After about half a year of deliberation, I finally made my system upgrade decision. The die is cast, the Rubicon is crossed, and I'm currently awaiting the arrival of my new 450 MHz G4 Cube.

Well, not quite new. If you're a Low End Mac reader, you are probably aware that LEM publisher Dan Knight recently accepted a Cube as part payment for an outstanding past due advertising account. This came in handy for Dan, who was faced with shipping the Titanium PowerBook that he uses to run LEM back to Apple in Texas for some warranty repair work.

However, Low End has been experiencing some cash flow problems of its own, and Dan can't afford to keep two new G4 computers, so now that the TiBook is back, he was looking to sell the Cube, which has just a couple or three weeks use on it. We were able to come to mutually agreeable terms, and the Cube should be winging its way from Michigan to Nova Scotia as soon as the Pony Express delivers my check to Dan.

This is quite exciting of course. I don't buy a new workhorse computer every day. Or even every year. I love my 29 month old WallStreet PowerBook, which has served me flawlessly (save for refusing to install OS X), but 233 MHz is more than a bit sluggish these days, and I'm looking forward to some raw speed. According to Dan, the increase in performance he experienced with the Cube compared with the 400 MHz TiBook, was incrementally equivalent to the difference between the TiBook and his old UMAX S-900 with a 333 MHz Newer Technology G3 processor upgrade. The contrast with the 233 MHz WallStreet should be quite dramatic.

Happily, Dan also installed 512 MB of RAM upgrades in the Cube, for a total of 576 MB, which should be more than ample for my needs for the foreseeable future, and I can forget about Virtual Memory.

So how come I, big PowerBook advocate and fan that I am, settled on a Cube as my next computer. Well, it wasn't an easy decision. However, I've been smitten by the Cube ever since it was first rolled out at MacWorld Expo 11 months ago. The thing is a work of art, and its shares many characteristics with PowerBooks.

The Cube is not really portable in the sense that a PowerBook is portable, but it is "luggable," which fulfills my requirements these days. Willow Design even makes a pair of very nice Cube carry cases, one of which will accommodate Apple's 15 in. LCD studio display along with the Cube itself and all of its peripherals. This whole rig weighs in excess of 30 lbs., so it's not something you would want to carry around all day, but it's a lot more portable than an iMac or G4 Tower (incidentally, Willow makes carry cases for them too).

For personal health reasons that I've written about before, but that I won't get into again right now, I've never really used the WallStreet much as a laptop anyway, so while I continue to believe in general that laptops are the "logical Mac" form factor, at this point in time the Cube simply makes more sense for me.

As I said, it was a tough decision though. I fell in love with the TiBook at first sight last January, and then I fell in love all over again when Apple released the new iBook last month. I think the Cube is aesthetically delightful, but in my heart I'm really still a PowerBook guy.

Nevertheless, even at its original, somewhat inflated price point, it always seemed to me that the Cube offered pretty good value compared with a high-end PowerBook, and at $1,299 for the 450 MHz DVD Model I'm getting, it's a relative bargain. Add one of Apple's gorgeous 15" Studio Displays, and you're still only up to $1,899 -- $700 less than the cheapest TiBook, and only $100 more than the high end iBook. Even with the17" Apple Studio Display, you're still $300 south of the 400 MHz iBook.

Of course, if you need a laptop, you need a laptop -- not a Cube, but for those of us who mostly use our PowerBooks as desktop substitutes, the Cube bears serious consideration. For me it boiled down to the TiBook 400 MHz; the iBook 500 MHz; or the Cube 450 MHz. I had already pretty much decided that the TiBook was too expensive for what it offers (wonderful machine though it is). Then the unexpectedly gorgeous and powerful iBook was unleashed on May 1st. That made the choice more complicated again. The Ti was out, but the iBook was now definitely on my short list.

The iBook's advantage, aside from the drool factor, is price. I could have it for just a little more than the cost of the Cube less a monitor, and for half the price of the TiBook (at least in U.S. dollars -- here in Canada, Apple is doing a bit of profiteering by pricing the iBook at Can$1999 for the entry-level model, while the 400 MHz TiBook sells for Can$3,895, and the 450 MHz Cube for Can$1,949).

However, while the iBook is a superb performer as laptops go, the Cube simply offers more of just about everything; the 20 GB rather than 18 GB hard drive, twice as much video RAM with ATI's RAGE 128 Pro card, twice as many RAM expansion slots, a 100 MHz system bus instead of 66 MHz, a G4 instead of the G3 (which is not such a big deal right now, but maybe will be in a year or two hence), DVD instead of a CD-ROM drive (in the low end unit), and a set of cool Harman/Kardon 20 watt USB speakers. That 20 GB hard drive will have plenty of room for all of my files, 0 SX, and a good-sized not partition.

And, having chafed for the past 15 months running ViaVoice and iListen dictation software on the 233 MHz G3, my inclination was to go for the most power I could reasonably afford this time, so the Cube seemed to make the most sense in that context as well.

Another, lower priority but still significant factor weighing on my decision is that while I love the looks of both the iBook and TiBook, the Cube is in a whole different dimension -- not just attractive, but as I noted earlier, an objet d'art. There are increasing indicators that the Cube's days may be numbered as a production model, so it was possibly now or never if I wanted to own one -- at least new.

This week, DealZone notes that MacConnection is no longer carrying the Cube at all; The Outpost (recently merged with PC/MacConnection) is out of stock of Cubes; and MacMall has less than 20 units on the shelves.

However, my latest MacWarehouse Canada catalog, which arrived today with the new iBook on its cover, still lists the Cube, albeit on less than half a page inside the back cover.

I haven't yet decided what to do about a monitor. My ancient NEC 15" Multiscan CRT will work for setup purposes, but I don't want to use it as an everyday display. Apple's 15 in. LCD Studio Display sells for Can$929, and the aforementioned Mac how Warehouse catalog lists the NEC/Mitsubishi MultiSync 15.1 in. LCD 1530V, the Samsung SyncMaster 570V TFT, and the ViewSonic VE150 all at Can$799.99.

Whatever, it will be an adventure. I will keep you posted.

Charles W. Moore

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