not sure about), the 12" PB has these same updates.

The 15" motherboard design is getting old at this point. I expect the new 15" to have most of the same updates plus USB 2.0 and a new video system. I expect it to still be a G4 (which is good news - it means the machines will be available upon release, unlike the G5s or this PB17 which arrived 3 months after I ordered within the week it was released).

[slow moe]

Originally posted by SEkker:
With the exception of the FW800 port and BT (which I am not sure about), the 12" PB has these same updates.

The 12" does has bluetooth built-in like the 17", but no FW800 port.

[zanyterp]

Originally posted by SEkker:
The 15" motherboard design is getting old at this point. I expect the new 15" to have most of the same updates plus USB 2.0 and a new video system. I expect it to still be a G4 (which is good news - it means the machines will be available upon release, unlike the G5s or this PB17 which arrived 3 months after I ordered within the week it was released).

is there any reasonable time to expect this update though, within the next two months? i am looking at getting a 15" now, but if they update (or there is reasonable expectation) soon, i would prefer it. smile

nick

[todrain]

Rumor has been floating around of a 15" update since January... only Steve knows for sure, but it will most likely be happening shortly. The current 15s have been out for a while...

[DekuDekuplex]

Originally posted by marumari:
1. The 15" Powerbook's Radeon 9000 is usually a bit faster than the nVidia cards in the 12" and 17" Powerbook.

2. Not much performance wise, really. Don't worry about it.

Both NVIDIA� Corporation and ATI Technologies, Inc., frequently update their drivers. Check the NVIDIA software download page and the ATI software download page for updates.

DekuDekuplex