Megahertz Myth...

guys i think we all agree on the fact that a Pentium 3Ghz is faster in RAW power in comparison to the PowerMac dual 1.25 (when performing only 1 application) !!!

BUT... has ANYONE actually used both of these machines from up close? have they tried MULTITASKING with both of these beasts? Well i know Hulkaros has. and from his tellings the Pentium sucks at multitasking!u open up a few applications and the music stars skipping, whereas with the powermac u can open many more applications and it will keep on going!
the good thing about dual processors is that u can have one processor doing 1 app. and the other one doin somethin else!

for me this matters. i use my mac as a hobby and not for video editin so i dont care if its not as fast as a pentium machine. I care that i can do 5 things at the same time. and THAT in the end saves me time!

but EVEn for professionals; what good is it to them if they cant do ANYTHIN AT THE SAME TIME with there computer while there editing some video! ITS USELESS. cause in the end they lose more time. and time is all about money(<------hahahaha)!!!!
 
One of our customers is doing the following on a Dual 1 GHz PowerMac (1.25 GB RAM, SuperDrive, 3x80 GB HDs) with no problems for a LONG period of time and that's the usual everyday scenario for the Mac anyways:
-Burning DVDs with Toast
-Encoding iDVD based DVDs
-Playing some MP3s
-Having VPC5 with Windows 2000 Pro running a DVD/VHS rental app
-Exporting from iMovie DV clips for use with iDVD
-Downloading trailers from the internet with QuickTime PRO 6
And ALL the above AT THE SAME TIME... Also, when the iDVD finishes the encoding and the Toast its job, most of the time the iDVD burns a DVD and the toast is idle. NO restarts, NO damaged DVDs, NO MP3 skipping at ANY given time!!! Of course the jobs are slower than having just 2 or 3 of them running at the same but at least the Mac is finishing them easily with NO problems at all...

Now, I NEVER saw ANY Pentium4 PC doing the above stuff with Win2K PRO or XP PRO and I would really like to see one trying similar things on a PC only to find out that he needs rocket scientist knowledge AND God's luck :D and no, I'm not talking about Jobs or Gates ;)

So far, the P4 3 GHz showed to me that YES it beats ANY Dual Mac when playing ANY games, E A S I L Y . . . And yes, including that Solitaire game :D

Also, the 3 GHz beast is DAMN fast overall but hey, it is a fresh new design from intel and that poor Dual PowerMac is an old design from the first month of 2002!!! Did we like to forget this? Or simply the iWhiners out there simply fail to mention this to newbies around here or even worst to themselves?

I think that the tables will turn in the months ahead with the new PowerMacs all while at the same time intel will TRY hard to boost their P4 design for a mere 500MHz at the most for 2003... Sorry, no more 1-1.5 GHz upgrades in a year for intel!

As for benchmarks around the globe... BS! If anyone wants the following:
-An inch thick notebook with more than enough speed
-12-17" inch displays
-2.5 kilos
-DVD-R
-60 GB HD
-Firewire
-Built-in wireless net capabilities with speeds up to 54Mbps
-Graphics that would allow me to play Doom 3 when it will be out
-Mac OS X.x.x
-Terminal
-Easy to use apps but still powerful
-ANY Windows version just for the fun of it...
-An apple logo somewhere on it :D
No much how much money one has or how fast the Wintel platform is, they don't have what we (including myself) the Mac users can have: Titaniums :cool:

I love the faces and sounds that PC people do when they see my 1GHz PowerBook in action... No, PC currently available (or soon to be available) can give me that... Its priceless! :D
 
I would not compare speed with MHz, but speed with $$$. I don't care if my machine has one, two or 64 CPUs. I don't care if it runs at 300 MHz or 3 GHz. I don't care if the graphics is done by the main CPU(s) or a specific peripheral. I want it to be fast enough, and to be affordable.

And I agree with everybody that Unix is far more stable and clean than Windows. But Unix alone is not an operating system for general purpose user. OS-X the best complete OS (Unix base + Apple GUI). And I don't care if the CPU is made by Motorola, IBM, Intel or Texas Instruments.

But Apple does.

Apple makes money selling computers. And applications. And OS.
 
Originally posted by phatsharpie
This is a misconception. [...]

I would love Apple to succeed with OS X, and I would love to see OS X on Intel (I was a NeXTSTEP junkie), but it's not likely to happen unless Apple can garner some OEM support. If Apple can get Dell to carry OS X, then yes, it would work, but until then, no way.
Click to expand...

Apple had several OEMs supporting its OS, including Motorola, at time of System 7. The problem is that Apple didn't do enough money to continue to have the OS to progress. So they had to increase the license price and this was not accepted by the OEMs. The OEMs were only eating on Apple's market, not penetrating any other markets.
 
