When And What Future Computer Will You Buy? - Page 2

[quote]Originally posted by bradbower:
<strong>

<img src="graemlins/bugeye.gif" border="0" alt="[Skeptical]" />

WTF are you talking about? It's running great on my Rev. A and C iMacs. They work in their entirety, as well as all of my peripherals (I was never expecting as much). Exactly what kind of problems are you having? :confused: </strong><hr></blockquote>

Read here.
<a href="http://forums.appleinsider.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=5&t=000019" target="_blank">http://forums.appleinsider.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=5&t=000019</a>

There's no problems per se. But OS X is not meant for our machine. Apple still does not have real video card drivers for it. That alone tells me that the don't care to support the system. Notice how the only supported hardware is what was currently shipping when OS X shipped. Everything else was forgotten.


Fact is Apple blew off the older hardware. They claim it's supported but it is not.

Here's another example. DVD playback for non agp systems. Where is it? Coming soon? Don't count on it.

[quote]Originally posted by Amorph:
<strong>I intend to wring several years of service out of my Cube.

I might get a laptop to go with it, but there are more urgent things demanding my wallet's attention for quite a while yet. Maybe a year from now I'll look at whatever the iBook has become and get that. It'll probably be more powerful than my Cube, but that's technology...</strong><hr></blockquote>

My plan exactly. My Cube is serving me well now as my desktop, but I bought it with the idea of retiring it to file server / broadband firewall role once I get my TiBook. I'd like to get dual 7410's with it but would go with a 1GHz single, and will probably wait until those specs are reached.

G5 sounds great, it will pump my AAPL stock up in a major way. I'd love to see it @ MWSF but not holding my breath. DDR RAM better be there though, or Apple might as well just sell portables.
My fondest wish for "One More Thing" would be a TiVo licensed PVR, Airport capable, Firewire controlled Multimedia Digital Hub. SuperDrive optional.

When Apple releases:

- A dual 2GHZ G5 with Altivec II
- DDR RAM (and no 1.5GB Limit)
- A Superdrive
- A Wildcat II thrashing graphics architecture
- Firewire II
- faster internal HDs
- Faster system Bus
- More cache
- A version of OS X that does what we were always told it would do for us and at the performance we've been waiting for - with no kernel panics
- 19" LCDs
- 10/100/1000 Ethernet
- Airport running at 50Mbs

In other words what a mac used to feel like and what PC users enjoy - at least from what I saw at the Digital Media Show in London yesterday

. . . oh damn, I've woken up

I was almost tempted by the new PowerBooks, but they don't offer enough to upgrade quite yet.

Once they get a combo drive, brighter higher res. display, and Final Cut Pro is available for OS X, I'll upgrade.

Of course I'd love a SuperDrive in my PowerBook, and some way to connect Apple's own displays, but I'm guessing that's not going to happen.

I have a few simple criteria for my next comp:

1) Laptop.
2) Macintosh
3) approx G4 867 level processor performance
4) consumer level price (or, at any rate, Apple's interpretation of such)

Obviouly that rules out any of Apple's current offerings. As much as I like the iBook and TiBooks, they aren't the real OSX machines. The only machines that run OSX *very* (and therefore acceptably) quickly are the towers. However, with Sahara and Apollo on deck for 2002, tower-like performance may soon be coming to the 'books'.

When I can test a machine that ships with OSX as the default -- running Office, and a full suite of Adobe and Corel -- with nary a bounce in sight... At that point I'm sold. So, for an ibook that takes me to summer '02, or perhaps, should I spring for a low end tiBook, spring '02.

I'm waiting for a machine that can be my sole machine (for OSX and the major apps) for at least 4 years. Untill then my lowly PC sees continually less use, whilst the mac lab -- where, incedently, I'm being spoiled by DP533s and SP733s -- sees progressively more. I guess that is (combined with some major impending PPC advances) why I'm going to insist my laptop show about that level of performance.

i have finally settled into my own pseudo-lease program, where i will trade-in/sell my imac dv se 400 graphite in december, and then use the money i get from that towards the purchase of whatever consumer machine is available at macworld sf 2002.

i can do this because i still have a pismo 500 in the house, too, so i can use that while my consumer desktop is in limbo (and in case steve does a "here's the new wide-screen g4 imac! isn't it cool?!? it'll be available in march..").

that way i stay current on the consumer side (which is all i need), without having to pay full-price.

well, that's the plan, anyway. it's also predicated on the assumption that the imac will have a g4 of some sort in it come january (which is all i want now... the wide-screen would just be really cool...)

p.s. matsu, 4 years is pushing it for ANY model these days. considering the fact that 4 years ago was pre-g3 days of apple -- PowerMac 9600, PowerMac 8600, PowerMac 7300, PowerMac 5500, PowerMac 6500, et al. good computers to be sure, but they won't exactly run photoshop 6 or illustrator 9 (currently shipping major apps) or os x without upgrades and heavy tweaking.

it has been my experience that you can eek out 2 to 2.5 years of heavy-duty professional work out of computers before having to upgrade SOMEthing... whether that be hard drive, video card, processor, ram... whatever.

