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Powerbook 15" superdrive v. Ferrari 3400

Poll Results: Which would you choose?

 
  • 42% (15)
    Powerbook 15" Superdrive
  • 54% (19)
    Acer Ferrari 3400
  • 2% (1)
    I have another option see below (in same $$ range)
35 Total Votes  
post #1 of 29
1/7/05 at 1:34am
Thread Starter 
I am torn between the Powerbook 15" superdrive (1.5ghz, 512mb ddr, 64mb video, 80gig hdd) and the Ferrari 3400...specs are obvious.

My needs:
Portablity
Battery Life (note I am thinking at least 3 hours uptime)
Run photoshop for large files
games (I know mac lacks here, but it's still something i'd like to be able to do as more games are ported over).

which would you choose based on my needs?
I have only had PCs, if that helps.
I appreciate your help, I know it gets old answering silly questions like these.
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post #2 of 29
1/7/05 at 1:44am
Quote:
Originally Posted by TooKungFoo4U
I am torn between the Powerbook 15" superdrive (1.5ghz, 512mb ddr, 64mb video, 80gig hdd) and the Ferrari 3400...specs are obvious.

My needs:
Portablity
Battery Life (note I am thinking at least 3 hours uptime)
Run photoshop for large files
games (I know mac lacks here, but it's still something i'd like to be able to do as more games are ported over).

which would you choose based on my needs?
I have only had PCs, if that helps.
I appreciate your help, I know it gets old answering silly questions like these.
I'm owned both of these. Last year I decided I wanted to go totally mobile and I bought a 15" PowerBook. It was awesome for a few weeks, but then I finally realized it wasn't for me. The hardware rocked, but I couldn't get used to OS X.

I don't think you're going to get 3+ hours of battery life on either of these. I get about 2 1/2 hours on the Ferarri at best. The PowerBook was about the same if I can remember correctly. On the 15" PowerBook I had, the GPU was terrible. I wouldn't have even considered it for any serious gaming.

If you're a PC person, making "the switch" is much more difficult.

I love the Ferarri. It's a great machine. I picked it because it seems to be one of the lighter laptops in it's class.
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post #3 of 29
1/8/05 at 4:30am
The 15 inch PB has the Radeon 9700 in it. If you wait a few weeks the new revision is supposed to come out and it's rumoured they'll have the 9800s in them.

I switched in August, and while OS X is different, it's not so completely different that I'm lost. Just don't ask me to futz around in the Terminal.

I say get the PB but I'm biased.
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post #4 of 29
1/8/05 at 4:03pm
apple sucks. go for an apple if you would like just to express yourself. in any another way go for pc- there is much more upgrading options and you don't have to be locked to stupid apple's OS interface + there are much more programs available for pc (doesn't matter if it is mikro$oft or linux), and so on and so on....

ferarri looks cool , i almost buy one of these- but it was a overpriced at the time.
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post #5 of 29
1/8/05 at 8:56pm
Apple doesn't suck. I think all technology has it's good and bad sides, you just have to pick the one you think will suite your needs the best. I haven't owned an Apple desktop or laptop, but I'm pretty impressed with what they have to offer.

I have mainly used PC's, and just recently dabled in the Apple market. Apple laptops have just as much to affer as any IBM/AMD based laptops. I also like the looks of the Apple PB looks over the Ferrari. The Acer is a nice laptop, but it is just too flashy for my taste.

If you will be doing a decent amount of gaming, I would go with the Ferrari.

I think they are both great choices, although IMHO a bit pricey. In my leisure and work time, I feel I need both platforms, not only to learn for my job but to stay up on current technology.


^_^_^
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post #6 of 29
1/8/05 at 10:09pm
Does apple have a powerbook G5 coming out soon? Is that what Kakaze is referring to?