You said it, Gregita. Again. That's the word.

Again...
Again and again. And again.

Apple will NEVER give us those missing MHz. They're giving something else instead. Now guess what, ask yourself it it excuses a delay of 3 seconds on such or such 700Mb blur-operation in Photoshop or not.
 
it depends toast, some of us have to do an action to multiple (in the hundreds) multi mb pictures... so that 3 secs can very well add up :eek:

as far as multitasking, my g4 800, when i burn a cd, most everything else slows down extremely, i must be missing something :eek:
 
hey hulk, have you ever tried doing multitasking with a dual processor pentium? ive never had a chance to use one so i wonder how they perform :)
 
Originally posted by Jason
hey hulk, have you ever tried doing multitasking with a dual processor pentium? ive never had a chance to use one so i wonder how they perform :)
Click to expand...

But Quad as well... AMD MPs as well as P3s and Xeons... They work fast! Too fast! Amazingly fast! Especially if they are configured with loads of RAM and Win2K Pro, Win2K Server and Win2k Advanced Server... I don't know why but when using the WinXP the things aren't that good for dual CPUs... Above 2 CPUs you MUST use Win2K Server editions if you want your Quad or 8-CPU system to use its many cpus because XP handles only 2 and that is when using the Pro version of XP :D

Compared to a Dual Mac any dual PC running above 1.5-1.6 GHz it smokes the poor Mac... Hell, even the single P4 3 GHz beast gives the Dual Mac a run for its money! However, when multitasking with multimedia apps, DVD-R/RW/etc. drives, CD-R/RW/etc. drives at the same time the PCs ALWAYS seem to underperform compared to a Dual Mac... Or if you prefer they aren't all that fast and mighty as you believe when you have Quake 3 infront of you or that DVD2DivX app :D

Also, all those people complaining about Dual Macs noise obviously they never heard a similar PC system! Of course you can buy quite stuff but the majority dual/quad/8-cpus systems from well known and respected companies out there produce loads of noise :(

Another thing with dual (and above) PCs is the fact that they lose the following:
-They aren't cheap
-Not many mainboard options
-Harder to upgrade
-Much more difficult to maintain
-Not many companies to chose from
-Not many Windows OS options
-Much more difficult to get tech support in a bad case scenario
-More expensive electricity bills
-Not THAT compatible with other hardware options (graphics, sound, etc.)
-And many other things which break the myth of how good REALLY is owning a Dual Wintel regardless of how FAST it truly is :D

I don't know why but Macs running OS X seem to be much more stable performers compared to similar PCs... It may be the combination of software/hardware from the same vendor or simply the way Macs handle I/O traffic internally... I don't know what! But for sure I NEVER saw ANY PC handling the previous things that I posted THAT good...

PS. DVD2DivX stuff on PC simply smokes the poor Mac :(
 
so its kinda a win some lose some deal, oh well, no one setup will be utterly perfect :)
 
"I don't know why but Macs running OS X seem to be much more stable performers compared to similar PCs... It may be the combination of software/hardware from the same vendor or simply the way Macs handle I/O traffic internally... I don't know what! But for sure I NEVER saw ANY PC handling the previous things that I posted THAT good..."


Mac OSX 10.2.x is the reason . This is the best consumer OS ever.
 
I don't know about the desktops, but as for the laptops I think his analysis is extremely inadequate. Look at the benchmarks and the specs and I think you'll see what I mean:

1. The PowerBook he used (PB800) is 2 generations old and most definitely not in the same price range as the Alienware he configured, while the Alienware he used is priced in the same range as the new 17" PB!
2. The PowerBook 17" has a 25% raw speed increase over the PB800. The Alienware would have to reach 3.83GHz to experience a similar increase.
3. The Alienware laptop he used is the most current model.
4. The PB 17" uses PC2700 DDR SDRAM at an effective 167MHz, vs the PB800 133MHz.
5. The PB 17" has a 100MHz system bus, vs. the PB800's 66MHz system bus.
6. The PB 17" is 6.8lbs and the 15" 5.4 lbs. The Alienware is 9.6 lbs
7. The largest screen available for the Alienware is 15".
8. The prices are equal on similarily configured PB 17" and Alienware 15" machines.
9. The Alienware is almost twice as thick as the PB 17" and 1.2" deeper. The Powerbook 17" is wider (15.4" vs 13"), obviously (it's a 17" screen), and yet the total volume of the PowerBook vs the Alienware is 157 vs. 252 in^3!!!! Wow.
10. The Alienware isn't even a real laptop! It uses a regular P4 processor! Only loonies make laptops with regular P4 processors!! (Yeah, I'm loony too, but in different ways :D) You thought a PB was hot -- this thing has got to scorch the hairs off your legs through 3 layers of clothing!! Battery life must be simply horrendous! So bad that Alienware won't even tell you. The only thing Alienware claims "1-2 hours" battery life for their batteries, and that's if you get the other model (the Hive-mind instead of the Area-51) with a Mobile P4 processor! There's no way the Area-51 could make it over an hour. Any other laptop users out there wanna comment on how useful a 1-hour battery life portable would be? :p There is a market for it, I just don't think most people looking for a laptop are in it.
11. The fastest true Mobile Pentium chip you can get is 2.2GHz vs the 3.06GHz he used. That's a 50% increase that really shouldn't be there.

