You'll appreciate the extra pixels for app pallets, and you get a better gfx card, gigabit enet, FW800 and S-Video out (if you ever have to display on a TV) to boot.
If money is no object, spend the extra 100 bucks for the 512 'single' RAM module instead of the stock 2 256 modules. You'll probably want to add more RAM later anyways, and this will leave a slot open.
If money is a bit of an object, 'I'd' forgo the .25Ghz and go with the Combo Drive model, then upgrade to backlit keyboard and SuperDrive (and AE if you're into that sort of thing). Use the 300 or so bucks you saved to buy 2 512 RAM modules and sell the leftover 256 to one of us. You'll still be 'very' close to the price of the stock SuperDrive model (maybe less), yet have double the RAM and all the niceties it has (sans a bit of Ghz).
I think I'd even take an 800 MHz TiBook over a 12" 1 GHz AlBook. Not that the AlBook isn't a great little machine, but the 15" screen is SO nice to have if you're using it as your main/only machine.
One more point in favor of the 15": If you're a graphics guy, ATi has kicked nVIDIA's butt fairly consistently in terms of display clarity and quality.
Yeah, this is cool. I have this sneaking feeling - doing what I do and all - that as cool and small and cute and luggable and full-featured-for-its-size as the 12" is, in about 17 days or so after I bought it, I'd be trying to come up with new and different ways to kick my own butt.
If I simply wrote and surfed (in other words, I wasn't working in the field I'm in), I would've ordered the 12" Tuesday morning without a second thought. Or if I was simply buying a second Mac for a "travel laptop". I'd go with the 12". It's a wonderful machine.
But I'm looking for this to carry me through 2-3 years (well, let's say 1-2 because I could very easily see me getting a Rev. B G5 PowerBook in 2005 or so, depending), so the large screen, the ATi 64MB graphics, the cool keyboard, the 2x/16x SuperDrive (I burn music CDs A LOT and 16x beats the 8x I currently have), the extra 250MHz, etc. kinda makes it obvious, doesn't it?
I will be getting the 15", and I will be getting the SuperDrive because, again, I don't want to kick myself in the butt 4 months down the road. With Bluetooth, AirPort Extreme, FireWire 800 and USB 2.0, it's a pretty nice "future-proof" laptop IMO. Definitely "getting in on the ground floor" with several of these technologies, so I feel good about that too, you know? Throw in gigabit Ethernet, DVI, the other video output, etc. and there isn't a device, disk, display, etc. that I couldn't connect to or work with. That makes for a VERY cool thing to have at your disposal!
Thanks for all the cool input. It was good to hear all the answers. By all means, keep them coming because they're interesting to read.
Soon after getting this, I'll start saving again and sometime in early 2004 I'll probably treat myself to a 20" Cinema Display (perhaps a nicely priced refurb?) for the ULTIMATE home set-up.
The screen size on my iBook didn't bother me too much until I used other computers... ANY other computer has a larger screen than the iBook. I was envious of my dad's PowerBook G4, even with only the 1152x768 screen. I was envious of my brother's 17" CRT, and even the 15" iMac I used in a computer lab yesterday.
It took me a week or two to get used to how tiny the screen was, and then I didn't think about it. Of course, the speed and ergonomics left something to be desired as well. After getting my eMac today, I can't believe how nice it is to have a LARGE monitor at a good height, with an external keyboard that doesn't make my palms sweat! As far as the speed... well, this 1 GHz eMac with 128 MB of RAM is nearly as fast as the iBook was with 640 MB of RAM. I just can't wait for my 512 MB chip to arrive so I can really see this computer's true potential.
What is your opinion on upgrading to the 5400rpm drive? Will it give this thing more "legs" and help speed/performance? What would be its effect on heating and battery life?
And no, I really don't want to buy a drive and rip apart this thing and do it myself and void any this and $#@% up any that. If I'm going to do it, I'll configure it BTO and happily pay the extra to have it done "legit" from the factory. Let's not wander down the "you should buy a Maxtor 7200 and..." route.
