Please Help Me Make The Switch!!!

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Hello,



i've been a windows user since i was 11, now at 19 i've decided i'm tired of frequent crashes and microsoft's big brother complex and im looking to get a powerbook. the problem is i dont have a ton of money since im a student. im going to art school and i need a system to run photoshop/illustrator/indesign without any lagging if possible. i want to know what would be a good system to buy.

could i get away with buying a 500 mhz tibook and just max out the ram? or should i buy a higher speed pb and bite the bullet? or is there something even lower than a 500 that i could work with? your input is VERY important. Thank you!

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 12
    check out this threadhttp://forums.appleinsider.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=30643

    these are really great prices.



    Randy
  • Reply 2 of 12
    i kinda need something a little bit lower. but thanks for the heads up, when i get more money i'll probably venture there. but right now i just need SOMETHING.
  • Reply 3 of 12
    placeboplacebo Posts: 5,767member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by NaturalIngredients

    i kinda need something a little bit lower. but thanks for the heads up, when i get more money i'll probably venture there. but right now i just need SOMETHING.



    Get a low-end iBook, and sell it off when the time comes. And in college, you'll be eligible for educational pricing.
  • Reply 4 of 12
    what are you looking to spend? that would help a lot here.
  • Reply 5 of 12
    Art school, huh. . .



    Well, you need at least 1GB of RAM. A G4 better than 1GHz (Or something better) I'd recommend. If you're very budget conscious, get a tower. But the important hing is that you'll need that RAM. Plus, a decent CPU and Graphics card (by decent I mean better than an ATI 7500) go a long way.



    ? 1GB DDR333 SDRAM (PC2700) - 2 DIMMs

    ? 80GB Ultra ATA drive

    ? Optical 1 - Combo Drive (DVD/CD-RW)

    ? Optical 2 - None

    ? ATI Radeon 9000 Pro dual-display w/64MB DDR

    ? Apple Studio Display (17" flat panel)

    ? 56K internal modem

    ? Apple Pro Keyboard - U.S. English

    ? Mac OS - U.S. English



    $2,135.00



    Note, that includes a nice monitor ($599) and the RAM is installed by Apple. ($337)



    Alternatively a PowerBook:

    ? 1GHz PowerPC G4

    ? 1GB DDR333 SDRAM - 2x512 SO-DIMMs

    ? 60GB Ultra ATA drive @ 4200 rpm

    ? Combo Drive (DVD-ROM/CD-RW)

    ? Keyboard/Mac OS - U.S. English

    ? 15.2-inch TFT Display



    $2,249.00 (RAM cost is $450)



    Otherwise, check up on eBay. a 933Mhz G4 would also be fine. as would a dual 533, a dual 800, etc.
  • Reply 6 of 12
    I say get an iBook. They are decent mhz wise, on par with more expensive powerbooks for like 90% of stuff, have good graphics acceleration, wireless, 1024x768 good display, etc.



    A 900mhz iBook will get you a lot farther than a 500mhz TiBook (with rage 128, durability issues, heat, etc.



    iBooks offer great bang for buck. Don't believe the G4 hype.
  • Reply 7 of 12
    thanks for you suggestions, for right now im just looking for something temporary under $1000. I've been stuck in windows world so i dont really appreciate the mhz speeds of motorolla processors vs. intel or amd. but thanks again ill probably just compare an affordable ibook and an affordable powerbook. thanks!
  • Reply 8 of 12
    yevgenyyevgeny Posts: 1,148member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by NaturalIngredients

    thanks for you suggestions, for right now im just looking for something temporary under $1000. I've been stuck in windows world so i dont really appreciate the mhz speeds of motorolla processors vs. intel or amd. but thanks again ill probably just compare an affordable ibook and an affordable powerbook. thanks!



    Please see why my roomate switched.



    You will need to go for an iBook on your budget, but iBooks are darn near indestructible laptops.
  • Reply 9 of 12
    I have an iBook and I can do graphics just fine. I only have 384 MB of RAM too. I intend to max myself out soon though... My iBook is a 2001 model 600 MHz 12.1". Even thought its almost 2 years old it runs great. I'm really happy with it. All I need is more memory (hard drive and RAM) and I'll be even happier. ^_^



    I hope that helped.
  • Reply 10 of 12
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Proud iBook Owner 2k2

    I have an iBook and I can do graphics just fine. I only have 384 MB of RAM too. I intend to max myself out soon though... My iBook is a 2001 model 600 MHz 12.1". Even thought its almost 2 years old it runs great. I'm really happy with it. All I need is more memory (hard drive and RAM) and I'll be even happier. ^_^



    I hope that helped.




    Perhaps, but when you're doing operations on an 100 MB photoshop file, the Altivec and RAM pay off.
  • Reply 11 of 12
    dfilerdfiler Posts: 3,420member
    Ah... the irony.



    Art students need more powerful computers than computer science majors. Seriously.



    CS geeks can get by with a slow computer for most of their coursework since it typically involves the editing of plain text files.



    Yet artists routinely work with huge image, video, and desktop publishing files. If you plan on doing any work in FCP, photoshop, iMovie, InDesign, Quark, Premiere, or Illustrator, you would benefit from a G4 based powerbook.



    Powerbooks have altivec and are MUCH quicker at these things. If you can find a used G4 for the same price as what you would spend on a new iBook (with equivalent megaherz) go for the G4. Perhaps even if you have to sacrifice a couple hundred mhz. Sure, the slower G4 may be slower at some tasks, but it will be much quicker on the things that you actually have to sit back and wait for. (filters and effects on images and video)
  • Reply 12 of 12
    i get it now. i just needed to see what was more important the cpu or the ram. and now i see its both, haha. but i think ive found a great machine so thanks for your help
Sign In or Register to comment.