Finally, Apple switches to AMD for its new iMacs! (Sort of!)

Published on August 9th, 2007

Posted by SN in General

The Inquirer – Wednesday 08 August 2007:

THE RELEASE of Apple’s new super-sleek Imacs heralds more than just a design change for the Cappuccino-based firm – it marks some prime inventory movement for the boys at AMD/ATI.

Until yesterday, and the release of the new models, ATI had its graphics chips in just two of the thirteen standard Macs – its X1600 cards were available in the mid-range previous-gen Imacs – with Intel below and Nvidia 7300 above.

The new Imac line is all-ATI, instantly doubling the company’s share of the Mac graphics business.

70 users responded in " Finally, Apple switches to AMD for its new iMacs! (Sort of!) "

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# 1 Mike said, on August 9th, 2007 at 3:33 am

I wonder if they’ll start using AMD CPUs any time soon.
It must work to their advantage to have everything provided by the one chipmaker.
At the moment AMDs chips are slower than intel’s ones, but the soon to be released Phenom chips look damn good!

# 2 Liam said, on August 9th, 2007 at 3:47 am

Wow, you guys are really dedicated. You posted this at 3 in the morning!

# 3 pedro said, on August 9th, 2007 at 3:53 am

Still any doubts that macs are just a run-of-the-mill pee cee?

# 4 steelcobra said, on August 9th, 2007 at 4:13 am

When you can prove that Phenom is faster than Penryn, then I’ll look into their chips. As for their graphics cards, ATI’s been pretty disappointing this generation. More than 6 months after nVidia releases their stunning DX10 cards, ATI releases one that can keep up with the midrange model but eats more power and generates more heat than the top-end cards. Not exactly impressive.

#3: It’s still overpriced so Apple can justify how they’re built.

# 5 Mister Mustard said, on August 9th, 2007 at 4:18 am

>>Wow, you guys are really dedicated. You posted this at 3
>>in the morning!

I think their servers are somewhere out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The time stamps are always an hour EARLIER than Pacific time.

That “3am” posting appeared around 7am here, which is the time it would be on the east coast.

# 6 moss said, on August 9th, 2007 at 4:22 am

#1 – After the iMac intro, etc., there was a sitdown Q&A session with the media folks in attendance. The question about using AMD cpu’s was asked. Jobs replied, “We use Intel”.

# 7 vera said, on August 9th, 2007 at 4:31 am

[edited: spam]

# 8 pedro said, on August 9th, 2007 at 4:37 am

vera uses mac

# 9 TIHZ_HO said, on August 9th, 2007 at 4:49 am

#3 pedro “Still any doubts that macs are just a run-of-the-mill pee cee?”

Apple like any PC manufacturer is entitled to expand their hardware base – nothing new here. Good for them to catch up with the mainstream.

Hey Pedro – Still on your diet and your son still eats pizza in front of you? Just remembering an old comment of yours…

Cheers

# 10 TIHZ_HO said, on August 9th, 2007 at 4:55 am

Pedro, Pedro, Pedro – Setting a chum line for Mac users?

Seems ‘Lauren the Ghoti’ gave up on the previous ‘discussion’ – well the rhetoric from her more like – so looking for more?

http://www.dvorak.org/blog/?p=13020#comment-740669

Cheers

# 11 pedro said, on August 9th, 2007 at 5:43 am

#9 Of course they’re entitled. I didn’t write that comment to inffer that mac cannot make changes to try and get a bigger byte outta the market.

The comment is focused on those funny fans that not only buy the lame arguments the heads of mac make to keep the sheeps in hords, but fervorously defend them, regardless of “changes of heart” from Stevereeno that contradict all he just said less than a year ago to demean anything not mac (which is normal for any comany to do, but the sheeps take it too personal). If it weren’t for the gullyble, this wouldn’t be funny.

On the other subject, after two stoning attempts on my part to make him stop eating pizza, he was able to convert me into a pizza eater.

#10 why? was it to mean to say that vera uses mac?

# 12 JoaoPT said, on August 9th, 2007 at 6:37 am

#10 tihz_ho
on your previous post you raise a point, that many people raised and is very simple to explain in two simple points:

There are many Window users who are angry that Apple does not let OS X run on their PC boxes. Is this fair? Apple is high on how Mac users can now run Windows and don’t have to buy a new box. However true to Apple’s form, Apple want only boxes THEY sell – Macs – to run OS X. That’s off! Its like iPods only work with ITunes – which is also unreasonable!!