I prefer PCs for gaming. Macs are easy to use but just don't do games.
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post #7 of 29
1/8/05 at 10:20pm
Apple really doesn't suck, but most likely the ATI-Drivers for Macs do. I've seen cross-platform benchmarks (cinebench or whatever it was) somewhere and the PB 15" with the 64MB Radeon 9700 got about 30% of what a Windows-Notebook with exactly the same GPU got O_o

So most likely even a windows-notebook with a Radeon 9200 will still be significantly faster than the 15" Powerbook when it comes to gaming. so sad ;__;
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post #8 of 29
1/8/05 at 10:21pm
IBM has come out with a new low power G5, but I don't believe it's in production yet. The next generation of PowerBooks will either be single core chips topping out at say 1.6 or 1.7 GHz or they'll be dual core chips topping out around the same speeds...possibly up to 2 GHz, but unlikely.

What I was referring to specifically, however, was the video card in the next generation of PB. They're rumoured to be putting the Radeon 9800s into them.
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post #9 of 29
1/9/05 at 7:00am
For gaming, go pc. Macs don't suck, they mostly use the same hardware as pcs anyway (don't know about laptops though). I have played on Macs before, as Blizzard always releases Mac versions of their games, and the performance wasn't lacking in any way. But it is true that very few games are ever ported for Macs, so it's even worse than Linux if you wish to play mainstream games. At least Linux has Wine and Cedega, both of which are constantly improving and will run a lot of games well. I am unaware if there are such alternatives for Macs.
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post #10 of 29
1/9/05 at 7:02am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kakaze
What I was referring to specifically, however, was the video card in the next generation of PB. They're rumoured to be putting the Radeon 9800s into them.
I find that unlikely. Not only is it an old card now, with the x-series replacing it, the 9800 was always too bulky for thin&light laptops and needed too much power at the cost of battery life. Apple isn't exactly known for 4kg+ laptops.
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post #11 of 29
1/9/05 at 7:06am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Virtudude
I don't think you're going to get 3+ hours of battery life on either of these. I get about 2 1/2 hours on the Ferarri at best.
Ferrari 3400 should get 3+ hours easily, as I get almost 3 hours of normal internet use (but not with max cpu speed) with 3200. Acer lists the battery life for 3200 as 2h 30min, and 3h for the 3400. Of course, that's normal varied use, not heavy duty gaming.
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post #12 of 29
1/9/05 at 8:39am
*Puts on flame suit*

Their both a "bit" overpriced for what they offer in terms of performance. If I had to choose I'd take the 3400 for performance, and the Powerbook for looks/OSX/originallity Though I am not saying I wouldnt personally buy them myself but i'd prefer an Asus or a Sager over these 2.

On the other hand I openly admit that I am Biased so...
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post #13 of 29
1/9/05 at 11:06am
The Apple is a superior machine compared to the Ferrari, but the Ferrari is a PC.
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post #14 of 29
1/9/05 at 11:33am
I love the powerbooks:. i only wish that the keyboard was ,ore spread out///apple kinda scrunbches it together and i know my hands aould just die like that! if I had the ,oney, i would go PB, but would probabvly get the 17inch. thats just me though....i have played with osx and though it takes some getting used to, i like it.

if you can go to comp usa or an apple stotre and play with the PB you are looking at, then do that and also see if you can play with a pc notebook si,ilar to the ferrari and just see which one you like.
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post #15 of 29
1/9/05 at 1:50pm
I thnk that this thread has been hijacked. Its original purpose was ferrari 3400 vs powerbook and a "what should I buy" thread to some extent. Now it is mac vs. pc. In terms of that arguement, they both have pros and cons. Apple's advantage is that they always have a very finished and usable product, but their third party support sucks. PC's have the opposite. Very often the initial comp/laptop sucks in terms of software, and sometimes hardware. It is the third party products that eventually make up our dream computer. It all depends on what you like. In terms of a computer for TuKungFoo, I think he should go sonoma. It should meet all his criteria perfectly. The A64 is too powerhungry, same for the G4. I don't think he can go wrong with a good sonoma with dedicated X800/6600go.r
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post #16 of 29
1/9/05 at 7:24pm
Thread Starter 
Hi all, first, what's a "sonoma"?

