G4 Powerbook vs. Area 51m 5500??

What are you going to use it for?

i just bought a 7700 over a mac. i would love to be able to run final cut, but the powerbooks are way too slow, and the screens kinda suck. i decided to go for a pc laptop and a g5 desktop. i don't know the 5500 too well, but i'll bet it's plenty faster than the powerbook.

Weight isn't that important, unless it's completely ridiculous. After you get used to it, you'll hardly notice you're carrying it around. Heat can be all but negated with the help of the right cooler. And if the battery life isn't satisfactory, carry a backup.

As for longevity, the 5500, being easily more upgradeable, definitely has the capacity to last much longer.

If you are going to be gaming you may be limited by the Mac system since they don't have as many titles, but the games you mentioned are fine.

I personally use mine at home and school as a molecular biology graduate student. It will do everything that I want it to do at home and school (Powerpoint, photo editing, word processing, and gaming).

I like to play FPS games, and the 5500 could handle Doom3 with an ATI 9600. With the new 9700 it is probably even better. I would suggest a cooling pad if playing FPS games since it can get hot enough to trigger the temperature safety that turns off the computer, but I have only had that happen with Doom3. You should be fine without a cooling pad for WCIII.

As far as the battery, I always have mine plugged in. The battery life is only about 2.5 hours so don’t plan on watching DVDs on a plane trip without a backup battery. I don't mind since I bought this computer as a portable desktop with the full realization that to get the performance I wanted I would have to keep it plugged in.

I carry it to school every day in my backpack (Targus Port 3.1, 5500 fits like a glove). The 5500 is not too heavy, comparable to a thick textbook in weight.

EDIT: One last thing is that the SXGA+ 15.4 inch widescreen is beautiful on the 5500.

Yeah man, gotta love that screen!

I like the Powerbooks and all...but they get friggin hot. My 5500 with the ATI 9600 handles all the games I've thrown at it and the screen is far better than the Powerbook screens that I have seen. You'll want the highest res possible for RTS games, otherwise you have to scroll all over the place to see the battles.

I have enjoyed my 5500, although I am not sure what may come about in regards to upgradeabilility. There are no guarantees for a 256 video card yet, and that has me concerned, but aside from that my 5500 has been great. I have played DOOM 3, JO typhoon rising and escalation, Commanche 4, The Matrix Online, and many more games and I don't have any issues with heat. I do use a dual fan cooling pad but even before I got that I never had a problem with the heat issues. For portability it is great. I have the Alienware backpack and it holds everything and has room to spare. I bought the messenger case at first and it could barely hold everything. Games are extremely limited for the MAC;s, and they are just now fixing to come out with a DOOM 3 version for MAC. Anyways, the 5500 is a great notebook, but don't expect a lot of upgradeability with it, which was what I did and now the 7700 is the new kid on the block.

Experience with both systems

I have owned both an AW 5500 and a PB 1.5. The alienware died so I decided to try a mac. Now I'm not going to tell you what you should buy, because ultimately its your decision. It really all depends on what YOUR going to do with it, not what any of us do.

But I will give you my experience with both systems.

With my alienware, I was a gaming freak. I could play any game that was out and that was fine. Then my harddrive crashed. AW replaced that for me and I was back up and running in about 4 days. That was the 1st week that I had it. I had a year of good running time on it, and then after I moved to China to teach English, my AW died. Just wouldn't turn on. After much troubleshooting, I called AW, who told me that they could fix it for me, if I could get it to them. Well, I couldn't. So I was without a computer for 4 months.

During this time, I started looking at Apple. I bought a 17" 1.5 PB and I've had it for about a month now. Does it play Doom 3? No. Does it play almost every other major title to date? Yes. Does it play those games at the highest possible frame rate? NO, but my Alienware didn't either. Especially since you said you are playing RTS, you do need to worry about the video THAT much. The new PB have a Ati 9700 in them, with 128m ram. Thats what the 5500 has.

A lot of people have commented on the screen res. I admit the 15 is a little low, but the 17" is just right.