Just curious as to your opinions on this. As I said, this will be my sole computer for a good couple of years, I'd imagine (maybe longer...just depends). So I was wondering about this. This is the one area I've not delved in to or already kinda have planned/figured out.
BTW, anyone know what type of drive (rpm-wise) comes on the first-generation LCD G4 iMacs? Is it 5400? Surely not 7200...
Mainly looking to hear about performance improvements and are they anything worth speaking of or paying for. Is a jump from 4200 to 5400 "all that"?
Well paul, I thought of it this way when an hour ago I placed an order for my 1.25 AlBook with 512MB RAM in one slot and 4200RPM 80GB drive. The 4200rpm drives were used in the 1Ghz TiBooks and those were kick ass machines. I can't justify spending $112 on a hard drive that is slightly faster, but may suck more battery life, be hotter, and holds the same capacity as the 4200rpm drive. So I took that $112 and will either buy another 512MB Ram stick, which will make your PB faster than a slightly faster hard drive, or I will put that money towards a Lacie 200GB FW800 drive that would blow away the 5400RPM drive anyway. Take into consideration that I am a video editor, and if I can settle for a 4200rpm drive, it should be good enough for most. Again, the TiBooks used 4200rpm drives, and my friend's 1 Ghz Ti edited video very nicely. Hope that helps.
That does very much. Thank you. I'll stick with the stock 4200rpm drive and simply pack it with RAM.
I don't do video or things of that nature, so if the previous TiBooks were sporting 4200 drives and did all they did and enjoyed the reputation they did, then that's good enough for me.
Just don't buy any additional RAM from Apple. I got the 512 dimm which only occupies one slot, and you can go to ramjet.com or crucial.com and get another 512 dimm for the other slot for about $100-$130 vs. $270+ at the Apple Store.
I figured as much that you would know better. Just lettin those who are thinking of getting their first Mac from Apple not to buy the extra RAM from them. Thanks for that link though...I might get one of thoese DDR33 512 sticks.
so if i get the stock 256 ram in the 15inch, i can buy a 1gb module from the link above? I'm going to come right out and say i don't entirely understand RAM except that more = better. What do you guys mean by "sticks" and all that. Thanks for your patience
The 15" combo drive model comes with 256MB and you should have another free/open slot remaining to install whatever you'd like: another 256MB or a 512MB or a 1GB chip/stick/module, taking you to 512MB, 768MB or 1.25GB RAM respectively.
The only thing, the site above (thechipmerchant.com) doesn't seem to have updated their PowerBook section yet to reflect the newer type of 15" RAM (DDR 333 or something like that?), so perhaps try some of the following:
Comments
You'll appreciate the extra pixels for app pallets, and you get a better gfx card, gigabit enet, FW800 and S-Video out (if you ever have to display on a TV) to boot.
If money is no object, spend the extra 100 bucks for the 512 'single' RAM module instead of the stock 2 256 modules. You'll probably want to add more RAM later anyways, and this will leave a slot open.
If money is a bit of an object, 'I'd' forgo the .25Ghz and go with the Combo Drive model, then upgrade to backlit keyboard and SuperDrive (and AE if you're into that sort of thing). Use the 300 or so bucks you saved to buy 2 512 RAM modules and sell the leftover 256 to one of us. You'll still be 'very' close to the price of the stock SuperDrive model (maybe less), yet have double the RAM and all the niceties it has (sans a bit of Ghz).
Originally posted by murbot
a better video card (64MB Radeon vs. 32MB NVIDIA)
Cripes, that alone would make the decision for me. I wasn't even thinking about relative specs!
port location:
12 - all on left
15 - balanced
pc card slot.
mebbe not a big issue, but GPS cards or similar add-on might be usable in future.
get bluetooth mouse/stylus and your illustrator hands are freer
definitely ditto on the light-up keyboard as coolness bonus during client presentation in dark room
and the 64Mb VRAM as a Graphics bonus should make 15 a no-brainer...
superior Quartz Extreme on both displays
I'm not knockin' the 12 incher ... but next to the 15 incher, it's just a turd.