1- Apple is a hardware company.
2- Apple is not big enough to handle the immense diversity of hardware around.

Those two points explain everything. Apple is only interested in selling hardware. That’s why they always bundle the software.
If Apple opens up OSX to the PC platform they are in for two things: Start selling less hi margin boxes and start having to triple their staff to develop drivers and support for every piece of hardware under the Sun. That’s why Microsoft is so huge, they have to check that windows works not only in Dells, but HPs, Lenovos and every beige box around, with every CPU/chipset/Gpu configuration.
As it’s easily gathered, Apple would lose tons of revenue in the immediate future.

As for AMD chips inside macs, wait and see. Apple is not willing to put itself on a position to depend on a (relatively) small provider, as with the days of IBM/Motorola.

# 13 TIHZ_HO said, on August 9th, 2007 at 7:36 am

#12 Thanks for the explanation however I did understand – that is why I said what I said. “Apple wants only boxes THEY sell – Macs – to run OS X.” I just didn’t go to why they do this – you summed it up well.

For exactly the reasons you cited was a previous point I made about people bitching about MS and that we would not have the PC technology we have today if it weren’t for one preeminent.OS. Love him or hate him we ought to thank Bill.

The reasons you cited also explains the technology lag Apple traditionally has with new cutting edge hardware. Its all about the money.

Cheers

Pedro – I was only pulling your chain about stirring up the mud with Mac users! Obviously you were throwing the stones underhand!

# 14 James Hill said, on August 9th, 2007 at 7:45 am

As much as I enjoy dominating the anti-Mac crowd here, I can’t get worked up over this story.

Apple’s main seller is the MacBook Pro, and it used ATI graphics in its first two generations… but just switched to Nvidia for its third generation.

Apple plays the two graphics companies off of each other, and will continue to do so until the GPU is tied (or part of) the CPU (which isn’t too far away).

This is a non-story, but your Apple polishing is noted.

# 15 pedro said, on August 9th, 2007 at 8:00 am

And mac is the first company to do so, I presume. Innovation from mac never ceases.

BTW, mac’s late, there were a ton more graphic adapter companies back in the day. Mac just came when the dust has kinda settled. Althought there’s still Matrox and others. I guess they won’t be using Matrox on the grounds of not being hip enough

# 16 JoaoPT said, on August 9th, 2007 at 8:09 am

#13 yeah, I knew you did.
I was just clarifying that to the wider audience, since it’s a general mistake/wishful thinking…

On the post at hand, I was just re-reading what I wrote earlier and struck me that Apple is careful not to tip the scales too much. If AMD/ATI goes under, the market will turn into a unique CPU provider, and also unique GPU provider (intel an nvidia). That is not good at all in the long run. R&D would stall and prices would rocket.
That’s why Dell also sells AMD PCs too.

# 17 JoaoPT said, on August 9th, 2007 at 8:10 am

#15 psst. Pedro… Mac is a brand. Apple is the company (ahem…)

# 18 James Hill said, on August 9th, 2007 at 8:15 am

#17 – Don’t bother explaining such logic to him.

# 19 Mike said, on August 9th, 2007 at 8:16 am

#2, I’m from Australia, so 3am is actually more like 8pm (or whatever).

# 20 pedro said, on August 9th, 2007 at 8:33 am

#17 What?

#18 I didn’t know macfans were acquainted with the concept of logic. I thought it was against your religion

# 21 Angel H. Wong said, on August 9th, 2007 at 8:43 am

#14

And I thought the real reason behind why the case of the new iMac is built entirely out of aluminum was because it’s a giant heat sink for the ATI/AMD chipset

# 22 GregA said, on August 9th, 2007 at 9:51 am

Jay Leno Chin

OMG, these are rubish.

On a 20″ computer 40%!!! of the front is bevel and chin? Almost half of the front of that computer is not montior??? This is an example of good industrial design???

Are you guys kidding?

