[tillin]

So i am entertaining the idea of selling my 17" powerbook to get a new macbook ( 2ghz , 2gb ram ( from OWC ), 120gb HD )

( on a side note, did anyone know that apple will price match on RAM??? i was just told this by an apple store employee today )

after my brain dead statement of saying i need a better graphics card for photoshop ( i was tired when i wrote that ) i realized that it should be able to be fairly close to my powerbook in photoshop performance, and then when the universal version is released it will be able to smoke it.

So - herein I pose my question,

i have a 17" 1.5ghz PB G4
with 2GB RAM, 80GB HD, radeon 9700 mobility 128MB

and i really do need to get something smaller for when i travel ( i am a photographer by trade )

i have 2 external displays available to me ( as per my sig. ) so at-home screen real estate is a non-issue.

would a trade like this work for me? or should i wait for whatever updates they have in the wings?

[tillin]

ok this is a going to be a little long, but its worth looking over.

a direct xbench side by side comparison i did with my powerbook and the instore macbook.

my powerbook:

Results 40.15
System Info
Xbench Version 1.2
System Version 10.4.6 (8I127)
Physical RAM 2048 MB
Model PowerBook5,5
Processor PowerPC G4 @ 1.50 GHz
L1 Cache 32K (instruction), 32K (data)
L2 Cache 512K @ 1.50 GHz
Bus Frequency 167 MHz
Video Card ATY,RV360M11
Drive Type Hitachi HTS548080M9AT00
CPU Test 56.55
GCD Loop 127.53 6.72 Mops/sec
Floating Point Basic 34.89 829.10 Mflop/sec
vecLib FFT 83.81 2.76 Gflop/sec
Floating Point Library 44.84 7.81 Mops/sec
Thread Test 65.46
Computation 63.10 1.28 Mops/sec, 4 threads
Lock Contention 67.99 2.93 Mlocks/sec, 4 threads
Memory Test 24.51
System 24.87
Allocate 139.00 510.45 Kalloc/sec
Fill 20.79 1010.74 MB/sec
Copy 15.31 316.27 MB/sec
Stream 24.15
Copy 23.31 481.41 MB/sec [altivec]
Scale 23.13 477.86 MB/sec [altivec]
Add 25.09 534.44 MB/sec [altivec]
Triad 25.22 539.59 MB/sec [altivec]
Quartz Graphics Test 63.51
Line 54.74 3.64 Klines/sec [50% alpha]
Rectangle 63.34 18.91 Krects/sec [50% alpha]
Circle 63.71 5.19 Kcircles/sec [50% alpha]
Bezier 74.33 1.87 Kbeziers/sec [50% alpha]
Text 64.42 4.03 Kchars/sec
OpenGL Graphics Test 76.92
Spinning Squares 76.92 97.58 frames/sec
User Interface Test 29.26
Elements 29.26 134.28 refresh/sec
Disk Test 26.57
Sequential 39.31
Uncached Write 32.55 19.99 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 33.93 19.20 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 66.91 19.58 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 37.57 18.88 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 20.07
Uncached Write 7.05 0.75 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 39.16 12.54 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 59.50 0.42 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 65.70 12.19 MB/sec [256K blocks]


the in-store macbook:

Results 50.76
System Info
Xbench Version 1.2
System Version 10.4.6 (8I2032)
Physical RAM 1024 MB
Model MacBook1,1
Drive Type FUJITSU MHV2080BHPL
CPU Test 72.49
GCD Loop 239.73 12.64 Mops/sec
Floating Point Basic 90.80 2.16 Gflop/sec
vecLib FFT 39.90 1.32 Gflop/sec
Floating Point Library 66.97 11.66 Mops/sec
Thread Test 192.69
Computation 175.75 3.56 Mops/sec, 4 threads
Lock Contention 213.23 9.17 Mlocks/sec, 4 threads
Memory Test 116.53
System 112.88
Allocate 123.24 452.60 Kalloc/sec
Fill 110.24 5360.20 MB/sec
Copy 106.49 2199.41 MB/sec
Stream 120.43
Copy 114.98 2374.95 MB/sec
Scale 115.32 2382.54 MB/sec
Add 127.42 2714.32 MB/sec
Triad 125.02 2674.41 MB/sec
Quartz Graphics Test 53.92
Line 52.90 3.52 Klines/sec [50% alpha]
Rectangle 49.92 14.90 Krects/sec [50% alpha]
Circle 48.05 3.92 Kcircles/sec [50% alpha]
Bezier 79.46 2.00 Kbeziers/sec [50% alpha]
Text 49.03 3.07 Kchars/sec
OpenGL Graphics Test 215.48
Spinning Squares 215.48 273.35 frames/sec
User Interface Test 16.26
Elements 16.26 74.62 refresh/sec
Disk Test 38.98
Sequential 56.75
Uncached Write 61.93 38.02 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 54.93 31.08 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 49.44 14.47 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 62.85 31.59 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 29.69
Uncached Write 10.88 1.15 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 66.57 21.31 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 63.97 0.45 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 82.23 15.26 MB/sec [256K blocks]



seems that it just stomped all over my powerbook in almost every test ( look at the openGL test lol )

[tillin]

PS - if anyone has done this ( or similar ) please tell me ( us ) about it, as i really am considering this.

[Andy8]

I have a 2405fpw at home and a 17" PB also, I am in the same boat as you, wondering if the MacBook can fill the shoes of my old PB. i.e. drive my external display without too many dramas.

[tillin]

lets hope someone can offer us some insight then andy.

i use the Dell 2405 at work, and the 23" ACD at home on my G5

[Andy8]

I have a Dell 2405 at home and work :-)

But the 17"PB is just too heavy to cart around everyday.

[tillin]

i've been fine with it, but realistically, i dont NEED the 17" anymore, for my photography work all i need is photoshop, for light editing or for tethered studio shooting. anything heavy heavy duty is pushed onto the G5 because it is a damn powerhouse lol.

so this macbook really has me interested, i think i could live with the integrated graphics bit. i dont need games. ( even though it can play games almost as good as my powerbook lol something is wrong there )

[tillin]

bump for this. id really like some opinions