NEED ADVICE: Am purchasing a Powerbook G4 17inch

[james]

I have pretty much decided on buying a Powerbook G4 17inch and need some advice.

Should I upgrade the following:

64mb Graphics memory upgrade to 128mb
512mb ram upgrade to 1gb ram
4200 rpm hard drive upgrade to 5400rpm

I went to apple.com and the machine costs $2,799. If I do all the 3 upgrades above, there is an additional cost of $450 or a total of $3,249.

I plan to use the computer for office work (excel, word etc), email, surfing the web, pictures and video editing. I have a lot of mini dv tapes that I want transferred to dvd. I also want to learn how to edit the videos using imovie etc.

I almost bought a 17" HP ZD8000 from HP.com the other day. The cost was around $2,300 and it already included a tuner (which makes the laptop a dvr and a tv), a 6 in one card reader and a new dvd dual layer writer.

Are there any 17" owners out there? Are you happy with the size or is it too bulky?

I am also considering the 15" model. Any pros and cons?

Thanks!


James

[ajbatac]

James, I think Pbook G4 1GB 15" 1.55mhz is already very good for your requirements. But of course, if you have the money you can upgrade it to that mentioned above, but I think it's overkill.

[opd]

you'll be doing video --- i don't regret the decision to use lapzilla for it. if upgrading is not a problem, do so.

if you don't mind carrying around the size of it (made up for by its being rather slim), go for it. having brought it around to work on, especially when showing clients my work, for me the extra screen real estate is worth adjusting logistics for.

[james]

Whether I get the 15" or the 17" I think that the same 3 questions apply. Is it worth doing any of the upgrades below?

64mb Graphics memory upgrade to 128mb
512mb ram upgrade to 1gb ram
4200 rpm hard drive upgrade to 5400rpm

I think it would be difficult/more expensive to do the upgrades after I purchase the machine rather than do it at the time of purchase?

Any Powerbook G4 15" and 17" users out there? Any pros and cons?

If I get the 15" I will have extra money to get the Ipod 20GB

When you say that the 17" is overkill, I presume that you are referring to the size? Since the 15" and the 17" have the same processing speed.



James

[cyberprince]

If budget is not a consideration I would recommend going for all the upgrades. This way you'll have a top of the line model that won't out date so soon.

If you ask anyone about upgrading RAM and you'll get mostly the same answer, "the more RAM the better."

As for Video RAM I have been told many times that this upgrade can only be done as a built to order option meaning you can't decide to upgrade this later on. If you don't plan to edit videos seriously then i think 64MB of video RAM is enough unless you plan to load up some graphics intensive games? Then you might consider going for the 128MB of VRAM.

As for the hard drive , faster is always better but I have had no experience with both so I cannot give you a good comparison. My own opinion is that it won't make much of a difference compared to what more RAM can give you. A faster hard drive will be very helpful though if you plan to edit videos professionally.

I own a 15" and would have got one fully upgraded if I had the extra cash. Unfortunately i don't but I don't regret it. I think the savings will be better spent on more RAM and yes a new iPod is also very enticing.

Let us know what you decide.

[Henjie]

Originally posted by jodejesus
Whether I get the 15" or the 17" I think that the same 3 questions apply. Is it worth doing any of the upgrades below?

64mb Graphics memory upgrade to 128mb
512mb ram upgrade to 1gb ram
4200 rpm hard drive upgrade to 5400rpm

I think it would be difficult/more expensive to do the upgrades after I purchase the machine rather than do it at the time of purchase?

I'd definitely go for the graphics memory upgrade.

As for the RAM, it depends on the cost of the upgrade. If the dealer wants more than P7.5K or so for the additional 512MB of RAM, I suggest you just buy a 512MB module from MemoryX (around $110 including FedEx shipping) and just install the RAM yourself (it won't void the warranty). Or maybe you'd rather have 1.5GB of RAM. ;-) 1GB module.

On the hard drive question: I think the 5400rpm upgrade is worth the price. But if you're planning to do a lot of video editing, it's a good idea to get an external Firewire hard drive (3.5" drive) for that. Faster, relatively cheap, and better than using the internal hard drive as your scratch disk. Besides, even the fastest laptop drive around (Hitachi 7K60, 7200rpm 60GB) is slower than most current 7200rpm PATA or SATA 3.5" hard drives.


~Henjie

[CooLes]

Or wait after the upcoming Macworld SF keynote. Prices drop after new products are announced

[ditoy_eagle]

I have the same specs you want and I am happy with it 100%. You need to decide the 128mb Vram and 5400 rpm hard drive option upon order as BTO. These are options that will cost you but if your work requires all available performance boost, then spending for it is justified.

Henjie has good advice- you can get cheap RAM and work using external firewire 400 or even firewire 800 hard drives with faster rpms for serious video editing work. Anybody working with video will surely need an external storage device, get firewire 800 which is the fastest.

The 17" LCD is awesome, giving you a big workspace. You can edit on it and use it for client presentations to impress them. Yes, it is a bit bulky but sanayan lang yan. Just get a Crumpler or STM laptop backpack at @Games.

[hacksaw]

Other than the RAM upgrade (1gig), everything else is stock on my 17 incher.
I do heavy graphics and occasional video editting and it does an excellent job.
Like Henjie and Ditoy said, its not advisable to use your HD as your scratch disk
if you are going to do serious video editting. Its still best to get a 7200 rpm external disk drive. I'd say go for the 128 Video RAM and 1 gig memory instead.

~hacksaw

[Kelvin]

Since the HD issue seems to be resolved, if I was to pick between the additional video memory or memory I suggest you go with the video memory upgrade since its a BTO option and is not user upgradeable. When you have enough resources you can then buy additional RAM (quite readily available).