I suggest for your apple branded goodness, ignore the iMacs, and get a mini or mac pro then the cinema display. Then you get the all important apple branding plus a decent looking computer. Not that albatross that is the iMac. OMG, those look horrible.

Then we come to that new keyboard… Wow, so extreme… Please don’t tell me the battery is sealed… Oh no, you have to be kidding me??? Its sealed? the battery is sealed on a KEYBOARD??

# 23 James Hill said, on August 9th, 2007 at 9:55 am

#20 – Your worship is noted.

# 24 UbiquitousGeek said, on August 9th, 2007 at 10:12 am

Are you fanboys really going to take an article about ATI video cards in iMacs and turn it into a PC vs. Mac debate? Don’t you have anything better to do? Defrag your hard drive maybe?

# 25 pedro said, on August 9th, 2007 at 10:24 am

#22 the mac mini is about to be left without support.

BTW, you should talk to my kid about mac design. He always heard me talking about all things mac and he just laugh withouth understanding. That is, until someone gave him an ipod suffer as a present. He was quite happy regardless of my bashing…until the thing ran out of batteries and he couldn’t do like he did with with his other mp3 player. That is open the battery compartment, take the depleted battery and put a new one, nor connect the damned thing to a charger and listen to music while charging. The reason? besides from the known “engineering marvel” of being unable to change the battery, the charger connects thru the phone jack. So, you have to choose, charge or bust.

Now, he’s more acid than me and everytime anyone says ipod, he goes all cranky. I wonder if it was the same engineer who thought of this almost identical feature to disable the phone function anytime the iphew is on the cradle.

#23 You’re so funny. Tell me, do you have a mirror next to the monitor? and, if so, do you look at it while you write stuff like “Your worship is noted.”? or do you start chanting to yourelf “I’m a good person and people like me”?

# 26 pedro said, on August 9th, 2007 at 10:43 am

#24 only because is so nice to watch stevereeno byte his own tongue.

Maybe he’s just older and wiser and finally listened to a whole bunch of people that were telling him all along to step down from that useless “think different” crap. The moment he stopped believing that himslef & just preaching it, was the moment mac started doing better.

# 27 GregA said, on August 9th, 2007 at 10:47 am

#25

Don’t get me wrong, when I first saw the new iMac (with the computer off) it took my breath away. But then, the picture of it on started surfacing… And the way they made the monitor look larger than it is is sooooooo cheap and dishonest.

It is like you are on a date with a girl, she has ginormous chesticles, and she is happy to go home with you. So you get home, and you find out she stuffed her bra, to the overflowing preportions. Honey, I would have accepted you just the way you are, you just had to be honest with me…

On second though, ignore this post, I just wanted to use the term ‘ginormous chesticles’ in conversation.

# 28 JoaoPT said, on August 9th, 2007 at 1:40 pm

The all-in-one design touted by apple (even in the presentation side by side with a Dell…) as being more efficient, only removes one, or maybe two cables out of the equation. However, they never mention its biggest drawback: obsolescence. In three years or maybe four, your glitzy new all-in-one Mac will be outdated, but the monitor will be good as new. Too bad you can’t have one without the other, you either have to toss’em both out or sell the iMac cheap and never recoup the value of the monitor.
And also the form factor is very pleasing to the eye but very hard on tinkerers. Never think of upgrading nothing other than memory or maybe disk… no new video card, no new processor, no new USB or FireWire cards, serial ata links, no overclocking… well, all that stuff one can easily do with a box and monitor approach.

# 29 Angel H. Wong said, on August 9th, 2007 at 3:23 pm

But… Why would I pay $1,900 on a machine just to work on a spreadsheet?

# 30 JoaoPT said, on August 9th, 2007 at 3:24 pm

#25 Just add something to please you Pedro:
I got a ipod nano, the original Nano. I always eschewed the idea of buying any iPod, but this was a gift. Apparently a friend of mine just switched to mp3 listening on his new Nokia phones and this nano was forgotten at the bottom of his Gym bag, going to waste. So he gave it to me.
Overall I like it, it’s small and easily fits in the pocket, the interface is ok, though sometimes gives me some hardtime over the sync method (I have it on sync to smart playlists, but sometimes I like to manually transfer files…) but mainly I have two major rants about this:

