Need Your Advice: Powerbook or MacBook Pro?

edmonton

I will become a new switcher soon, from IBM ThinkPad.

My interests lie on either the latest Powerbook or the 1.86GHz Duo Core MacBook Pro. Due to the limitation of the budget, I cannot go too far.

The sweetest price I can get for these babes are:

$1624 for a refurbished 15" Powerbook G4 (1.67GHz/512MB/80GB/SuperDrive/ATI 128M VRAM) directly from Apple using a coupon I got;

or,

$2099 for a brand new 15" MacBook Pro (1.83GHz/512MB/80GB/SuperDrive/ATI 128M VRAM) from Apple using my student's discount.

Moneywise, I certainly lean towards the Powerbook since I can use the money I saved to max the RAM and I am sure it will run perfectly for me.

However, I do love the option the Intel Mac offers to install Windows XP natively, and I will love to have a free iSight as I do video conferencing a lot. I just don't know if all the additional features and performance boost worth the extra $500.

What's more, I do have a bigger concern towards the new MacBook Pro: the NOISE issue. I read a lot of complains from HERE, and I am quite worried about it.

The one thing I am not comfortable with my former ThinkPad is that the fan is always spinning at low frequency to keep the Centrino CPU at around 40 degrees, even when I was doing nothing. i.e. I am easily distracted by the noise my laptop made. This is one of the main reasons why I want to make the switch. I test drived my wife's iBook and I love it. Though it might not be as powerful as my ThinkPad, it's always quiet. The fan seldom works though the CPU temp is always above 45 degrees. The thing is, I don't mind it generate heat (I am using external keyboard/mouse), I need it to be quiet.

My request to you guys is, give me some advice on which one to get, the classical Powerbook, or the shining MacBook Pro? For those of you who already got a MacBook Pro, can you justify the noise issue? Is MacBook Pro really noisier than Powerbook G4?

Thank you for your attention. Your input will be highly appreciated!

RISCHead

Other than love, is there a reason to want to boot WinXP on this thing?
If not, consider if you're willing to pay $500 bucks for love.

Certainly, the Core Duos will run cooler than other Intel chips, though I have no idea how loud or distracting the fans are relative to the PB.

[Edit]: Generally, if you're a student on a budget, I would go for a used iBook in April in the $1000 range or lower and max the RAM and HD on it - try to ensure you get something with extended Applecare - its probably worth it.

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IronMac

Don't believe that it will be easy and you should tell us what you are planning on doing with the machine:

http://www.macworld.com/2006/03/firs...mini/index.php

edmonton

I will probably need to use SigmaPlot or Origin for scientific graphying. And there's one application I use for my experiment that doesn't have a Mac version.

Anyways, I can always use my lab's Wintel desktop for these tasks. But as I said, I would love the option.

The reasons why I think I need Powerbook/MacBook Pro instead of an iBook is that the resolution of an iBook screen is too small, and it doesn't officially support extended external monitor. Not to mention that it doesn't have a DVI port.

VNJ85

I was in the same position you were 2 weeks ago.

If your going to be buying sometime soon, get the MBP. My main issue was the noise, that cpu whine. I attend lectures and if it was too loud I didn't want havning to shut it off.

Well I bought the MBP. From day 1 I heard the whine. At first I was scared that I had made a mistake. I didn't. There are many way's to take away the whine. From mirror widget, to opening photobooth. The whine is actually very very faint, and I even found in a classroom lecture barely noticable. Only when I'm alone or in the library can I detect it (I have very good ears, or so i think ). As for programs running under rosetta... I don't even notice a slowdown, other than with photoshop, and that is barely noticable, infact at first I thought the program was just slightly buggy... but someone more experianced told me otherwise.. same for microsoft office, barely notice it.

Anyways eventually there will be fix's for the whine, I spoke to tech 2 or whatever they call themselves here at apple canada, they said theres a software fix solution being worked on, but made no promises. He also said hardware fix is also being looked at for next gen. (guy on phone told me that if it really bugs me to try and replace it when a hardware fix does come out), however the whine is really trivial since it's easily disabled. (it occurs when the cpu is using less than 8%, above 8% the whine is actually still there just it goes way above human hearing. This is the case for most proccessors, I was told by tech)

Aside from all that, IntelMac seems the way apple is moving toward the future, thus said, Buying the PB might lead you to having to purchase a new computer sooner in regards to the future and upgrading. I am taking an educated guess for this, I'd assume that many companies will eventually go the way of Adobe and start producing all their future applications in Intelmac technology.

So your huge concern is really a non-issue once you take care of the cpu whine... any other whine you may hear means something is defective in your computer and those are rarities. You'll just want to make sure to stuff the MBP with ram. i'm running with 1.5 (on a 1.83). (even if you start out with 512, eventually you will upgrade to 1 or 2 gigs and you'll just come to love the machine even more)

So fear not, The MBP is a silent beast! perfect for any student switching! I made the switch I love it!

razz

I'd go with the refurb Powerbook, if I were you. It's a steal at that price, and you can still get a full 3 year warranty. I would never get a rev A machine. Too many bugs and problems and crap you probably don't want to be an early adopter of.

Besides, it's not like the G4 Powerbooks suddenly don't work!

Good luck with whatever you decide to go with

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Da Grape

I thought you will becoming a switcher soon? How come you'd want to even think of having the ability to install XP on that beauty?

Don't get me wrong, I still use PC (have 3 + 1 PB) and it still does its job for me. I don't know if Im qualified to answer your question but I will tell you how my experience is going with my PB purchase.

From reading posts in this forum, it seems there will always be issues with rev a products, the good thing is, apple will realize this and will get a solution. I love my PB, this is the latest revision prior to the MacBook Pro's. Never had a problem with it and it such an eye candy, not to mention powerful!

Did you look at the pros/cons of getting either? Dual Core seems to be the future but the PB offers everything right now. I dont know how long it will take before all the bugs/issues are fixed with the MacBook Pro's, but i'm not of those waiting.

Get the PB, max your ram and enjoy that thing.

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-PC: AMD Athlon 3700+, 1G DDR RAM, 320G HD, XFX 7600GT, Samsung 216BW.
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-PORTABLE: Sony PSP + 1G Memory Stick Pro Duo

Apple101

The fans in the Mac Book pros are very, very quiet. I had a chance to try some out, as I am doing a co-op at an Apple authorized sales and service provider. Unless you do not require Classic for any of your Macintosh Applications I would recommend that you go with the Mac Book Pro.

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Boji

Good thread. I was thinking the exact same question, and at this point in time, it's a dilemma. Yeah, the PB does everything we want to at the moment, and they're good, reliable machines. The MBP is a Rev. A machine, which, like other posters have mentioned, can be a bit buggy. I've seen a MBP in person this week, and found it to be noisier than the PB G4. I believe others that say that there is a fan issue, and they'll probably fix this with Rev. B. Bear in mind, however, that although the G4 PB does everything we could want at this point, new versions of software will be optimized to run on Intel chips--Adobe made a commitment to the Intel platform, and I've read that Skype's new features will be for the Intel processor. Those are just two examples, but I think we'll see more of those as time goes by. For the reasons mentioned above, I think I'd go with a MBP if I were you.

NBiBooker

If you worried about running old software, get the PowerBook, but as others have said, be prepared to be obsolete in an accelerated fashion.

If you want to have a computer that will last you five to six years, get the MBP.

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