Powerbooks

melo@simplicidade.org (Pedro Melo) — Sat, 09 Apr 2005 15:56:30 +0000

My TiBook is nearing it’s third year of life. He’s been very good to me, but it’s 800Mhz G4 is starting to show its age.

Sometime back, I talked about my next Powerbook, what choices and what would make me switch. So far, none of the new ones have a feature that makes me lust. They are neither dual core G4 nor G5.

I have my mind made up about three issues though: if both models, a dual core G4 and a G5, are available at the same time, I’ll most likely go with the dual core. I’m not CPU intensive, but I am multitask intensive. Also, the earlier G5 will be even hotter than my TiBook, I imagine. First generation G5 Powerbook is probably something I don’t want to try.

The other thing I’ve decided is the size. I’m going with the biggest screen they’ve got. If that means the 17”, so be it, but I’ll choose the model by the screen resolution. After using dual-head for almost 3 years, I’ve noticed that screen real-estate is the biggest influence on my productivity. My earlier problems about changing backpacks are not an issue anymore, I found a good one for a 17” Powerbook.

The third thing I’ve decided: I’m not going to sell my current TiBook. I’m keeping it, in case I need to travel light, and the 17” isn’t practical. Let’s call it a backup Powerbook. The only thing I truly miss in my current TiBook is internal bluetooth.

Meanwhile, until we get a decent Powerbook upgrade, and seeing that I’m not going to sell it, I decided to upgrade it. I have 1Gb of RAM, the maximum it takes, and I have a 80Gb disk drive waiting for me at my local crack^H^H^H^H^Happle dealer. The current 40Gb drive is just not enough anymore (I’m a victim of iCrack and pictures of my kid).

I’m not going to install Panther on the 80Gb drive. I’m waiting for Tiger to make the move. Recently I made a booboo and totally trashed my Panther install and I had to do a total reinstall of Panther and all my stuff. I keep good backups, but even with that, it took me 3 days to get back to my feet. Ok, maybe I didn’t keep very good backups, I didn’t have a boot-able mirror drive in my backup plan. I have one now, though.

Another upgrade I already did was buying an external firewire DVD recorder. My internal combo drive was starting to fail on me, and I had problems with it during the reinstall. With this external drive, I can avoid buying internal SuperDrives and save some Euros.

So, upgrades are almost done, and now I sit here waiting to see what Apple will bring us regarding Powerbook updates in the near future. I’m hoping for a dual core G4 17” HD display, but that’s just me.

Upgrades on Notes

Powerbooks