Can a Powerbook totally replace a tower??
I'm a graphics geek and my old smurf 350 G3 is getting old and i WANT MAC OS X, so i took the plunge and got a Powerbook 800 512 MB Ram 60 GB Hard (with 15" studio flat dispaly - SWEEEEET), but never having owned a laptop before i have this niggling concern.
If upgradability was not an issue, can a laptop totally replace a tower?? i always thought people only used laptops for work on the run and then worked on their towers when they got home.
Ok, so i think i'm being stoopid, i guess i need someone to pat me on the head and say " it's ok, that small fortune was not wasted - you got a kick ass machine and you should be smiling"
I am smiling but i also see those two brutes coming to break my legs because missed one payment.
If upgradability was not an issue, can a laptop totally replace a tower?? i always thought people only used laptops for work on the run and then worked on their towers when they got home.
Ok, so i think i'm being stoopid, i guess i need someone to pat me on the head and say " it's ok, that small fortune was not wasted - you got a kick ass machine and you should be smiling"
I am smiling but i also see those two brutes coming to break my legs because missed one payment.
Comments
I'm hoping to upgrade to a Powerbook G4 soon but I'm hoping MWNY sees the inclusion of built-in Bluetooth and Superdrives.
My only concern with the machine now is the fact that I can't upgrade the graphics card. I wish I had 16 MB VRAM in the machine instead of just 8, but for all major purposes, the machine has served me well.
In fact, Apple's current 14" iBook is nearly the same as my Pismo, with the exception being it has a 100 MHz faster chip in it, and a combo drive, and my PowerBook has more features such as 2 firewire ports, sound in/out, s-video, video-out, infared, and a PCMCIA slot.
If it wasn't for AppleCare, my purchase would be a very positive one.
I might pick up a desktop to go with it eventually, or maybe I'll just buy a new PowerBook when this one is older. The new G4 PowerBooks seem very nice, but I just don't have the money for a new laptop at this time. They're already more than twice as powerful as my laptop. I figure in a year or two, their power will double again and I'll be very happy when I finally have a chance to get a new one.
Or maybe i'll just buy an iBook, which won't remain as powerful for as long, but at least it will have been much cheaper.
The only thing I find regrettable about my laptop right now is that it's not capable of playing some of the newer games.
You can connect the PowerBook to a normal screen anyway, add harddisk capacity via firewire, use it as a lap warming device on a plane flight and it looks cool. The only reason that will make me go for a tower in the end is the slight performance edge as far as the processor goes but that's really not important in areas but the 3D (animation/gaming) field, where the laptops gfx card isn't quite as good as well. The keyboard and mouse can be added, too, if you are not comfortable with the laptop ones.
Oh and I saw OSX really flying with the PowerBook, so IMHO it's a good choice.
Matthew
A better question should be does a Powerbook can replace totally an I mac, the answers yes (but it's more expansive).
<strong>The HD is much slower than the one of the tower, you cannot add an another HD:</strong><hr></blockquote>
I always tought it's possible to boot and work from a firewire HD..
The original poster specifically asked "if upgradability is not an issue" would it be a replacement. Your post only covered upgradability issues. I think that for a graphics designer, the powerbook is a great desktop replacement. After all, it supports massive amounts of screen resolution/screen space, which is pretty much a necessity for a graphics designer. Also, the hard drive is slower, but not very noticeably slower from my experience. And for graphics work, do you really need 1.5GB of RAM? I think it supports 1GB anyway, which is a ton already. The best thing is: it's very portable.
<strong>powerdoc:
The original poster specifically asked "if upgradability is not an issue" would it be a replacement. Your post only covered upgradability issues. I think that for a graphics designer, the powerbook is a great desktop replacement. After all, it supports massive amounts of screen resolution/screen space, which is pretty much a necessity for a graphics designer. Also, the hard drive is slower, but not very noticeably slower from my experience. And for graphics work, do you really need 1.5GB of RAM? I think it supports 1GB anyway, which is a ton already. The best thing is: it's very portable.</strong><hr></blockquote>
sorry i just read the title of the thread. In that case only the HD is slower : i don't know the difference of speed between the two for the latest tibook and the latest tower, but when i buy my powerbook G3 300 and my beige G3 333 : there was an huge difference (twice the speed).
<strong>A powerbook cannot totally replace a tower : except for memory a powerbook is not upgradable, more is has only two DIMM slot using more expansive ram. The HD is much slower than the one of the tower, you cannot add an another HD : a tower can support three of them (with an PCI card), you cannot add PCI card nor change the video card.
A better question should be does a Powerbook can replace totally an I mac, the answers yes (but it's more expansive).</strong><hr></blockquote>
Many people have replaced desktops with powerbooks for many intense applications. Audio for example. Firewire drives work just fine, as does the internal drive. It's quite a trip going into a studio filled with a $100,000 worth of equiptment, plugging in the powerbook and bypassing it all because it's not needed
<strong>what's this topic doing in "future hardware"?</strong><hr></blockquote>
taking up space?
Sorry about the thread being in future hardware - it was late and i didn't realise where i was when i posted the thread.
<strong><a href="http://www.xlr8yourmac.com" target="_blank">xlr8yourmac</a> is reporting that the 800 TiBook performs better than the 800 tower! :eek: did they drop an Apollo in them or what??? hope that calms some fears and sticker shock</strong><hr></blockquote>
That likely has to do with the 1MB L3 cache which is in the PB but not the PM.
Other than that as you can see a lot of people do it and I will be doing it shortly. AS SOON AS SOME COMPANY COMES OUT WITH A DOCK FOR THE DA** THING
The only thing I can't do well is play graphically intensive games.