I personally have been using an ibook, and it is pretty sweet, but if you can get a PowerBook - GO FOR IT!!! The powerbook is way cooler than the ibook. (I don't mean in temperature) One of my buddies has a 12" G4 albook and in design - it is more versatile than the ibook and more pleasing to look at. If I was you I would definitely go for the G4 PB. David.
-----Original Message----- From: G-Books [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Tom Burke Sent: 01 January 2004 09:35 To: G-Books Subject: Re: Which book to buy? On Wednesday, December 31, 2003, at 07:42 pm, G-Books wrote: > Date: Tue, 30 Dec 2003 22:34:50 -0500 > From: btripp <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Which book to buy? > Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Hi guys, > > I need an opinion. Or several as the case may be. > > I'm torn between buying a new 12" ibook G4 and a 12" Powerbook. It > has to > be 12". I really like the new ibook but am concerned about having > only an > 800mhz processor and the smaller cache and lesser graphics. I can > however, > trick the thing out with 640mb of ram, airport and the 3 year extended > warranty for about the same price as the powerbook with the options I > need. > > The Powerbook however is faster, has a bigger cache and better > video. Plus > I could always upgrade the ram far beyond what the ibook allows right? > > I guess what I'm asking for are your opinions on which book to buy. > I will > be using it for mostly internet and word processing, but will need the > occasional power to run gis applications or some other apps. How good > is the > 800mhz ibook compared to the 1ghz powerbook? To muddy the water more, > what > about the 867mhz powerbook? It has different video than both of the > others > though right? > > Thanks in advance! Feel free to reply offlist if this has been > discussed > too recently! > > -Ben I've got a 1st release 12" PB, and it's fine for my needs, but I wish I'd waited a couple of months and got the G4 iBook, for the sake of the £450 saving! I'm not sure how much difference in practice having 800Mhz, 867Mhz or even 1Ghz would actually make. Yes you could distinguish between them with benchmarks, but in real life? - I don't know. There are a couple of things that you need to know about the iBook specs. First, you can put more ram than specified in them - there is a company in the US that is selling 1Gb SO-DIMMS that fit into the user slot. It's expensive, but the point is that if you need to do it, you can. And moving to graphics, there is the 'Open Firmware hack' that applies to iBook video, specifically the issue of video mirroring vs. spanning. As specified, Powerbooks can do spanning, iBooks are only supposed to be able to do mirroring. Actually, it turns out that the graphics chip in the iBook is perfectly capable of doing spanning, but this capability has been cut back in the iBook firmware (presumably to differentiate between it and the Powerbook). How to undo this is fully documented on XLR8Yourmac.com. So - the iBook can take > 1Gb RAM, and it can do monitor spanning. Tom Burke -- G-Books is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- Check our web site for refurbished PowerBooks | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> G-Books list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-books.html> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/g-books%40mail.maclaunch.com/> --------------------------------------------------------------- >The Think Different Store http://www.ThinkDifferentStore.com --------------------------------------------------------------- -- G-Books is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- Check our web site for refurbished PowerBooks | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> G-Books list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-books.html> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/g-books%40mail.maclaunch.com/> --------------------------------------------------------------- >The Think Different Store http://www.ThinkDifferentStore.com ---------------------------------------------------------------
