Powerbook wants... needs.... desires

[makkystyle]

Just wanted to get a thread running on what powerbook specs are expected with this speculated Nov. 5th update. Personally, I think the following is reasonable:

1Ghz G4 (low end staying at 800mhz)
512 mb DDR RAM (I know the processor can't fully utilize it yet, but it does run at a lower voltage and therefore it will reduce heat)
Better heat dissipation system
Radeon 9000 preferably with 64mb of RAM

I really hope that bluetooth is included, but the above are really all I think we can realistically expect.

Now.... does anyone have any information to the contrary????

 

[hesdeadjim]

Conservative

A more conservative high end would be 933 MHz, but I think that a gig is quite possible. I can't really think of anything else. Bluetooth is a possibility, but I only think when digital device comes out that can utilize it. I don't mean an iPhone or iWalk neccesairly, but maybe a bluetooth adapter to the iPod just for contacts and calender that way you don't have to plug it in. Maybe with a push for the bluetooth phone that ericson or phillips did or a push for bluetooth enabled printers.

 

[Stelliform]

Wants:

1 Ghz G4
1 Gig DDR Ram
64 MB Video

Needs:

800 Ghz G4 (Already pretty Darn Fast)
1 Gig SDRAM
32 MB Video

(wait that is already availible!)

Desires:

1.25Ghz G4
2Gig DDr Ram
128 MB Video card

(Hey We said desires. I pulled back from desiring a G5!)

Reality?

Only Steve Knows......

 

[idkew]

Need AT LEAST a 64 mb video card.

better paint is a MUST.

1+ ghz would be very nice.

1.5-2 GB or ram would be good, fake ddr even better.

superdrive would be nice, but not necessary.

bluetooth would be a nice, cheap addition.

humm..... firewire 2 would be cool (¿donde estas?), as well as usb 2.

 

[prefect]

I don't think the differenct between 1 GHz and 800 MHz is going to be noticeable.

Why even make a 933 MHz???

Seem like a waste to me.

Anyway I would like to see a better video chip, heat issues resolved and maybe the crappy paint fixed.

 

[idkew]

Originally posted by prefect
I don't think the differenct between 1 GHz and 800 MHz is going to be noticeable.

Why even make a 933 MHz???

why not use a SE/30?

A 20% speed increase is not something for you to get excited about?

If i had 20% more time in a day I would have almost 5 more hours to sleep.

[edit] i bet steve would really like you. [/edit]

 

[FelixDerKater]

Hmmm

I think we can all agree that a laptop that is marketed as a professional system needs 64MB of VRAM on a Radeon card. I am still furious with Apple over the fact that they stuck a weak 8MB Rage 128 Mobility in my TiBook, at the time other companies were offering 16 and 32MB cards. That is one of the only disappointments I have now with my TiBook.

 

[scem0]

It now looks as if there wont be a superdrive model, so apple will have to make up for it with other features.

 

[prefect]

Originally posted by idkew

A 20% speed increase is not something for you to get excited about?

If i had 20% more time in a day I would have almost 5 more hours to sleep.

[edit] i bet steve would really like you. [/edit]

idkew, you are comparing apples to oranges.

A 20% increase in CPU speed is not very significant at all. I would bet a vast majority of users aren't going to notice any difference.

We recently upgraded one of our labs at school from PIII 500MHz to P4 2.53 GHz and what is that a ~500% increase in speed? We even went from 256 SDRAM to 512 RDRAM!

For most of the apps that I have seen running MS Office, Visual C++, Borland C++, VB.NET, Photoshop, etc there isn't much of a difference. So the app takes a 1/2 second shorter to start up. Does that really justify the cost? I am sure benchmarks show a huge difference. But I think human perception out weighs silly machine generated benchmarks.

Sure games are a little smoother but a decent Graphics Card upgrade can achieve the same thing.

If Apple ever does release a new Powerbook and the only thing that has changed is the CPU (going from 800 MHz to 1 GHz) it will be awfully dissapointing.

They are better off upgrading the video chip, fixing the paint and heat issues. I am all for a 1 GHz PB but upgrading from a 800MHz PB to a 1 GHz is a waste of money.

 

[moby1]

What we really need.

What we really need is lower prices.

If the new models dropped to say, 2299 & 2799, I think there would be a lot more of us upgrading from older PowerBooks.

