Powerbook or Imac

Well there I was all set with the 20" imac in mind and the someone throws in some new bait....

For a couple of hundred less than the imac they are offering me a Powerbook with a 1.33GHz pro / 1GB Ram / 80GB HD and a five week old 20" apple cinema panel with warranty.

So to me the processor is nowhere near the same spec, alot smaller HD (250GB with imac) and I was going to upgrade the imac to 2GB Ram.
You may of seen from my other mac related post that I currently have 1.60GHz / 256MB Ram / 30GB HD lappy that sucks so even though the powerbook isnt as good in performance as the imac it should still be way better than my exsisting system.

At the end of the day...in time, i need a lappy and a home set up so do I go for a okay used lappy and very nice screen now and save for a G5 (perhaps) or should I go for the imac and save for a new lappy.

Thanks
Raff

I have both a PowerBook and an iMac, and use them about the same amount of time each at the moment, but for two totally different things.
PowerBook for surfing the net and iMac for photo work. So with a PowerBook and a cinema display I'd say you've got a great package.

Definitely up the RAM to the maximum 2GB though

You should be aware that the Powerbooks use the older G4 processor, not the Intel.

Does this make a big significant difference in performance? whats the cons?

Thank you
Raff

Yes. If you compare the new macbook pro to the old powerbook, there really is no comparison... It's *two* generations difference... (G4 > G5 > Intel)

A comparison between a MacBook Core Duo 2.0 GHz and Powerbook G4 1.33 GHz (I couldn't find a direct comparison)

In Performance the MacBook Intel Core Duo 2.0 GHz is ....

Processor Single - 91% faster ++
Processor Multiple - 263% faster ++
Graphics Card - 113% faster ++
Graphics Processor - 147% faster ++
Graphics Gaming - 41% faster
Copy (many files) - 90% faster
Copy (Single large file) - 124% faster
iTunes Encode (From CD) - 21% faster
iDVD Import - 123% faster
Word Macro - 19% slower **
Photoshop Filters (Dual Tuned) - 27% slower **
Photoshop Filters (Single) - 38% slower **
Photoshop Workflow - 18% slower **
Battery Time - 8% more

**This application does not yet run native on the Intel processor

If you will be using Photoshop CS3 (which is Universal), the results will change. CS3 is much faster. Also the iMac, because it has a slightly faster clock speed and uses the Core 2 Duo processor, will be faster.

Hope this is helpful.

René Damkot wrote in post #3188755
Yes. If you compare the new macbook pro to the old powerbook, there really is no comparison... It's *two* generations difference... (G4 > G5 > Intel)

There was no G5 notebook -> they couldn't cool the chips enough.

I just looked in the UK Apple Store -
Refurbished iMac 20-inch 2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo SuperDrive
1GB (2x512MB) 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM (PC2-5300)
250GB Serial ATA hard drive
Slot-load 8x double-layer SuperDrive
ATI Radeon X1600 with 128MB GDDR3 memory
Built-in AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth 2.0
Built-in iSight Camera and Apple Remote

• Save 14% off the original price
Original price: £999.00
Your price: £869.00
(£739.57 ex VAT)
Ready to ship:
24hrs
Free Shipping

Although it would be nice to have to versatility of the notebook from the start I really fear that I would dissapointed by the powerbooks perormance and want a macbook pro instead. I reckon the imac is the way to go for now and just work extra hard and save up for the macbook pro.

That refurb looks ideal...cheers Bill

Thank you
Raff

I've got a 20" Intel iMac which I use for Post Processing.

I also have an old 867MHz Titanium Powerbook G4 that I take on shoots for portable storage and image reviewing. All I've got installed on it is Adobe Lightroom.

When I get home I connect it to my iMac using a firewire cable and then just drag the images off it.

wlescall wrote in post #3188777
There was no G5 notebook -> they couldn't cool the chips enough.

Yep. I know. That's probabley the only reason the G4 PB lasted as long as it did...