i know this has nothing to do with Zbrush or anything, but i thought i would post it here becasue i know the members at this friendly forum can help. I was just wondering if anyone knows when or if Apple is coming out with a G5 Powerbook. I might wait to purchase a G5 instead of the G4 if it will be arriving relavitvely soon. If anyone knows any info about this please post the info or a link. thanks so much for your help!
artboy
i have heard that the heat of the new g5 procssor makes problems they need to solve first …
also, from personel experience i would not buy a powerbook of a new designed series from apple anymore… i got the titan book (g4 400) when it just hit the market, and well, it had lots of problems, for example the piece holding the display was too weak, and destroyed the display, fortunualty when warranty was still ok, but i took them 2 month to repair … and my titan book had several other issues (like that the dvd tray not always is able to eject the cd or dvd) which were sorted out from apple with the next they sold 3 month later … just a thought …
You wont see a G5 PowerBook for at least 6 -8 months. At the least.
I wouldn’t buy the first generation either, the G5 is a very different beast to the G4. I’d wait to see if they have overheating problems etc. - Baz
I would wait and see what Pixologic has planned for Z2 on the Mac. Getting a G4 now might not be in your best interest. So IMO, I’d definitely be getting a G5, wether it’s in a Powermac, or a laptop, that’s entirely up to you.
thank you everyone for the help! i knew you guys would come through.
artboy
you might do some Googling on Apple and the class action suit against them for thier laptops, something about power and shorting out.
Also check fan noise problems for the new desktops, turn around time for repair can be extremely long as well.
Hi Artboy, well… I don’t think a G5 Powerbook is coming out this year, the G5 processor generates too much hot for such a small space as a laptop, Apple is working in new cooling technologies like liquid cooling to address the issue but is taking time. If you want a powerbook you’re only with G4 options, but if you can get a desktop G5 even the low profile setup, you get a really stable and fast machine and the best OS available right now in any platform in my personal experience.
And for King Salami comment about powerbook suits, is true some users are united to sue Apple for problems with their laptops but I know this kind of malfuctions happens in every other brand, even in my Sony Vaio, wich I returned for overheating in the first month. I use my powerbook g4 everyday and didn’t have any problem in 1 year, and my new Vaio now works fine too so it’s a matter of estadistical bad luck like in every other thing you can buy, maybe this users suing Apple makes more noise because like every other Mac user group they are very unite, as you can see in this forum about the waiting of Zbrush2 for Mac.
My 2 cents.
thanks guys!
bantho: do you run zbrush 1.55 on your powerbook? how does it perform?
artboy
bantho, those cooling technologies are a stop gap solution, and they wont show up in a laptop. There heat issue will be addressed in a different G5 processor probably specifically designed, or outfitted for laptops, iMac’s, and eMac’s. But again there still probably wont be a G5 in a laptop for a while.
I somewhat agree WierdPal, I think this overheating issue is going to happen in all the new processors, (AMD, IBM, Intel) sooner or later and new cooling technologies have to emerge to solve it, because the laptop is going to replace the new desktop machines in a lot of areas and processing power will increment as Moore’s Law indicates. But is true… no powerbook G5 soon 
And… yes Artboy, I use ZBrush 1.55 in my powerbook G4, 1 Ghz (512 mb) and work flawless, just one crash in a year (but I think was culp of the “Alice” game) and in case you don’t have one, get a small wacom tablet, is very handy in conjunction with a powerbook and ZBrush.