Tough Choice

330zx330zx
Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
I'm going away to school next fall, and I can't decide if i should get a 12 inch powerbook that is basically the lowest model, or the 14 inch ibook that is loaded. They are essentially the same price. The ibook would have way more ram, and a 60gig hardrive. The powerbook would have a G4 instead of a G3. I'm looking for something that will last four years, and something that is good for surfing the internet, writing papers, music, and the usual college stuff.

Thanks,

A.J.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 15
    pesipesi Posts: 424member
    if you're looking for it to last, get the G4. the G4 will give you a longer usable life for software.



    you can up the ram and hardrive at a later date when you've got the cash.
  • Reply 2 of 15
    existenceexistence Posts: 991member
    May I ask what major you are setting yourself for in the fall?



    If it's liberal arts, a Mac will do fine, but if it's science, engineering or something technical, a PC will be a better choice.



    If you don't know, you're best off with a PC that everyone has instead of getting there and having a useless Mac.
  • Reply 3 of 15
    curiousuburbcuriousuburb Posts: 3,325member
    if youre thinking of a PB, try to wait for the next bump (likely before fall)

    rev B machines will include tweaks and fixes over this new class of Al12" and 17" (plus Al15.4" pending)
  • Reply 4 of 15
    330zx330zx Posts: 27member
    Not sure what major i will be entering, but it will not be engineering or mathematics. It will probably biology. I was told that a mac was fine for everything but mathematics. When will the next bump occur. I would like to get by the middle of august. Is it worth the wait?

    Thanks,

    A.J.
  • Reply 5 of 15
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Existence

    If it's liberal arts, a Mac will do fine, but if it's science, engineering or something technical, a PC will be a better choice.



    Actually, if you're doing computer science, a Mac will do just fine.



    My java professor last year used a PowerBook all the time and used screenshots of Mac OS X windows in his lecture slides. If you're doing programming af the C, C++, or Java sorts, you'll be using the command line compilers anyway and Apple's developer tools work very nicely.



    edit: oops, didn't see that last post. Ah well, biology is fun.



    As for mathematics, it really just depends on what kind of software they'll be using. Some of the higher end math programs are already available for Mac OS X (like Matlab and Mathematica) and some are in development for Mac OS X and run okay in Classic mode (Maple).



    Rumor has it that the desktop line may be getting a pretty big bump in the next few months. No word really on the portable line.
  • Reply 6 of 15
    toweltowel Posts: 1,479member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by 330zx

    Not sure what major i will be entering, but it will not be engineering or mathematics. It will probably biology. I was told that a mac was fine for everything but mathematics. When will the next bump occur. I would like to get by the middle of august. Is it worth the wait?

    Thanks,

    A.J.



    Macs are great for biology. Many labs use Macs, and molecular biologists don't need much specialized software anyway - a browser, word processor, and maybe EndNote and Photoshop. Sequence Analysis is a nice tool for, well, sequence analysis. If you get into more bioinformatics-ey stuff, there are fantastic UNIX-based tools that have been compiled for OSX.



    Have you ever thought about getting a 12" iBook, and saving the extra money to get a new one in 2-3 years? It's just fine as a primary computer.
  • Reply 7 of 15
    pesipesi Posts: 424member
    my brother works in a biology lab at MIT. all they use are macs.
  • Reply 8 of 15
    digitaldavedigitaldave Posts: 445member
    A friend of mine works for Cancer Research UK, and they have Macs, at least in his department.



    Does anyone know why Macs appear to be quite common in the biology field?



    Dave.
  • Reply 9 of 15
    330zx330zx Posts: 27member
    what will the major differences be between the 12 inch powerbook that is currently out, and the next release of the 12 inch powerbook? When will the next bump occur? Also, the 12 inch powerbook does not have a L3 cache. What does this mean, and does it alter the performance?

    Thanks
  • Reply 10 of 15
    chychchych Posts: 860member
    Macs are used almost exclusively at the biology labs at Yale university I've been to. So they will be quite fine.



    Meh, I use a Mac and I'm in engineering. XMaple runs fine through X11 btw. Wish proe worked, arh. Then again proe is only usable in solaris (laughable in win XP).



    Our school uses quite a bit of macs for computer science and computational biology, and BBEdit is an awesome text editor (though codewarrior is what is used in the clusters); the 'macs for liberal arts' myth really needs to be dropped (offends some of us ).
  • Reply 11 of 15
    macfoolmacfool Posts: 9member
    I'm definitely going to have to disagree with the no Mac's in science and engineering idea. I graduated in May with a BS in Computer Science. My Wallstreet Powerbook, while not fast, has constantly been surprising PC-types by being able to run 'normal' college software like MS Office and AIM, UNIX stuff like Apache, lex and yacc, and Ethereal in X11, and Apple's slick dev tools for OS X-all side by side.

    No, I can't vouch for all majors, but Macs are definitely NOT a cutesy English major toy.

    Enjoy your new Mac, and oh yeah-my vote would be for the G4, I think it?ll have a longer useable life, and you can always upgrade the HD and RAM later if you need to.
  • Reply 12 of 15
    330zx330zx Posts: 27member
    Are there any major bugs on the 12 inch powerbook? Also, if i didnt buy the powerbook until middle of july, would an ipod work with my pc until then?
  • Reply 13 of 15
    soulcrushersoulcrusher Posts: 587member
    I will be majoring in Physics and NO MATTER WHAT I'll get Powerbook. I hope they get updated before August.
  • Reply 14 of 15
    splinemodelsplinemodel Posts: 7,311member
    dude. Your computer won't last four years. that's just a fact. I've had three so far and I'm just about to finish junior year.



    If you're in science or engineering, the mac will be great. You'll inevitably have to do some C, and the mac rocks for programming. if you're doing something along the lines of what we call "ORF" (econ for people with intelligence) all you need is Excel, and that exists on the mac.



    Here are some things that exist on the mac and are good for technical folks:



    1) Matlab

    2) Matlab

    3) Matlab

    4) Mathematica, if you're so inclined

    5) Straight up Unix shell

    6) Free DevTools CD

    7) Um. . . Excel?



    If you're doing CS, you're wasting your time with anything except a mac. Linux will work too, but it's not as good for anything except dorky stuff. Our CS department draws a lot of water, and it's virtually all Mac OS X now. Still a little bit of Sun, but those are on the way out.
  • Reply 15 of 15
    matsumatsu Posts: 6,558member
    I dunno what's good for what. I write, I make notes, hopefully soon, I'll take pictures with a digital camera and fool around in photoshop. I like my PB12. However, it is always bad jooju to "buy now for later"



    Apple will have new stuff for you in September, wait.
Sign In or Register to comment.