Why didn’t apple chose a standard usb connector on the device????
sometimes I want to put some songs over at the office, but guess what, I don’t have the friggin cable…what! Am I supposed to carry it with me all the time?
Secondly, why can’t I just drag files over on windows… why am I forced to use iTunes? Because of DRM? That’s nutz. I can add non drm files to itunes and sync them, but why go through all that trouble…

# 31 JoaoPT said, on August 9th, 2007 at 3:27 pm

#29 You wouldn’t, that’s why there’s PCs on every cublicle or office space in the world.
Macs are growing in market share, but that’s mainly the home segments and the portable segments. Not the accounting department favourite choice…

# 32 pedro said, on August 9th, 2007 at 3:57 pm

Joao. I think you could use Winamp to manage the playlist on the nano. Not sure about that, but I could swear it was in the list along with the shuffle.

There are like 2 or 3 more apps that can replace itunes to manage playlists for most ipods. I did that for my kid because I just was not going to install itunes on his machine.

# 33 GregA said, on August 9th, 2007 at 5:41 pm

#28

Still no sdram slot… Between two phones and a half dozen digital cameras in my house, the sdram slot is critical to my computing life. I guess you could add a sdram dongle to the mac, but it is so simple, why isn’t it built in yet? I guess overly complex (for the end user) technology like sdram is just not in the apple road map.

I kinda don’t agree about the monitor issue you have. Monitors are just another consumer electronics device, and monitors have about the same life as a computer… Although if you were a gamer, having a seperate computer and monitor is critical because you will be upgrading your computer every 6-12 months.

As I age, I am tinkering a lot less, and I love the all in one form factor. I probably would have been a switcher during this refresh if they had gotten rid of the jay leno chin. Although I would have been the apple oddity who ran Vista exclusively on my iMac.

#29, #31

I think the computer in every office and cube age is coming to an end. I have the budget to upgrade my computer system currently. We are upgrading our accounting system. (Going to either by Dynamics or Advance Pro if you are wondering). Right now the system that looks like it makes the most sense, is ditching computers on the desktop and replacing every computer with a single HP Integrity server, and thin client. Then here is the kicker… We close the data center, the sever is hosted at a co-location provider. All the desktops are provided by the integrity’s hyper-visor.

As a tech what I don’t like about that solution is… That would basically be the end of my techinal job… I guess I would still be needed to make sure the lan was working at all the locations, and for provisioning to workstations… But not a lot else…

# 34 Lauren the Ghoti said, on August 9th, 2007 at 5:51 pm

Joao – your complaint about the design of the iMac as being non-tinkerer-friendly is hard to understand. Apparently you have forgotten that they build other models; the iMac suits the person who has no need to change anything, for those who need to swap out that DVD burner for a Blu-Ray, or decide to add a second monitor or 10.2 sound, they build a different model, the Mac Pro. Perhaps you’ve heard of it…

pedro, sad to hear the kid has such probs w/ the iPod. Maybe he could try the latest craze all the kids are into these days – it’s called “sleeping” – and while they’re doing it, they can even use the time to put a charge on their ‘Pod…

# 35 zaw said, on August 9th, 2007 at 5:58 pm

Real Mac should not have Ethernet it should have Apple Talk.
Real Mac should not have USB it should have FireWire only
Real Mac Should not have same CPU as PC uses.
Real Mac should not have VGA, DVI port, should Apple type.
Real Mac should not have Same grapic card as PC.
Real Mac should not have PCI-E should have Apple Slot/SuperSlot etc.

All late macs are just run off the mill PC with modified Bios and OSX.

# 36 steelcobra said, on August 9th, 2007 at 6:55 pm

#35 – Real Mac by your definition would be even more expensive for sub-par hardware.
TCP/IP over Ethernet is the networking standard for a very good reason: it works. And Appletalk would further isolate Mac from the internet as it would require special hardware to work.

Have fun convincing companies to put out firewire keyboards and mice. That interface is overkill for most devices. Let hard drives, cameras, and other such devices rule that port.

Yes, Mac should use the PowerPC, a chip so slow that Apple finally caved and admitted that Intel’s was faster, which is no small feat.

So, you’re saying Apple shouldn’t let their users buy a monitor that fits their needs? Especially when you consider that DVI runs the same digital video stream format that HDMI does.

