PowerBook Advice (Nothing About Intel!)

[danny_boy]

Hi There,

I need a bit of Mac advice really. Before I start I think the Intel move is really good for Apple. Well I'm about to purchase a PowerBook 15" (1.5 GHz Processor)

My questions are, I currently have a Dell PC with a 1GB RAM and 3.0 GHz processor. I currently use my PC for my Computer Science Degree, Web Surfing, E-Mail, MSN Messenger, PhotoShop, Dreamweaver and MS Office. Will my PowerBook be able to cope with all that? I like to multi task a lot, i.e. listen to iTunes and work in PhotoShop and Dreamweaver at the same time. Also coming from my PC will my PowerBook be much slower?

I plan on adding a 1GB chip (Third Party) into my PowerBook with my next pay cheque. Is it ok using third party RAM? I'm planning on getting it from Crucial.

My next questions are regarding Apple's Cinema Displays. I quite like the 20" and 23" Apple Cinema Displays. What’s the main difference between them? I see the 23" is HD, is this worth spending the extra cash for HD? I've read about the dual display capabilities of the PowerBook. Do I simply plug the cinema display into the PowerBook? If someone could tell me a little about dual displays that would be great.

Thanx in advance, lots of questions there.

Cheers

Danny

[EmC]

I really don't think you will have a problem. I have a new powerbook, 1.67Ghz + 1GB RAM (from crucial) and I am constantly running multiple things. Right now I have safari, mail, iChat, iTunes (playing), quicktime(idle), fireworks (10 files), and dreamweaver running. I don't notice any lag when trying to complete any of the tasks in any of those programs. I think that you will be suprised at how fast everything is. MHz isn't everything, and you won't be wasting cycles just keeping windows afloat. I have a pentium 4 with a GB of RAM clocked at 1.7GHz and my powerbook runs circles around it.

Crucial RAM should be fine, I have never had a problem with the products or customer service.

I can't answer your technical questions about the displays but I can say that it is as easy as plugging them into the PB DVI port, OS X automatically sees it and boom there is your display.

[Jerman]

The speed should not be an issue. I run Photoshop, Safari, Instant Messaging, Mail, iTunes, and a bunch of other apps without issue. Of course I do have 1.25 gigs of ram, but you already mentioned you would purchase some more... On the issue of ram, yes you can use any manufacturer's memory. Keep in mind if you choose to get the 12" Powerbook, you can only add one chip for a total of 1.25 gigs of ram. On the 15 and 17 of course you can add two chips. (But the 12" has 256 megs built in as well).

For the displays, I suppose it just depends on how much screen real estate you wish to have. I personally am planning on buying a 24" Dell LCD at some point, just because it is so much cheaper and offers more connection options. If you are doing extensive work in Dreamweaver and Photoshop, it may be worth having the higher resolution to be able to see all that you are working on easier. And oh yeah, connecting a second display couldn't be easier. You plug it in, go to the displays preference pain, and you can drag a "box" that represents each display to configure the location of each display. Sorry, don't know how to describe that better. But yes, it is very simple.

Hope some of that helps.

[Franz Josef]

15" PB is a great machine and will do just fine - it's fast so multitasking won't be a problem and you'll find Expose a very efficient way to navigate between different apps - in my experience, it's much more intuitive to use (and therefore quicker) than Windows when you have a number of things running at the same time. The extra RAM will be welcome though - Crucial is fine.

Use the search function on the top menu bar re external displays - we've had a number of threads discussing pros and cons of different manufacturers. 23" is HD, 20" isn't and some people have found third party manufacturers better value than Apple - suggest you try them out at an Apple store / reseller before you buy.

[danny_boy]

Hi,

Thank you for all your replies. I will be the happy owner of a PowerBook in a few weeks time now. One last thing, I'm pretty much skint now I've bought this. So I don't plan on upgrading the RAM until next month when I get paid from work. Is 512MB RAM sufficient for the PowerBook for the time being? Is anyone running there PowerBook on 512MB RAM now?

Cheers

Dan

[eleazar]

I am right now....

I am fine when I have iTunes, Safari, and Mail going at the same time. If I open photoshop with all that, I get the beach ball every now and then. I have had some big time slow downs when iMovie and Photoshop were open at the same time.

I need to upgrade but I have been lazy for some reason. I just can't bring myself to sit down and order some RAM. I'll wait for one of those frustrating days I guess.

[Franz Josef]

512MB is fine for now (ie everything will work without difficulty) but moving to 1GB+ will mean you will be able run multiple apps faster.