[edit] hmmm... a brief review of my apple history does show the first 233 beige g3's hit the market in 1997 as well, which are still serviceable, and supposedly supported for os x (though i have heard nothing but bad news on macfixit forums). so maybe you can get 4 years out of the machines. 'course, the g4's got stuck for the better part of a year within shouting distance of 450 mhz, so that time frame may be a bit warped. i'm sure steve will be whipping away on motorola to get those processors faster sooner going forward...

[ 11-16-2001: Message edited by: rok ]

[ 11-16-2001: Message edited by: rok ]</p>

I meant the apps currently shipping when I pick up the machine, and whatever comes out within about a 12 month period from that point. I think an old version of photoshop can be just as useful as a new one, so when I get a machine I'll stick to the versions that run 'clean' and 'fast.' Newer versions will almost always do things a little better, but when they start to tax the hardware you lose a lot of your gains right there. I know people who use older versions of photoshop, Quark, and a multitude of plugins for professional work. Old software can be a great thing for an older machine. Also, one of my reasons for wanting to switch to Apple, with the way Apple is embracing open standards (ie PDF, unix) sharing files between older and newer versions of sofware ought to be easier when the time comes.

Yeah, wouldn't the G5 be nice.... <img src="graemlins/smokin.gif" border="0" alt="[Chilling]" />

We are planning on buying a mac in the first half of '02. If the G5 is out, then we will go with that. If not, then a hi-end G4 machine, so my wife can do her Illustrator stuff on it. She's been making do with a POS win98 box (sorry for writing that here; feels sacreligious!), and it's been killing her. She can't wait until we have a real machine! :cool:

My next 'puter will be around MW2002, and at that time I will see waht Apple have to offer against the competition, you see I am into 3d rendering, and while I agree Macs are superior in almost every application, I have to say that the suck at 3d. For instance I have just seen a benchmark of a dual Athlon 1800XP (in the very Application I use every day) that is exactly 7x better than my G4 400, and still 2.5x better than Apples Dual800.

If the highend G5 comes within 10-20% of the score and price of whatever Dual Athlon system is available at the time (probably dual XP2600) I'll bite, If not Ill be a PC user by this time next year, with fond memories of the Apple platform.

Im really hoping those SPECmarks were right on theregister.co.uk, as I would love to stay Apple, but It is wasting me time&money.

HOPE YOU'RE LISTENING APPLE!

Is there no way to set-up a dual athlon linux box as a render farm? I've heard that the major apps support this, and that if you're crunching big files it saves quite a bit of time. You could do that (if possible) and just upgrade your current proc if/when some apollo g4s become available. bonus is you keep your investment in mac software, and a platform that you know and enjoy.

Someone who knows better than me please chime in.

Yeah, what happened to the days where paying more for Macs actually meant that you were getting a computer that was a much better performer than any PC. Heck, I'd pay a premium for a Mac even if was on par. We just want something competitive Apple.

That's what I was about to ask: When did Apple drop support for the tray-loading iMacs?? So many people bought those (and G3 desktops) on the premise that they were OS X-ready I don't think they ever could.

Edit: Whoops, nevermind. I read the other thread and see the error of my assumption. Carry on.

[ 11-17-2001: Message edited by: haunebu ]</p>

Ah the next computer purchase...

Being a broke-ass student my purchase will depend on my financial status after graduation. The Duronite will simply have to last until I finish school and start a job. If the job is good I will have whatever PowerMac is floating around at the time. If not so good then maybe iMac (or whatever equivalent) or build another PC.

A brand new PowerMac would be the dream, though.

Depends on the Choices I have around next summer. It will either be a (revB) G5 or a PC box with a warezed copy of XP. Being that I can customize my own GUI in XP and I don't have to run the ugly old Windows GUI that I hate is a big plus. I'll more than likely get the G5.. but MS did a smart thing in letting you customize XP's GUI.

My last Mac purchase was an iMac DV SE with Airport/ABS - and it JUST WORKS (OS 10.1.1, but I wish Apple had better support for my iSub...)! I've done various upgrades to my other Mac's - processors, video cards, hard drives - but now I've stopped the upgrade urge (I SWEAR!) and will buy whatever Apple has this spring. What I want is a superdrive and the power to render "quickly". My dissatisfaction with my iMac is that I have to let it render/convert overnight for some projects, which limits my experimentation and strive for perfection (or at least adequacy)!

However, I'm expecting (dual) 1GHz+ processors as a choice. Anything less will be somewhat of a disappointment, particularly considering the $3k it will cost.