When you show me an Apple design that beats the GeForce 8800 I’ll accept that one.

And further isolate themselves from PCB printers? That’s just another reason to cast themselves back behind PCs again.

No, all late Macs are common PC parts in a pretty case with too much thermal compound. That crash just as bad as they did way back on OS 8, when they were “Real Macs”.

Thank you for giving me a chance to respond to that much fail.

(And no, I don’t hate Apple, most of their stuff just doesn’t suit me and how I use a computer. That said, I love my iPod and iTunes.)

# 37 pedro said, on August 9th, 2007 at 7:26 pm

#34 I disagree. He needed the bad experience the the mac product so he knew about how bad they are first hand. Now, he’s wiser. You seem to not have learnt anything other than conformism and letting others decide what’s good for you.

I cannot tell him a thing now. I’ll have to wait ’til tommorrow to give him your advice. He’s asleep, you see? Do kids in the US sleep during the day?

# 38 Lauren the Ghoti said, on August 10th, 2007 at 1:11 am

I see. The iPod will sit safely there until he wakes up and starts bitching about how he can’t listen to it while it’s charging.

No DNA test needed, pedro. That’s your offspring, alright.

# 39 JoaoPT said, on August 10th, 2007 at 2:18 am

#32 you might want to try floola…it’s free and fantastic iTunes replacement

#34 yes I’ve heard of it… in fact I discussed it with you. The MacPro is too much expensive. It’s workstation class all over and I’m talking home use. Xeon…intel 5000 chipset…fb-dimm ?!?

PS. I’m recycling my old (5 year old) athlon 1200 machine as a media center. And i’m pleased to find out that keeping it to a minimum installation, I can use VLC as media player to everything and even watch 720p (that as high as my Bravia goes, and it’s enough too.) h264 quicktime files (something QT player gags on any processor slower than 3ghz). There’s also a very nice firefox extension that lets me assign player I choose to every type of media in a page. Now I open all my QT streams on VLC. John will be pleased to know I can watch cranky geeks full 40 inch screen streaming direct from the net.
I put all the stuff in a inexpensive media box and I have now a media extender on my living room for the cost of a box (50euros) and a wireless card (24euros).
The Mac can’t beat that.

#35 Real Mac ended in 1993

# 40 pedro said, on August 10th, 2007 at 4:49 am

#38 you got it. he’s my offpring. He doesn’t want to get a machine that tells him when to hear music. He wants a device that gathers to him, not one he must gather to.

For example, I want a phone that I can get/make calls while on the cradle, wether it’s there to charge or synch. So much for the iphew to meet those basic expectations. Or do I tell people not to call me when I have it charging? I wonder if it’ll make it to version 2.0?

Don’t worry, I know this is a difficult concept for a macfan to grasp.

# 41 James Hill said, on August 10th, 2007 at 6:49 am

#25 – No need: Owning your dumb ass is all the gratification I need.

Look at all of the time you’ve spent railing on Apple, yet you’ve proved nothing. You’re a failure, and you deserved to be mocked.

You can’t grasp the concept that not all devices are made for all people, and this combined with good marketing has make Apple the (sole) market leader in retail hardware.

The fact it doesn’t have the features you need doesn’t mean shit to the people buying their products. Come up with better arguments, because now that you’re proven to be a moron using your own life as an example doesn’t cut it.

# 42 pedro said, on August 10th, 2007 at 7:22 am

Reality negation, typical macfan ability.

So, receiving a phonecall while charging is an extra, not something anyone would need. Got it. I’ll look for it in my next phone.

BTW it hasn’t been only me.

How do you rationalize that you and your cadre rejoiced and reaffirmed when stevereeno chanted that all things pc where bad yet this post is about using yet anothe peecee manufaturer you the “different” mac?

Appletalk, it’s just not networking.
I’ll rebrand that to mactalk.

mactalk (def): anything said by a fan to rationaliza that a bug is a feature and that god…steve word is true, the one and only thruth.

Example: “You can’t grasp the concept that not all devices are made for all people, and this combined with good marketing has make Apple the (sole) market leader in retail hardware.” is mactalk for “yeah, we’re overpriced, we prentend we’re the first and only hardware capable of doing things the right way while lacking basic functionality, but we’re the best, no matter what reality says”

BTW, a lame MS game has pre-sold more units than real mac iphew sales, what gives?

