Apple or PC notebook?

just get an ibook for serious stuff. you dont' need a powerbook for seriuos stuff. lol

but... seriously, save the gaming at home on a desktop.

I say the price of ibook 12" is out of this world. you won't find the same price for 12" on windows unless u wanna go to dell or something.

high quality always good for me! I hate going thru tech support that's why igot my ibook

enjoy my pics on the Apple Gallery
http://www.notebookforums.com/showth...27#post1181827

Sounds like an iBook would be great for your needs.

sev,
i was in a similar place as u last year. i was very torn between a PC laptop which i could game on or going for a smaller machine that would be portable and possibly sacrifice any serious gaming allusions, as "serious" as gaming can be on a laptop. (sorry, but i'm cynical about gaming w/o a legit mouse, desktop KB, and 19+ inch monitor). in any case, i went for the iBook and haven't regretted it. as u suggested, i do most of what i need on my Mac and i frag on the desktop.

if u go for a stock 12" thru amazon ($100 rebate, free shipping, and no tax) u'd be getting a sweet deal that is quite unbeatable in a "low-end" notebook considering the built-in BT, powered 6-pin firewire, discrete video, 4+ avg. hours of battery life, the anti-shock harddrive features (sudden motion sensor and rubber mounting), and not to mention OS X and all the little perks that come w/ it and the Mac platform.

u could splurge a bit more for the 12" PB (amazon has rebates for the PBs too), but for your needs i wouldn't recommend the 15" PB.

the powerbook is a good choice too. it's a tad smaller than the ibook and quality is a bit better in terms of keyboard/trackpad button. I'm not sure about DVD play back but I certainly think that it's no problem... i mean DVDs have been out for so long. it wouldn't be reasonable for it to not have smooth playback.

Well, if you have a PC desktop, then I would just go with an iBook or Powerbook. Both are nice machines. The iBook is a great purchase for basic computing. The Powerbook is a bit more for those that need more power on the road and/or do some gaming because you can get the 128VRAM upgrade. Both have their advantages and disadvantages.

i have a 12 inch powerbook and love it it has plenty of speed except for rendering video, the screen is large enough due to the number of pixles, it looks great and i have found there is so much free and included software for mac you barely have to buy anything

on account of my trolling i'll put up a constructive thread addressing multiple points.

1) i guess teh question that comes to mind is why post an apple vs pc thread in an apple forum? This action indicates you are attracted to apples. in all fairness, you should double post in the "notebook general" section too.

but anyway....with the laptops....

2) i know the iBooks were recently redone but to my knowledge, historically the build quality has not been the best, so in all seriousness i'd suggest you walk away from it.

3) the 12" pb is probably one of the best mobile options on the market, granted that there is a 13" sony with ATi 9700 128mb on the market and a few sonys with nvidia 6200 (32mb dedicated, 96mb shared) for around the same price as the powerbook.

4) how's your software library? that being said, if most of your stuff is PC-Only, why the hell would you want to spend more money buying mac versions, so the switch to apple will in the end cost you more than jsut the price of the laptop.

5) although there will be PPC support for a while, since Apple is switching to x86 soon, i don't see the use of getting a PPC mac (i myself am an x86_64 user...as you can tell, always thinking about the future).


and now slightly off-topic.

you said that Windows has been pissing you off lately, how so? WinXP is more stable than ever, and with Vista comming soon things will change. Granted the new "Genuine Advantage" and some other half-ass programs microsoft has introduced like the intel-microsoft joint veture of "hardware DRM scanning" or whatever they call it.....terrible!

at any rate, i wish you luck!

Sony w/nvidia 6200 (32mb dedicated, 96mb shared) for $1550.
http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Sony-...oductDetail.do

i am having difficulties finding the one with the ati 9700 128mb. i am sure if you post in the "notebook general" section somebody will pull it up for you.

I didn't know the smoothness of DVD playback was a function of VRAM. Anyhow, I own the latest 12-inch PowerBook G4 (1.5 GHz) and never had a problem playing back a DVD.

The build quality of my PowerBook is great. People I show my PowerBook are highly impressed with its flush-mounted screws and the screen hinge which goes back and out. This thing oozes build quality.

You say all your software is PC, but if you're just going to be doing internet, DVDs, chatting, and word processing, you never need to buy a single piece of new software.

I see no reason to believe that DVD playback requires more than 32MB of video RAM. That video RAM is usually there for 3D rendering; DVD playback doesn't require anything close to 32MB of video RAM for whatever hardware acceleration the video card is reponsible for, I'm quite sure.

Anyways, if you're on any sort of budget, I'd recommend that you consider the 12" iBook. Especially since the refresh, it offers a fairly powerful notebook that's comparable to the 12" Powerbook in specs (well, sort of), that should be good enough to handle whatever needs you have. Especially DVD playback, would think. The only thing is that it's a bit thicker than the Powerbook. Not sure about weight or battery life, though, but I'd imagine that the iBook has longer battery life with the slower CPU. Oh yeah, and if you're a university student, you can get a free iPod mini 4GB (or its value off a higher priced iPod) before Sept 24th (and a free Epson printer if you live in the US).