I would think that MWNY would be reasonable, both in terms of marketing acpectations (that's when the OS X clock strikes twelve) and in terms of chip rollout (based on statements of THT, motoman and others who actually know about this stuff).

I think that there will be a lot of bitter people here after MWSF. The G5 simply isn't ready (or at least there is no evidence that it will be ready--which I know is not the same thing.) We also know that Apollo was rumored to be in PowerMacs at some point, so I expect the G4+ (Apollo or whatever) with some motherboard improvements at MWSF. I expect MWNY will see the rev 1 G5, with a second revision around a year from now.

These are not popular opinions. I know we would all love to see the G5 rollout in 7 weeks, but I don't think it will happen.

See, that's what I can't see happening. Apple releasing a new G4 with a new chip at faster speeds and then 6 months later releasing a new G5 with new chip at faster speeds.

I gotta believe if the Apollo comes out, it will be a while before the G5 comes, hell, they might as well call the Apollo the G5 so they can release in Jan and make everyone happy.

supposedly they are going to keep the G4 in two of the models. and the G5 in the top three..

why not just have the G4 towers replace the cubes sqaure and sell them to hobbyiest and semi-pro and gamers?

933 G4 1,499.99
1Ghz G4 1,699.00

or something like that?

A G5 PowerMac at least 5 times faster than my G4 400 at encoding Sorenson 3 movies, with SuperDrive, but not more expensive as 867 MHz G4 today...
Maybe a rack server, it would be great (as no hosting service accept towers anymore) but I don't think Apple will ever do this...

I was gonna wait until the next-gen Powerbook, but a co-worker wants to buy my iBook for his wife for Christmas, so I'm going to sell it to him and get a current Ti 667 right now. Of course, that's not a future computer...

Sol I guess my next FUTURE computer will be a G5 with Superdrive and a cinema display, in about a year.

While my PowerBook armada is up to date (iBook 500 MHz and Ti Book 667 MHz) my desktop unit is a B&W unit. I upgraded the processor with a Sonnet Encore G4 500 MHz right after MWNY this summer and it does quite well with the tasks I throw at it.

None of the new models offered me quite enough to justify the upgrade, based on my modest needs. The G5's are gonna change that for me, though. Hopefully a dual processor G5 tower and Cinema Display will grace my desk come next MacWorld.

I will be using my Rev D iMac until September 2003, when i go to school and get a portable.

I will get whatever portable apple is offering at that time...most likely a g4 iBook or g5 PB. Basically i will get whatever portable comes out at MWNY 2003 (assuming they release a portable there)

Actually, releasing the Apollo in the PowerMac line-up only to have it replaced 6 months later does make sense. Especially when you consider that the G5 is likely 'Not Ready Yet.' Might as well start fabing those Apollos, they're going to need them for the next 2 years to serve in the powerbooks, and probably also in the consumer line-up. Better iron out those production lines with a lower volume product (the towers) because if/when G5 arrives, they're still going to need a ton of Apollos for everything else.

[quote]Originally posted by Matsu:
<strong>Actually, releasing the Apollo in the PowerMac line-up only to have it replaced 6 months later does make sense. Especially when you consider that the G5 is likely 'Not Ready Yet.' Might as well start fabing those Apollos, they're going to need them for the next 2 years to serve in the powerbooks, and probably also in the consumer line-up. Better iron out those production lines with a lower volume product (the towers) because if/when G5 arrives, they're still going to need a ton of Apollos for everything else.</strong><hr></blockquote>


Well It would make sense if the &gt;1GHZ G4's were all you had available at the time of MWSF, its either that or no upgrade?

I'm beginning to get the feeling that I'll stick with Apple for portables, and x86 for desktops and workstations. My next desktop will be a home brewed Athlon XP system with disgusting amounts of DDR RAM and nForce and Radeon 8500 goodness. The desktop after that will likely be a dual Clawhammer.

On the other hand, when I look to upgrade my Pismo, I'll go for a PB G4 or G5, whatever is available at the time. However, that probably won't be for a few years down the road.

Apple is second to none in the portable market, but their workstations leave much to be desired.

Holy cow!

I've just installed OS X Server 10.1 on a 733/60/1.2 quicksilver server machine at work. Is this thing fast or what? Aqua is perfectly usable and enjoyable, feels much faster at everything than OS 9 on my Pismo/400 (go figure!). Compared to my 350 Yikes! at home this is a dream. Of course, I'm sure the 1.2 GB of RAM doesn't hurt either...

What: Tibook

When: Collage

Assuming there is a Tibook as we know it when I leave for collage.

I was a long time Mac user until last winter. I needed a new computer and decided to switch to Windows. I decided fast, cheap hardware was more important to me than software, and my year old PC is still quicker than most Macs. I did recently brake down and purchase a copy OS 10.1 for my old G4. I might as well throw my PC away. I can't go back. OS X is just a joy to use. I could care less now about hardware performance. I want a TiBook!