# 43 Angel H. Wong said, on August 10th, 2007 at 8:15 am

#31

But Lauren would say it’s a superior investment even though an inferior $500 PC would do the same thing just fine and would also last the same amount of time.

# 44 Lauren the Ghoti said, on August 10th, 2007 at 9:05 am

Yes Angel. A $14,000 Hyundai will take you at the same speeds to the same places a $90,000 Lexus will. Therefore, there is no advantage to owning a Lex and anyone who does is a deluded fool who would never know the difference.

When you start buying all your food in those white boxes with black block-letter labels, let me know.

Why don’t you use a $500 PC? I could swear you’re the one whose Website says you “love your iMac.” Maybe I’m confused – maybe it’s pedro I’m thinking of…

# 45 pedro said, on August 10th, 2007 at 10:32 am

Difference is, the parts on the Lexus are not even remotely like the ones on the Hyundai. On the other hand, the parts on a mac are EXACLTY the same as the ones in the mac, only the box is different.

Nice rationale, but try harder. You can do it!

# 46 Lauren the Ghoti said, on August 10th, 2007 at 11:01 am

Angel said, and I quote, “would do the same thing just fine.” So function is what we’re talking about.

Also, “last the same amount of time.” My intertubes box, the one I’m writing to you on, is running 10.4.10 Server. It’s a ancient B&W 350MHz G3. It’s 8 years old. I’m sure I’ll replace it someday, but I haven’t bothered, since it continues to work, 24/7/365. Oh, and I think it crashed back in March or April.

Let’s see you attempt to run Vista Pro w/ Aero on an 8-year-old PC. I’d like a laugh.

# 47 Angel H. Wong said, on August 10th, 2007 at 12:41 pm

#44

A LEXUS IS AN OVERPRICED TOYOTA But everyone knows you’re used to paying more for the same crap.

#46

You’re just bitter because Apple was saved by M$ in the 90s.

# 48 Lauren the Ghoti said, on August 10th, 2007 at 2:01 pm

That bit of pocket change was every bit as needed as the $1 per annum that Steverino pockets for salary is.

M$ has known for a long time that if Apple were ever to fold, they’d instantly become a monopoly and on the fast track to dissolution.

Oh, and that bit of sour grapes at the top of your post? “A LEXUS IS AN OVERPRICED TOYOTA”?

Spoken like a true Hyundai owner…

# 49 Angel H. Wong said, on August 10th, 2007 at 3:21 pm

#48

Who owns Lexus? Toyota.

Honestly, I don’t find any justification buying overpriced Macs outside specialized areas such as marketing, graphic design & animation, I see no need for them in areas that such as accounting, finance or POS.

And yes, I’m a bean counter; I have to deal with things such as small budgets and small businesses who just can’t blow their entire budget on a single computer when they could equip their office with 3 or 4 machines for the same price and thus increase production output.

# 50 JoaoPT said, on August 11th, 2007 at 3:36 am

Since this post has scrolled down to oblivion I guess I’ll have no replies, but, all the same I’ll post.

Angel: I used to have a company in the graphic production and printing areas. It was equipped with Macs. If I was to build another company nowadays I wouldn’t buy Macs. Not because of what you said. In fact if a Mac was marginally more productive than a PC it would be nothing to justify the leasing of that piece of hardware, since the monthly payment increase would be irrelevant compared with the added productivity.
The fact is, macs are not more productive than a PC. And you end up spending much more money on software on a platform (CS3 for instance was as expensive as two beige boxes…) and you don’t want to throw all that away. And I happen to find the PC much more versatile than the Mac.

# 51 JoaoPT said, on August 11th, 2007 at 3:41 am

By the way, that’s the whole selling point of Macs running Windows. You can still use all the software you bought for the PC and keep upgrading too…

# 52 Lauren the Ghoti said, on August 11th, 2007 at 8:56 am

Joao? Still there? TIHZ_HO? You there? Yoo-hoo…

Why not take a look at this.

…and this.

Then, read what our very own Fearful Leader has to say.