Here's what I have seen/read/used in the last week.
I went to an Apple store and played with the PB. Despite the completely useless saleswoman, I still got a chance to play with it. I used a Mac in school about 4 years ago, I haven't really forgotten how to get around, I just didn't ever learn how to do some things so that will take some learning.

I am very open to a notebook that offers specs comparable to the Ferrari and PB. Be it Acer, Sony, Sager, etc. I am trying to stick around $2,000 USD and the PB configured the way I want is around $2700, over budget but I would be an easy sell to miss my target budget. However, if I can find something like this in my budget then I'd be all over it.

I want 128mb ram, @ least 512mb memory (dedicated), and it must be under 7lbs. I think having those wants alone offers me a wide variety to choose from.

Today in speaking with some friends I told them that I can't exactly say why I want a Mac. The Mac has what I want, so does the Ferrari. I say Ferrari because thus far it is in the price range (opposed to the Mac) and has what I want. The travelmate 8000 seems to have what I want, but I can't find it for sale in USD.

The one option I have yet to explore are the centrino chips. The same question about those chips are the same questions I had to research for the Mac. How can something be 1.5ghz centrino and run the way a 3ghz would run...both windows environments?

Anyway I'm still lost.
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post #17 of 29
1/10/05 at 5:07am
You are aware that the AMD64 3000+ runs at 1.8 or 2GHz too, right? And they sell Pentium-M's at the same clock speeds. 1.5GHz doesn't compare to a 3GHz P4, but the higher models will. Multiply it by 1.5 to 1.7 and you get the P4 equivalent.

It's just that I find it funny how people consider AMD all the time, and AMD and P-M have nearly the same clock speeds, yet people are only worried about the P-M... perhaps the marketing ploy of naming AMD chips after P4 actually works

In fact I believe PowerPC has similarly low clockspeeds also, but high performance. It is only P4 that has twice that, yet it's the one people compare to.
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post #18 of 29
1/10/05 at 3:08pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sanna
I find that unlikely. Not only is it an old card now, with the x-series replacing it, the 9800 was always too bulky for thin&light laptops and needed too much power at the cost of battery life. Apple isn't exactly known for 4kg+ laptops.
:shrug: that was the rumor at the time. I guess we'll find out tomorrow...hopefully.
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post #19 of 29
1/13/05 at 6:49am
i'd go with the ferrari for computing muscle and the powerbook for OS X.

Currently for a top end high priced laptop, the Powerbook is a slow performer mainly due to the FSB and the older G4 chip. Actually the G4 is an amazing performer (especially when using multiple programs at once) and has shown its quality by lasting so long, but it is starting to show its age versus higher end laptops.

However, all the speed in the world won't matter if you have a tendency for spyware/adware and virus problems on a PC. This is not a problem on OS X. I won't really go into how awesome OS X is (it took me a day to get use to it... even natural left handed people need time for adjustment after writing with their right hand all their life!), but it is definitely the main selling point for the Powerbook right now... i'd also take a look at ilife, which is an amazing non-pro software package included with the powerbook.

Despite a post above... the GPU in the Powerbook does NOT perform equivalent to a 9200 in a PC laptop. This can be most easily evidenced by the many pro applications for video and graphic editing available for Mac and easily used on a Powerbook.

The Ferrari though is faster as far as pure processing power goes (although it still isn't too impressive IMO), and is probably in your better interest if you are interested in gaming or specific applications that aren't available on Mac.

But if photoshop is your main concern then I'd definitely get the Powerbook.
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post #20 of 29
1/13/05 at 8:33am
i just posted about missing os x.. badly.. windows blows. The hardware is maybe faster a bit.. but os x is instant on, launches apps faster so the speed offset between a 1.33 g4 pb and a sony s260 is negligible for standard day to day use.

my pb is on ebay with like 15 hrs left and i am thinking of taking it off and selling the s260.. i can't decide.. still.. the sony has a great screen and is probably ore in line with my work(although most of the stuff i do is server related.., the pb has os x and multitasks a shiteload better.
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