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    Buying a 15" 1.67 hi-res PB for laptop use

    Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by sprtnbsblplya, Mar 5, 2009.

  1. sprtnbsblplya

    sprtnbsblplya Notebook Deity

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    Hi all, I use my big-rig desktop gaming PC for almost all work, storage, gaming, etc., but I like having a nice laptop to take with me from home while at school or visiting family.
    I have an Asus 1000HA netbook right now, and I hate it, slow, creaky, horrible trackpad, but it is small, lightweight, and long battery life, but those can't outweigh missing a real laptop.

    I'm leaning towards a 15" hi-res 1.67ghz PB (the last one made) as they are super cheap (tons in the past couple weeks have gone for like $450-$500 in excellent, non-dented condition).
    What I do on my laptops is mostly store like 10gigs of homework files from the past 4 years, type papers, make Excel sheets, model molecules in ChemDraw (probably XChemDraw if I switch to OS X), and my physics prof is trying to convince me to start using Mathematica (like I have time to learn that crap on top of everything else, sheesh).

    Are the 1.67 G4's snappy enough for this? I'll probably get one with 2gb RAM (stuff is cheap, like $22 for 2x1gb DDR2 for that model) and upgrade to a 160gb HD (cheap too, like $60) to store all my HW, music, and movies.
     
    sprtnbsblplya, Mar 5, 2009
    #1
  2. Budding

    Budding Notebook Virtuoso

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    Running Office on that Powerbook is going to be tough, since the latest and future versions of Office will be optimized for Intel Macs and not PPC Macs.

    It is also predicted that future versions of OS X will not be PPC compatible, so you will be stuck with Leopard or something older.
     
    Budding, Mar 6, 2009
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  3. coupdetat

    coupdetat Notebook Geek

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    Okay, one problem--you want to use Excel. There's no good version of Excel for Macs. None. 2004 has an outdated feature set and poor interface. 2008 is dog-slow. Doing spreadsheets on the Mac is just utterly, utterly futile.

    I'd stick with Windows for science/engineering work. That's the reason why I'm switching from my MBA to a Vaio TZ soon.
     
    coupdetat, Mar 8, 2009
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  4. fastrandstrongr

    fastrandstrongr Notebook Evangelist

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    uhh... i use excel 2004 all the time and have had zero problems... and im in science research.
     
    fastrandstrongr, Mar 8, 2009
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  5. Budding

    Budding Notebook Virtuoso

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    The VBA performance of Excel 2004 is awful, and it does pale when compared to Excel 2007. Excel 2008 has no VBA, so it cannot really be compared.
     
    Budding, Mar 8, 2009
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