[Elevin]

Long time reader, first time poster-
I just finished my first term of college. I brought with me my ~55lbs PC box and the ~20lbs monitor. I grew up on macs (I vividly remember playing lots of Glider on one of those old desktop macs with about a 9inch built in black and white screen). I really just moved to PCs for the games. So I've been building them for the past few years and I kinda hate 'em. Also, turns out I hardly played any computer games this term, and the lack of computer mobility kinda sucks. I didn't really think about going back to macs, but really, it makes since doesn't it? So I'm looking at mac laptops. I went to a compusa and checked out the powerbooks and ibooks. I decided on a 12inch powerbook but that 12inch ibook is looking more and more attractive. I'd be using this for writing papers, mail, web surfing, games (not expecting anything more graphic intensive than escape velocity, nethack, and maybe some macmame), and I might mess around with final cut, photoshop, and midi softsynth a little. How does the ibook handle those last couple things? In the configuration I would get there seems to be a solid $300 difference in price between the two. That 300 bucks could be spent on the ibook for extra ram, an airport card, software, cool macskinz, etc, etc. I could get that stuff with a powerbook, but it would definitely take some time. Another note: I'm one of those strange people who like the aesthetics of the ibook more than the powerbook. Is the performance/longevity gonna be that different with the powerbook? Is final cut/photoshop performance that much better on the powerbook? I don't need DVI or a superdrive. I can use the spanning hack. Ibook built in bluetooth cost was considered when figuring out $300 difference. So really, the only two things worrying me are the processor speeds and the memory cap. I'm not gonna be buying a 1gig stick of ram (I'll stick with a 512mb stick on top of the built in). Seems like I've kinda been rambling. Sorry 'bout that. Thanks for the help though.

-Ezra
ps: I'm posting this in both the ibook and powerbook forums to get both biased opinions. If thats bad, mods feel free to remove one of em.

edditted for stoopitity

[Elevin]

Ooh, thought of another question I forgot to ask. I'm a college student, so I can become a become an "apple developer" for $99 bucks. This would give me a $120 discount on the 12" powerbook plus all the goodies for joining. Am I crazy or is this something all students buying powerbooks should do?

-Ezra

[Tek]

I was trying to decide the same thing. Except i thought the powerbook looked and felt FAR superior to the iBook. The speed will be somewhat noticeable but you will not be waiting around... The main difference that boosts the speed is the 512 L2 cache. Side by side the iBook consistently took 1 second longer to open applications than the Powerbook. What did i end up doing? I went with the revA powerbook sale on amazon.com. It will run just as fast as the iBook (if not slightly faster) has the better design and i got it for $400 less than the powerbook and with a free isight. So all in all, the speed will be slightly noticeable, but not annoying i believe... best to go back to CompUSA and attempt to do your own real world tests...

May God Be With You.
-Matt

[anaphora68]

I went with a powerbook over an ibook for the same reason i went with a powerbook over an ibook four years ago, expandability. The ibook is severely limited in terms of how much you can expand them. They are good machines, but if you're in it for the long haul the powerbook makes a lot more sense.

I'm a senior in college right now, about 50% of what is do is write papers and surf the web, but the other half of my work involves tooling around with linux and playing with Adobe CS and 6 megapixel RAW files. I'm glad I went powerbook, I don't second guess that decision for a second.

[x user]

I really like my PB 12" 1ghz. I've had a iBook 500 (Overclocked to 600) and an 800, but the 1Ghz and Aluminum really rock.

[Elevin]

besides ram, how is the powerbook more expandable than the ibook? Even in the case of ram, unless that 1gig stick comes way down in price, its just gonna be a difference of 128mb in the two books (640mb vs 768mb).

-Ezra

[NightEyes]

Here's a vote for the 14" iBook G4. Unless you are going to want to drive a second monitor at a high resolution, save yourself some coin and go with the iBook. It's speedy and sturdy and will serve you well in college.

[ginoledesma]

From the looks of it, I think the PowerBook may be a more viable laptop for you. While the iBook is a decent machine, I think the PowerBook's extra muscles (particularly the processor, larger L2 cache, and higher max RAM) will be put to good use.

I'm an iBook G4/800 owner (got it a week ago) and am loving every bit of it. I was eyeing the PowerBook G4/12" 1GHz model, but got the iBook instead because of its sturdy feel and great price and value. I sold my PowerMac G4/400 for it and am quite happy (though I do miss the ability to tinker with the inside and add/remove stuff). I used to be a power-user on my PowerMac G4 (did a lot of papers using LaTeX, programming, data analysis), but now a majority of my work is being handled by the company-provided PC (on Linux). The Mac is my main relief/personal/leisure computer -- something I turn to at the end of the day to just relax. That being said, the purchase of the iBook is more than justified, as getting a PowerBook just for basic word processing, occasional photo retouching, and web surfing would be an insult to what its capable of.

Check out the recent Amazon.com deals on the PowerBooks (those that come with iSight). They're really well-priced! And if you happen to get one with SuperDrive, go for it! You will NOT regret getting the added luxury of a DVD-R/DVD-RW drive. You might not use it as often, but having the option to burn to DVDs pays off when you actually use it. (O

[WOPR]

I never thought I'd say this about an Apple design but I think the new G4 iBooks look really cheap and plasticky, a shame as the old G3 ones were really nice. And the keyboard sucks compared to the PB. I'd go PB 12" very time. In fact I did

[mdc]

i am in the same situation right now. g4 ibook or 12" powerbook.

i had a g3 ibook and i loved it, there was nothing wrong with it, but now i have sold it to a friend as a favor, and i am in the situation to buy myself another 'book.

i was originally thinking of the ibook, but then i thought for a few hundred extra i could get the extra 200mhz and a few extra things. i personally do not think that the extras in the powerbook are _that_ amazing that it screams at me to take pay the extra dollars. but who knows, in a two years or so will that 200mhz extra and the ability to have 1.25gig of ram be a huge difference? i really don't know, but what i do know is that if i do not buy the powerbook, i am going to feel that i made the wrong descision.

...oh yeah, i don't want to wait the extra days for apple to make me a bto ibook with a bigger harddrive and bluetooth. another reason i am getting the powerbook from an applestore, the moment i step foot back into america

[Altair]

About a year ago I went with a Rev A powerbook and used the developer discount to save roughly $250 (and I got a free copy of 10.3 in the end). I can say that you will not have a problem with either one you choose. I would actually recommend the deal that Amazon is having right now for the Rev A powerbooks. It is a little faster than the current ibook but has less battery life (~3.5 - 4 hours for pbook). Also with the current deals on laptops, I would just go with the Amazon deal, or use a student discount to get one. Save the developer discount (one time event) on something really nice like a powermac. The only thing I regret is not saving that discount for a G5 .

Wow, this message is very unorganized.