Warming up to the new iMac (or my computer's cooler than your computer).

[Urban Ranger]

99% of computer users don't need the performance. They don't do more than word processing, spreadsheets, e-mail, Web surfing. Things that a Pentium can do without breaking out sweat.

I think Apple made the right decision in going after the "consumer" computer market. A small, sleek machine that looks good.

For me, I'm waiting for the 64-bit Athlon (Claw Hammer) to hit the market now. Should be some time toward the end of this year. I am actually thinking about Opteron (Sledgehammer) dual SMP box, but that is an overkill even for me

Glonkie, your case is tasteless, no offense.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
For me, I'm waiting for the 64-bit Athlon (Claw Hammer) to hit the market now. Should be some time toward the end of this year. I am actually thinking about Opteron (Sledgehammer) dual SMP box, but that is an overkill even for me

From what I've seen, Prescott will absolutely lay waste to the *Hammer chips when it comes out in 2H03. But it's half a year after the AMD chip comes out anyway.

I don't see AMD giving its Hammers an 800MHz system bus and 1MB of full-speed L2 cache and starting at 5GHz anytime soon.

Glonkie, your case is tasteless, no offense.

Find me a better one.
Factors include:

• Cost
  
• Airflow
  
• Bay space
  
• Clean design

I did some research and this meets all of my requirements, plus it looks great IMHO.

[Ari Rahikkala]

UR: I would be happy if I only could run icewm, xmms (mp3) and at least six windows inside Opera at the same time without notable slowdowns... But no! Resources are always too scarce...

[moomin]

I've been an PC and Mac user for years and while the PC was pretty dominant up till a year ago - I just kept the Mac around to play an occational game of Escape Velocity - I'm now finding myself drawn more and more to the new iMac w/OS X. In fact, I do most of my work on it these days and use the PC for games.

What really kills me - apart from the fact I think the design is just outrageous - is that the thing is quiet. My PC being an 2000+ Athlon XP, I've really come to appreciate that.

[monolith94]

"Word is, Apple puts most of their R&D into short-term projects and other features that make Macs a "pleasure to use" , so the new Mac next year will be even farther behind. "

HA! A misconception!

Apple is not in charge of R&D for their chips, or even most of the hardware.
Motorola makes the PPC, G3, and G4 chips. If you think they're incompetent, or inadequate, make fun of Motorola then!

[monolith94]

Listen to the Moomi! He speaks the truth!

The new iMac really IS incredibly quiet...

[Triped]

Most computer companies outsource hardware. It's not like Dell makes their own Pentiums or anything But they do have a hand with where their machines are going, and Apple is putting more emphasis on iPods and other stuff like that...

Don't get me wrong, Macs are good don't do anything cool with your computer, just don't try and pretend like they can keep up.

[Asher]

Originally posted by monolith94
HA! A misconception!

Apple is not in charge of R&D for their chips, or even most of the hardware.
Motorola makes the PPC, G3, and G4 chips. If you think they're incompetent, or inadequate, make fun of Motorola then!

He was talking about the GUI, the OS, not the CPU.

IBM made the core of the G3/G4, Motorolla hacked on Altivec on the G4 and in the process cripled it from reaching high speeds.

But Apple's constant strides in the "easy to use" department are taking steps backwards, according to some. I prefer the GUI of OS9 to OS X, myself. More intuitive, functional, rather than flashy.

[Asher]

Originally posted by monolith94
Listen to the Moomi! He speaks the truth!

The new iMac really IS incredibly quiet...

You could buy a fanless Pentium III system for far less than that, not that it matters to you...

[DanS]

It's not style. Rather, it's design. Apple is putting a lot of work into design, which is showing up in some really cool, innovative, beautiful models.

I use a PC (P4 1.7; Rambus), but it has a lot of downsides. Such as heat, noise, and interconnect instability. Generally, the cases are way too large and blocky.

Add to that is the fact that in the applications I use, memory bandwidth is the limiting factor rather than CPU speed.

[monolith94]

"Apple is putting more emphasis on iPods and other stuff like that... "

To the simple mind, it may appear this way. However, Apple has released so many new models, in a shorter span of time than I can ever remember them doing before. I get the impression that they are truly working aggresively to recapture education (eMac) consumer (iMac) student (iBook) and processor-intensive work (dual-1Ghz, Powerbook).

I have a very simple way of evaluating speed. I look at how fast the computer was that I used at my host family's house in Finland (a 1.2 AMD athlon) and how fast my computer is (a 700 mhz G4) and I really can't tell any difference, whether it's watching movies, or playing Quake 3 or whatever...

[Asher]

Originally posted by DanS
I use a PC (P4 1.7; Rambus), but it has a lot of downsides. Such as heat, noise, and interconnect instability. Generally, the cases are way too large and blocky.

All of those "problems" are because you didn't know what you were buying, apparently.
If you don't want a "noisy" or "hot" CPU, get a 1.4GHz Pentium III. You only need a heatsink for most Pentium IIIs now. And I have no idea what you mean by "interconnect instability" since both PCs and Macs use AGP and PCI...

Add to that is the fact that in the applications I use, memory bandwidth is the limiting factor rather than CPU speed.

Which paints an even worse picture for the Mac.
The fastest memory on the Mac is PC133. Which is 1.06GB/s.
The fastest memory on the PC is PC1066 RDRAM. Which is 4.2GB/s. Or if you're on an Athlon, DDR333 is 2.7GB/s.

I have a very simple way of evaluating speed. I look at how fast the computer was that I used at my host family's house in Finland (a 1.2 AMD athlon) and how fast my computer is (a 700 mhz G4) and I really can't tell any difference, whether it's watching movies, or playing Quake 3 or whatever...

Try playing some real games, not four years old games. My computer can run DOOM fine enough, does that make it worth the price?

[monolith94]

Could you please explain to me exactly what Altivec is? I've never really understood it...

As far as OS X versus OS 9... For me it's os X hands down. As far as functionality, I don't see much of a difference, and let's face it, OS X is REALLY pretty...

[Asher]

Altivec is comparable to SSE on the Pentium III. It greatly speeds up certain applications where the same operations are repeated constantly on new sets of data (3D transformations, some Photoshop filters, etc).

Altivec and SSE allow for four 32-bit numbers to be worked on at once, rather than 1. This theoretically quadruples the speed of the processer using Altivec or SSE instructions. That's how Apple got their "128-bit" marketing gimick from: 4 x 32 = 128. SSE is also 128.

SSE2, on the Pentium 4, is a step up from Altivec and SSE. Not only does it allow for 4 x 32 numbers, but also 2 x 64. 64-bit numbers are far more precise than 32-bit numbers, and are more useful in things like 3D rendering.

[DanS]

"You only need a heatsink for most Pentium IIIs now."

Err, what do you consider "most"? Anything north of about 900 MHz is going to require a fan.

"And I have no idea what you mean by "interconnect instability" since both PCs and Macs use AGP and PCI..."

Well, consider for instance that Apples come with Firewire connections. From a stability perspective, it is much easier to make stable a known system. On a PC, there are a lot of options, even for firewire cards, so stability is necessarily a trickier business.