G5 PowerBook - Never? So where now for laptops?
Think Secret have reported that Apple is concentrating on their Intel based PowerBook after many (failed) attempts at a G5 PowerBook.
If that's the case then what kind of upgrades are possible to the PowerBook and iBook lines until the Intel arrival in a year or so?
Can the iBooks seriously be upgraded by much? There's little to differentiate the two lines at the moment currently as it is.
I'd like to see 512mb as standard on the iBooks and 1gig on the PowerBooks, also 100 gig and 200 gig on their respective hard drives if you partner those with small speed bumps then the lines may yet remain competetive for the next twelve months.
If that's the case then what kind of upgrades are possible to the PowerBook and iBook lines until the Intel arrival in a year or so?
Can the iBooks seriously be upgraded by much? There's little to differentiate the two lines at the moment currently as it is.
I'd like to see 512mb as standard on the iBooks and 1gig on the PowerBooks, also 100 gig and 200 gig on their respective hard drives if you partner those with small speed bumps then the lines may yet remain competetive for the next twelve months.
Comments
Originally posted by cdoverlaw
laptop hard drive max capacity 100gb
bzzt.
Right now the largest size is actually 120GB.
On the other hand, the announcements from IBM were lackluster. A 1.6GHz G5 that uses more power than the faster G4 is not attractive. A dual core G4 would be more useful.
If we move beyond public information to speculation then one could wonder whether Apple will receive faster chips than the ones IBM announced. For example, maybe they will get 1.8GHz and 2.0GHz PPC970FX chips for PBs and 3.0GHz PPC970MP chips for towers? IBM could square this with the public announcement by saying that their announcement pertained only to publicly available chips, not those reserved for Apple.
Originally posted by neutrino23
At this point it seems very unclear as to where Apple will go with the PB line. I would think that they would not want to introduce Intel CPUs into this from the start. It is too risky. These are used by professionals to earn their keep. If some huge problem arises just after they sell the first 100,000 or so that would be very bad. One would think that Apple would start with something like the Mac Mini where problems could be tolerated for a few months till they were fixed.
I think you are spot on with this.... I do however, think that Apple will be investing a lot of money into getting a much faster Powerbook working well and out as soon as possible with an Intel chip.
With professionals such as myself (desgin) needing a laptop as powerful as a desktop for when Im away from the office, having to wait through these minor upgrades is very annoying.... and Apple would know this.
On the other hand, A lot of people including myself never jump onto first generation hardware. So I will be waiting to RevB Intel PB come out.... and the faster the 1st Gen. arrives the faster Ill get my 2nd Gen PB!
With the Laptops both iBook and PowerBook screaming for an update I'll hold out as long as I can, probably until the end of August.
After that I'll just get a refurb if there's nothing new on offer.
I suspect apple will put these notebooks to the most rigerous lab test possible, then relase them. Powermacs/imacs mini's can wait, we need Pentium M, Yonah chips.
iBooks will probly run Celeron processors and PowerBooks will probly have Pentium Ds or Pentium 4s in them.
Originally posted by Nutty
iBooks will probly run Celeron processors and PowerBooks will probly have Pentium Ds or Pentium 4s in them.
I can only pray you are wrong. MY freind has a Hp laptop with a 3.0ghz P4, in it. Not only does it run like sh*te (he didnt realise you have to run disk dragmenter or clean ones registry (oops) and i realise this isnt the CPU's fault), but when he brought it over, the amount of HEAT that was coming from the side vents of the thing when he was just surfing the web was incredible. I actually moved some paper off my desk (a big thing for me), as I thought it was a fire hazard.
Anywho, POwerbooks, will i suspect have high end Pentium M, Centrino/Sonoma chipsets. (Sonoma is the second generation of centrino, with PCI-E, SATA support etc.). I would like to see the high end powerbooks with 'Yonah' PM, dual core.
As for iBooks running celerons, while that is a fine and cheap processor for office tasks, I would prefer one of the low end Pentium M's, as celerons have a much less efficient architecture from what I have seen of them. If iBooks had celerons, they would of been better off staying with G4's.
Just my $0.02AUD
Originally posted by pyriX
As for iBooks running celerons, while that is a fine and cheap processor for office tasks, I would prefer one of the low end Pentium M's, as celerons have a much less efficient architecture from what I have seen of them. If iBooks had celerons, they would of been better off staying with G4's.
Just my $0.02AUD
I AGREE. The celeron chip sucks. I would never own another one. A low end M chip would be the way I would want to go. The biggest problem is they are dog slow but you get what you pay for.
Originally posted by womblingfree
Think Secret have reported that Apple is concentrating on their Intel based PowerBook after many (failed) attempts at a G5 PowerBook.
I am not sure where all the "Failed Attempts" talk comes from. How can Apple fail when IBM can't release a chip that will even work?
There are no failed attempts, just no attempts at all since the IBM dropped the ball.
I can't see the 7448 stimulating sales much, unless again Apple gets a higher rated part. Would 2GHz last until the Intels?
Originally posted by pyriX
...the bowerbook/ibook line is desperatly screaming for an update in both design and guts...
...OK - so what do you want in a new design that the current lines lack?
Originally posted by Nutty
iBooks will probly run Celeron processors and PowerBooks will probly have Pentium Ds or Pentium 4s in them.
DTP for a Pentium D 820 is 95W
Originally posted by pyriX
Anywho, POwerbooks, will i suspect have high end Pentium M, Centrino/Sonoma chipsets. (Sonoma is the second generation of centrino, with PCI-E, SATA support etc.). I would like to see the high end powerbooks with 'Yonah' PM, dual core.
While Dothan is nice - especialy on Sonoma - Yonah will be the real deal.
And expect a transition to Merom within a year...
Originally posted by Blackcat
It seems likely Apple has had a PB G5 ready to go since the iMac G5 debut, but needed a cooler CPU.
You're probably spot on. I think everyone recalls that the new PowerBook models showed up in the G5 plist files last summer with the 10.3.5 update, along with the new iMac, which turned out to be the iMac G5.
Originally posted by Marius
...OK - so what do you want in a new design that the current lines lack?
Widescreen on the low end. intergrated sub on the 17" powerbook. I saw somwhere that Asus was making the new notebooks, and they already have a notebook like this.
Intergrated card readers, and colours OTHER than white. No Intel inside sticker.
Originally posted by DHagan4755
You're probably spot on. I think everyone recalls that the new PowerBook models showed up in the G5 plist files last summer with the 10.3.5 update, along with the new iMac, which turned out to be the iMac G5.
I'm always amazed how some people seem to think Apple waits for a box of CPUs then starts to design the machine around it.
Originally posted by Blackcat
I'm always amazed how some people seem to think Apple waits for a box of CPUs then starts to design the machine around it.
lol, yeah. They don't...they might wait just a smidge to see if the batch they are shipped for the actual production models are working right, but for all intents and purposes the PowerBook G5 has been in the works for years, and the design is probably finished.
Originally posted by aplnub
I AGREE. The celeron chip sucks. I would never own another one. A low end M chip would be the way I would want to go. The biggest problem is they are dog slow but you get what you pay for.
As far as I can tell, the crippled P4 Celeron is just about dead. The next chips to use the Celeron name will be single core versions of the lower-mid clocked of the upcoming dual core designs, In essence, this years Pentium-M will be next year's Celeron-M.