12" Powerbook advice
I'm looking into getting a new PowerBook. My old PowerBook ( 15" 667 DVI ) is 3 years old already and the AppleCare is going to expire on it coming up in mid-july. I'm looking into getting a 12" PowerBook because I would like the smaler size. With student discounts, I can get the high-end 12" down to $1500. There is also a $100 rebate if I buy before June 25 or 26. An equally equipped 15" PowerBook would be around $2000. So here is the way I see things (the 15" vs the 12"):
I'm a Computer Science student (graduating in August). I've been very happy with my current PowerBook thus far. I plan on using this new PowerBook even more as a main computer than I do now. I just need something that will do what I will be using it for. I really only use my PowerBook for the following things:
15" screen @ 1280x854 vs. 12" @ 1024x768
This could be an issue. Since programming is my thing, screen real-estate can be a big issue. On the other hand, I don't know that I really *need* all that screen real-estate to program. I also have a 20" Dell 2005FPW hooked up to my desktop. I can use that as an external monitor to the 12" if I really need the extra screen space at home.
2GB of RAM maximum vs 1.25 GB of RAM maximum
This really isn't an issue for me. I might run GIMP or Photoshop to resize photos or something, but I don't do heavy graphics editing. Being mostly a programmer, I don't see myself needing that much RAM. Until a few months ago I survived OS X on 256 megs of RAM because I was too lazy to upgrade. (btw, it's a lot smoother with 768 now). So this is really a moot point.
S-Video out vs no S-Video out
I've just discovered there there are miniDVI to S-Video/Composite adapters, so this is sort of a moot point.
a PCMCIA slot vs no PCMCIA slot
The only deal with this for me is for wireless. Since KisMAC doesn't support passive mode on the Airport Extreme card. There are supported USB adapters that use one of the prism chipsets. I've posted a question about this part to netstumbler.org as well. The only difference between the PCMCIA cards and USB to me is that there are 200mW PCMCIA cards with external antenna connectors, but you need to hack external connectors onto the USB adapters.
Tiger screen rotation supported vs. not supported
Not a big issue. I don't use that feature even in windows on my desktop with the 20" LCD. It's a cool feature that I probably wouldn't use unless my setup was with 2 20" LCDs (one portrait, and one landscape).
10/100/1000 Ethernet vs 10/100 Ethernet
My desktop has this on-board, but my switch at home is 10/100 and my server only has a 10/100 3COM card, so for now this isn't a big deal. I've also heard that the internal buses on the PowerBook would be a bottleneck to reaching full Gigabit speeds anyways.
15" has Firewire 800 but the 12" doesn't
I haven't even seen any FireWire2 devices, so to me this is a non-issue.
Conclusion:
That's really it. I would rather have stuff like PCMCIA and such, but I don't think that I can justify $500 more just to get an equally equipped 15". The biggest things that I see as drawbacks are the lower resolution and the lack of PCMCIA. If anyone else can think of any significant differences between the two, please post them. I'd really like to hear what you all think. It would be good to hear from people that have 12" PowerBooks and are in similar positions and such. As a side note, how much do you think that I could get for my old PowerBook (15" PowerBook DVI 667 / 30GB harddrive / 768MB RAM / Combo Drive / New Battery)?
PS: (sorry about the double post but I only got 1 response in Genius Bar for the past few days)
- 15" screen @ 1280x854 vs. 12" @ 1024x768
- 2GB of RAM maximum vs 1.25 GB of RAM maximum
- S-Video out vs no S-Video out.
- a PCMCIA slot vs no PCMCIA slot
- Tiger screen rotation supported vs. not supported
- 10/100/1000 Ethernet vs 10/100 Ethernet
- 15" has Firewire 800 but the 12" doesn't
I'm a Computer Science student (graduating in August). I've been very happy with my current PowerBook thus far. I plan on using this new PowerBook even more as a main computer than I do now. I just need something that will do what I will be using it for. I really only use my PowerBook for the following things:
- Programming
- MS Office to do reports and such
- Web Browsing
- Run Apache/PHP/MySQL to test out PHP/MySQL scripts
- Network stuff (ssh into my server and such)
- Fooling around with iPhoto/Photoshop/GIMP with my photos (have a 5MP digital camera)
- Wardriving (I want to get into this a little)
- Chatting (IRC/AIM/etc)
- Burning DVDs ( have automated backups and such, right now I just use my desktop to burn the DVDs )
- Read manga scanslations (this could be the only thing that would get really annoying on the smaller screen)
- Scanning (I might get a scanner and use this to backup old documents)
15" screen @ 1280x854 vs. 12" @ 1024x768
This could be an issue. Since programming is my thing, screen real-estate can be a big issue. On the other hand, I don't know that I really *need* all that screen real-estate to program. I also have a 20" Dell 2005FPW hooked up to my desktop. I can use that as an external monitor to the 12" if I really need the extra screen space at home.