But if you want to go the PC gaming route: seriously consider getting a Dell Inspiron 9300 with a Dell US Coupon! I got one from Dell Canada, and although we pay a lot more than you guys, it's still the best deal for any gaming notebook. And trust me, it's a <i>gaming</i> notebook. I run America's Army at WUXGA resolution (1920x1200) with 2xAA and 8xAF, with highest character and highest texture settings, and I get about 30-40fps average in the SF_WaterTreatment map. I'm using a USB MS Intellimouse Optical 1.1 and the i9300's keyboard (which has pretty large keys). You should be able to get the system shown in my signature, including the 3-year warranty and CompleteCare accidental breakage/spillage coverage for, say, $1400 USD with a good coupon (see the Deals and Coupons forum here on NBF). Or even less; I'm not too sure.

DVD playback is all a function of processor speed. A G3 should be able to handle it no problem.

it used to be, but that's why ATI and nVidia developed acceleration on chip for it. much like the new h.264 standard, it's a CPU hog, hence the next gen GPUs r already being slotted to have hardware acceleration for it built in.

abf,
i believe the sony u r referring to was the 13" sony S series, which could be custom ordered from sony w/ a radeon 9700 64MB. no 128 that i'm aware of. in any case, for as much as the S series cost, it's a damn shame they went with the nvidia turbo crap chip.

afaik, the S series w/ the radeon 9700 is no longer available in retail so u'd be stuck w/ ebay or whatever. somehow your offerings for the sony abf, seem a bit off kilter. you're usually the 1st to hop in and slam the radeon 9700 as outdated when it's in a mac, but when it's in an overpriced sony...? a low end S series configured @ sony's website is closer to the price of the low end 15" PB than it is to the low end 12" PB (and yes i'm referring to amazon rebate prices, which on the PBs tend to put them ~$50 cheaper than Apple academic priced machines before taxes. amazon 12" PB combo w/ rebate comes to $1349 vs $1588 Apple retail w/ 6% sales tax calculated).

here's what i came up w/ for a configuration from sonystyle (bc the only way u'll have some say in the pricing is by BTO. compusa and bestbuy will have flat rates on 1 configuration and it's usally around $1999):
- 13.3" LCD non-xbrite (w/ xbrite add $50 to the price below)
- nVidia gForce Go 6200 w/ Turbo Crap™
- wireless lan b/g w/ bluetooth
- DVD/CD-RW combo (add $120 to total price for DVD burner)
- 60GB harddrive
- 512MB RAM (1 slot)
- 1.6 Ghz Pentium M (lowest PM available)
- large capacity battery

Price before Taxes?
$1744

u could get the high end 12" PB for significantly lessthan that price or even justify the 15" if u were to add the xbrite and dvd burner.


also, build quality for the s series, while arguably attractive, is flimsy in a hands on experience when compared to even the iBook. try going to compusa or bestbuy and breathing on the palmrest of the S machine <flexes>. needless to say the PB would have the most sturdy chassis given that it's aluminum.

Intel PowerBooks won't be out until the middle/end of 06 at the earliest.

Appleworks is getting long in the tooth, but as long as you don't need Word compatibility it should be fine. Also you can always download NeoOffice which is a Mac native Java implementation of OpenOffice. I think Word:mac is worth it, however, it's much better than Word for PC. The student edition of office is only 145, iirc.

It's always good to have a firewall. OS X comes with a very good one built right in, so you don't need to worry about buying one unless you want extra features. I personally use NetBarrier, but mainly because I like the idea of deciding which programmes can and can't access my net connection.

Don't let any Norton stuff near a Mac and you'll be fine.

typically the drop occurs when the new product ships, but as kakaze said, the next revision will still be PPC. Apple and all of the retailers typically drop prices by $100 w/ more expensive products getting marginally greater discounts. not trying to beat a dead horse, and no i don't work for amazon , but when the new iBooks recently came out amazon was both offering the discounted price plus the rebates to clear out what stock they had. so in that instance they were dumping "old" 12" iBooks off for $799 while even apple was just giving $100 off price of $999. if a new iteration of the PBs come out i'd recommend checking out amazon. if they're still offering rebates,as they have for nearly a year now, u could end up w/ a very nice deal on a PB.

u could, if u feel u truly need to have it. actually, openoffice or neo office (a more mac-centric version of open office) are open source (free) office suites which will allow u to edit and create Word documents, spreadsheets, etc.

OS X has a firewall built in. it's worked fine for me, but then again hackers haven't been successful @ hacking the Mac OS. there is no spyware for OS X, as foreign programs are not allowed to write files to your system w/o u overtly authorizing it. i have anti-virus software, which i haven't installed. it just hasn't been an issue. some might say u should get it for your friends on windows machines. however, it's pretty likely they have antivirus software anyway, as their computers would likely be pretty unusable after a month's (if that) worth of internet use. personally i'd say save your $ for school or some accessories u really want or need. if u "need" (i.e.-paranoid bc of windows use) an AV program i'd recommend the free opensource clamXav, it actually ships w/ OS X server edition. read up. http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/ma...19/clamav.html