Computer for College
I'm heading off to college this fall and I'm trying to decide whether to bring a portable or desktop computer. I do a lot of digital Video work, so speed and hard drive space is important to me. I'm leaning towards a new tower, because of the much better price/perfomance ratio it has compared to a TiBook. Anyone who has experience, How useful is it to have a portable on campus? Right now the main advantage I see is that I would be able easily bring a Tibook home on vacations. Thanks for any advice
Comments
One other thing if you buy a laptop the Apple lineup has way better battery life. If you buy a PC Laptop the best battery life you will probably see is 2 1/2 hours they claim 3 but I don't think I ever got that out of mine and I had the p3-M. With my iBook I can usually get over 4 1/2 hours, still trying to get that 6 that they claim but haven't seen it.
[ 07-08-2002: Message edited by: BrianMacOS ]</p>
You're not going to have enough room for a tower as your main computer. The monitor and keyboard take up a lot of space. Most freshman rooms also are very small.
Next, why do you do digital video work? If you are going to be an arts student, you can easily use the university's computers for that.
Lastly, a TiBook with an external Firewire drive can do quite a good job at Digital video. add a 2nd 15" LCD panel and you're in great shape.
1. You can sit outside your dorm or in the Quad (all colleges have them)on a nice day and hot chicks will walk up to you and ask about your cool looking computer (kick ass ice breaker), than all you have to do then is shut up let her talk (women love to talk) <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" /> and you got yourself you first college booty <img src="graemlins/smokin.gif" border="0" alt="[Chilling]" /> (works the same way for girls too, just let the guy brag)
2. Do you really want to be stuck in a cramped dorm room doing you work?????? Your dorm buddy maybe alittle odd or loud or just farts like no tomarrow
3. i can go on and on and on but it would just bring me back to women agian so i will spare you this time
The PowerMac is more powerful, of course, but it's also bulkier, and forces you to work wherever you set it up.
Who the heck travels with a desktop? Unless they have a trick out airport system and they have wired their car to be the ultimate PortablePowerMac./
Now, that would be cool...
oh yeah, if you want power, go with the,.....PowerBook!
If you only want the internet...get the .....iBook!
My advice is definitely get a laptop, it's a lot easier to transport to and from school and it's a real space saver!
[ 07-09-2002: Message edited by: Bunny Buster ]</p>
I'm aiming for a tower instead (hopefully the midline dual 1.2ghz if it will exist) with a 17" lcd screen (two of them maybe), and possibly a laptop later (G4 iBook maybe?) with airport; we have full campus wireless internet
[ 07-09-2002: Message edited by: chych ]</p>
Note: The above suggestion is what I plan on doing when I go off to college. Wow, only one more year, time sure flies.
Oh ya, by the way; where are you going to be goin' to college?
[ 07-09-2002: Message edited by: G4Dude ]</p>
Since you are looking to focus on video make sure you have at least 512MB if not a GB of RAM and a large hard drive, you can go through 20-30GB pretty damn fast depending on how big of projects you do. Right now a 733 is like $1250 and its a heck of a deal so I would look at that.
I bought my first PowerBook [a used 5300c] to use as a secondary Mac my sophomore year of college, it was alright. Then I moved to a 1400c [used but maxed out on everything with a G3 in it] my Jr. year. That was terrific but my main Mac remained a G3 400 because it had the punch I wanted for games and general work. My Sr. year I traded in several older PowerBooks [kept the 1400 around] and bought a 400MHz G3 Pismo. It rules and it took over as my main Mac due to the flexibility of AirPort and being mobile, with Mac OS X it was easy to do remote work so I didn't worry about my 10GB hard drive limitation in the Pismo [still wish I had a larger drive].
I had never thought a portable would be my main Mac but it has been for a long time. I would prefer a fast G4 because I want a faster graphics subsystem but if you have the money a highend G4 PowerBook would be a very nice system.
For me it comes down to budget, if your college does not have a wireless network or ethernet connections through out the buildings and if you are not the guy who would take his PowerBook to his classes [I was that guy] then a PowerBook would be a low priority.
If you are the guy who wants hardcore computing power it is always better to get a desktop, no matter how much you are willing to spend you get better performance for the money and more upgradability.
So, figure out what type of flexibility you need and go from there.