2GB of RAM maximum vs 1.25 GB of RAM maximum
This really isn't an issue for me. I might run GIMP or Photoshop to resize photos or something, but I don't do heavy graphics editing. Being mostly a programmer, I don't see myself needing that much RAM. Until a few months ago I survived OS X on 256 megs of RAM because I was too lazy to upgrade. (btw, it's a lot smoother with 768 now). So this is really a moot point.
S-Video out vs no S-Video out
I've just discovered there there are miniDVI to S-Video/Composite adapters, so this is sort of a moot point.
a PCMCIA slot vs no PCMCIA slot
The only deal with this for me is for wireless. Since KisMAC doesn't support passive mode on the Airport Extreme card. There are supported USB adapters that use one of the prism chipsets. I've posted a question about this part to netstumbler.org as well. The only difference between the PCMCIA cards and USB to me is that there are 200mW PCMCIA cards with external antenna connectors, but you need to hack external connectors onto the USB adapters.
Tiger screen rotation supported vs. not supported
Not a big issue. I don't use that feature even in windows on my desktop with the 20" LCD. It's a cool feature that I probably wouldn't use unless my setup was with 2 20" LCDs (one portrait, and one landscape).
10/100/1000 Ethernet vs 10/100 Ethernet
My desktop has this on-board, but my switch at home is 10/100 and my server only has a 10/100 3COM card, so for now this isn't a big deal. I've also heard that the internal buses on the PowerBook would be a bottleneck to reaching full Gigabit speeds anyways.
15" has Firewire 800 but the 12" doesn't
I haven't even seen any FireWire2 devices, so to me this is a non-issue.
Conclusion:
That's really it. I would rather have stuff like PCMCIA and such, but I don't think that I can justify $500 more just to get an equally equipped 15". The biggest things that I see as drawbacks are the lower resolution and the lack of PCMCIA. If anyone else can think of any significant differences between the two, please post them. I'd really like to hear what you all think. It would be good to hear from people that have 12" PowerBooks and are in similar positions and such. As a side note, how much do you think that I could get for my old PowerBook (15" PowerBook DVI 667 / 30GB harddrive / 768MB RAM / Combo Drive / New Battery)?
PS: (sorry about the double post but I only got 1 response in Genius Bar for the past few days)
Comments
Good luck!
~ Mike
I had a 15" PB in school and have a 12" now. If it's your only computer I'd suggest the 15". The screen space helps ALOT. I love my 12" as a casual computer for couch surfing, and giving demos but if it was my only computer I'd have a hard time dealing with the screen.
Good luck!
~ Mike
Well, I have a ShuttlePC with the 20" Dell at home. I hook the 15" I have now up to the 20" 2005FPW on my desk. So I would have a larger desktop space when I was at home. It's not going to be my *only* computer. I might keep the 15" around and not sell it off. I just plan on the new laptop being my main computer with all my files and everything on it.
Originally posted by realitydude001
I have a 12" with a 17" Samsung LCD and I really like the setup. When I do programming it does get cramped on the 12" screen, but then I just drag over to the 17" and all is good again. Expose works wonders and I don't find the screen small when not at home with my setup.
Yea. Having the external monitor is what really makes it so that I can have more space at home. How exactly does it get cramped when programming though? Because you can always lower the font for more editing space, I would think. Or is that not good enough?
As for the programming, right now I am still in java and using Eclipse, because you know java is awesome and everything
As for the gaming, I used to be a hardcore PC gamer and right now I am looking at my rack of unplayable PC games. I play WoW and WC3 and SC and D2 and VegaStrike. The 12" runs the games awesomely and with better than lowest graphics too!!. The way I see it is that if you're worried about gaming performance on a mac, don't get a mac. Macs are for life and PCs are for games.
Originally posted by realitydude001
I haven't really had trouble with expandibility, but I have had no reason to expand either. I figure if I really need something that is PCMCIA, it is probably in USB or firewire form too.
As for the programming, right now I am still in java and using Eclipse, because you know java is awesome and everything
As for the gaming, I used to be a hardcore PC gamer and right now I am looking at my rack of unplayable PC games. I play WoW and WC3 and SC and D2 and VegaStrike. The 12" runs the games awesomely and with better than lowest graphics too!!. The way I see it is that if you're worried about gaming performance on a mac, don't get a mac. Macs are for life and PCs are for games.
Yea. I used to be a PC gamer. My current desktop could handle HL2 or Doom3 if I upgrade the Radeon8500, but it's not worth the money to me at this point. I just resort to the consoles for gaming now, and even then not too much.
MS Word seems like it uses it's own font rendering and such. You can use zoom to size up MS Word. But when using a 12" screen at 1024x768, I would assume that I can bump fonts that are now (on a 15" screen @ 1280x854) at 10pt or 12pt down a couple pts and still have them readable.
EDIT: Forgot this
You can get most things in USB now. There really isn't much reason for PCMCIA, except if you only have USB1.1. The speeds of USB2.0 and Firewire are enough that you can hook most devices through them. I actually think that the PCMCIA bus is slower than USB2.0