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Apple Enhances 12-inch and 17-inch PowerBooks


Along with the new 15-inch PowerBook G4, Apple made some small but welcome changes to the existing 12-inch and 17-inch PowerBook G4s. The 12-inch PowerBook G4 replaces its 867 MHz CPU with a 1 GHz PowerPC G4 CPU plus 512K of level 2 cache, double the previous amount. Another welcome change is the addition of a mini-DVI port and a pair of adapters for connecting DVI- and VGA-based monitors. Lastly, the Nvidia GeForce FX Go5200 graphics processor with 32 MB of DDR SDRAM replaces the GeForce4 420 Go. Pricing remains the same.



The 17-inch PowerBook G4 upgrades its 1 GHz CPU to a 1.33 GHz PowerPC G4 with 512K of level 2 cache (twice as much as before), trades in its 60 GB hard drive for an 80 GB model, and swaps its Nvidia GeForce4 440 Go graphics processor with 64 MB of DDR SDRAM for the ATI Mobility Radeon 9600 with 64 MB of DDR SDRAM. Along with these improvements, the 17-inch PowerBook’s price drops $300, so models start at $3,000.

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