If you aren't going to school in your own town, something people don't talk about much that's very important about a G4 tower is how much is weighs. According to the Apple web site it's only 31 pounds, but I've had a hell of a time hauling that thing around the times that I've had to. Add a monitor to that, even the 11 lb 15" Apple Studio LCD and you're talking about 42 lb. before even getting into the rest of the things you need to live at school. If you already have a CRT, and most people do, that's more like 30 to 40 lb. With your computer accessories, you're going to have trouble fitting your clothes in with everything else unless you're taking an SUV to a local school.
On the other hand, an iBook is 5.9 lb. It makes a huge difference. You might not think so now. That's because you haven't tried to pack after finals are done. Before finals, you're busy studying. Then, after they're done, you have only a few days, or hours if your final (sometimes a double final
This is everything other than your electronic equipment. So think about how much you'll also have to pack in the way of USB cables, FireWire cables, drives, CDs, games controllers, batteries, speakers and audio cables, camera and camera accessories (particularly your tripod), power cables and such. A tower and screen aren't so attractive on top of all that.
You'll definitely have much more on the way home than on the way out.
I've done the whole routine many times with a tower and with a laptop, and I'm telling you now I'd never go to school with a tower again, even if the tower is somewhat faster than the laptop. The tower saves you a few hours here, a few there during the normal course of studies, not during that critical last two weeks when you need time most. And as somebody said, for intense work you can always use the lab computers.
Of course, if you're a very organized person capable of keeping everything so carefully ordered that your cables are practically a cricuit board taped to the wall, packing your clothes is taking two laundry detergent commercial style stacks and dropping them in a suitcase, and you can study and prepare to leave at the same time, then by all means, get a tower.
<strong>It's not impossible to do video editing with an iBook, but if you have the money a TiBook is obviously much better for video...</strong><hr></blockquote>
I agree. I use Final Cut Pro and iMovie on my iBook all the time, and I would hardly call it "too slow for video." If your main focuses are price and HD space. Go with:
iBook 700 Combo with either a 30 or 40 GB Hard Drive
Up it to 640MB RAM at 18004Memory.com (not Apple)
External Firewire Hard Drive (Whatever size you can afforrd)
Final Cut Pro (Students only pay $250 instead of $1000)
I am not going to be doing serious graphics or video work. Most of what I do on my computer is surf the internet and organize/rip/transfer music in iTunes (and I have an iPod). My computer is barely adequate, with support for my FireWire card and an external hard drive for my music, but it would be nice to have faster iTunes visuals, DVD movies, and enough hard drive space for my tunes. I've been using old machines for a while now, with my current machine being a four year old PowerBook G3 and my previous one being an 8100. OS X is acceptable but slow on my computer. I want a computer that will be Snappy? in X. I don't care too much about games. I rarely play them and the ones I do have run fairly well on my old computer.
To agree with what has already been said, space is a major issue. Not to mention the hassle of moving in and out with a tower and large screen. Bigger hassle than you may imagine.
But for me, the ability to bring my Powerbook and my work everwhere I went was invaluable. It was impossible for me to get much work done in my dorm. I would have gone mad if all my work was trapped in a desktop that I could not move. Being able to take all my papers and projects to the library, around campus, home for a long weekend made me much more productive.
<strong>I'm also going into college this fall, and I've never been sure of what would be a good computer to bring. First it was a 700 MHz iBook, then a used TiBook, then an iMac, then a used PowerMac, now I'm not sure again. I mean, I still have about two months to decide (though I'm planning on getting the computer in about a month), but I may as well use the opportunity to ask some questions.
I am not going to be doing serious graphics or video work. Most of what I do on my computer is surf the internet and organize/rip/transfer music in iTunes (and I have an iPod). My computer is barely adequate, with support for my FireWire card and an external hard drive for my music, but it would be nice to have faster iTunes visuals, DVD movies, and enough hard drive space for my tunes. I've been using old machines for a while now, with my current machine being a four year old PowerBook G3 and my previous one being an 8100. OS X is acceptable but slow on my computer. I want a computer that will be Snappy? in X. I don't care too much about games. I rarely play them and the ones I do have run fairly well on my old computer.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Ditto...
I'm going to go with a TiBook and a huge ext. hard drive... unless of course something really good comes out of MWNY.... we'll see