PB or MBP?

[QCassidy352]

Easy. PowerBook.
I have compared (unscientifically, I admit) performance of MS Office on 12' Powerbook and on an MBP in my local Apple store. 12' was about *twice* as fast.
Right now, pretty much nothing, except Apple's own apps, is Universal, so your MS Office (you plan to use it a lot, right?), Adobe apps, and a lot of other things are going to be noticeably slow.
So you will be living with rather dismal performance for almost half of typical laptop upgrade cycle time (2-2.5 years!). If you go with Powerbook, you will have *acceptable* performance during the whole upgrade cycle.

I disagree with 2 things here. First, every benchmark I've seen suggests that a 1.5 Ghz G4 would not even come close to being twice as fast as a MBP running office. They should be about equal, with the G4 maybe a bit ahead. Second, I think the upgrades will be out sooner that that. It may be 2007 for adobe's CS, but office will probably be this year. I'd bet it'll be ~6 months or a bit more until we see a UB for office.

 

[iamhammill]

Haha I love all the posts after he already said he got the PowerBook.


Read the thread people!


Jake

 

[student_trap]

Congrats on the purchase, mbp seems cooler, but i see this as a perfect example of buying what will suit your needs!

 

[BornAgainMac]

Haha I love all the posts after he already said he got the PowerBook.


Read the thread people!


Jake

No way, just the thread subject only.

 

[valiar]

I disagree with 2 things here. First, every benchmark I've seen suggests that a 1.5 Ghz G4 would not even come close to being twice as fast as a MBP running office. They should be about equal, with the G4 maybe a bit ahead. Second, I think the upgrades will be out sooner that that. It may be 2007 for adobe's CS, but office will probably be this year. I'd bet it'll be ~6 months or a bit more until we see a UB for office.

Well, I did look at some benchmarks on macworld.com, but after I have tried it myself at my local Apple Store and could actually *see* the difference, I have decided to wait with upgrade...
G4 was not "a bit" ahead. I have been running two tests: opening a demo document by double-clicking it in Finder, and running a spell/grammar check on it. Both tasks were approximately twice as fast on the Powerbook.
And to give it the benefit of doubt, I have rerun everything 5-6 times, and yes, I did try to run spellcheck without restarting Word (so that Rosetta would have a chance to use pre-translated cached code). Realistically, performance was reminiscent of my 3 year old 1GHz TiBook. Not impressive.
Finder, Safari and Keynote did indeed feel incredibly snappy.

 

[MrTchMan]

I have a PB I am debating on getting the MBP or Intel iMac. What to do?

 

[Rod Rod]

I have a PB I am debating on getting the MBP or Intel iMac. What to do?

If it's your second computer, go for the iMac. If it'll be your only computer (as your sig seems to indicate), and you really need the portability, go for the MBP. If it's your only computer and you don't need portability, go for the iMac.

 

[MrTchMan]

If it's your second computer, go for the iMac. If it'll be your only computer (as your sig seems to indicate), and you really need the portability, go for the MBP. If it's your only computer and you don't need portability, go for the iMac.

I do have a windows laptop. that I have for portability. I am leaning more towards the iMac. But who knows... This may sound wierd but I like both OS's

 

[m-dogg]

I do have a windows laptop. that I have for portability. I am leaning more towards the iMac. But who knows... This may sound wierd but I like both OS's

To many at this forum, it will sound weird.

I like to be proficient in both Windows & OS X. Keeping an open mind is good.

 

[Rod Rod]

I do have a windows laptop. that I have for portability. I am leaning more towards the iMac. But who knows... This may sound wierd but I like both OS's

In that case, you get more bang for the buck on the desktop. If money's still burning a hole in your pocket and you want OS X in a portable, there are viable used G3 iBooks out there to be had for around $400 or so.

 

[AndyR]

I want a MBP! Happily running with my G4 mini at the mo but want the option of sitting on the couch and taking it on hols so until I can save or win the lottery, no MBP for me