Apple's PowerBooks represent pretty good value but they are a bit too steep for most people these days. I no longer feel I can justify spending over 2500 for a laptop.

The SONY & Toshiba DVD-R laptops cannot be taken seriously. The media drive is way too large for the enclosures and it looks ridiculous in the SONY model. I think they just did this as a publicity stunt, just for the atention & press. The SuperDrive would be an awesome addition to the PowerBook but I would rather wait than end up with a thick, heavy enclosure.

These Toshiba drives also only burn at 1X. Well, I'm burning a DVD at 1X speed right now (I tried some new, cheaper media that turned out not to be capable of 2X) and it's ridiculous. Most Mac users actually DO things with their machines, we can wait for DVD-R drives that are actually meant to be used.

moby1

~Owner of 5 previous PowerBooks & likely owner of a 6th one soon~

 

[NHMac]

Am I the only one that wants a cool Mac subnotebook Like the gear over at http://www.dynamism.com ? Not that I think such a beast would be released at the Moscone Center this January.

 

[Ti_Pousin]

Don't hope too much

All I have to say don't hope too much about graphic card like the radeon 9000. They have include a new one in the last revision and as we all know, the graphic card in mac model are ALL oudated card selling at too high price.

What the f*ck you think somebody can do with a GForce 2 MX right now? it's slow as hell! but they keep it in the iMac! The GForce 4 MX is base on the GForce 2 MX with few add-on no big difference there! the tower with the GForce 4 Ti are the only reasonnable thing you could get, the radeon 9000 is good for the iMac not the pro tower damn! and we still have the lower RAM possible on each card at the higher price!

Video card on the Mac is, for my point of view, the BIGGEST Godzila flaw.

It's no more true that life lenght of Mac are longer then PC becaus of video card. And we still can't buy newest video card from ATI (wow a 8500, not bad but no ADC really cool! they hold the 9000 pro with a big 64 VRAM, and for when the 9700, probably never) or nVidia (don't sell at all, except the GForce 4 Ti on the apple store wich are really overprice, even after a years the price aren't moving!)

I'm thinking to switch to PC and run Linux soon, I'm tired of all this. Bad bad sad thing, I really love Mac OS X wich is formidable, why can't we have decent hardware to go with this at a reasonnable price since around 85% of the piece in a Mac are PC components? I know developping and research cost a lot, but I'm tired to pay for iPhoto, iTunes or iDon'tcare when I buy a video card, when I buy my computer hardware! damn sold the soft separetly please!

 

[Jeffx342]

you have to be kidding me 933 MHz is a joke, thats not much of an upgrade, if apple keeps doig thise its going t be tough competing with PC's

 

[anthonymoody]

"A 20% increase in CPU speed is not very significant at all. I would bet a vast majority of users aren't going to notice any difference."

True.

"We recently upgraded one of our labs at school from PIII 500MHz to P4 2.53 GHz and what is that a ~82% increase in speed? "

False. It's more like a 400% increase in CPU speed. In my experience this difference is extremely perceptible. I have a 400Mhz PIII notebook and a 2.2Ghz desktop and the desktop is easily and very noticeably snappier in just about all tasks.

TM

 

[Postal]

Ah, it may be a 20% increase in clock speed, but there are a number of factors that will make a difference.

First: remember that not everyone is going to be upgrading from the current top-end model to the next one (and in fact, that would be a pretty silly thing to do unless you could sell your Powerbook at near the original price). If you've got anything less than one of the current models, you're going to probably see a considerably larger boost - and not just due to clock speed, but cache, video hardware, system bus speeds and memory speeds.

Besides, we don't know exactly what the upgrade will entail. If it has more L2 or L3 cache or faster video (or even just more video memory), it may feel more than just a bit faster, especially in certain applications.

 

[idkew]

Originally posted by prefect


They are better off upgrading the video chip, fixing the paint and heat issues. I am all for a 1 GHz PB but upgrading from a 800MHz PB to a 1 GHz is a waste of money.

i agree with you here, but for me, 667 to 1+ghz would be quite a jump. nearly 100% speed increase. and yes, speed is not such an issue when opening a program, but doing high ends graphics work requires power.

the ti book is not for consumers who only surf and email. it is for pros who make a living with their ti book, their tool.