Think I'll wait for the 1GHz models to arrive this summer however. I'm not rich. I'll let Apple play catch up, and purchase a machine with OS 10.5 preloaded. Wow! If it is as superior to 10.1 as 10.1 is to 10.0, I will cry. Okay, I've ranted enough.

[quote]Originally posted by SDW2001:
<strong>


Before you go you might want to learn how to spell C-O-L-L-E-G-E.


No soup for you!

sorry man I couldn't resist.</strong><hr></blockquote>


Maybe it's a community college

I will buy a PC for my kids (6 years for the elder), even if i hate Windows, i think that the PC is the best buy for games.

Warning : i a m not a pc moron, because me and my wife own 6 Macs. But i am sick of the high prize of the macs. If i use for my jobs : no discussion i will buy macs, because i know how to use it without any big problems. But with 1000 $ you can have a very good PC for games and educational soft. Futhermore some softs are only avalaible for PC, some of them interest me.

My next computer is going to be a Tablet.

I've waited for Apple longthehell enough. Whoever gets to market first (Apple or Windows) wins.

I'm tired of my infernal, graffitti oriented, little Palm III. In a meeting two weeks ago, I watched someone hook their iPaq to a digital projector and run a slide show from their iPaq. iPaq has a 206Mhz StrongArm Microprocessor, connectivity all over the place, native connectivity with Office apps vs. the Palm OS and "Documents to Go" (DTG: whoopee. Hey, Palm, no OS X connectivity! No, I will not go through classic to hotsync; it's nearly 2002, we shouldn't have to do that). The iPaq has about 90% of all the features that the Newton/PDA fans among us on these boards have hashed around for MORE THAN TWO YEARS.

I need a Tablet and I need a PDA that both integrate with my desktop operating system. You say that there's no market for them, I'll point you to Microsoft's Tablet page. They're going for it and they'll make a ton of money. Apple could have gone for it, but hasn't. If Apple can't come up with a portable suite -a PDA and a Tablet- (because Steve Jobs hates Scully, or he hates 'the internet junior experience' or he suffers from carbohydrate induced insulin rages or whatever), then their marketshare shrinks by one.

I've well and truly had it and thanks for listening.

Thriving in Heresy,
Aries 1B

[quote]Originally posted by powerdoc:
<strong>I will buy a PC for my kids (6 years for the elder), even if i hate Windows, i think that the PC is the best buy for games.

Warning : i a m not a pc moron, because me and my wife own 6 Macs. But i am sick of the high prize of the macs. If i use for my jobs : no discussion i will buy macs, because i know how to use it without any big problems. But with 1000 $ you can have a very good PC for games and educational soft. Futhermore some softs are only avalaible for PC, some of them interest me.</strong><hr></blockquote>


*ahem* ....Virtual PC

VPC is great for everything except games - well, it can handle games that don't require any graphic acceleration.

It can't take advantage of the onboard video card except for the most minimal functionality.

Lookit this:

<a href="http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/tabletpc/default.asp" target="_blank">http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/tabletpc/default.asp</a>

I'm fully aware that I'd be reinstalling systems, crashing here and there, etc. But I'll be doing it on a tablet and with a leading edge (ignoring the Newton) PDA .

Damn, but I've had it.
Aries 1B

PS: Look at these too. You'll see some old friends (that some of you Photoshop jocks may recognize):
[URL=http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/events/fallcomdex01/gallery.asp]http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/events/fallcomdex01/gallery.asp[/ URL]

To be optimistic, maybe we'll get this:
<a href="http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&ic=1&th=545b778a95fe42b7 ,2" target="_blank">http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&ic=1&th=545b778a95fe42b7 ,2</a>
[ 11-27-2001: Message edited by: Aries 1B ]

[ 11-27-2001: Message edited by: Aries 1B ]</p>

My wants for MWSF2002 are simple:

• low-end PowerMac with SuperDrive
• 15" Apple LCD
• for roughly $2000 - $2100

The most important item to me is the SuperDrive at the low-end price. There are a whole bunch of family movies and pictures that I would like to preserve to DVD.

The system specs are irrelevant as long as it gets the job done at a good value.

I'll probably upgrade upon release of the following:

TiBook w/ 800Mhz G4
DVD/CD-RW Combo Drive (SuperDrive would be GREAT!)
Everything else is good to go otherwise.

Ah, a G4 Powerbook...Bye, bye Pismo.

I'm gonna buy a new Mac once they release G5 with all the new tech that is out there and that everyone has been waiting for.
I upgraded my 3 year old Beige in Spring, and it's doing ok, so in fact I don't need a new machine very soon. Only all the new titles comign out for OS X only are bugging me, I don't wanna upgade to OS X with this machine anymore.

G-news