New Mac motherboards...needs major improvements!
Granted, I would love to see a revamped case that is as georgeous and FUNCTIONAL as the G4 Towers (side latch door for easy access), BUT what I want to see more is a redesigned from scratch Motherboard. This is determines performance and features at least as much as anything else on your computer (OS, processor etc.). I want a motherboard that is forward thinking and performing that can in part compensate for the lack of processor speed. Also, it should have common parts/components used by top end PC workstation manufacturers to get the parts as cheaply as they do based on the economics of scale purchasing. I personally wouldn't be as bothered by the processor deficiency if all the other components were top performing (great speed, low power draw, long lasting).
Here is my motherboard wishlist:
1) PCI-X next generation PCI expansion, 3 or 4 slots
2) AGP-8 or whatever the latest AGP rating is upon release, 2 slots or a dual monitor card as standard. 64MB video memory minimum
3) Bluetooth and Airport Extreme built-in (no card to buy for Towers at least)
4) Gigabit Ethernet (on all Macs)
5) L3 cache of 4MB or at least 2MB per processor
6) Motherboard speed of 256Mhz or higher
7) Ability to add up to 4 processors per board
8) RAM expandable to 2 Gig
9) Better built-n sound
10) USB2, 2 ports (1 in front)
11) Firewire2, 2 ports (1 in front)
Here is my motherboard wishlist:
1) PCI-X next generation PCI expansion, 3 or 4 slots
2) AGP-8 or whatever the latest AGP rating is upon release, 2 slots or a dual monitor card as standard. 64MB video memory minimum
3) Bluetooth and Airport Extreme built-in (no card to buy for Towers at least)
4) Gigabit Ethernet (on all Macs)
5) L3 cache of 4MB or at least 2MB per processor
6) Motherboard speed of 256Mhz or higher
7) Ability to add up to 4 processors per board
8) RAM expandable to 2 Gig
9) Better built-n sound
10) USB2, 2 ports (1 in front)
11) Firewire2, 2 ports (1 in front)
Comments
Originally posted by ChillMac
Granted, I would love to see a revamped case that is as georgeous and FUNCTIONAL as the G4 Towers (side latch door for easy access), BUT what I want to see more is a redesigned from scratch Motherboard. This is determines performance and features at least as much as anything else on your computer (OS, processor etc.). I want a motherboard that is forward thinking and performing that can in part compensate for the lack of processor speed. Also, it should have common parts/components used by top end PC workstation manufacturers to get the parts as cheaply as they do based on the economics of scale purchasing. I personally wouldn't be as bothered by the processor deficiency if all the other components were top performing (great speed, low power draw, long lasting).
Here is my motherboard wishlist:
1) PCI-X next generation PCI expansion, 3 or 4 slots
2) AGP-8 or whatever the latest AGP rating is upon release, 2 slots or a dual monitor card as standard. 64MB video memory minimum
3) Bluetooth and Airport Extreme built-in (no card to buy for Towers at least)
4) Gigabit Ethernet (on all Macs)
5) L3 cache of 4MB or at least 2MB per processor
6) Motherboard speed of 256Mhz or higher
7) Ability to add up to 4 processors per board
8) RAM expandable to 2 Gig
9) Better built-n sound
10) USB2, 2 ports (1 in front)
11) Firewire2, 2 ports (1 in front)
just cause you're from my home town doesn't make this post anything other than retarded - why don't you tell us what color tricycle you want too? i'll let it slide tho - your new....
Chillmac, maybe you could read some other threats first before post your own.
Yes, chillmac, because we'll be giving you some pretty harsh threats if you are going to continue in this posting fashion.
[Edit] Damn, you corrected your spelling!
1) PCI-X next generation PCI expansion, 3 or 4 slots
Is PCI-X the confirmed next standard yet? What about PCI-express (or is that PCI-X)?
2) AGP-8 or whatever the latest AGP rating is upon release, 2 slots or a dual monitor card as standard. 64MB video memory minimum
Can AGP have two slots? Actually, now that I think about it, maybe the AGP-8 standard allows for this...
3) Bluetooth and Airport Extreme built-in (no card to buy for Towers at least)
This I will bet will be done (heck the 17 in pb has it).
4) Gigabit Ethernet (on all Macs)
Already done.
5) L3 cache of 4MB or at least 2MB per processor
From my understanding this isn't needed with the 970.
6) Motherboard speed of 256Mhz or higher
Do you mean FSB speed? If so, the 970 is bring a whopping 900 MHz bus (450x2). And the best part is it is variable based on clock speed of the processor. So as processor speed increase, so will the bus speed.
7) Ability to add up to 4 processors per board
I don't expect this at all, nor would we need it. Once they start doing the dual cored chips, then I wouldn't be surprised (2 dual cored chips, so in effect 4 processors.
8) RAM expandable to 2 Gig
*cough* the new 64-bitness of the 970 will allow for WAY more ram than that. I wouldn't be surprised to see either 4 slots, for 4GB max ram, or maybe 6-8 slots (I don't know, that might be too many, but didn't the old 9500 have a ton of ram slots?)
9) Better built-n sound
Do you mean like surround sound out, etc? If so, I wouldn't mind seeing that.
10) USB2, 2 ports (1 in front)
11) Firewire2, 2 ports (1 in front) [/B]
So only one on the back and one on the front? I think if they do any on the front, it should be in addition to the 2 on the back.
kupan787, don't encourage discussion when we've already seen it all.
1. I'm not sure PCI-X is going to make that much of a difference though. PCI-X cards are usually Network and other vertical market cards. Don't see the typical consumer needing more than one slot at the most with todays offerings.
