Love the portability of a laptop yet love the power of a desktop :(

PowerBook or PowerMac or both

[macker123]

I have finially made the decision after using Windows PC's my whole life my next purchase is going to be a Mac. The final push was watching the presentation for the new Tiger OS that should be coming out in early 2005. It really is amazing and seems to be years ahead of Windows Longhorn even (which I have played with).

My main problem is I do web work full-time. I run multiple web sites. So when I am away I definatly need a laptop. The issue is I really only go away maybe 2-4 times per year with the family. I don't really ever go away for business, but maybe in the coming years once a year for a conference or something.

I currently have an IBM Thinkpad 1.7 centrino, 512mb ram, docking station and all the other gizmos.

My main thing is, I LOVE the power and adaptability of a desktop. No matter how powerful a laptop is I am using, a desktop is always more powerful and since I work 12+ hrs per day I find it frustrating working on a laptop and it being slow when I know for a fact if I had bought a desktop it would be faster. An even greater reason to buy a desktop is that the G5 is only available for the desktop right now and it is dual as opposed to the single G4 that comes in a PowerBook.

So I am between a rock and a hard place. I want to get a desktop for POWER and ADAPTABILITY, yet I still need a laptop for those extremely infrequent vacation trips I make.

The one thought that came to mind is buy my top of the line desktop and then buy a cheap laptop which I could use if I went away. Since I really only check email, browse web and do the odd actual work on the laptop it wouldn't need to be that amazing. This way I get the best of both worlds. But then I would need to make sure the laptop and desktop are always synched, so I could simply unplug the laptop and it would be an exact copy of the desktop. I could then plug it back in and both the laptop and desktop synch with each other again.

Is this possible or am I dreaming?

Anybody else in a similiar situation? What did you do?

[timster]

Your plan to get a fast G5 and a cheap iBook can work.

Instead of synching the data between the computers, which might be tricky, you could use a product such as TimBukTu to log into the Desktop from the road (assuming you have Internet access when you're using the iBook).

[buckworks]

I have a 12" PowerBook G4 souped up with maximum RAM, which I plug into a 17" monitor for desktop use (external keyboard too). I travel quite a bit, and the combination works well for me; I can just unplug the peripherals and go. The sort of work I do is not high-end techie stuff, though.

[mivox]

I switched to using a laptop a few years ago, and I'd never go back... I say get the kick-@ss laptop you want first. Then, if you find it's actually underpowered for some things you want to do, you can get a desktop as well.

Personally, I've never had a problem with a newer Mac laptop being underpowered. Even my old G3 laptop was still great for everything but complex Photoshop functions. But when Photoshop came out with an OSX-only version, well, I really had no choice but to upgrade. I'm an addict. ;)

[macker123]

I already have a 1.7 centrino souped up. Basically the best you can get. Doesn't suffice. I also want to run 3 monitors and I can do that with my laptop running 1 monitor over a network connection, but it is not perfect.

[mivox]

But the mac processors and intel processors function in fundamentally different ways... comparing processor speed ratings cross-platform is an apples and oranges proposition.

The three monitors thing though, I don't know how/if that would work on a Mac laptop... hopefully someone else will pop in for that one.

[macker123]

Just to clear it up. It would be the laptop lcd and then 2 other monitors. With a Windows laptop I have my laptop lcd, my lcd plugged into the laptop and then I run a 3rd monitor via a network connecion using software called MaxiVista, which has a slight lag.

I do know it is comparing apples against oranges, I was simply stating that I did have a good laptop already. It is not like I had a P3 or something and was complaining it was slower than a desktop. I basically have the best portable laptop for windows unless I went with a non mobile chip, which I would never do.

Does anyone have any stats on the difference between a Centrino and PowerBook?

You do need to remember however that a desktop will always have a faster hd 7,200rpm vs 4,200/5,400 and the memory bus is also faster, which is one of the reasons why I was thinking desktop.

[mivox]

Oh, desktops are the workhorses to be sure, but for the web development and graphics work I do on my 877 G4 laptop, I've never had a problem with underpowered performance...

YMMV. ;)

[whoisgregg]

To run the three monitor setup, you'd want to get a G5 tower for the first two monitors. Then add a second video card for another two monitors. No additional software required. To get all those monitors working, you'll need to ... plug them in. :) The controls for changing how each monitor "connects" to the others is in the System Preferences > Displays.

For the first monitor that connects to the G5 you may need an adaptor like the Apple DVI to ADC Adapter [apple.com] which incidentally, I use with my 12" Powerbook and a 17" Studio Display at home. The 12" powerbook works great for me for all code writing but I'm too used to the power of a dual G5 for doing Photoshop and Fireworks to be satisfied with the powerbook in those applications. If I didn't have the dual G5 at work I probably wouldn't notice. :)