h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I am split between a 12'' Powerbook and a 14'' iBook. Is there any reason, especially involving reliabilty or expected lifetime (I'm hoping it to last my whole four years at university if possible.) that I should pick one over the other?

I went for the 12" iBook myself, and not just because of the cost. The 14" was just more than I needed or wanted to lug around, and the iBook casing is just built a little sturdier than the powerbook. With the money I saved going for the 12" iBook rather than one of the pricier models, I was able to upgrade both the RAM and the hard drive.

My G4 Powerbook is now 5+ years old. It is a little battered after being dragged round the world but the only problem I have had with it is the hinges which appear to have rusted inside. Tropical climates and laptops don't really mix but Macs are infinitely better than anything else.

As the previous subscriber suggested go for the biggest memory and Ram unless you need to draw or use programmes like Illustrator, Quark etc. If you do you need both a large screen and huge memory.

It really depends what you want to do with it.

Do you need speed and ability to write DVDs? The 12" PB comes with either a Combo optical drive or the DVD-writing Superdrive.
Do you need lots of connections for peripherals?
Is it for course work that requires no more than word processing, spreadsheet and database ability?
Do you really need a laptop? Would an eMac serve the same purpose or even a Mac Mini?

They are all G4 processor Macs. The PB is the quickest at 1.6 GHz and pretty high spec. The two desktop machines are great value though and are likely to perform as fast as the laptops due to design constraints of laptops. They are not portable though!

It all comes down to what you can afford. If you can afford the PB then get that. It's better than the iBook, especially with the Superdrive. Don't let Apple install RAM for you though. Do it yourself if you can and source it elsewhere (Crucial are good in my experience).

Hope that helps a bit.

turvy

If you won't need portability, then consider the iMac ... it's a G5, has much more hard drive space (160 GB), more Ram (512 MB), and a much faster processor than any Powerbook (2.2 GHz) ... all at a lower price. Feature for feature, it's a much better machine, with the exception of not being a notebook computer.

I work as a professional graphic artist in a shop that requires lots of power for immense photo enlargements. The smallest iMac outstrips the features of the G4 Tower I use at wo*k (except for the larger Apple Cinema Display).

The iMac is truly awesome ... a real value that I plan to buy for myself soon.

Spot on.
I have an iMac and -as you say - about he best there is. The old G4 Powerbook is still a wonderful, loved and useful tool. If I could only have one it would be the powerbook, beautiful and powerful though the iMac is. My first Mac had a 40MB hard drive and 4MB RAM. I still run some of the same programmes that I did in 1988. Actually Excel 2 is far better for what I want it for, MacWrite II is infinitely better for 90% of what I write (and curiously ca open Word 2004). We are in danger of getting obsessed with memory.
I should add that I am an architect. If you draw memory is 'almost' all important.

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But Apple won't put a superdrive in a 12'' iBook and my dad (who's paying for this, so he gets to call the shots) decided I need DVD-write capability for making backups. Considering I have about 1.5 gigabytes of files (I'm an amature photographer with a digital camera--it adds up), he may have a point. That's why it's a mater of a 12'' PowerBook or 14'' iBook--those are the smallest in each series that they'll put a superdrive in.


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I'm planning on 1GB. Is that enough?


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About the same cost as the iBook under consideration. But they both can have superdrives, so that's irrelevant.


As for the various suggestions of desktop Macs--it's arguable as to whether I'll need portability, but it would come in handy so I can do work in the library or take it to class.


Also, someone brought up periphials. I was planning on getting an exterior keyboard, mouse, and depending on price, moniter, to use in the dorm room. Is that relevant to the iBook/PowerBook desision?

My old G4 Powerbook can read but not write DVDs, it also has no floppy disk drive. One of the USB ports goes to a hub - printer scanner etc and when I need to read or copy something - to a floppy drive (almost redundant) or to a CD/DVD writer. Crude but it works and the external DVD writer coast a lot less than getting Mac to put one inside. It also frees up some space on the hard disc.

The main thing about peripherals is that it can be worth having a bluetooth chip so that you can easily use wireless peripherals -- they can put those in either laptop, but they might be standard in the powerbook.

I don't know that I'd consider a DVD-burner as the best backup option, especially if your total file volume is only in the 1.5GB range. I'm working with >= 20GB of files, myself, and wouldn't use a DVD burner for backup. I burn files in groups onto CDs occasionally, but for real backup I use an external hard drive -- both *insanely quicker* and more reliable. The Maxtor one-touch is a really good option for that.

We have both PB12's and iBook G3's and G4's in the family, R. Daneel (and an IBM THinkpad X40- this is seen by all as the least satisfactory, though it was by far the most expensive)).

Personally I think its hard to beat the PB12. Firstly its a bit faster than the iBook (not just because of the processor, but because of the bus speed and other things too). Secondly it is significantly more portable. THe difference in size and weight is noticeable even between the 12" variants.

Thirdly, you get a few extra bells and whistles - a significantly better graphics card, more video RAM, built in bluetooth, a faster HD, more RAM (if you get the iBook you should factor in the cost of increasing RAM to 512 Meg) , support for external screens (in DVI, not just VGA) up to 2048 x 1536 pixels with "spanning" rather than just mirroring, built in "audio in", better speakers, etc.

Fourthly, though, and perhaps most significantly given your own questions, I think you probably will end up with a more reliable computer. My PB 12 has lived a hard life over the last couple of years. I'm an anthropologist and it gets bounced around my backpack in 4 wheel drives and light planes, exposed to the heat, cold humidity , dryness and dust of the Australian outback and tropical areas etc etc. It hasn't missed a beat. Of the three ibooks in the family (all newer than my PB and all living cloistered lives in the Melbourne suburbs) two have had to go in for warranty repairs. People often assume that the iBook is the "tough" one. I think its the other way around!

Cheers

Rod

Wow! Déja-vu!

Thanks for the advice, Rod.