Another consideration is weight. I find it quite funny that people say weight doesn't matter. When I owned the AW, I said the same thing. "Oh it doesn't feel heavy." Yeah Right! When I first picked up the 17" PB I was amazed at how light it was. IF you want a LAPTOP, weight matters. IF you want a "Mobile Desktop" then weight doesn't matter. But you will never have a true "mobile desktop." Becuase a laptop will NEVER match a laptop of the same configuration.

Then you have to consider that you have to deal with Windows if you go AW.
Mac OS X is the best os ever. No viruses, no malware, you just don't have a to worry about all that stuff.

Wow, long post, wasn't expecting to write that much. I'm not saying you won't be happy with a 5500, but I know you'd be happy with a PB.

If you're going towards a design career I'd recommend a Mac. For all other things, get the AW.

The weight difference between the two is a matter of ounces (6-8) so that shouldn't make a difference.

If you are worried about viruses, get a good virus program and 1 or 2 anti-spyware apps, you should be fine.

Powerbook 15" - 5.6lbs - Thats with the battery.
Powerbrick for PB is maybe 5 oz. Maybe. It's superlight.
Alienware 5500 - 7.5lbs - Without battery!
Battery is what 1 lb or more?
Powerbrickis like 2 lbs!
Your looking at 9+ lbs! Now, if you aren't going to move the thing that much, then it's no big deal. But if you want to actually use it like a laptop, which I'm still trying to figure out why people buy laptops and then don't move them, its going to get heavy. The Powerbrick of the AW is really big and cumbersome as well. And I can assure you that you will always have to take the powerbrick with you. Always. The battery on any high performance "gaming" laptop is a joke. My PB on the other hand played 3 hours of Age of Mythology on battery the other day. 1400X900 resolution with graphics on high.

I recently went to Thailand for a conference for my place of work. Going there I carried my broken Alienware in my bookbag. I only took one of the batteries and one of the power bricks. Only 6 hours of travel (2 flights) and it was really weighing on my back.

I carried back both a 15" PB (my friends) and my new 17" PB in the same bag on the way back home. The trip back home took much longer because my wife and I had to take a bus for one leg of the trip. 12 hour trip. Now, I'm not going to tell you that my back wasn't tired on the way home, but Both of the PB's felt like one Alienware 5500.

Now, Alienware does have one thing going for it. The send you a nice t-shirt when you order a system from them. Apple doesn't do that anymore.

Heh..my Ibook got a virus o.O

I'd much rather have an AW-I don't really care abt weight.Regarding power, couldn't u just plug it in on the plane.Anyway, you have 2 get an emulator to play most games on a mac, whearas on a pc u just install + play.AW rules!

If you got a virus on OS X you'll be one of the first people in the world to have actually gotten one.

Get a AW!!! You cant compare AW with apple, alienware swipes the slate clean, the 5500 is v.good. I have a 7700 but i no that the 5500 is simalar

GET A ALIENWARE!!

here is a comparison guide for a 51m 5500 from alienware. It compares them with Apple and Dell

http://www.alienware.co.uk/product_d...KU-PERFORMANCE

Hahahahahaha, that is the most ridiculously biased comparison I've ever seen.

You simply cannot compare an Alienware and a PowerBook that way.

Lets see...the 17 inch PowerBook doesn't have a 15.4inch LCD screen because it's, surprise surprise, a SEVENTEEN INCH NOTEBOOK. And notice how this 15.4 inch laptop is actually higher, deeper, and heavier than the 17 inch PowerBook.

No Pentium 4 or HyperThreading because it uses a completely different architecture.

Doesn't come stock with corsair high performance memory or a 7200 RPM drive, but you can add them later if you want, though the memory is quite good even if it isn't PC 3200.

So you get a choice which card you want with the Alienware...that just makes the possibility of driver errors higher. Games should perform better on Macs because there are a limited number of hardware choices, which makes it easier on developers who do more than just port PC games over. And once Tiger comes out, that AlienAdrenaline thing will be put to shame.

PowerBooks don't need 160 watt adaptors because they can run, and charge at the same time, on only 65 watts thanks to the efficient PowerPC chip inside.

Rubber grips are a feature?

While multiple colours would be nice, they don't go with Apple's elegant simplicity ethos. You can always get it painted if you must have it in colour.

Apple's dead pixel policy is industry standard, though it could be better.

The new PowerBooks come with digital out.

Haha, I love the rubberized grip comparison.