replacing my PB 15" w/ ???

[dshootist]

quick background on needs:
i do a lot of digital photography/imaging, and my 15" 1GHz PB is my traveling workhorse that holds every little thing until i can get it onto an external HD. there's also a fair amount of graphics/production work as well, so 80GB is starting to get small. i'm running CS and Canon software along w/ MS Awful 2004 w/ 1.25GB of RAM.

and on to the question:
do i pick up a fully-loaded legacy G4 15" PB (probably the 1.67GHz, 100GB HD) and crunch along until the MacBook Pro (still hate the name) and Universal apps get to be more of the order of the day (read: about 1.5-2 years)? or do i keep the current G4 15" and hop on the MacBook ferris wheel sometime next year?

mitigating factors:
that loss of Firewire 800 issue still has my panties in a bunch and the DL SuperDrive would be a real miss as well. however, with my Photoshop files easily reaching the 200MB range, that 3-4x speed would be a considerable boon to my workflow .

 

[blueflame]

you could but my 17inch 1.67ghz with 1 gig or ram.
sorry,
buy in my opinion, i always need to have the newest, you can use older ones, but i find new things i do with new technologies.

but seriously, my pb is for sale

andreas

 

[cnakeitaro]

I say go MB Pro. Rosetta isn't as bad as people make it out to be, plus when all the programs you use go universal it will be considerably faster than a PB G4. I just don't see the point in buying a PB G4 for the same price as a MB Pro.

But a 1 ghz PB G4 is plenty fast to wait for the later MB Pro's if thats what you want to do. I just rly don't see a point in getting a later revision of the PB g4, unless the price drops considerably, but that won't happen since the actual laptop still has alot of expensive components.

So if you are not happy with current MB Pro's, my recommendation is to wait for a later revision vs buying a late revision PB G4, and then the MB Pro coming out with what you want 3 months later, and being stuck with your G4.

 

[chaos86]

a new MBP, slowed by rosetta, will probably about equal your 1ghz powerpc mac when using ppc code. everything else though will be much faster. it will be like upgrading half your machine now (OS, iApps, etc) and the rest of it slowly as the companies catch up (adobe, apple's pro stuff). the real question is do you need FW800, pro apps, or games right now. if so, go legacy, if not, do yourself the favor of going *shudder* intel.

 

[nospleen]

quick background on needs:
i do a lot of digital photography/imaging, and my 15" 1GHz PB is my traveling workhorse that holds every little thing until i can get it onto an external HD. there's also a fair amount of graphics/production work as well, so 80GB is starting to get small. i'm running CS and Canon software along w/ MS Awful 2004 w/ 1.25GB of RAM.

and on to the question:
do i pick up a fully-loaded legacy G4 15" PB (probably the 1.67GHz, 100GB HD) and crunch along until the MacBook Pro (still hate the name) and Universal apps get to be more of the order of the day (read: about 1.5-2 years)? or do i keep the current G4 15" and hop on the MacBook ferris wheel sometime next year?

mitigating factors:
that loss of Firewire 800 issue still has my panties in a bunch and the DL SuperDrive would be a real miss as well. however, with my Photoshop files easily reaching the 200MB range, that 3-4x speed would be a considerable boon to my workflow .

I would get the MBP. These intel imacs, with a fair amount of ram, are very fast! You can get an adaptor to still use FW800. Also, if the DL drive is that important, you can always buy an external. The G4 may have a DL drive, but you cannot speed up the computer itself. I think you will be very dissapointed with the G4. I was using a 17" G4 1.67 PB with 1.5GB of ram while I was waiting for my intel imac to arrive. The difference is night and day... I know all of the software is not universal, but if you plan on owning the mac for more than one year, I would definately go the intel route.

 

[dshootist]

sounds like a lot of good ammo for the MBP side, but here's a small wrinkle: how's it going to compare when matched side-by-side with the battery longevity of the G4? if i'm going to be mobile, i might as well be sure it'll run for a bit without charging... anyone know how much of a ding running apps in Rosetta puts in the battery life?

 

[gammamonk]

sounds like a lot of good ammo for the MBP side, but here's a small wrinkle: how's it going to compare when matched side-by-side with the battery longevity of the G4? if i'm going to be mobile, i might as well be sure it'll run for a bit without charging... anyone know how much of a ding running apps in Rosetta puts in the battery life?

Rosetta will push your CPU hard. The thing is tho, say your 1ghz PPC photoshop's a pic in 20 seconds at 100% cpu. And your rosetta'd intel does the same thing in 20 seconds at 100%. I'm betting the intel will have used less power in that 20 seconds.

 

[jrk07]

Couldn't you get a Firewire 800 card for the expressport thing (or whatever its called) for the MacBook Pro? Also, I think that 1.5-2 years is probably a lot longer than it should take for the stuff you use to go universal. I noticed that tons of Pro-Audio apps have gone or are going soon to Universal Binaries. I know that Adobe claimed that we have to wait for CS3, but I think that is just them dragging their feet, or planning something big. I vote for MBP, rosetta should get you by.

And from the pictures I just seen, the trackpad is bigger on the MBP. sweet.

 

[generik]

a new MBP, slowed by rosetta, will probably about equal your 1ghz powerpc mac when using ppc code. everything else though will be much faster. it will be like upgrading half your machine now (OS, iApps, etc) and the rest of it slowly as the companies catch up (adobe, apple's pro stuff). the real question is do you need FW800, pro apps, or games right now. if so, go legacy, if not, do yourself the favor of going *shudder* intel.

Nope, it'd probably be quicker, way faster.

My impression of rosetta's performance judging from some of the posts is while it does impact the load times of the application quite negatively, but once it is loaded (i presume rosetta translates the instructions during load ) it is pretty swift.

The iMac 20" is something to drool for, performs really close to the dual core 2.0 G5...