2. Marketing hype. The whole purpose of AGP was to use ram for storage of textures. Now that most cards have 64-128MB natively on the card itself it rarely needs to us DiME and pull textures from main memory. People naturally assume 8x is going to give them increased speed over 4x but many a benchmark has proven that for the forseeable future 8x AGP is overkill. I still think Apple will use it though...just for the marketing aspect.
3. I don't want to pay for Bluetooth or Airport. Let me purchase them when I have a need for them. I don't think they should be standard.
4. Gigabit should stay on Powermacs and Powerbooks but I'm not sure a Consumer machine is ready for Gigabit. The Gigabit switches are still $180 on up and even Powermacs cannot saturate a Gigabit link without RAID or Gobs of memory pushing data. Not worth the extra expenditure right now for consumer machnes like iMacs emacs and ibooks.
5. G4's benefit from L3 cache...but who's to say any future processor that Apple uses would benefit? Again this may be a fairly frivolous and expensive addition.
6. Should Apple use the 970 that would cease to be an issue. Hell if the MPX bus supported DDR it would be 333Mhz.
7. Perhaps in a future Xserve product. The general Mac users won't require Quad processor for sometime. Even then I figure within 3-4 years we won't be running Quad Physical CPU's but rather 2x Dual Core CPU's with SMT. House the Logical equivalent of an Octo CPU sound?
8. RAM beyond 2GB. 64bit is coming
9. A given considered Apple just devoted plenty of effort in creating Core Audio. The next question is in which way will they output multiple channels. I wouldn't mind Apple making a FW based Breakout Box either. Audio will be well taken care of.
10. I wouldn't mind USB2 ports but only on the Back. I think Firewire should be the preferred connectivity standard and have access to the front port only. USB sucks no need to make it a peer with FW when technically it's not.
11. I'll one up you. Put a standard 9pin port on the front and Optical Port on the back for 3200Bps speed.
I think Apple should be moving to removing loads off the CPU. Intels Springdale/Canterwook has created a Dedicated bus called Communications Streaming Architecture(CSA) just for the Gigabit interface. This removes the network traffic from the CPU bus. I'd love to see Apple do something similar. Reducing contention on PCI would do just as well as increasing the speed of the bus itself.
I think Audio should be Hardware Accelerated. CoreAudio support as many output tracks as your machine can muster. I'd love to see huge output streams that don't tax the main CPU.
I'd love to see Dual 333 and 400Mhz DDR to optimize the throughput.
Maybe even some basic HW assisted RAID would be nice. OSX is Unix like...let's see some gaudy throughput number like a Workstation.
Originally posted by Placebo
Damn, you corrected your spelling!
if you only knew how awfully bad my english grammar is... you would nuke all my posts.
yeah, take it outside geek-boy.
very off topic:
what i still don't understand is why people are using the word "mebbe".
very off topic:
what i still don't understand is why people are using the word "mebbe".
hey gar, why not start a thread about this! In future hardware! Making dumbass, redundant threads seems to be the fashionable thing to do, so if chillmac does it, why shouldn't we all?
Originally posted by Placebo
hey gar, why not start a thread about this! In future hardware! Making dumbass, redundant threads seems to be the fashionable thing to do, so if chillmac does it, why shouldn't we all?
now, now, don't get to over excited, won't do that if i where you.
(whispermode on: you know how os10geek ended, don't you?;
ultra whispermode on: THEY KILLED HIM!!!!;
ultra ultra whispermode on: bastards;
whispermode off)
bye
Anyway, trying to turn this into something more fruitful. Perhaps what chilli should have said is for apple to have a long think about making the mobo's modular, and for future expansion to be done easily. CPU swaps, memory swaps etc.
Do current mobos from apple alow for timing chanegs, like my current aBit mobo alows me to overclock just about everything. For example, I currently have my P4 FSB at 112, instead of 100. This making a 2.2 chip run quite happily at 2.6, without changing the PCI/Memory timings. The mobo also supports DDR333 ram, even tho I only use DDR266. It has Serial ATA connectors, even tho we are only just starting to see native serial ata drives.
Would it even be possible for me to pickup a 1.6Ghz G4 chip and replace the one in my iMac in the future ? (assuming the G4 eventually goes to 1.6 and runs cool enough) Do Apple sell "spare parts" in this fasion ?
One thing that I can imagine would sell well for enthusiasts like myself would be a 970 upgrade kit for my 17" iMac. By the time the 970 are out, 6 - 12 months ish I assume, I prolly wouldnt thing twice about stripping my lovely shiney mac down and swapping all the components to a new mobo.
Apple really should consider the people that are willing to "mess" with their computers more. http://www.paulcourt.co.uk/tribes2/index.php as you can see from that page, my old PC is very far from just another beige box... those fans would have cost £10 each if I didnt know the guy in the local PC shop. Is this the type of revenue apple should be overlooking??
Originally posted by Gargoyle
Man some of you guys are tough... But then again, Chillimac, you really should have done your homework first. PCI-X or whatever is going to make current AGP obsolete for a start....
PCI-X is just a faster PCI for servers. You're thinking of PCI Express, designed initially to replace AGP then PCI and PCI-X.
Barto
Originally posted by hmurchison
I think Apple should be moving to removing loads off the CPU. Intels Springdale/Canterwook has created a Dedicated bus called Communications Streaming Architecture(CSA) just for the Gigabit interface. This removes the network traffic from the CPU bus. I'd love to see Apple do something similar.
Apple already did this by putting their Ethernet (and FireWire) controller in the north bridge.