Sorry, Joao. As you will come to realize over the next year or two, you’re living in Fantasyland…

# 53 Lauren the Ghoti said, on August 11th, 2007 at 9:19 am

Oh, and Angel? You can look at those too, if you like…

# 54 Angel H. Wong said, on August 11th, 2007 at 10:20 am

#53

Yes, I’m still here and guess what? I live in a country where brand names are usually sold at 3 to 4 times higher prices than generics and it has nothing to do with shipping costs. A BASIC mac mini here is sold for at least $1100 and for that price I can buy 4 PC clones WITH THE SAME PROCESSOR, THE SAME RAM, THE SAME HDD AND THE SAME VIDEOCARD.

# 55 Lauren the Ghoti said, on August 11th, 2007 at 11:08 am

…but not the same OS.

You tellin’ me that in the #1 destination in C.A. for vehicles stolen in the U.S., it’s simple to smuggle in a stolen pickup truck, but you can’t get a computer past Customs? …you did say you’re in Belize, didn’t you?

# 56 pedro said, on August 11th, 2007 at 12:22 pm

#46 go figure. I have a computer where all my main files reside. It started as a win3.1 machine and a pentium 100 All the data in that thing is still there (along with remnants of the win3.1 registry), along with one or two win3.1 programs (amipro) which still works. That same machine exist today in a dula boot winme/w2k machine (the old data is on the winme partition) and a custom modded motherboard to allow it to go to a full 1 ghz. Pentium3 1ghz and still works. Find me an apple computer which evolved in such a way and still not only has the programs from those days but they do work along newer ones and I may give you the point. Otherwise…

# 57 Lauren the Ghoti said, on August 11th, 2007 at 1:14 pm

Nahnahnahnahnahnah pedro. The ol’ switcheroo, as the great Wilson Pickett said, ‘ain’t gonna get it.’

Show me a contemporary of my B&W G3 350 – which, to save you checking, is a Pentium 300 – with a SOTA vidcard of that vintage, that’ll run the current, latest version of Windows with all the bells and whistles.

As you already know, you can’t.

Now tell me all about obsolescent hardware. I particularly would enjoy hearing more about that crap of yours about how I have to replace my Mac with every new version of the OS… when it’s the Intel / M$ Axis of Evil that deliberately ups the ante to keep forcing Windows users to keep buying hardware. Billyboy makes sure certain Windows ‘features’ require Intel’s latest chips – and also helps ensure Maxtor and Western Digital a steady flow of customers for new drives big enough to hold all of M$’s bloatware…

# 58 Angel H. Wong said, on August 11th, 2007 at 2:44 pm

#55

Why bother with an OS that requires you to BUY ALL THE MAJOR SOFTWARE APPLICATIONS EVERYTIME A “NEW” OSX VERSION IS AVAILABLE when all I can do with winXP is upgrade it via internet?

And BTW I’m in Honduras, In Belize PCs are cheap enough to cost barely the same in the USA.

#57

*yawn* Apple switched to Intel processors bridging the gap between Macs & PCs, the only thing that has been differentiating a Mac from IBMs shoddy PCs of the early 90s (386 IBM PCs for $2000 where the rest was selling 486 clones for the same price) is a good campaign market and consumer loyalty.

So tell me, can your 350MHz G3 run Photoshop SC3? ’cause otherwise that’s just a toy.

# 59 Lauren the Ghoti said, on August 11th, 2007 at 5:49 pm

Nope. Haven’t tried it. Got a dual G5 for that. Doesn’t change my point a bit. PC go obsolete quicker than Macs.

# 60 joaoPT said, on August 12th, 2007 at 10:30 am

Hellooo can you hear me????

Guess you found out about RSS feed for comments…

Lauren, you’re a regular Soldier for the cause aren’t you?
When did you buy the G4/350? My guess is that PC was hitting 450Mhz at that time. I know it because Jobs used to show the little graphs on the Apple page showing the G4 being faster than a P3… Well news flash: My company does vinyl cutting and printing. We still use for production work a p3 at 350 and a p3 at 450. Furthermore how many beige pIII 450 a BW G4 would buy? at least two.

