Asus w1n or 15" g4 powerbook

I am in the midst of trying to decide which I would rather have. The desired specs of each are as follows:

Asus w1n
2.0ghz Dothan
DVD+/-RW
1 gig ddr333 ram
Radeon 9600 Pro 64mb(would like 9700 but alas its not available at the moment)
60gig ultra(7200rpm)

Apple 15" g4 powerbook
g4 1.5ghz
Apple superdrive
1 gig ddr333
Radeon 9700 pro 128mb
80gig 5400rpm (60gig 7200rpm available? anyone know?)

Let me know your opinions. Im leaning towards the Asus because I love Asus and have used many of their products with success and not sure about going mac. I do like many things about apple, not just how stylish everything is, but I mean can you get anymore stylish than this pc notebook I mean come on...a built in 4.1! Let me know! - Matt

 

Get the Asus, the 2.0Ghz Dothan kicks butt and has long battery life.

Jack

"They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security" (Ben Franklin)
http://pbase.com/joneill

 

If I were planning to go more for that compal cl56 design I would get the Asus m6bne but, I am in love with the design and res capability of the w1n. It has the style of an apple, however apple is still a strong possibility. I had a really good friend that was a mac guru pass away when i was a sophmore and i would like to get into the world in which he thrived. I would like to know my limitations as a mac user though...as far as compatibilites and such. All of you who have made the switch either way if you could give me some idea of what its like. I appreciated the posts, the asus forum has posted nada. Thanks. -Matt

 

Both the w1n and m6bne are horrendously overweight. If you want a slick-looking laptop with the ghz to please you and money is no object (I assume that you had planned to have the ram and hard drive factory-installed, which would suggest that, indeed, money is not an issue) then I suggest you get a Sony S-170. It's a slick laptop with an Ati 9700, a beautiful 13" WXGA screen and, I believe, it's available with an Intel 755.

 

Compatability is not an issue for me and it probably won't be for you, either. I've heard that Auto-CAD is no longer available for the Mac, so if that matters to you, then perhaps a Mac is not for you. However, most of Mac's awesome multimedia software isn't available for the PC (Final Cut Pro, etc.). So if you're editing home movies and such, Mac is probably the better choice. Most workspaces tend to support PC's more readily than Macs, so you should check with you office environment to ensure that you're computer is compatible with whatever software they require you to use. However, don't be discouraged if the only thing that's lacking is a tech-support guy who's familiar with Macs (I rarely had problems with OS9.x, and OSX is simple enough for a child to configure[truly redefines the meaning of "plug and play"). Also, Apple's aren't as likely to have viruses.

If gaming is important to you, don't be turned off by the Apple! The really hot-selling games are sent to Mac. In any event, all the Dothan ghz and ddr333 ram in the world won't help you out in hardcore gaming if your video card is not up to speed. I'd rather have a 1.6 or 1.7 ghz dothan processor with a 128mb Radeon 9800 than a 2.0ghz dothan with anything less. The w1n will run last year's games just fine, but you'll have to turn the video settings way down on the new stuff in order to make things playable! You'll also want to get a 7200rpm notebook drive for the Apple. There's a Hitachi on sale at Dell right now. I'd also recommend that you consider installing your own ram, as that can be cheaper after you consider that the notebook companies like to gouge consumers on the extras. The hard disk and the RAM are upgradable, so don't worry as much about that. You should focus on the parts that can't be upgraded (such as the video card).

As for battery life; I don't know what kind of battery life the new powerbooks get, but my 15" titanium powerbook lasts an easy 3.5 hours of continuous use (it's 2.5 years old).

 

First off its not that money is no object, its that its going to be financed for a few months then paid off this summer so Im not too worried about that. Second, absolutely no on the Sony teknerd suggested. Sony computers are much too expensive for what little they offer and a 13" is way too small, even for a laptop. I was planning on getting the 7200rpm hard drive until talking with a representative at the local apple store and he said for most things it doesnt make that much of a difference and in games you wont see the performance increase. He said macs really don't need the faster hard drive except for a few things, but those things can just take a little longer for the $400 extra it would cost to but it and have it installed(supposedly powerbooks arent easy to get into or id do it myself). I am however gonna go ahead and get the 1 sodimm of ram from apple of 512, and buy the other 512 from pricewatch for $80 rather than $270 from apple. As far as all programs I have used on Windows I actually ran an entire list of them to the guy and so the only downside to a Mac right now is no counterstrike...but I am hopeful that the newest version of virtualpc will actually handle it well enough to enjoy the game rather than the supposed 15fps it used to run on the old version when running CS. Any other comments or suggestions are welcome but I believe I have decided on the powerbook. As for the battery life it gets 4.5 or more, even with WLAN, so I am definitely pleased with that. Thanks for your posts. -Matt