MiniBook or 15" Powerbook?

jmoney · February 1, 2003 12:12AM

I'm in the market for a notebook as I may have indicated before in other posts. I'm really torn between getting a 12" Minibook or one of the current 15" Powerbooks.. I'm replacing my Powermac, because I really would like the mobility. Is the 12" really that slow? When I get mine, I would definitely max the ram out. I know that if they were to revise the 15" line it would have the whole Airport Extreme capability, but I think by the time I would make use of that capability, I would probably be on to another machine (figuring it wouldn't be for another 3 years) I do alot of web work, nothing big on the photoshop.. But it would be my main machine and I don't like things chugging.. Any suggestions? Should I just keep my Powermac and pick up an iBook 800? Any input would be appreciate!

filmmaker2002 · February 1, 2003 12:15AM

Personally, I am waiting for the 15 inch to get everything the 17 inch has in it...which will hopefully come along in a couple months. In your case, the 12 inch is GREAT. I saw it at the Apple store the other day and it is amazingly well built. I would imagine it would be a LOT quicker if you maxed out the RAM. Good luck.

P.S. I have a Powerbook 667, 48 GB, 1 GB RAM, Combo for sale if you are interested...

jmoney · February 1, 2003 12:17AM

By the way.. just point of reference, I do have the Student Dev discount..

Ibook 800 fully maxed with RAM and airport card = 1342

Powerbook 867 (combo) max ram + airport card = 1678

Powerbook 15" 1GHZ 512MB Combo - 2102

filmmaker2002 · February 1, 2003 12:50AM

in that case, if you are looking for bluetooth and Airport extreme, go with the 12 inch, if not, go with the 15 TiBook for sure. A friend of mine has the 1Ghz with Superdrive and he loves it, no problems at all...

stagflation steve · February 1, 2003 1:43AM

Unfortunetly the 12" Powerbook does have some performance issues, unless you happen to love the design or use alot of Altivec applications I would take an 800mhz iBook over the 12" Powerbook.

Also, the Titanium Powerbooks have a much better graphics chipset than the new powerbooks that suffer from the pathetic geforce4 to go chipsets which are actually based on the GeForce 2 rather than the GeForce 4. Really disapointing.

serrano · February 1, 2003 3:51AM

You must be one of the most negative people I have ever 'met' Steve. At least Matsu's rants are interesting.

And don't believe everything you read on barefeats, <a href="http://macspeedzone.com/html/hardware/machine/comparison/all/index.html"; target="_blank">here</a> is a good comparison of the minipbook against a multitude of other Macs.

You can decide for yourself if the numbers are large enough to merit the extra cost, though with ADC discount I really can't see this being an issue. Specifically the multitasking tests impressed me, the pbook outclassed the ibook 2 to 1 while running multiple tests. Doing web work you will of course have a multitude of apps open at a time.

You never mentioned what PowerMac you have. If it's a PowerMac 6100/60 then I'd whole heartedly recommend the 867 12 inch, if it's a dual 1.25 then I might tell you to go ahead and grab an iBook.

horned_frog · February 1, 2003 7:16AM

hehehe...I stil have a 6100/66. I LOVED that machine. The DOS card was sweet, as was the whopping 500 MB Hard Drive!

Anyway, I have the 15" Ti and absolutely LOVE it. The lack of L3 cache, a relatively low screen rez (even on a 12" screen--but then again I have excellent eyesight) and (I *think*--correct me if I'm wrong) 32MB Video card make the 12", while beautiful, not up to par with the 15." But, I huess if you aren't going to use it for any serious lifting, it would be fine as long as you max the RAM.

But I can say...do yourself a favor and get the G4 based machine...pass up the iBook. Not that it isn't OK, but it is rather outdated...a G4 is a better investment IMHO.

Enjoy the hunt!

murbot · February 1, 2003 7:17AM

Purchasing advice... off to General Discussion with ya.

eman · February 1, 2003 9:32AM

I would either go with the 12" or wait until they update the Ti.

nosey · February 1, 2003 9:42AM

I'm just waiting to hear the Leasing company tell me what I can afford...

12inch with DVD burner (no other upgrades) 3299

1Book with Combo Drive (some memory) 2400

I even made a deal with myself... If I get the minibook I promise never to lick it outside on a cold winters day...

jchen · February 1, 2003 8:23PM

[quote]Originally posted by serrano:



And don't believe everything you read on barefeats, <a href="http://macspeedzone.com/html/hardware/machine/comparison/all/index.html"; target="_blank">here</a> is a good comparison of the minipbook against a multitude of other Macs.

<hr></blockquote>

From the site:

"All of the tests below, except for the game tests, were timed with a STOPWATCH."

Nuff' said.

[ 02-01-2003: Message edited by: jchen ]

stagflation steve · February 1, 2003 11:34PM

[quote]Originally posted by serrano:

And don't believe everything you read on barefeats<hr></blockquote>

I never read Barefeats,

The 12" Powerbook has a 745x class G4 without L3 cache and an anemic graphics chip.

Case Closed, Press Any Key To Continue

stratosfear · February 2, 2003 4:38PM

[quote]Originally posted by JMoney:

I'm in the market for a notebook as I may have indicated before in other posts. I'm really torn between getting a 12" Minibook or one of the current 15" Powerbooks.. I'm replacing my Powermac, because I really would like the mobility. <hr></blockquote>

If you travel a lot then smaller is better. I would say, that 12" PowerBook is better choice than 15" model. Why? It's smaller!

pb · February 3, 2003 10:18AM

[quote]Originally posted by Stagflation Steve:



I never read Barefeats,

The 12" Powerbook has a 745x class G4 without L3 cache and an anemic graphics chip.

Case Closed, Press Any Key To Continue<hr></blockquote>

I think it is time to take a look <a href="http://homepage.mac.com/danny_gasperini/FileSharing6.html"; target="_blank">here</a>

MiniBook or 15" Powerbook?

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