BTW I’m writing this on a G3 500 iBook running on Ubuntu (couldn’t stand OSX 10.4 it was painfully slow because I have only 384Mb ram)

# 61 joaoPT said, on August 12th, 2007 at 11:44 am

Read your links too… I can make an appointment with you in 18months time to check the Fantasyland status…Really, I can set a memo on my calendar…

My friend, I don’t dig Dell. Nor HP. I never buy my PCs by brand. Only if I was crazy… There’s a lot of shops here I can buy custom built PCs. I can pick a suggested build and change components at will before I buy.
Take these two links, one is Apple Portugal. They don’t have the new mac mini yet. But when they will, the price will be the same in euros as dollars (a huge rip off…) So… 599 and 799.
Check all these:
http://www.chip7.pt/catalogo/index.php?cat=759&sessao=1
Aesthetics aside, how can you compare the entry level mini to the “College” here…twice the ram, faster, two graphics boards, 500Gb versus 80… And in a real form factor, a real box.
Now the mini is undeniably sexy, but it’s so hampered by the form facto it’s a joke as home PC. At least in my point of view…

# 62 Lauren the Ghoti said, on August 12th, 2007 at 1:09 pm

Soldier for the cause? Not really. I have some very grave issues with some of the things Apple has done recently, things I regard as inexcusable and unacceptable. Give me 15 minutes with ol’ Steverino, and I guarantee he’d come outta that meeting with a red face…

However, they still beat the alternatives.

# 63 JoaoPT said, on August 12th, 2007 at 2:51 pm

Look, I’m not that much of a Mac basher.
In fact I have some respect for the Mac as a well crafted machine and I must say it has a purpose in it’s price point and target market.
What really gives me the willies is the “Field distortion”.
And Mac fans. Those that consider that nothing coming out of Cupertino is bad…” just give’em some time… they’ll make it better on the next Upgrades”. That almost blind faith: “If God (steve) intended us to send MMS, it had a button on the front”. I used to be like that. Not anymore. I used to like clean minimalist furniture and Bauhaus style architecture. Designer chairs and stuff. The perfect world.
Not anymore. Perfection has a too big price tag. There’s a lot to be said on imperfection, on freedom, on bad taste.
That’s all… that’s all.

Ps. I was serious on that calendar thing…

# 64 Lauren the Ghoti said, on August 12th, 2007 at 11:33 pm

Watch it, Joao – my predictions have this annoying habit of coming true…

# 65 JoaoPT said, on August 13th, 2007 at 2:34 am

Ok then, I’ve made a notch on google calendar (or agenda…) in 18 months time be sure to hang around here or the cagematch forums.

# 66 Lauren the Ghoti said, on August 13th, 2007 at 8:19 am

The way Apple stock has been performing for me, in 18 mos. I’ll be posting from the veranda of my Palm Beach estate…

# 67 JoaoPT said, on August 13th, 2007 at 10:17 am

OK ok ok man… Stock isn’t cash!
They way you (mac)guys reason is: “geez, Apple has made me richer and richer with stocks”. But you never sell’em. “Why sell? They’ll just come up and up”… Till the day they park. They get stuck and level out. And you start thinking it’s time to sell, but “hey, it’s Apple, they’ll be doing something spectacular and they’ll go up again”. And you never sell…till the day they tank for some reason. And you go “Damn those bloggers with the fake news, they cost me a million…” And you don’t sell because you “just know ” it’s temporary and they’ll come back up again…in fact you buy some more.
And then some heavyweight somewhere be it Microsoft, or Intel or Hollywood Pictures inc. comes and buys the company out. Or merges. Because of SOX, they won’t buy your stock… they won’t go through the stock market…Ãnd suddenly, no veranda, no estate, no Palm Beach…bummer.

But hey… OTOH it might not be so… and if you buy enough stock, you can retire just on the dividends…

Good luck man. I don’t know if you deserve it, but you might…

# 68 Lauren the Ghoti said, on August 13th, 2007 at 5:39 pm

I never (OK, rarely) hold any stock overnight… No all eggs > single basket for me.

# 69 JoaoPT said, on August 14th, 2007 at 2:02 am

Smart…

Hey, is this post never going to end?
OK. I’m off. See you guys in another thread…

# 70 JoaoPT said, on August 14th, 2007 at 3:37 am

PS.
And since you were talking veranda over Palm Beach…
http://www.dvorak.org/blog/?p=13159#comments

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