I am looking to purchase either a powerbook or a powerbook pro, to replace my 5 years old G4 Powerbook...Any suggestion on which way to go? I need the comp to run various design applications at the same time (adobe, macromedia, etc)...
Thanks in advance!
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I am looking to purchase either a powerbook or a powerbook pro, to replace my 5 years old G4 Powerbook...Any suggestion on which way to go? I need the comp to run various design applications at the same time (adobe, macromedia, etc)...
I'm guessing you mean Macbook or Macbook Pro (or as we nostalgic folks like to say Intel ibook and powerbook). Both the MB and MBP are similar in terms of CPU and for the apps you will be using, both are sufficient. The MBP has the advantage of a better graphics card and this helps in apps that take advantage or real-time effects like Aperture, Motion etc. Most apps don't use the GPU much - the main use is for 3D software and games.
I am looking to purchase either a powerbook or a powerbook pro, to replace my 5 years old G4 Powerbook...Any suggestion on which way to go? I need the comp to run various design applications at the same time (adobe, macromedia, etc)...
Thanks in advance!
When using design applications, a lot of screen estate is important. The MacBook has a 1280x800 pixels screen whereas the MacBook Pro has a 1440x900 display. So if you need to have your computer with you all the time and if you want to work on the road, then get the Pro model with the bigger screen. The second choice would be to get the smaller MacBook model plus a big external TFT display (20"/23") so you can work on your projects on the big screen - and still have a compact, quite light mobile computer. That's a matter of preference.
As Marvin mentioned, the graphics chip in the Pro model is much more powerful, but for 2D graphics, even the internal graphics chip of the MacBook non-pro will suffice (for Photoshop et al.). All the rest of the technical data is more or less the same (the MacBook Pro has FireWire 800 and a full-size DVI port and one USB port more, compared to the MacBook, and a silver alu casing instead of white or black polycarbonate).
Note, though, that the Adobe applications are not out yet in optimized form for the intel macs. The applications run in Rosetta (some kind of emulation). Those applications will run about as fast as they used to on a 1.67 GHz G4 PowerBook. When the new versions will come out in spring, they will make use of the far more powerful Core (2) Duo chips in the MacBook and MacBook Pro. Until then, you can easily and safely use "old" applications like Photoshop.