Put it all together and the old PB800 still beat out the Alienware on a decent number of tests! I'd like to see Sr. Galbraith compare a real PC laptop with the new PB 17" and see what he has to say.

On top of all the raw speed, size and weight issues where the PB beats out other PC laptops, think about this:
1. The PB 17" has a superdrive. The Alienware has a combo drive.
2. The PB has Airport extreme built-in whereas the alienware comes with nothing and you'd eat up your only PCMCIA slot and have an antenna sticking out if added it on.
3. The PB 17" has two firewire ports and one is Firewire 800. The Alienware has one firewire port and its Firewire 400. There are so many advantages to Firewire 800 over 400, but I've posted enough about that in these forums already ;).
4. The PB has 10/100/1000 Ethernet built-in, whereas the Alienware only has 10/100.
5. The PB runs OS X!!

I think Apple's right on the mark about it being the year of the laptops and their laptops definitely can't be beat.
 
it depends toast, some of us have to do an action to multiple (in the hundreds) multi mb pictures... so that 3 secs can very well add up
Click to expand...

400 magazine covers represent 20 more minutes of rendering. In couterpart, we have OS X.

(Based on those 3 seconds per cover: 400*3/60)
 
The PC notebook wins, fair enough, its a singled 3GHz CPU compared to the dual 1.25GHz Mac but what about the 1.8GHz PC? Single CPU and still beat the dual CPU Mac in most of the tests.

Ya, ya, ya, Windows sucks! Ya, ya, ya, it crashes constantly. I know, I know.

Of course, I'd still rather have my iBook or PowerBook compared to any PC notebook but when it comes to desktops, I'd never trade mine for a PowerMac.

For around $400, you can have that same out dated Dell setup. For $3600, you can have the PowerMac. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why PCs with Windows are dominating the world.
 
Hehe, that is some sweet setup. But back to the main conversation. I have to agree with the whole Mac OS X on x86. Or AT LEAST GETTING SOME NEW FREAKING HARDWARE! Im well aware that the PowerPC 970 or whatever is comming about soon, but thats over a year away! Lord nows how crappy the G4 is gonna look then! Apple needs some serious change, or innovation. Not in the Software department...they've already done that about a billion times over for the last 20 some odd years. Apple needs to look into getting something else other than a processor that can't even handle DDR RAM (SD RAM SUCKS!!!!). Look at almost all current PC makers, they're all selling RD RAM! Hell, RDRAM is becoming the standard for them! And heres Apple selling SDRAM still...*weeps*. But I didn't buy my 17 incher iMac for the hardware...hehe, HELL no. I bought it for Mac OS X!! I love that OS with every fiber of my being! *weeps*...its so damn beautiful...
 
(Yeah, I'm loony too, but in different ways :D) You thought a PB was hot -- this thing has got to scorch the hairs off your legs through 3 layers of clothing!!
Click to expand...

LOL!! Nice remark! And yes, now that you mention it, this test was preformed VERY recently....

You know what I think? I think THAT SICK BASTARD IS JUST JELIOUS BECAUSE HIS STUPID BRIGHT YELLOW/GREE OR WHATEVER "ALIEN" WARE PC ISN'T AS COOL AS ANY MAC OUT THERE!! I don't see any people cheering and crying tears of joy at any Intel or MIcRO$hafT keynotes, do you?
 
i dont care who you are loyal to, but i dont care for name calling in whomevers direction... the part i edited could very well be taken as mac trolling... trolling isnt something thats too welcome here, so watch your choice of words.

thanks :)
 
I have one of those "huge" notebooks (not Alien, but still big) at home. It fits my bill perfectly. It has lots of power, a great display, and runs everything I need. Maybe some of you should just realize that not everybody needs a PowerBook (or iBook). I needed a desktop replacement - something that is powerful but easy to transport when needed. The Alienware notebook fulfills the same needs. There is no need dissing PCs just because they are different from Macs.

I wonder why Mac fans have to get so defensive all the time. If the Mac OS is so great, then there is no need to defend it. Nothing in this world is perfect. And there is room for everybody. It would make much more fun reading this board if those PC bashing remarks would not occur all the time (same with Mac bashing).

So, let's just get along...
 
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