# MacBook Pro or Powerbook



## RGrphc2 (Apr 9, 2006)

A friend of mine is starting school to be a design major, she is trying to figure out if she should get a Macbook or a Powerbook.  I told her to go with the 17" Powerbook as a safe bet, because it will run the apps that she will be using intensively

Photoshop, Illustrator, Maya, Shake, etc etc.  None of these apps are intel native yet and seeing that she's going to be using them heavily I suggested either to wait or get the 17" Powerbook.

Would you have suggested the same thing?


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## fryke (Apr 9, 2006)

Yes. Although I'd have probably emphasised the "wait" option, since buying a 17" PowerPC PowerBook now means buying into the past, which I don't find soooooooo attractive...


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## ElDiabloConCaca (Apr 9, 2006)

Yeah, since you mention she will be running those applications "heavily," a PowerPC-based Macintosh would probably be the best way to go.

The 17" PowerBook will still be a viable machine for quite some time, even though she won't necessarily be on the bleeding edge of technology... the PowerPC chip will still be fully supported for some years to come, so I gotta agree with fryke and say it's a better choice than a MacBook Pro for what she intends to do with it.


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## mdnky (Apr 9, 2006)

Have her check with the school first to see what they require.  Some are finicky about this and will force her to purchase something again if she doesn't get the specs right the first time.


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## MnM (Apr 9, 2006)

You said she's starting school to be a design major. If she's now starting she won't be doing anything too intensive right away, will she? Isn't there general requirements to take before and all that stuff? I dislike the idea of buying into the past, so I suggest the MacBook Pro. Its not like its totally incapable of runnning these apps, it can but just slower. By the time the real need for speed arrives, the universal versions should be out, and a crossgrade shouldn't be that bad. 

If she will be needing intensive use of the apps right away, the powerbook is the best way to go. I guess it depends on when she starts, when she will really be needing the apps, and also when the universal versions of the software needed will be available. I too have a friend thats a design major and she did nothing but general requirements for the last year(fulltime too). She currently has a powerbook but its for her personal use not for something thats demanded from her college. She's yet to take a class of the sort.


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## RGrphc2 (Apr 9, 2006)

I'm not sure what year she is or if she is just starting but from what she said it's heavy 3D illustration work. shes a co-workers niece and knows that she needs a mac.


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## fryke (Apr 9, 2006)

3D apps will highly profit from the intel processors, though. Look at the Cinema 4D benchmarks, for example...


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## tfucini (Apr 10, 2006)

i use creative suite from adobe quite heavily and i have experienced no problems on my MBP, actually runs faster than my imac and my pc....


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## RGrphc2 (Apr 10, 2006)

tfucini said:
			
		

> i use creative suite from adobe quite heavily and i have experienced no problems on my MBP, actually runs faster than my imac and my pc....



how old is your iMac though, they said it would run faster than anything slower than 1Ghz w/ rosetta.

Maya and the other 3D apps shes going to be using aren't ready for intel *yet*


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## tfucini (Apr 10, 2006)

1.8g5


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## eric2006 (Apr 10, 2006)

If you can live with the speeds of a MacBook Pro for a few months, get it. If you can't, get a Powerbook. I'd say that you should try to get a MacBook Pro, but if you can't live with it, that's life. Get a PowerBook then.


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## mdnky (Apr 10, 2006)

Again, make sure she checks with the school and their requirements first (the requirements for students entering the program when she will&#8212;ex: fall of 05 students may have different requirements than spring of 06 students, etc.) to be safe.  Many a school is anal about this kind of thing and will force the student to buy a different machine if they pick the wrong one.  That's especially true in design and technical programs.

It doesn't matter if she won't be doing intensive stuff right away or not, if there's a requirement for the program then it has to be met or exceeded.  Unfortunately switching architectures isn't necessarily exceeding the requirement.  The schools do this to save $$$ on tech support and other problems, not to mention attempting to keep the experience similar for each student.


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## Timotheos100 (Apr 23, 2006)

I dont see why everyone is talking about buying PPC's because all the 'pro' apps are made to run natively on them and no the intel macs yet. I dont see whats the problem when MBP's are suppose to emulate apps on it just as fast as the PPC's.


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## ElDiabloConCaca (Apr 23, 2006)

Timotheos100 said:
			
		

> I dont see why everyone is talking about buying PPC's because all the 'pro' apps are made to run natively on them and no the intel macs yet.


Because the "pro" applications wouldn't run _at all_ under Rosetta.  While PPC-only apps on the Intel Macs are good and fast, it's not 100% perfect and Rosetta isn't guaranteed to run all PowerPC apps.  Now that Apple has released Universal Binaries of most of their "pro" apps, this shouldn't be much of an issue anymore.



			
				Timotheos100 said:
			
		

> I dont see whats the problem when MBP's are suppose to emulate apps on it just as fast as the PPC's.


No, they're not supposed to emulate apps just as fast as a PowerPC -- it's slower (in fact, it's not "emulation" at all -- it's "code translation").  Emulation/code translation is always slower, and is never equal in speed.  Take Photoshop for example -- it runs slower on the Intel Macs than it does on PowerPC Macs.  Take Microsoft Office as another example -- slower through Rosetta than it is on PowerPC.  What specific PowerPC-only application are you referring to that is supposed to run equally as fast through Rosetta as it would natively on a PowerPC machine?


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## MacGizmo (Apr 25, 2006)

Spending that kind of money, I would NEVER purchase old technology. Get the MacBook Pro now... the software will catch up soon enough - and is much cheaper to upgrade!


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