Powerbook Purchase... Should I???

[Staven]

Hey guys, need your input.

I've waited... and waited... for the always anticipated upgrade for Powerbooks. Thought the Apple Conference would give us one... but alas.

So, should I take the plunge?

If I do I plan to get the 1.67gh 17inch model.

i'll be using it as a portable studio for editing picture & sound, recording music, writing, surfing the internet for porn... you know the usual.

I also want to be able to use it for the new HD cameras and technology we are about to get to.

Will I regret not waiting for an intel processor g5 powerbook? Has anyone heard any rumblings of an updated powerbook in the near future?

If I buy it, should i load up the ram to 2, which is a little out of my budget, or just up it to one?

Any advice on the subject is happily accepted. Thanks.

 

[evolvnyc]

Well as we have all learned, waiting for the next greatest thing can keep you waiting, well forever; literally... the problem so far has been that they can't make the G5 processor small enough to shove it into a laptop yet, and it doesn't look like it will happen anytime soon... and you'll always get something better if you wait, but you need to figure out the ratio of "how soon do I need/want this" versus "how long can i wait for the next best thing" fact of the matter is that the next thing will only be slightly faster/better, and if you've got work to do NOW, get it done! I have a friend who rendered and entire feature on an ibook and it looks great, so my advice is better to work while you're inspired! Just my 2 cents... Oh and you can upgrade with better ram much cheaper at www.coastmemory.com i've used it for years and it's dirt cheap... no problems ever. Don't get the apple ram; it's overpriced and slow.

 

[Mortimer]

Powerbook

Powerbook

I am currently using a g4 17inch powerbook. My opinion might be slightly bias since I was using an older sony vaio which was not meeting my needs.

The powerbook is great, I have done extensive editing on it with minimal problems and will be upgrading the ram soon (adding a gig). But as soon as I can afford it I am going to make the switch over to a dual g5 desktop, for the obvious reasons of more power. If your buying a laptop for your main editing system I would reconsider, depending on the work your going to do. If you just want it for the fact of having portability I don't see how you could go wrong.

 

[Bart_Boge]

I would offer this advice. Sometimes it is better to buy the last version of a tech product rather than the newest version. I had a G3 Pismo Powerbook that was absolutely fantastic. With a gig of RAM, I could run OS X Panther perfectly on a 400mhz machine. Only when my black lab tripped over the power cord and dashed the display on our hardwood kitchen floor did I get rid of it--and I was STILL able to run it as a "desktop" with external monitor/mouse/keyboard for a few days--long enough to back up the drive. I lost NO DATA. I would be typing on that sucker today if it hand't been smashed.

Now I have a 15" 1.5ghz AlBook w/1.5GB RAM. It will probably be one of the last of its kind, design-wise, until the Pentium M version comes out a year or so from now. I love this machine. I would not base my entire editing suite around any laptop, however. Dual processors really chew through long render times much faster. In 2-3 years Intel will probably be delivering dual-core M chips to Apple, and perhaps then it might make a reasonable editing option @ standard def. But by then we'll all be editing 1080p with our tried-and-true HVX-200s, and laptops will still be inadequate for the job.

My suggestion is that you really need both, and for two reasons. First of all, portability means increased productivity. While your tower is rendering your color correction on an hour-long project, you can take the Powerbook to Panera Bread, order a turkey sandwich on foccatia, check your email, and use LiveType to draft the character generation and titling for the same project. There is nothing more useless and frustrating than waiting for renders to complete or writing new display video every time you move the mouse.

The second reason is simple: redundancy. If your tower pukes, you can limp along on your Powerbook until you get it fixed. If your Powerbook dies, your main system still soldiers on, and you have to make your own coffee and foccatia. Slow renders or lack of portability mean lost productivity and a few more sleepless nights, but NO rendering means complete catastrophe if you can't meet a client's deadline.

Dual G5's can crush render times. Keep in mind, however, that they still have an inexplicable FW800 glitch. A Powerbook G4 writes to FW800 drives and arrays far faster than G5's do. Don't ask why. Go to barefeats.com and look it up.

If I had a budget of $4k for my CPUs, I would buy a 15" Powerbook (and max it out to 2GB w/aftermarket RAM) and a used G4 Dual 1.42 (and, again, max it out to 2GB w/aftermarket RAM). I would still have about $500 left over, which I would use as a nest-egg for future upgrades. For editing standard def, this system will be more than sufficient to get the job done, and hi-def is possible, albeit snail's-pace slow. When the time comes for upgrading two years later, the Intel chips will be available--faster, cooler, and powerful enough to make HD more practical.

One last word of advice: never sell a Mac. The best way to be continually productive is to run multiple systems. When you get your lastest/greatest new Mac, you just move the previous "main" system over one space. While you use high-end system "A" for big projects (eventually hi-def ones), system "B" can be used for standard def or shorter projects, older system "C" can be used for audio engineering/titling/web projects, and your laptop can do your office work and/or help with related production as well. If your killer top-of-the-line system develops a bug, life continues, and when you experience long render times you can still keep working on other things. I have a friend of mine who does web design, video, audio engineering, and CD-ROM authoring. He has at least five Macs running constantly--each perfectly tweaked to perform a series of dedicated tasks. The guy gets a MONSTER load of work done this way.