Originally posted by the cool gut I'm not knockin' the 12 incher...but...it's just a turd.
Glad to see you're not knocking it! Kind words.
The 15" has an ATi. The 12" has an nVIDIA.
If I simply wrote and surfed (in other words, I wasn't working in the field I'm in), I would've ordered the 12" Tuesday morning without a second thought. Or if I was simply buying a second Mac for a "travel laptop". I'd go with the 12". It's a wonderful machine.
But I'm looking for this to carry me through 2-3 years (well, let's say 1-2 because I could very easily see me getting a Rev. B G5 PowerBook in 2005 or so, depending), so the large screen, the ATi 64MB graphics, the cool keyboard, the 2x/16x SuperDrive (I burn music CDs A LOT and 16x beats the 8x I currently have), the extra 250MHz, etc. kinda makes it obvious, doesn't it?
I will be getting the 15", and I will be getting the SuperDrive because, again, I don't want to kick myself in the butt 4 months down the road. With Bluetooth, AirPort Extreme, FireWire 800 and USB 2.0, it's a pretty nice "future-proof" laptop IMO. Definitely "getting in on the ground floor" with several of these technologies, so I feel good about that too, you know? Throw in gigabit Ethernet, DVI, the other video output, etc. and there isn't a device, disk, display, etc. that I couldn't connect to or work with. That makes for a VERY cool thing to have at your disposal!
Thanks for all the cool input. It was good to hear all the answers. By all means, keep them coming because they're interesting to read.
Soon after getting this, I'll start saving again and sometime in early 2004 I'll probably treat myself to a 20" Cinema Display (perhaps a nicely priced refurb?) for the ULTIMATE home set-up.
It took me a week or two to get used to how tiny the screen was, and then I didn't think about it. Of course, the speed and ergonomics left something to be desired as well. After getting my eMac today, I can't believe how nice it is to have a LARGE monitor at a good height, with an external keyboard that doesn't make my palms sweat! As far as the speed... well, this 1 GHz eMac with 128 MB of RAM is nearly as fast as the iBook was with 640 MB of RAM. I just can't wait for my 512 MB chip to arrive so I can really see this computer's true potential.
What is your opinion on upgrading to the 5400rpm drive? Will it give this thing more "legs" and help speed/performance? What would be its effect on heating and battery life?
And no, I really don't want to buy a drive and rip apart this thing and do it myself and void any this and $#@% up any that. If I'm going to do it, I'll configure it BTO and happily pay the extra to have it done "legit" from the factory. Let's not wander down the "you should buy a Maxtor 7200 and..." route.
Just curious as to your opinions on this. As I said, this will be my sole computer for a good couple of years, I'd imagine (maybe longer...just depends). So I was wondering about this. This is the one area I've not delved in to or already kinda have planned/figured out.
BTW, anyone know what type of drive (rpm-wise) comes on the first-generation LCD G4 iMacs? Is it 5400? Surely not 7200...
Mainly looking to hear about performance improvements and are they anything worth speaking of or paying for. Is a jump from 4200 to 5400 "all that"?
I don't do video or things of that nature, so if the previous TiBooks were sporting 4200 drives and did all they did and enjoyed the reputation they did, then that's good enough for me.
For 8 years now, I've only bought from www.thechipmerchant.com
so if i get the stock 256 ram in the 15inch, i can buy a 1gb module from the link above? I'm going to come right out and say i don't entirely understand RAM except that more = better. What do you guys mean by "sticks" and all that. Thanks for your patience
The 15" combo drive model comes with 256MB and you should have another free/open slot remaining to install whatever you'd like: another 256MB or a 512MB or a 1GB chip/stick/module, taking you to 512MB, 768MB or 1.25GB RAM respectively.
The only thing, the site above (thechipmerchant.com) doesn't seem to have updated their PowerBook section yet to reflect the newer type of 15" RAM (DDR 333 or something like that?), so perhaps try some of the following:
www.ramjet.com
www.crucial.com
www.ramseeker.com
www.memoryx.net
And I'm sure others here might post some other popular, trustworthy RAM-selling sites that they like.